Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1957. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography, leaves 114-119.

Through quantitative and qualitative analyses this project argues that newspaper reportage and writing about the labor movement is an ideological act. The evidence in this only study of its kind suggests that a lack of "instructive imagery" is flat, lifeless journalism that leads to perceptions of a flat, lifeless social movement. The research features: (a) the correlation of public opinion with union membership and union election rates tracked over a 30-year period; (b) the linkage of selected metaphor in newswriting to an ideology about a controversial political and social realm; (c) the extension/expansion of implicit communication theory to print news, and, more specifically, to labor reporting; (d) the extension/expansion of language intensity propositions; and (e) an alternative view that "dead" metaphor is not the research topic of choice.

This thesis has explored the need for working class solidarity in collectivities to meet external threats, A collectivity such as the AFL-CIO could use its house organ, The American Federationist, to inspire solidarity among workers through the use of class conscious expressions. The method employed in this study was a content analysis of selected articles for expressions deemed to evoke class solidarity. The hypothesis of the study was that the mean of class conscious expressions would be higher for a high threat period than for a low threat period.The.findings did not support the hypothesis and the literature on labor collectivities was re-examined. Many authors have cited the AFL-CIO for a lack of class consciousness and for behaving simply as an interest group in response to threats. The-findings of the study are consistent with these citations. The AFL-CIO appears in summary, as an interest group with a status quo orientation.

This study tried to find support for the hypothesis that newspaper labor coverage has declined since the early 1980s. It used a content analysis of 240 issues of the Muncie (Ind.) Star and the Muncie Evening Press, a morning and an afternoon newspaper, measuring labor stories in terms of frequency and square column-inches. Labor stories were defined as news items that concerned wage earners or unionized personnel, including salaried union members. The period studied was from 1979 to 1994. Composite months were created for each newspaper representing the years 1979, 1984, 1989, and 1994, yielding eight bodies of data. Newshole from a representative sample of 40 issues, drawn from the larger sample of 240, was also analyzed to obtain daily newshole means in square column-inches for each of the eight bodies of data.To determine significance, data were compared using chi-square analysis. Newshole content did not significantly change for the Evening Press, but it did significantly increase for the Star from '79 to '94. No support was found for the hypothesis that the Evening Press's labor coverage would significantly decrease from '79 to '94. Also, no support was found for the hypothesis that the Evening Press's cumulative labor coverage over the years studied would be significantly greater than the Star's. However, the Star was found to have significantly decreased labor coverage in '94 when compared to '79, supporting the second hypothesis. When the increase in daily newshole mean was considered, this significant discrepancy was even more striking.The Star was found to have carried slightly more labor stories than the Evening Press over the period analyzed. This difference was not significant. Each newspaper experienced a decline in number of labor stories when comparing 1979 to 1994. The Star's decrease was found to be significant, but the Evening Press's decrease was not.The strongest support for the overall premise of declining newspaper coverage was that the Star's number of labor stories per year and the space devoted to those stories decreased significantly over the 15-year period while its newshole means increased.Also, while the Evening Press's labor coverage in square column-inches did not decrease, its number of labor stories per year did decrease uniformly over the four years analyzed.The Evening Press unexpectedly showed less labor coverage than the Star, in number of stories and in total space of coverage. However, its square column-inches per story mean was slightly higher than the Star's, suggesting that the Star carried more labor briefs than the other newspaper. This result can be explained by the Star's greater newshole means allowing it more space for briefs. / Department of Journalism

By virtue of their broadcast licenses, local television stations in the United States are bound to serve in the public interest of their community audiences. As federal regulations of those stations loosen and fewer owners increase their holdings across the country, however, local community needs are subjugated by corporate fiduciary responsibilities. Business practices reveal rampant consolidation of ownership, newsroom job description convergence, skilled human labor replaced by computer automation, and economically-driven downsizings, all in the name of profit. Even so, the people laboring under these conditions are expected to keep their communities informed with democracy- and citizenship-enhancing information. This study uses a critical political economy framework to focus on the labor aspects of working in commercially-run local television newsrooms in the United States. Surveys and interviews with news workers from the 25 largest local television markets highlight the daily challenges of navigating the dichotomy of labor in the space between corporate profiteering and public enlightenment. In addition to their more well-known and well-studied on-air reporter and anchor peers, "behind the scenes" workers and those with newly converged job descriptions also share their news work stories, thus filling a gap in the literature. Corporate capital incentives affect all who gather and disseminate the news. While all of these workers generally strive for high journalistic quality, the pressures of increased workloads and constant deadlines imposed by shrinking news staffs and growing digital media expectations mean journalists have to make craft work compromises in the race to report news faster and first. Owners push experienced news veterans with deep community connections out in favor of younger, cheaper, more tech-savvy workers. Financially beneficial content trumps deep policy investigations. These outcomes not only worry those in the journalistic trenches of local television news, but also potentially deprive the public of the information they seek from these outlets. As local television newsrooms remain the most popular sources of information for Americans, particularly in times of crisis, such outcomes are not in the community's best interest.