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African American News Websites: Publishers' Views, Perspectives and Experiences in Relation to the Social Construction of News, Online News and the Black Press

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand Black publishers views, perspectives and experiences as they relate to the social construction of news, online news and the Black Press. Recording the views, perspectives and experiences of Black publishers, in their own words, was one of the major outcomes desired from this research. Using non-structured standardized interviews as the primary methodology, ten publishers participated in this study and shared their views, perspectives and experiences on the news creation process, on publishing Black news websites and their thoughts on the Black press and mainstream news organizations. A descriptive content analysis was also conducted to further understand the publishers' views and perspectives on the social construction of news and how it manifested into a final product, the actual website. Findings indicate that the majority of publishers in this study follow the traditional processes and procedures of mainstream news organizations outlined by media scholars. However, resources (i.e., staff size, advertising revenue or capital) influence how closely the publishers adhere to these practices. When publishers have little resources they use different modes of behavior, utilizing the advantages available through the Internet. In addition, the majority of publishers in this study use agenda setting mainstream Internet news organizations as an agenda setting tool for their own news websites. The research also demonstrated that publishers consider themselves as a part of the traditional Black press but also realize that they have the potential to reach larger, diverse and more complex audiences than their offline predecessors. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: March 19, 2007. / Black History, Website, News, African American, Internet, Publishers / Includes bibliographical references. / Stephen D. McDowell, Professor Directing Dissertation; Maxine Jones, Outside Committee Member; Andy Opel, Committee Member; Felicia Jordan, Committee Member.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_168225
ContributorsAkil, Bakari (authoraut), McDowell, Stephen D. (professor directing dissertation), Jones, Maxine (outside committee member), Opel, Andy (committee member), Jordan, Felicia (committee member), School of Communication (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution)
PublisherFlorida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, text
Format1 online resource, computer, application/pdf

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