Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

From a rich background in education, journalism and politics, the editor-publisher of the Salem Oregon Statesman discusses present-day problems in a paper presented before the 14th California Editors’ Conference at Stanford University on June 20. The author was governor of the state of Oregon in 1939–43.

This report compares some aspects of mass media behavior among four segments of the population. The studies were carried out at the University of Minnesota under a grant from the Office of Naval Research. They were directed by Dr. Ralph O. Nafziger, now journalism director at Wisconsin.

Fewer than half of the weekly newspapers reporting in a national survey give on-the-spot coverage to three key units of local government. Competition appears to be a significant factor in determining diligence. The author is an associate professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Oregon.

The Minnesota Daily Star, forerunner of the Minneapolis Star, collapsed in financial ruin under farmer-labor sponsorship. Its successor—an independent, commercial newspaper—soon became a profitable business. The author has taught at Texas Technological College and Iowa, and is now at Minnesota.

This document, discovered by the contributor among the William Jennings Bryan Papers, was too good to stay buried. It reveals the humor of correspondents covering a presidential campaign. Dr. Goldman holds a Ph.D. in political science from Chicago and has contributed to the Public Opinion Quarterly.

This paper was notable for its loyalty to President Davis and its remarkable editorial restraint. The author of this article recently received his Ph.D. in history from Emory University, with a minor in journalism. He is now a member of the faculty of the Atlanta Division of the University of Georgia.

Electronic engraving is playing an important role in bringing more pictures to small dailies and weeklies throughout the country. The author, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota, writes from first-hand experience with the Scan-a-graver as well as wide observation.

Working journalists are uniting, education for journalism is expanding, the controversial Press Bill may be allowed to die, and a new Press Commission has been promised by the central government. These are among the developments reported by an American journalism professor serving as a Fulbright lecturer.

Professional training along Western lines has shown remarkable development since the visit in 1947 of Dr. Frank Luther Mott. The author of this article serves as director of the Journalism Research Institute at Tokyo University. He was a liberal editor before the war and frequently has visited the United States.

Some implications of the most significant discovery of our times are discussed here from the standpoint of the reporting teacher. Mr. Sommerkamp is a graduate assistant in the School of Journalism, Florida State University. The idea for this article was suggested to him by Professor Sidney Kobre.

This department is devoted to shorter articles and notes on research in the communications field, either completed or in progress. Readers are invited to submit reports on investigative studies which might prove useful to other students because of content, method, or implications for further research.

The event that produced the greatest amount of controversial wordage concerning newspapers and journalism during the second quarter of 1952 was undoubtedly President Truman's offhand reply to a question seeking to link the governmental seizure of steel plants to a possible seizure of newspapers. The President's remark, made at a press conference with the American Society of Newspaper Editors, was debated as to meaning and intent for several weeks despite attempted clarification by the White House.

More definite was the exoneration of five Lake Charles, La. newsmen accused of defamation by local officials. The Louisiana state judge, in giving his decision, read a ringing assertion of the right of newspapers to inquire into local affairs and to comment upon the action of local officials.

Other controversial incidents included the filing of a suit by the Las Vegas, Nev. Sun to break up an alleged advertising boycott inspired by Senator Pat McCarran. In the suit's first test, a federal district judge ordered the return of advertising to the newspaper. According to Time magazine, Senator Joseph McCarthy sent letters to advertisers of Time asking them to cease patronizing the magazine because of stories printed about the senator.

Economic developments in the field of communications involved the ending of the television channel allocation “freeze” and the announcement of the policy and order of the awarding of channels throughout the United States. The price of newsprint was jumped $10 a ton by all major Canadian pulp manufacturers during the period.

The first issues of the I. P. I. Report, published by the International Press Institute, appeared during this quarter. They furnish an unequalled report on communications around the world. L'Echo de la Presse became a weekly on April 11, realizing a seven-year dream of Editor Jacquemart.

News developments included progress on reform of the British law of libel, evidence of the growth of advertising in Great Britain during the Socialist emphasis on the welfare state, and consideration of new basic press laws in West Germany, Pakistan and France. The chief editor of a leading Catholic daily in The Netherlands was dismissed. La Prensa of Buenos Aires reappeared as the painted darling of the Peron dictatorship and La Razon of La Paz appeared dead of intimidation by Estenssoro's revolutionary gangs. A leading Communist editor went to jail in France as part of the government's gesture of warning against armed agitation. A new international federation of journalists, the West's answer to the Communist IOJ, elected a famed British labor leader as president.

News for inclusion in this section … activities of schools and departments of journalism, staff appointments and changes, curricular developments and the like … should be sent to Charles T. Duncan, School of Journalism, University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore. Notes for the next issue should reach him by October 1.