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Through the use of the interpretive lenses of sociology of news, identity, and community roles, this research aims to understand the approach to journalism by small-town weekly newspapers. The research explores how small-town weekly newspapers in rural America are faring in the current emergent media environment. Are these newspapers surviving the digital age or are they experiencing the similar hardships larger daily newspapers are facing, including revenue and circulation declines, and in some cases product elimination? The research also investigates whether or not the small-town journalism approach is different than it is for larger daily newspapers by theoretically and conceptually examining the routine practices of news gathering used by news workers, the identity formations of weekly newspaper journalists, and the journalists’ and community members’ perceptions of the weekly newspaper’s role in the community. To accomplish this, the researcher has used quantitative and qualitative research techniques, including a large-scale survey directed at weekly newspaper publishers, a thematic content analysis of weekly newspaper content, and in-depth interviews with news workers and community members, to conduct an analysis of news production in small towns in Iowa. Focusing on small-town weekly newspapers is crucial because the close, frequent and often personal interactions of small-town journalists with their audiences create the potential for a more direct effect on community members’ everyday lives. In addition to contributing to the understanding of small-town community news production, this research offers news industry leaders and practitioners insight into a different, more personally engaged, approach to journalism.

This dissertation explores deviance, operationalized through news factors, among American community weekly, community daily, large daily, and national daily newspaper websites and social media posts. Computerized quantitative analysis indicates that circulation size makes little to no significant difference concerning the publication of deviant news factors; smaller circulation sizes are significantly related to the publication of news concerning local communities, but not egalitarian news factors generally. Qualitative, structured interviews of community newspaper editors and publishers illustrate a different agenda - a clear focus for news on "regular people and routine events," arguably egalitarianism, over news on "unusual people or extraordinary events," arguably deviance. This indicates a need for further evaluation and development of computerized content analysis, gatekeeping theory, and the community newspaper industry. Results also suggest a need to reconsider and re-evaluate normative deviance as a concept and point to two potential theoretical developments: considering a Deviant-Egalitarian Spectrum and drastically broadening the current fringe focus of deviance research. / text

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Steven J. Smethers / This study describes and maps the process journalists employ when deciding issues of coverage, content, and treatment of news at community newspapers within the context of community standards. Much scholarship has been devoted to how journalists should make ethical decisions of news judgment in accordance with moral, ethical, and social responsibility theory. But little has been done in the way of describing and mapping how journalists – specifically, community journalists – actually make these on-deadline news decisions and how the concept of community standards plays into those decisions. Through the use of naturalistic inquiry methodology, in this case, a triangulation of qualitative depth interview methods – informant and ethnographic – within the context of society, this research describes the factors considered by community journalists when faced with decisions of news judgment, how that process takes place, and how and where community standards fit into that process. Data indicate that values and value-based moral and ethical reasoning are tempered by at least three considerations in the decision-making process: (1) how coverage and treatment will affect the journalist, (2) how coverage and treatment will affect others, and (3) the public instructional value, before being filtered through a screen of community standards prior to the final rendering of a news judgment decision. Furthermore, findings offer a base on which to construct a model of community journalism decision making, useful for study and discussions of ethical decision making among community journalism scholars, instructors, and students, and for its applications in practical situations by future or novice community journalists.

Community journalists, most of whom work and live in small towns, are likely to create personal relationships with sources and local organizations because of their proximity and involvement in the community. Such relationships may raise ethical questions that explore how journalists manage personal ties in the community. Using a grounded theory approach, the researcher analyzed 15 qualitative, in-depth interviews, this research examined ways in which journalists in six Western communities weigh their personal relationships against traditional journalism norms such as objectivity and detachment. Analysis of these interviews found community journalists fear conflicts of interest, and many of the interview subjects said that if they know a source personally or are a member of an organization, they often try to rescue themselves from coverage of a story. The research also explored ways in which the community journalists take advantage of their community involvement, especially as it pertains to gathering information and developing sources. Respondents were asked how they suggested a reporter balance membership in the local dominant faith with coverage of church issues. The community journalists who were interviewed mostly did not see a conflict between membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and coverage of church issues. Analysis also showed that the editors had few policies governing community involvement, instead relying on reporters' personal judgment and counsel from leadership—while examining each case individually based on its prominence. Finally, this study attempted to explore the differences in community involvement between smaller and larger community newspapers. However, the research suggests that other causes, such as demographics, roots and ties to the community, leadership, and formal training, may play an equal role in encouraging involvement.

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