ass news edia and m merican culture n a … · the copy and the copy is used for educational,...

Behavior and Social Issues, 24, 88-110 (2015). © Chelsea J. Wilhite & Ramona Houmanfar. Readers of this article may copy it without the copyright owner’s permission, if the author and publisher are acknowledged in the copy and the copy is used for educational, not-for-profit purposes. doi: 10.5210/bsi.v.24i0.5004

88

MASS NEWS MEDIA AND AMERICAN CULTURE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Chelsea J. Wilhite1 Ramona Houmanfar

University of Nevada, Reno

ABSTRACT: Millions of Americans contact stories, articles, and reports produced by news media personnel each day. How those stories are presented has the potential to impact consumer behavior at the national level. An examination of how news personnel make decisions regarding news content is essential for understanding how to influence media’s aggregate products. Information contained within news products reflects consumer practices and influences culture, posing ethical issues. How we understand relationships between media organizations, over-all culture, and consumer practices can benefit from a behavioral systems analysis. This paper identifies variables present in news media settings with respect to two news presentation contexts: objectivist and advocacy. News media are undergoing a dramatic shift in how and why stories are reported; a behavioral systems approach is key to understanding the complex relationships involved. KEYWORDS: news media, behavioral systems, metacontingency, macrocontingency

The American public has a long record of consuming news media. In the early history of our

culture, observers noted higher proportions of news consumption in the United States than in Europe (Alexander, 1990). While mass news media prior to the invention of radio and television came primarily in the form of newspapers, shifting modes of news delivery did not decrease overall news consumption. In the twentieth century, the expansion of news delivery from print to radio and television eventually resulted in television outpacing print as the primary source of news (Cheng, 2010). And in the twenty-first century, with the advent of more instantaneous and mobile information delivery methods, that increasing news consumption trend continues. The addition of news delivery platforms such as smart phones, tablets and automobile-based computers, and the new communication practices consisting of electronic social networking are increasing consumers’ contact with news stories (Pew Research Center, 2010; Pew Research Center, 2012). The Pew Research Center (2010) reports “[d]igital platforms are playing a larger role in news consumption, and they seem to be more than making up for modest declines in the audience for traditional [primarily physical print] platforms” (p. 1). A majority of this increase in news consumption is driven by the highly educated and the middle-aged population (Pew Research Center, 2010).

Allan Bell, a linguist and journalist, uses the term “newsworkers” to describe professionals who participate in the gathering and production of news stories (Bell, 1991). Bell used this term 1 Authors’ Note: We would like to thank the editor and reviewers for their valued input in the further development of this manuscript. Address correspondence to Chelsea J. Wilhite, Department of Psychology MS/296, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557. Email: [email protected].

MASS NEWS MEDIA AND AMERICAN CULTURE

89

specifically in reference to print news. For the purposes of this analysis, we will refer to people who work in the production and publication and/or broadcast of news stories and articles as “news personnel.” The manner in which these news personnel present news stories, meaning the verbal context in which information is provided, has been demonstrated to influence how a news consumer thinks about the news item and the cognition surrounding the news item (Gurevitch, Bennet, Curran, & Woollacott, 1982; Price, Tewksbury, & Powers, 1997). The idea of “cognition surrounding the news item” can be re-interpreted as the verbal behavior in which the consumer engages in reference to the news item. And to a certain extent, the context in which information is provided may also be predictive of overall social leanings on issues (Hoewe & Zeldez, 2012).

The mass communication literature identifies two general types of news presentation contexts or “frames:” objectivist and advocacy. Aday (2006) defines objectivist frames as two-sided and balanced reports. He states advocacy frames, on the other hand, encourage consumers to draw conclusions about issues and generally consist of one-sided arguments, solution statements, and reports of consensus. Aday maintains objectivist frames do not encourage readers to draw conclusions in the same way advocacy frames do.

It is important to also define propaganda as it pertains to the news media. Common definitions of the word propaganda include statements and/or ideas which may or may not include facts or falsehoods and are communicated in order to support a particular issue, agenda and/or cause or to harm an opposing issue, agenda and/or cause (Propaganda, n.d.). Academicians, however, point out that a clear definition is difficult because the word has been used to describe materials in different lights (including neutral, negative, and affirmative) and can have a wide range of specificity (Corner, 2007). While positive implications of the term have not died out completely, modern use of the word largely carries negative connotations (Corner, 2007), as is made apparent in Garth Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell’s definition of the term:

Propaganda is the deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.” (Jowett & O’Donnell, 2014, p. 7)

To differentiate between advocacy frames and propaganda, the common use of the term “advocacy journalism” in addition to Aday’s definition of the advocacy frame is helpful. Merriam Webster defines advocacy journalism as that which “advocates a cause or expresses an opinion” (Advocacy Journalism, n.d., p. 1). Therefore, the difference between the advocacy frame of journalism and propaganda would be the intent or agenda behind the creation of the news product. As with the above idea of “cognition surrounding the news item,” the “desired intent” of the person producing propaganda would involve verbal behavior. Take, for example, B. F. Skinner’s example of “feeling” from About Behaviorism (1974). Skinner reinterpreted the statement, “I feel like going,” as “I feel now as I have felt in the past when I have gone,” (Skinner, 1974, p. 58). If we were to use “intent” in place of “feel,” the translation would go from, “I intend to help the candidate win the election,” to, “I will behave now as I have behaved in the past when I helped a candidate win an election.” This verbal behavior connecting actions with consequences may be as blatant as forming if-then rules with regard to long-term outcomes.

Without access to the covert (or behind-closed-doors overt) verbal behavior of news corporation owners, managers, and news personnel, it can be difficult to accurately tact when advocacy journalism crosses the line into propaganda, particularly when news stories do not contain any blatantly inaccurate information. However, if stories continue to contain falsehoods

WILHITE & HOUMANFAR

90

after they have been demonstrated to be false, we can more readily classify those stories as propaganda. We will continue to focus on the delineation between objectivist and advocacy frames because, while propaganda can be thought of as on the same end of the spectrum as advocacy, it is more extreme.

With regard to the behavior analytic account of mass media, Laitinen and Rakos (1997) state media messages before 1900 were “characterized by speakers producing logical and reasoned messages directed toward an elite audience composed of interested, informed, knowledgeable persons” (p. 238). This may translate to Aday’s objectivist frame. Laitinen and Rakos also describe another style of information delivery which they say is “tailored to influence the mass audience by presenting conclusion rather than reason, simple slogans rather than complex analyses, visual images rather than verbal ideas” (p. 238). This second description maps onto Aday’s description of an advocacy frame. Furthermore, Combs and Nimmo (1993) maintain the second kind of information delivery (akin to advocacy) is the more common type of delivery in today’s mass media. The behavior analytic literature parallels the mass communication literature, suggesting the way in which news stories are presented, or framed, may impact how news consumers engage in verbal behavior regarding the news items.

A number of behavior scientists suggest the average consumer of general media and/or news media is ill equipped to consume news in an educated way (e.g., Grant, 2012; Laitinen & Rakos, 1997; Morgan, Lewis & Jhally, 1992). A 1992 study by Morgan, Lewis, and Jhally – which focused on behaviors surrounding the Persian Gulf War (1990-91) – is an example of this lack of education and sophistication. Results of data gathered during the war indicated the more television a person watched, the more likely he was to support the United States’ position in the war, however, the less likely he was to know about the background issues involved or even the context in which the war was being waged (Morgan, Lewis, & Jhally, 1992). This relationship brings into question a number of issues surrounding the influence of news media on the general population, including the voting citizenry which has potential to influence policy making.

The advancement of behavior science over recent decades has generated a framework that can contribute to the betterment of society and the human condition. An important direction for further expansion of this approach is to relate “behavioral principles to avenues of cultural change” (Biglan & Glenn, 2013, p. 256). Part of this link includes a natural science approach to consumer behavior (e.g., Foxall, 1998; Hantual & Wells, 2010), but we must not leave out the contingencies at play within media organizations and the cultural milieu in which they operate. Given that consumerism is a foundation of the American cultural landscape, many of the cultural stimuli with which people interact daily are aggregate products of organizations. This underlying cultural foundation further highlights the importance of organizational practices and their roles in shaping Western culture. This paper highlights news media organizations’ aggregate products and their function in influencing culture, including how products sway consumer behavior and how consumer behavior, in turn, influences decision-making by people within media organizations. These complex phenomena are important factors in understanding relationships between news media, consumers, and the broader culture within which they operate. To relate the behavioral scientific framework to the production and consumption of news media, we need more than a simple translation of mass communication and news media terms into behavior analytic language (Foxall, 1998). Simply stated, we need a comprehensive understanding of the complex relationships and contingencies in place.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and define the actors involved in the collection, presentation, and consumption of news media stories and to describe behavioral contingencies,


91

metacontingencies, and macrocontingencies which exist during the process. By identifying relationships at both the behavioral level of analysis and the organizational level of analysis, we can become better oriented to particular contingencies and general phenomena at play in the relationship between mass news media and the broader culture. This knowledge will afford us an understanding of how contingencies and phenomena influence one another and where possible interventions can be targeted should they be necessary.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Mass News Media

The phenomena of news information being delivered by news personnel in an advocacy frame, the lack of savvy media consumption, and the impact media consumers can have on social practices, including policy-making, are examples of why an interdisciplinary approach to mass news media is an important area for investigation. The mass communication and journalism bodies of literature provide revealing insight into how the inner workings of news production function, however none of the frameworks for analyzing news media allows for a comprehensive account of news personnel decision-making, what factors lead to an objectivist versus an advocacy frame or what roles the audience, upper management, current resources and the cultural milieu play in the resulting product. Furthermore, no current analysis suggests where and how to intervene should an intervention be deemed necessary.

A behavioral systems approach may not only provide a systematic way of analyzing the contingencies involved in news production, delivery, and the resulting modifications in production and delivery but may eventually suggest ways in which news personnel can be influenced to present news products using objectivist frames while still maintaining a strong audience. A combination of information gathered from mass communication, journalism, and cognitive and behavioral psychology – knowledge of how news gathering and production operates from mass communications and journalism, and a systematic analysis of contingencies from the behavioral bodies of literature – may allow us to understand how and why a news product is presented in either an objectivist or an advocacy frame and promote the interdisciplinary interaction between behavior science and journalism.

In the following sections, we provide an overview of news gathering and delivery from the mass communications and journalism perspectives. This process will allow the identification of players involved and outline some of the more specific relationships between players and organizations occurring within the field, and highlight the systematic gaps in their analyses. Then we will look at the issue by drawing upon a behavioral systemic account of the phenomena and discuss ways by which this approach may contribute to a better understanding of the functional relations involved.

The Mass Communications/Journalism Approach

Much of the mass communication and journalism literature focuses on areas outside functional accounts of behaviors and/or cultural practices. News language construction, media ethics, and blending news with entertainment are examples, as are descriptive reports on consumer trends. That said, there are some mass communication and journalism reports which are useful in the functional analysis of news media and culture.

One factor pertinent to the analysis of mass news media and culture is most news outlets in the United States deliver news information that was gathered by other organizations (Bell, 1991; Boyd-Barrett, 2011). This is the case for not only local and regional news organizations but

WILHITE & HOUMANFAR

92

national organizations as well. Additionally and perhaps more importantly, most of this second-hand news delivery originates with one or more of a handful of international news agencies. Oliver Boyd-Barrett (2011) defines these types of news agencies as “wholesale” media, meaning their structure is designed to gather information, create news stories and sell them to other news outlets. These agencies do not typically deliver information directly to the consumer, although with the expanding use of the internet it is not unheard of. From traditional wholesale media, news stories are purchased by “retail” news agencies and subject to selection, rewriting, and repackaging. From there, stories are delivered to the consumer (Boyd-Barrett, 2011; Rantanen & Boyd-Barrett, 2004).

Wholesale agencies consisted of the “Big Four” (Agence France Presse (AFP), the Associated Press (AP), Reuters, and United Press International) during the 1980s and early 1990s (Bell, 1991; Boyd-Barrett, 2011), and Reuters, AP, and to a lesser extent AFP from the 1990s onward (Boyd-Barrett, 2011; Rantanen & Boyd-Barrett, 2004). In some cases, the field has seen companies that began as local, regional, or national “retail” organizations expand and begin functioning as wholesale media. Examples of this expansion include the BBC World based in London, England, CNN headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and Al Jazeera based in Qatar (Boyd-Barrett, 2011).

Many people have maintained that free access to accurate information about governments and the world at large is crucial for the successful operation of any democracy (e.g., Fenton, 2010). Journalists and the processes involved in journalism have historically provided that free access to information. The trend of fewer companies controlling a larger percentage of news product, a phenomenon dubbed “information imperialism” (Boyd-Barrett, 2011), poses a threat to the operation of functional democracies. As more media organizations come under the control of fewer parent companies, the decisions about what information is released are controlled by fewer people, providing opportunities for abuse of that power. Hence, the concentration of news media power into fewer hands poses a particular problem for the role journalism plays in the operation of democracy.

While often less than systematic, the study of the language used in news production and transmission can be a useful component of mass news media research. The acknowledgement that news stories are “not ‘just the facts’ but the product of organizational structures and professional practices” (Bell, 1991, p. 5) suggests the words and sentence structures used in news delivery are somewhat a function of who is composing the story and the repertoires and histories of those individuals. This notion of personal influence and the aforementioned influence mass news media may have on the society in combination with the fact that much of the international news delivered is controlled by just four organizations highlights the need for an objective, systematic analysis of the relations between mass news media and culture.

Mass communication and journalism literature break down and define the various types of organizations within the news production field. One type of break-down includes geographic divisions: international, national, regional, and local (Bell, 1991). An example of this would be the major television networks in the United States. At the network level (this includes ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox and is typically referred to as the “network”), news personnel focus primarily on news stories, issues, and events which have national impact or which are unique and interesting enough to appeal to or pique the interest of news consumers across the nation. While people in these newsrooms focus on national stories, they do have bureaus in international locations and they subscribe to news services such as the “Big Four.” Regional television stations are usually based in larger cities and have large markets (measured by the number of


93

potential television viewers living in the broadcast area). These stations are often owned and operated by the network (called O&Os), although some are owned by non-network companies. Examples of regional television stations are KTVU, which is based in the San Francisco Bay Area but has a signal that can be reached into the California’s Central Valley, the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, and even into Reno, Nevada, and KTLA, which is Los Angeles-based but reaches from San Diego to Bakersfield. Then there are the local stations, most of which are privately owned or are just one of several stations owned by a media broadcasting corporation. An example of a local station would be KGET in Bakersfield, California which broadcasts to a single county and is currently owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group. An important component of this type of organization is the sharing of information between the various levels of newsrooms. The news departments of each television network have stream-lined systems for international, regional, and local affiliate stations to quickly and easily (in most cases) share information and audio/video content.

Another type of division of news media organizations includes qualitative differences. In England, for example, there is a distinction between news media which are “quality” and those which are “popular” (Bell, 1991). While exact definitions of these terms in this context are lacking, the implications are obvious. And finally, there exist distinctions based on the frequency or rate of news delivery. Some newspapers are delivery-daily papers while others only deliver on Sundays; some television media have news once or twice per day, others five or six times per day, and yet others have news delivery 24 hours per day. In addition to all of the above, most if not all of these mass news media have online methods of news delivery which are available 24 hours a day and leave a permanent record of published news stories.

In looking at the mass communication and journalism literature, some psychologists have attempted to describe what influences journalists to make one decision over another and how that can lead to bias – or an advocacy frame. McCombs and Shaw (1976), for example, found story choice was more influenced by the time of day which the story hit the news wires than the individual news personnel’s ideology. This idea maps onto Pamela J. Shoemaker’s (1987) definition of “routines of newsgathering.”

Pertinent to our analysis is the definition of newsroom decision-makers and the philosophies to which they adhere. Executives with Audience Research and Development, LLC, (AR&D) a consulting firm offering strategies for local television news organizations, point to the role of the “Content Management Center” within the newsroom as a crucial place in which key decision-making is made (AR&D, 2009). The news personnel who compose the Content Management Center are key to the efficient production of news product. AR&D (2009) describes these news personnel as “the most experienced editorial minds on staff, able to determine relevance, opportunities for branding, and efficiency in assigning resources, eliminate waste and redundancy” (p. 69-70). Shoemaker (1987) calls this explanation of story choice the “mass manipulative” approach, and Stocking and Gross (1989) suggest how familiar a person is with a particular story or situation will influence whether or not they use well-entrenched theories in their treatment of said story.

In addition to learning interview techniques, writing skills and mass media law, journalists adopt certain philosophies during their experience as news personnel. J. Herbert Altschull (1990) defines these philosophies as “a professional philosophy of life composed of a complex of ideas, and that this belief system has been arrived at through the assimilation, usually unnoticed, of intellectual concepts that form the basis of Western civilization” (p. 2). So, when news personnel, whether they be reporters or content managers, make decisions about and report “the

WILHITE & HOUMANFAR

94

truth” or “the facts,” they are doing so with all the assumptions of their personal (or cultural) philosophy influencing the presentation of said “truth” or “facts.” This idea is consistent with what Shoemaker (1987) calls the “journalist-centered” approach. Opposite to the “journalist-centered” approach is the “social/institutional influence” in which external factors such as the economy, the audience, and overall culture play a large role in news story selection and presentation (Shoemaker, 1987).

In addition to the above analyses, Altschull (1984) suggests the funding sources of news media influence which stories are selected and the manner in which they are presented. He breaks down the different types of funding sources into four general categories: official, commercial, interest, and informal. His general argument is the closer a funding source is to being “official,” the more influence it has over the news product. Shoemaker (1987) argues funding source can, in turn, influence several of the above-mentioned explanations for news product.

All of the above definitions, some more pertinent to an interdisciplinary approach to mass news media and culture than others, may be useful when examining contingencies in specific cases. However, none of them provide a comprehensive system for examining the constantly changing relationships involved in the production of mass news media. When asked if there existed such a system in the mass communication or journalism fields, Graeme Newell of media consulting firm 602 Communications said, “There really isn’t one,” (Newell,G., personal communication, May 13, 2013). Furthermore, many of the proposed analyses have focused on traditional delivery platforms (i.e., physical print and television) and do not apply well to the changing face of interactive news media, including websites, social networking, and mobile platforms. Without a comprehensive, systemic analysis, our understanding of news media is incomplete.

The Behavior Science Approach

In the behavior science field, the analysis of complex social relations grew out of the objective study of behavior of individuals, which is based on the idea that knowledge of all behavior, including that of verbal beings, is gained from examining behavior-environment relations (e.g., Biglan, 1995; Skinner, 1957; Skinner, 1969; Skinner, 1971). In its most basic form, behavior analysis involves a three-term contingency describing the relation between behavior and the environment (Skinner, 1969): an environmental event (antecedent), a response on the part of an organism (behavior), and another environmental event (consequence). The behavior is the component of the contingency which is selected.

In more recent decades, this systematic approach has extended to a wider level of analysis, the cultural level. While behavior systems analysis includes multiple behaviors of many individuals, it should be noted that the level of analysis is different than that of behavior analysis (Glenn, 1988). The relationship between systems analysis and behavior analysis is similar to that of behavior analysis to physiological analysis. B. F. Skinner wrote:

Human behavior is the joint product of (i) the contingencies of survival responsible for the natural selection of the species and (ii) the contingencies of reinforcement responsible for the repertoires acquired by its members, including (iii) the special contingencies maintained by the social environment. (Skinner, 1981, p. 502)


95

Behavior science is an emergent science that allows for the analysis of “new orders of complexity” (Glenn, 1988, p. 161). In the same way that behavior analysis looks at a more complex order than do biological sciences, behavior systems analysis is an emergent science which allows for analysis of more complex orders than does behavior analysis.

That is not to say that all behavior or sociological phenomena can be reduced to physiology. Indeed, these different fields of study merely focus on different levels of analysis, one biological, one behavioral, and one cultural. They are, in essence, different sciences. However, because they are different sciences does not mean they do not interact. J. R. Kantor said, “To grant that the sciences are unique and specific does not bypass the fact that in many ways they are all interrelated” (Kantor, 1953, p. 5). When engaging in an interdisciplinary approach to phenomena, it is beneficial to examine those relationships between interrelated phenomena at the various levels of analysis (Houmanfar, Hayes, & Fredericks, 2001; Houmanfar & Ward, 2012).

We discussed contingencies at the behavioral level (or psychological level) of analysis, but contingencies at the sociological level of analysis, as it is an emergent science, are slightly more complex. Glenn first defined the metacontingency as “the unit of analysis encompassing a cultural practice, in all its variations, and the aggregate outcome of all the current variations” (Glenn, 1988, p. 168). The definition of metacontingency has since undergone more refinement, including a more objective definition of the relation, “interlocking behavioral contingencies (IBCs), their aggregate product and their receiving system” (Glenn & Malott, 2004). Subsequently, a further revision by Houmanfar, Rodrigues and Ward (2010) extended the metacontingency to include three different selection processes: (1) cultural-organizational milieu, socio-interlocked behaviors (socio-IBs), and their aggregate product (on the production of an aggregate product), (2) aggregate product, consumer practices, and the benefit to consumers (on the receiving system end), and (3) the five-term contingency of consumer practices’ impact on organization, organizational group-rule generation, cultural-organizational milieu, socio-interlocked behaviors, and aggregate product. Some of these later adjustments were made because it is not accurate to say that contingencies are selected, hence the IBCs were changed to IBs because behavior is selected. A further delineation, however, was also required to distinguish between the behavioral (i.e., psychological) and the sociological levels of analysis. In these definitions, interlocked behaviors (IBs) describe interlocked behaviors at the behavioral level (see Figure 1) and socio-IBs describe interlocked behaviors at the sociological level (Houmanfar & Ward, 2012). This distinction is necessary to maintain the distinction between analyses at the behavioral level versus those at the sociological level. Houmanfar, Rodrigues and Ward (2010) define cultural milieu as consisting “of the prevailing beliefs within the culture as well as predictions about the future” (p. 87). A further, recent revision separates the organizational milieu from the cultural milieu to more accurately reflect that all components of the metacontingency occur within the broader culture (Baker, et al., 2015). An additional component was inserted into the metacontingency to specify that organizational leaders do not have direct contact with consumer practices but instead have tools, devices, and techniques which they use to measure consumer behavior; this is labeled “feedback” (Baker, et al., 2015).

As noted, the metacontingency involves socio-interlocked behaviors, however not all behaviors are interlocked. A cultural practice occurs when the recurring behaviors of many people are similar to one another (Malott & Glenn, 2006). The similarity could be in form only (e.g., jerking one’s chin upward to greet another person in a crowded space) or the similarity could be the products resulting from the practice (e.g., driving an automobile to work each day resulting in fossil fuel emissions). If the cumulative product of a cultural practice is detrimental

WILHITE & HOUMANFAR

96

Figure 1. A depiction of the first few interlocking behaviors in the series of interlocking behaviors which result in the aggregate product of delivery of news stories. to the environment, individuals, or the culture itself, it could constitute a social problem (Malott & Glenn, 2006). The term “macrocontingency” is used to describe the relation between the cultural practice (repeated, non-interlocking behaviors of many people) and the cumulative product of that practice. Unlike a metacontingency, a macrocontingency “is not a cohesive whole, but a group of functionally unrelated behaviors, selection of practice cannot occur” (Malott & Glenn, 2006, p. 37, italics original).

News Production: The News Personnel

Having noted that much of the international news delivered in the United States is originally gathered and produced by just four organizations, one might conclude the leaders of those four organizations wield a significant amount of power over the way in which much of the world’s news consumers contact news stories, hence, an analysis of the contingencies involved in news personnel’s decision-making is warranted. Consider also that the frame in which information is delivered can influence consumers’ behaviors in regard to the new items, and objectivist frames are two-sided and balanced. When it comes to many news stories, including evidence-based information (i.e., information which is the result of systematic, scientific investigation) can make for a more balanced story than including only anecdotal information or personal opinion. Hence, for the sake of this analysis, let us look at the decision to exclude scientific evidence or evidence-based information from news stories.

We will examine models for identifying factors involved in news personnel deciding to exclude evidence or evidence-based information. First, we will modify the Force Field analysis model developed by Kurt Lewin (1943). Traditionally, this model has been used to investigate contingencies surrounding non-violent struggles however the visual depiction (see Figure 2) can help us understand the forces in play surrounding news personnel’s decisions regarding evidence and evidence-based information (Mattaini, 2013). Research suggests that while reference to evidence and evidence-based information is present in mass news media reports, it comprises an extremely small portion of the total news content (Wilhite, Brown, Williams, Nosik & Pritchard, 2010). Hence, the status quo of news personnel behaviors could be classified as minimal inclusion of evidence and evidence-based information. The forces driving (Lewin, 1943) news


97

Figure 2. Example of a Force Field Diagram modified from an analysis of non-violent struggle to inclusion of evidence and evidence-based information in news reports.

personnel to include more evidence might be corporations easing pressure to exclude evidence, scientists increasing pressure to include evidence, corporations actually buying advertising space/time from organizations that include evidence in their news reporting, and the opportunity for social recognition for including evidence in news reporting (see Figure 2). On the opposing side, the forces restraining (Lewin, 1943) news personnel from including evidence and evidence-based information include pressure from corporations to exclude such information, corporations buying advertising space/time from news organizations that deny or omit evidence, and the possibility of receiving social recognition even if no evidence or evidence-based information is included in news reports (see Figure 2).

A second way to analyze the variables at play in news personnel’s decisions regarding what to include in news reports is the template Mattaini uses to investigate motivating contexts (Mattaini, 2013). In this analysis, we look at the factors involved in a news person’s decisions to include evidence or evidence-based information in a news report (see Figure 3). The practice (including evidence) and the class of actors (news personnel) are at the top center. To the left is listed the motivating context, which might contain a history of including evidence in news stories, a history of having such stories being met with consumer attention (it does not necessarily have to be “good” or “bad,” as long as more people are buying the paper, watching the program, or logging onto the site it is “consumer attention”), peer and supervisor support for including evidence in stories, and at least two equivalence relations, one equating the inclusion of evidence with being a responsible journalist and a second equating being a responsible journalist with being a good or top-quality journalist. In order for the practice to occur, certain conditions or resources are required, in this case knowledge of the definition of evidence and evidence-based information, knowledge of evidence pertaining to individual stories, and knowledge of how to effectively communicate that evidence. The consequences, as the behavior

WILHITE & HOUMANFAR

98

Figure 3. A diagram of potential factors involved in the inclusion of evidence-based stories or story components in newscasts by news personnel. To encourage more frequent (or a great percentage of) evidence-based stories/story components, the motivating contexts could be strengthened, the required resources and conditions increased, positive consequences increased/strengthened and aversive consequences reduced/weakened. (Template adapted with permission from Mattaini, 2013) analytic research demonstrates, are extremely important. This model calls for both desired and aversive consequences. Desired consequences might include successfully including evidence in stories, gaining attention from consumers, gaining peer and supervisor approval, pride in being both a responsible and good journalist. Conversely, the aversive consequence can be extremely influential; they might include the loss or lack of sensationalism (akin to Aday’s advocacy frame), loss or lack of consumer attention, loss of advertising revenue, loss or lack of peer and supervisor approval.

Parts of the motivating context portion of Mattaini’s (2013) analysis correspond to the analysis of leadership practices put forth by Houmanfar, Rodrigues and Smith (2009) which emphasizes the importance of verbal behavior and relational responding. In typical organizations, managers communicate rules to employees. Rules are defined as statements which define contingencies – or the relationships between antecedents, responses, and consequences (e.g., Smith, Houmanfar & Denny, 2012; Skinner, 1953; 1957). Accurate rules correspond to the actual contingencies workers experience; inaccurate ones do not (Houmanfar, Rodriguez, & Smith, 2012). Communicating accurate rules can function to reduce ambiguity and uncertainty, and increase productivity, but it can have unanticipated affects.

For example, if the news director at TV Station X tells the news personnel in her department that including evidence and evidence-based information in stories qualifies as responsible


99

journalism practices, and responsible journalism will be rewarded, and she also says TV Station X has high standards for responsibility, employees will equate including evidence and evidence-based information in stories as being expected behaviors which will be rewarded. If it is an accurate rule, those personnel who include evidence and evidence-based information in reports will receive some kind of praise or reward from the news director. These examples correspond to Mattaini’s (2013) motivating context items of “supervisor support” and “equivalence relations.” Furthermore, these types of rules must function for personnel in all subdivisions within newsrooms and at all levels of the news media process, including local, regional, national, and international.

Thus far, we have discussed news personnel’s behaviors and their products without a detailed breakdown of the process or how the receiving system selects said products. In the next section, we will examine the metacontingency in operation for news personnel, including the IBCs, the receiving system and the products selected, and how this, in turn, effects how the news organization operates.

Metacontingency: A Complex Relationship

According to Houmanfar, Rodrigues, and Ward’s (2010) metacontingency and its recent elaboration (Baker, et al., 2015), the organizational milieu occasions the socio-interlocked behaviors of news personnel, which leads to the aggregate product of news reports/stories/articles/shows for which consumers provide a demand, those consumer practices are measured and interpreted by organizational leaders in the form of feedback. Feedback in turn influences news organization leaders/personnel who self-generate rules which affect both the organizational milieu and how the socio-IBs function in production of a modified aggregate product. These relationships all occur in the context of the cultural milieu, are complex, and require further elaboration (see Figure 4).

Cultural milieu is defined as the predominant philosophies in the cultural under examination, in addition to governmental policies, the state of technological progress, and market competition (Baker, et al., 2015). An example of cultural practices as they pertain to news media could be the wipe-spread use of various audio-video media as popular sources for news and current events. Governmental policies include labor laws, slander and libel laws, public service requirements, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements, and physical broadcast regulations. Technology or technological progress, of course, involves the advancements of communication tools such as video cameras, computer hard- and software, and broadcast tools. The rapid development of the internet is an example of how technological progress affects several areas in the elaborated metacontingency. Finally, environmental competition would include not just direct competitors of a news outlet but all other media outlets available to consumers in a given market. Broad economic trends (recessions and recoveries) are relevant to both cultural milieu and organizational milieu.

Organizational milieu is defined as the organization’s material resources, policies, practices and traditions, and ownership (Houmanfar, Rodrigues, & Smith, 2009). Examples of material resources associated with the organizational milieu as it pertains to television news production could include newsroom budget (which can fund employees’ salaries and procure materials such as computers, and video and broadcasting equipment).

WILHITE & HOUMANFAR

100

Figure 4. A diagram of the elaborated metacontingency as it pertains to mass news media. (Adapted with permission from Houmanfar, Rodrigues, and Ward, 2010, and Baker et al., 2015.)

Several other points encompassed by the concept of the organization milieu correspond to functional relationships proposed in the mass media field. The organizational policies or practices described in the organizational milieu, for example, would involve the guidelines handed down to employees from upper management which are particular to the organization and often influenced by the owners of the company. One such rule could be a newsroom policy to refrain from broadcasting the names and pictures of living crime victims or using on-air broadcasts to promote online content. This maps onto the idea that news content is a function of institutional forces (Shoemaker & Mayfield, 1987). In the organizational milieu, traditions could involve the practice of having morning, midday, and evening news broadcasts. Other examples include the habit of holding newsroom meetings both in the morning and the early afternoon, the common practice of airing more in-depth stories during ratings periods, and the tradition of seasonal news specials. These examples correspond to Shoemaker and Mayfield’s (1987) synopsis of the idea that news content is “a function of media routines” (p. 2).

The aforementioned rule involving the notion of responsible journalism equating to being a good journalist could be relevant to both policies and traditions. It is important to note the mass media field’s proposal that news content is the function of personal attitudes or “factors intrinsic to news media personnel” (Shoemaker & Mayfield, 1987, p. 2) seems to clash with a natural


101

science approach. We could reinterpret this concept, however, to include the individual history of a news person’s interaction with the environment, including experience with cultural norms, rule-following, and contact with different cultures or groups. Given this translation, the “journalist-centered” approach is accounted for by the elaborated metacontingency.

In a single newsroom, a number of behaviors must be completed in order for a news story to be delivered to news consumers (see Figure 1). A simplified example might include the following: an assignment editor notifies the news director, managing editor or executive producer, producers, and reporters of the available stories of the day, they then collectively decide which stories to cover. Hence, the assignment editor’s notification behavior is the functional antecedent to the collective decision-making behaviors of the news personnel, and the decision-making behaviors are the functional consequence to the assignment editor’s notification behavior. The assignment editor then assigns reporters and support staff (in a television newsroom, for example, support staff would include a videographer and sometimes an audio technician and a writer) to each selected story. The reporter and support staff then engage in a series of behaviors (phone calls, meeting scheduling, taped interviews, writing, etc.) which result in the first written draft of a story. The assignment editor making story-staff assignments is the functional antecedent to the staff’s behaviors; and the staff behaviors are the functional consequences to the assignment editor’s assignment behaviors. The executive producer or managing editor then reads the story and gives feedback to the reporter who makes adjustments. This process repeats as many times as necessary. The executive producer could not engage in this behavior if the staff had not produced the written draft, hence these behaviors are interlocked. The story is then either sent to a copy editor (in print media) or to a video/audio editor (in television/radio). Once the story is complete, a lay-out editor or producer places it either in the layout of the paper/magazine page or in a timeslot for a television or radio broadcast. The completion of the story is the functional antecedent to the lay-out editor’s or producer’s placing behavior; and the placing behavior is the functional consequence of the staff and executive producer’s editing behaviors. In print, the completed layout then goes to the press to be printed and sent to consumers; and in radio and television, the show begins at a given time and the story is delivered to consumers. The placing behavior is the functional antecedent to the printing or broadcasting behaviors. These are interlocked behaviors because one person’s behavior is also the functional antecedent for a second person’s behavior. The second person’s behavior is both a functional consequence for the first person’s behavior and a functional antecedent for another person’s behavior, and so on (see Figure 1). This is an example of the relations at the behavioral level, but because these same interlocked behaviors occur independently of one another in newsrooms across the country, when we move to the sociological level of analysis, we have an idea of what kinds of socio-IBs we are examining.

The socio-IBs result in the aggregate products of news stories, in television news they are typically delivered in set time blocks called “newscasts.” Consumers then either watch or do not watch these newscasts. When looking at a whole television viewing market, the overall numbers of people watching or not watching, and the times at which they engaged in those behaviors, are a large part of what makes up consumer practices. Consumer practices are measured, typically using a scales called “ratings” and measured by companies such as The Nielsen Company, and feedback is given to organizational leaders who generate new rules (see Figure 4).

It is important to mention here that the “rule generation” component of the elaborated metacontingency is sensitive to more than consumer practices via feedback. The values and individual histories of men and women who generate the organizational rules can also influence

WILHITE & HOUMANFAR

102

the content of the rules and the ways in which they are disseminated. For example, an organizational leader’s history of being reinforced for following a rule that dictates accounting for both sides of a controversial issue means being a good journalist may help institute an organizational rule that says covering controversial issues in an objective manner is more important than a larger profit margin. That said, information about changing consumer practices can dramatically influence news personnel’s decision-making behaviors, however the aggregate products produced by news personnel can, in turn, influence consumer practices (see Figure 4).

Macrocontingency: The Cultural Impact

Since great numbers of people consume news in ways that are not interlocked, we must address the issue of macrocontingencies and their potential impact on American culture. A single news story or series of stories, for example, may influence a handful of news consumers to vote for or against a particular political candidate. If only small numbers of isolated individuals are influenced this way, the phenomenon has little societal impact – whether for the betterment or degradation of overall society. However, a cultural practice of media influencing which candidates are elected has potential for more wide-ranging affects. If this phenomenon results in politicians being elected and instituting policies detrimental to a sustainable society, it represents a serious problem. Moreover, the news organizations generating wholesale news stories are increasingly owned by fewer and fewer parent companies or individuals, resulting in the exponential likelihood of media influence becoming a cultural practice. Meaning, the possible detrimental effects are further induced by fewer organizational leaders having more influence over a larger percentage of the retail news product.

Taking the example of news stories influencing voter behavior a step further, we could use Fox News Channel (FNC) and MSNBC as illustrations of how news personnel engaging in behaviors which fall into the advocacy frame category can negatively impact society. Fox News Channel and MSNBC are widely considered right- and left-leaning, respectively, cable news outlets (e.g., Stanley, 2012). Despite both agencies being founded in 1996, FNC adopted the advocacy-frame style of journalism long before MSNBC.

Let us analyze the cable news landscape after FNC personnel were engaging in the advocacy frame but before MSNBC news personnel engaged in similar behaviors. We can assume the organizational milieu at FNC supported advocacy frame behaviors; the news personnel, then, engaged in behaviors which included opinion over evidence and evidence-based information. The receiving system selected (by way of watching FNC programs and those programs getting “high ratings”) FNC programs which presented Republican, right-wing, or otherwise conservative viewpoints. This selection, in turn, further influenced rule-generation for FNC leaders and other news personnel.

The next set of analyses are associated with the ways by which MSNBC may have evolved from an organization known for more of an objectivist frame to the recognized Democratic, center left, or left-wing product it is today. In 2005, MSNBC was not yet seen as politically-leaning and had an objectivist reputation hence we can assume the organizational milieu supported objectivist ethics (see Figure 5, point 1). The socio-interlocked behaviors in which news personnel engaged during the news gathering and production process followed objectivist


103

Figure 5. A diagram of how MSNBC changed from a cable news network with programs which fell into the definition of objectivist frame presentations to one in which programs fall into the definition of advocacy frames. frames (see Figure 5, point 2) which led to unbiased news products (see Figure 5, point 3). However, MSNBC still had low ratings (see Figure 5, point 4) despite the news network’s viewers (consumers) benefitting from the unbiased information (see Figure 5, point 5). Not surprisingly, MSNBC’s revenues were comparatively low (see Figure 5, point 6) and the network’s leaders may have equated the journalistic objectivist frame with corporate failure (see Figure 5, point 7) then considered the use of advocacy ethics (see Figure 5, point 8). By the 2012 presidential election season, MSNBC’s reputation for objectivity had changed (Stelter, 2012). Following this analysis, the change can be traced to a specific event in American political history: the 2008 presidential election. In the last three months of the 2008 campaign cycle, MSNBC’s ratings increased by more than 158%, surpassing CNN and occasionally FNC in the ratings (Friedman, 2009). Let us walk through the process leading to that change.

WILHITE & HOUMANFAR

104

In 2005, MSNBC ranked far behind FNC and CNN in the cable news network rankings (Stelter, 2012) and Keith Olbermann hosted MSNBC’s number one show “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” (“Countdown”). At the time, Olbermann was accused of presenting political news with a liberal slant (e.g., The Associated Press, 2008). While news media ethics point to being unbiased as desirable, perhaps leaders of the MSNBC organization considered Olbermann’s alleged bias and deemed it acceptable, changing the organizational milieu (see Figure 5, point 8). This allowed for more advocacy frame decisions to be made by news personnel during news gathering and production (see Figure 5, point 9) and resulted in a biased news product (see Figure 5, point 10). The receiving system (i.e., consumers of cable television news) selected “Countdown” more often than any other MSNBC program (see Figure 5, point 11). The people viewing “Countdown” received information that validated their own beliefs (see Figure 5, point 12). It should be noted that in addition to the benefit of receiving information which validated their own beliefs, the consumers also suffer a detriment when receiving biased information, although it could be argued the detriment also results in people consuming even more biased news which further benefits the news producing organization. Olbermann and his alleged liberal bias continued to be a major part of the network’s product.

MSNBC’s ratings, however, continued to lag far behind other cable news networks’ until 2008. In the spring and summer of that year, radio host and political commentator Rachel Maddow filled in for Olbermann on “Countdown” a number of times. Her style has been described as presenting news and commentary “with agenda, but not hysteria” (Guthrie, 2011) while using “sardonic humor” (Gold, 2008), meaning she, too, engaged in behaviors which fell into the advocacy frame and produced biased news (see Figure 5, points 9 and 10). The shows in which Maddow substituted for Olbermann got extremely high ratings relative to their norm (SteveK, 2008; Carter, 2008), meaning the receiving system selected a product which included Maddow and her liberal-leaning statements at a higher rate than typical and organizational leaders received that feedback (see Figure 5, point 11) perhaps because Maddow’s opinions validated people’s own views (see Figure 5, point 12). The higher ratings led to the possibility of more revenue (see Figure 5, point 13), and leaders at MSNBC may have generated rules regarding both Maddow and the further inclusion of the advocacy frame (see Figure 5, point 14).

By August 2008, with the presidential race in full swing, the host of one of MSNBC’s primetime programs, Dan Abrams, was ready to move on. The network leaders chose Maddow to fill the vacancy, perhaps because the organizational milieu had changed in such a way that advocacy ethics were actually desired (see Figure 5, point 15). “The Rachel Maddow Show,” a political opinion program, premiered on September 8, 2008 at 9pm after “Countdown” (Carter, 2008). Unlike Abrams, who was not known for partisan leanings (Carter, 2008), Maddow displayed an admitted liberal bias (see Figure 5, point 16). With Olbermann followed by Maddow, MSNBC had two solid hours of liberal-leaning programming (see Figure 5, point 17). Furthermore, Maddow’s show surpassed “Countdown” in the ratings within days of its premier and even beat CNN and FNC at times (Shea, 2008; Stanley, 2008). Here, we see a spiraling pattern with the latter portion of the analysis (as indicated by the final, looping line in Figure 5). “The Rachel Maddow Show” had won its first Emmy and beat CNN for eight consecutive ratings quarters (Guthrie, 2011) by year-end 2011. Since, the network has added even more left-leaning political analysts and commentators, and despite Olbermann leaving the network, has maintained high ratings.

In this section we demonstrated the relationship between metacontingency and macrocontingency by highlighting the interaction between broadcast news (aggregate product)


105

and consumer voting practices. Having said that, the following section examines the overall implications of an increase in advocacy frame style of journalism.

Conclusions

By late 2012, MSNBC was within 300,000 viewers of FNC’s viewership in the 25-to 54-year-old demographic (Stelter, 2012). Despite FNC maintaining higher average ratings than MSNBC and the major non-cable network news programs receiving significantly more viewers than any of the cable networks, potential results of the rising prominence of advocacy frame-style journalism can be seen in the positive correlation of advocacy-style journalism and political polarization of the American public. Since 1994, two years before the launch of both FNC and MSNBC, political partisanship has increased dramatically. According to a 2014 Pew Research Center study which measured Americans on a ten-point scale of political values, the percentage of people who consistently express ideological viewpoints regarding politics more than doubled from 10% to 21% between 1994 and 2014 (Pew Research Center, 2014). There is also less overlap in political opinions between those who self-identify as Republican and Democrat with 92% of Republicans falling to the political right of the average Democrat and 94% of Democrats falling to the political left of the average Republican (Pew Research Center, 2014). So, there is a relationship between the rise of partisan political beliefs among the American public and the increase in advocacy-style journalism, particularly on cable news networks, and the people who consume those biased news products are also those who vote for elected officials. Republican and Democratic politicians increasingly come to deadlocks over major issues and display a lack of willingness to compromise. However, we cannot conclude advocacy-style journalism is causing the widening in political ideology.

Determining all the factors involved in the increased partisanship is difficult but biased media are certainly one factor in the process (Prior, 2013). News media organization’s parent companies and their associated lobbying organizations are examples of other factors involved in rising American partisanship. Lobbying organizations have direct impact on legislation at the state and national levels. MSNBC’s parent company, Comcast, for example, donates to both Republican and Democratic lawmakers (Romm, 2014).

Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice addresses the issue as if it is just another business activity, “It is important for our customers, our employees and our shareholders that we participate in the political process,” (in Romm, 2014). And with increasingly large “information imperialism,” news media parent companies have more and more impact on the political process via lobbying and political action committees.

The potential negative externalities of advocacy-style journalism are not limited to politics. An externality is “a cost that a corporation’s actions impose on society” (Biglan, 2009, p. 215). The possible costs of advocacy journalism, including one-sided information and omission of information, could range from health, financial, and employment statuses of individuals to education, social welfare, business practices and conservation programs affecting millions of people, animals, and habitats. The results of advocacy frame journalism behaviors can negatively affect society in the United States and have global repercussions.

Changing the advocacy frame presentation of news stories in the media would be no small task. Using the elaborated metacontingency, we could examine potential places to intervene. The most obvious suggested intervention might be at the consumer level. If consumer practices change, changes in organizational rules and organizational milieu would follow, leading to

WILHITE & HOUMANFAR

106

changes in socio-IBs and the associated aggregate products. However, an intervention changing the media consumption habits of millions of people en masse would be extremely difficult (Malott & Glenn, 2006). Perhaps more efficient places to intervene would be at the organizational rule generation and organizational milieu levels. As suggested earlier, if people creating the organizational rules hold something other than simple profit (as influenced by feedback from consumer practices) important, they could influence what organizational rules are created. Behavioral interventions for organizational leaders could include educational factors (e.g., knowledge of organizational externalities, climate changes, or social factors), serving as an exemplary organizational leaders (e.g., being recognized as a local, regional, or global philanthropists), or personal finances being influenced by tax breaks resulting from responsible organizational practices (e.g., production of factually accurate, unbiased news items). Interventions such as these target individuals at the behavioral level, but if enough group leaders’ behaviors are influenced, the cultural practice can change (Malott & Glenn, 2006). Another way to intervene at this level might be to create entirely new news media organizations with leaders who believe objectivist frames and practices are important and influence organizational rules as such. At the cultural milieu level, intervention could include government regulations, creation and implementation of laws, or meaningful fines for regulation or law violations. This would be a cultural intervention (Malott & Glenn, 2006).

In short, the process described in this paper helps define the actors involved in the relationships among news media, consumers, and the broader culture, including the collection, presentation and consumption of news stories. Furthermore, the example identifies relationships between these actors and stimuli at both the behavioral and organizational levels of analysis, helping us become better oriented to the phenomena involved in news media’s relationship with and role in Western culture. The overall analysis furthers our understanding of the relationships involved and points the way toward possible interventions, should they be necessary.

There is a need for a comprehensive, systemic analysis of news media. While many analyses have been completed in the mass communication and journalism fields, none provide a system which accounts for all possible factors involved and their relationships with one another. Using a behavioral systems approach including the elaborated metacontingency, we provide a comprehensive account of news personnel decision making, including what factors lead to an objectivist versus an advocacy frame, the role of the audience and how feedback based on consumer practices influences rule generation and the relationship those rules have with the organizational milieu and socio-IBs.

Through this analysis, we demonstrate the powerful role of media in cultural change processes. The metacontingency model also suggests likely places for effective intervention. We can bring science to bear and produce a more in-depth analysis of mass news media and its relation to American society. Such an examination is warranted and behavior science can make a major contribution toward that end. While an interdisciplinary analysis is beneficial, more empirical research must be done to better orient us to the contingencies functioning in today’s electronic age. If researchers are cognizant of both the behavioral (psychological) level of analysis and the cultural (sociological) level of analysis, they can better see where the two meet and how understanding at one level is a key component to understanding at the other level.

Future research can determine the differences in organizational rules and consumer practices as they pertain to media organizations that engage in objectivist versus advocacy frames. Determining which organizational rules are associated with an objectivist frame and how they affect consumer practices can point the way toward possible interventions. Additionally, research


107

may be able to discover the key components involved in financially successful media outlets (both those with objectivist aggregate products and those with advocacy aggregate products) and shine light on which successful components may be used within objectivist frames. Further research can also uncover the difference between aggregate product frames of for-profit versus non-profit news agencies.

This systemic analysis may be applied in other areas of media as well. For example, one might examine how some news organizations have turned from serious news reporting to a more sensationalistic approach. Research could also be conducted in the rapidly expanding areas of mobile devices, including news product delivered directly to phones and tablets, and social networking, including sites and applications (aps) such as Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit.

Since technology advances at such a rapid speed, parsimonious, non-mentalistic scientific philosophies are needed to help researchers keep up with the frantic pace. An interdisciplinary approach may allow for the most understanding in the least amount of time. So go forth, researchers, and allow us to become better oriented to the natural phenomena of mass news media.

References

Altschull, J. H. (1984). Agents of power: The role of news media in public affairs. White Plains, NY: Longman. Altschull, J. H. (1990). From Milton too McLuhan: The ideas behind American journalism. White Plains, NY:

Longman. Aday, S. (2006). The framesetting effects of news: An experimental test of advocacy versus objectivist. Journalism

and Mass Communication Quarterly, 83(4), 767-784. Advocacy Journalism (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved December 19, 2014 from

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/advocacy%20journalism Alexander, J. C. (1990). The mass news media in systematic, historical, and comparative perspective. In J. C.

Alexander & P. Colomy (Eds.). Differentiation theory and social change: Comparative and historical perspectives, Columbia University Press. Oxford, New York.

AR&D (2009). Live. Local. Broken news. The re-engineering of local TV. AR&D Associated Press, The (2008). Political commentator Maddow gets own show. Retrieved January 29, 2013 from

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26314670/site/todayshow/ns/today-entertainment/t/political-commentator-maddow-gets-own-show/#.URCKhKWqSSo

Baker, T., Schwenk, T., Piasecki, M., Smith, G. S., Reimer, D., Jacobs, N., Shonkwiler, G., Hagen, J., & Houmanfar, R. (2015). Cultural change in a medical school: A data-driven management of entropy. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 35, 95-122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01608061.2015.1035826

Bell, A. (1991). The Language of News Media. Blackwell Publishers, Inc.: Cambridge, MA. Biglan, A. (1995). Changing cultural practices: A contextualist framework for intervention research. Reno, NV:

Context Press. Biglan, A. (2009). The role of advocacy organizations in reducing negative externalities. Journal of Organizational

Behavior Management, 29, 215-230. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01608060903092086 Biglan, A. & Glenn, S. S. (2013). Toward prosocial behavior and environements: Behavioral and cultural

contingencies in a public health framework. In G. J. Madden, W. W. Dube, T. D. Hackenberg. G. P. Hanley, & K. A. Lattal (Eds.) (2013). APA handbook of behavior analysis, vol. 2: Translating principles into practice. (pp. 255-275). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Boyd-Barrett, O. (2011). Rethinking news agencies, national development and information imperialism. Economic and Political Weekly. Retrieved January 3, 2014 from http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=365197&sr=HLEAD(Rethinking%20News%20Agencies,%20National%20Development%20and%20Information%20Imperialism)%20and%20date%20is%202011

WILHITE & HOUMANFAR

108

Carter, B. (2008). Rachel Maddow to replace Dan Abrams on MSNBC. The New York Times. Retrieved February 2, 2013 from http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/19/rachel-maddow-to-replace-dan-abrams-on-msnbc/

Cheng, J. (2010). Internet overtakes print in news consumption among Americans. Retrieved May 15, 2012 from http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2010/02/internet-overtakes-print-in-news-consumption-among-americans/

Combs, J. E., & Nimmo, D. (1993). The new propaganda: The dictatorship of palaver in contemporary politics. New York: Longman.

Corner, J. (2007). Mediated politics, promotional culture and the idea of ‘propaganda’. Media Culture & Society, 29(4),669-677.

Fenton, N. (Ed.) (2010). New media, old news: Journalism and democracy in the digital age. Sage Publications. Foxall, G. R. (1998). Radical behaviorist interpretation: Generating and evaluating an account of consumer

behavior. The Behavior Analyst, 21, 321-354. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2731411/?tool=pmcentrez

Friedman, J. (2009). At MSNBC, the ‘M’ is for (Rachel) Maddow. CBS News. Retrieved February 1, 2013 from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/24/business/marketwatch/main4628803.shtml

Glenn, S. S. (1988). Contingencies and metacontingencies: Toward a synthesis of behavior analysis and cultural materialism. The Behavior Analyst, 11, 161-179. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2741963/

Glenn, S. S. & Malott, M. E. (2004). Complexity and selection: Implications for organizational change. Behavior and Social Issues, 13, 89-106. http://dx.doi.org/10.5210%2Fbsi.v13i2.378

Gold, M. (2008). MSNBC’s new liberal spark plug. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 1, 2013 from http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/29/entertainment/et-maddow29

Grant, L., (May 2012). Video presentation to the 38th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis International, Seattle, WA.

Gurevitch, M., Bennet, T., Curran, J., & Woollacott, J. (Eds.). (1982). Culture, society, and the media. London, UK: Routledge.

Guthrie, M. (2011). Rachel Maddow: How this wonky-tonk woman won TV. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 2, 2013 from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rachel-maddow-msnbc-243775

Hantula, D. & Wells, V. K. (2010) Outside the organization: The analysis of consumer behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 30:2, 87-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01608061003756273

Hoewe, J. & Zeldez, G. A. (2012). Overturning anti-miscegenation laws: News media coverage of the Lovings’ legal case against the state of Virginia. Journal of Black Studies, 43(4), 427–443.

Houmanfar, R., Hayes, L. J., & Fredericks, D. W. (2001). Religion and cultural survival. The Psychological Record, 51, 19-37. Retrieved from: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1313&context=tpr

Houmanfar, R., Rodrigues, N. M., & Smith, G. (2009). Role of communication networks in behavioral systems analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 29, 1-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01608060903092102

Houmanfar, R., Rodrigues, N. J., & Ward, T. A., (2010). Emergence & metacontingency: Points of contact and departure. Behavior and Social Issues, 19, 78-103. http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/bsi.v19i0.3065

Houmanfar, R. & Ward, T. (2012). An interdisciplinary account of martyrdom as a religious practice. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicologia, 44, 65-75. Retrieved from: http://publicaciones.konradlorenz.edu.co/index.php/rlpsi/article/viewFile/933/658

Jowett, G. S. & O’Donnell, V. (2014). Propaganda and persuasion, 6th edition. SAGE Publications, Inc. Kantor, J. R. (1953). The logic of modern science. Chicago, IL: Principia Press, The. Laitinen, R. E. & Rakos, R. F. (1997). Corporate control of media and propaganda: A behavior analysis. In P. A.

Lamal (Ed.) Cultural Contingencies: Behavior Analytic Perspectives on Cultural Practices, (pp. 237-267). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Lewin, K. (1943). Defining the “field at a given time.” Psychological Review, 5, 292-310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0062738


109

Malott, M. E., & Glenn, S. S. (2006). Targets of interventions in cultural and behavioral change. Behavior and Social Issues, 15, 31-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.5210%2Fbsi.v15i1.344

Mattaini, M. (2013). The Science of a Satyagraha: Strategic Nonviolent Power. Edmonton, AB, Canada: AU Press. McCombs, M. E. & Shaw, D. L. (1976). Setting the political agenda: Structuring the “unseen environment.” Journal

of Communication, 26, 18-22. Morgan, M., Lewis, J., & Jhally, S. (1992). More viewing, less knowledge. In H. Mowlana, G. Gerbner, & H.I.

Schiller (Eds.). Triumph of the image: The media’s war in the Persian Gulf–a global perspective (pp. 216-235). Boulder, Co: Westview Press.

Pew Research Center (2010). Americans Spending More Time Following the News Ideological News Sources: Who Watches and Why. Retrieved May 14, 2012 from http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1725/where-people-get-news-print-online-readership-cable-news-viewers

Pew Research Center (2012). State of the news media 2012: New devices, platforms spur more news consumption. Retrieved May 14, 2012 from http://stateofthemedia.org/2012/overview-4/

Pew Research Center (2014). Political polarization in the American public. Retrieved December 23, 2014 from http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/

Price, V., Tewksbury, C., & Powers, E. (1997). Switching trains of thought: The impact of news frames on readers’ cognitive responses. Communication Research, 24(5), 481-506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009365097024005002

Prior, M. (2013). Media and political polarization. Annual Review of Political Science, 16, 101-127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-100711-135242

Propaganda (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved December 19, 2014 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda

Rantanen, T. & Boyd-Barrett, O. (2004). Global and national news agencies: the unstable nexus. In: de Beer, A. S. & Merrill, J. C., (Eds.) Global journalism: topical issues and media systems. Allyn & Bacon, Boston, USA. ISBN 9780801330278

Romm, T. (2014). Comcast spreads cash wide on Capitol Hill. Politico. Retrieved June 4, 2015 from http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/comcast-cash-spread-wide-on-capitol-hill-104469.html

Shea, D. (2008). Rachel Maddow ratings: Beats Olbermann’s “Countdown” to be MSNBC’s top show. Huffington Post. Retrieved February 2, 2013 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/18/rachel-maddow-ratings-bea_n_127391.html

Shoemaker, P. J. & Mayfield, E. K. (1987). Building a theory of news content: A synthesis of current approaches. Journalism Monographs, 103, 6-44. Retrieved from: http://www.aejmc.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Pamela-J.-Shoemaker.Elizabeth-Kay-May%EF%AC%81eld.Building-a-Theory-of-News-Content.June-1987.pdf

Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and Human Behavior. New York, NY: Free Press. Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. Cambridge, MA: Prentice-Hall, Inc Skinner, B. F. (1969). Contingencies of reinforcement: A theoretical analysis. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Skinner, B. F. (1971). Beyond freedom and dignity. New York: Knopf. Skinner, B. F. (1974). About behaviorism. New York: Random House. Skinner, B. F. (1981). Selection by consequences, Science, 213, 501-504. Retrieved from:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1686399 Smith, G. S., Houmanfar, R., & Denny, M. (2012). Impact of rule accuracy on productivity and rumor in an

organizational analog. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 32, 3-25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01608061.2012.646839

Stanley, A. (2008). A fresh female face amid cable schoolboys. The New York Times. Retrieved February 4, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/arts/television/25watc.html

Stanley, A. (2012). How MSNBC became Fox’s evil liberal twin. The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/us/politics/msnbc-as-foxs-liberal-evil-twin.html?_r=0

WILHITE & HOUMANFAR

110

Stelter, B. (2012). The anti-Fox gains ground. The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/12/business/media/msnbc-its-ratings-rising-gains-ground-on-fox-news.html

SteveK (2008). The scoreboard: Friday, May 16. MediaBistro. Retrieved February 3, 2013 from http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/the-scoreboard-friday-may-16_b19369#more

Stocking, S. H. & Gross, P. H. (1989). How do journalists think? A proposal for the study of cognitive bias in newsmaking. Bloomington, IN: Smith Research Center.

Wilhite, C. J., Brown, T. W., Williams, W. L., Nosik, M. R., & Pritchard, J. (2010). Behaviorism in the News Media, Paper Presentation to the 36th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis, San Antonio, TX.

ass news edia and m merican culture n a … · the copy and the copy is used for educational,...

Documents