A content analysis examined offensive language spoken on popular morning radio programs on the five highest-rated radio stations offering live-streaming audio over the Internet in the top ten U.S. markets. While concerns over indecency have long existed, renewed interest in the issue of indecency on television and radio was sparked during the 2004 Super Bowl half-time show and, as evident in the 2007 firing of radio personality Don Imus, continues to be of concern today. The purpose of this study was to identify the amount and kind of offensive language spoken on-air. Overall, there were 872 instances of offensive language or 4.36 words spoken per hour. Of these, words classified as mild (words such as "hell" and "damn") were the largest proportion (40.9%). While the seven dirty words were the least common form of offensive language, these supposedly banned words were still uttered on popular morning radio programs. The bulk of crude language was spoken on radio formats such as Rock and Popular that target a young audience. Additionally, the Northeast broadcasts featured significantly more instances of offensive language. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2007. / October 31, 2007. / Offensive Language, Radio / Includes bibliographical references. / Barry Sapolsky, Professor Directing Dissertation; Colleen Kelley, Outside Committee Member; Jay Rayburn, Committee Member; Gary Heald, Committee Member; Steven McClung, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182573 |
| Contributors | Fitzgerald, Megan (authoraut), Sapolsky, Barry (professor directing dissertation), Kelley, Colleen (outside committee member), Rayburn, Jay (committee member), Heald, Gary (committee member), McClung, Steven (committee member), School of Communication (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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