research

data-content-type="article"

Newspapers have shifted from strongly favoring Republican candidates in the 1950s to dividing their editorial endorsements almost equally In the 1948 U.S. presidential election, republican presidential candidate and Governor of New York Thomas E. Dewey was heavily favored and endorsed by more than 80 percent of America’s newspapers. Journalists at the Chicago Tribune were so sure of Dewey’s win that the newspaper printed its morning edition early with the now infamous headline “Dewey Defeats Truman.” What was predicted to be an easy win for Dewey is now considered to be the greatest election upset in American history as presidential incumbent Harry S. Truman swept the polls. It’s scenarios like the 1948 presidential election that have Journalism Professor Joel Campbell taking a closer look at the effectiveness of editorial endorsements of presidential candidates. “It’s difficult to say if there is any strong correlation between endorsements and how people vote,” Campbell said. “But more often than not, presidential candidates with the largest percentage of newspaper endorsements have won since 1940, the notable exceptions being Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.” According to Campbell’s research published in The 21st Century Voter: Who Votes, How they Vote, and Why They Vote, there was a substantial shift in how the news media endorsed candidates throughout the last 50 years: Newspapers have shifted from strongly favoring Republican candidates in the 1940s and 1950s to dividing their editorial endorsements almost equally between the two major parties. Democratic candidates are about 10 percent more likely to receive an endorsement than Republican candidates six decades earlier. Incumbents today receive an editorial endorsement about 90 percent of the time, up from 60 percent of the time in the 1940s. In the 2012 presidential election, 77 of the top 100 U.S. newspapers endorsed candidates: 41 papers endorsed President Barack Obama, 35 endorsed GOP candidate Mitt Romney and a single paper registered a split decision. Another 23 papers did not endorse any candidates, including the two largest newspapers, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. Even though the candidate with the most endorsements has traditionally won the election, Campbell predicts that editorial endorsements won’t make any difference this fall. “In this year's election there is so much information available on so many platforms, any media endorsement is likely to be drowned out by the din of voices,” Campbell said. “In the era of social media, the endorsement of those within one's circle of friends is likely to carry much more weight than that of a news organization.” It’s not just the endorsement and election result relationship that interests Campbell, but also the ethical practice of news media favoring a candidate. As a professor, Campbell teaches his students that journalists are supposed to be objective observers, but the long-standing tradition of editorial endorsements often gets in the way. The Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Committee encourages editorial pages to promote thoughtful debate and let readers know through endorsements which candidates share the newspaper’s vision, while also taking every opportunity to explain the firewall between news and opinion. But in an era of social media and frequently blurred lines between news and opinion, Campbell urges his fellow journalists to be more careful. “Most people say ‘journalism ethics’ is an oxymoron,” Campbell said. “The distrust of the media and the feeling of bias in the media is greater than ever. Newspapers and news media endorsing candidates probably feeds into that.” The College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences and the Office of Civic Engagement Leadership are partnering with Turbovote to facilitate online voter registration. If you are not registered tovote, but are eligible, or if you wish to obtain an absentee ballot, please visit the booths in and around the Wilkinson Student Center during the week of September 26 to register to vote or to get an absentee ballot. September 26, 2016 | Natalie Tripp

data-content-type="article"

BYU students often have problems during the wintertime, but soon, for a lucky few, the cold will not be one of them. Next winter semester, during the summer months of the southern hemisphere, about 20 students will travel throughout New Zealand in a new study abroad program that focuses on media and culture, entitled “New Zealand: Global Mass Communication.” In addition to shadowing professionals from several New Zealand media outlets, students will create and publish content that investigates the issues surrounding the Maori, Pasifika and other minority communities in New Zealand. Dr. Clark Callahan, co-faculty director of the program, hopes that students will seize not only the opportunity to grow their portfolios but also to develop an empathetic worldview as they explore different cultures. “My area of interest is how social media affects cultures, so we’ll have a couple of research projects going on. We’ll be interviewing minority populations about how they use social media and what they get out of it. We’ll ask, ‘Does it strengthen or weaken their culture and their cultural perspectives?’” Dr. Callahan said. As part of their research, students will be paired with and embedded in Samoan families for a week. Students will record their experiences in video diaries that will be used to produce a documentary film highlighting the efforts of different organizations to preserve the Maori, Pasifika, and Samoan languages and culture. Steve Thomsen, co-faculty director, believes that New Zealand offers a diverse setting for students to study and create media. “We wanted to create an experience that would be as diverse as possible for students,” said Thomsen. “The objective of the study abroad will be to focus a lot of our efforts on the Pacifica and Maori peoples through the lens of media and the perspective that it if offers,” said Thomsen. The media that students create will be used as programming for the Pacific Media Network and will be published on the student-run website, fightforthefew.org. The latter outlet is currently being developed by the Media Advocacy and Social Change class, which is taught by Dr. Callahan. Hannah Lunt, a senior public relations student in the class, hopes that all these efforts–the class, the website, the study abroad–will help others increase their awareness about minority issues. “I have already seen a difference in how much more aware I am,” said Lunt. “I hope the blog will grow and be a voice to change.” Applications are available through the Kennedy Center’s International Study Programs website, kennedy.byu.edu, and are due Oct. 9 at 5 p.m.

data-content-type="article"

A generation ago PG films like Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and Top Gun dominated at the box office, but more than half of what Hollywood serves up these days is rated R. That's what got BYU economics students Jared Shores and Craig Palsson interested in whether a movie's rating affects its revenue. The students conducted a statistical analysis of budget and box office figures of major American films from 1995 to the present. Additionally, the data set included the level of foul language, sex and violence in each movie (courtesy of ratings services ScreenIt and Kids-in-Mind). The number-crunching reveals a few things that do connect ratings to profitability: - PG and PG-13 movies bring a similar return; both make more money than R films - Movies on the edge of PG and PG-13 make more money if they get a PG rating - Movies on the edge of PG-13 and R make more money if they get the PG-13 rating While interesting, these findings don't yet explain the scarcity of family films. Craig notes that the Motion Picture Association of America is not terribly consistent, making it tough for directors and studios to 'game the system.' Jared notes that in some cases investors ought to push for a film to be re-cut and resubmitted to get the more profitable MPAA rating. Under the mentorship of economics professor Joe Price, Jared and Craig are preparing their research for publication. A native of Montrose, Colorado, Jared aims for a career in the business side of Hollywood as an entertainment consultant. He names The Goonies as his all-time favorite movie. 'It encapsulates what I wanted to be as a kid, and the kinds of films I want to help develop someday,' Jared said. Jared will complete his bachelor's degree this December. Craig plans to graduate in April 2012. ORCA grants: What they are and how to get one Every year BYU awards several hundred undergraduates $1,500 for a research or creative project of their own choosing. While the projects span a wide range of fields, they all involve mentored learning outside the classroom. The skills and experience gained along the way open doors to grad schools, employers and entrepreneurship. Mentored learning is part of why BYU ranks in the Top 10 nationally in terms of where new Ph.D.s received their undergraduate degrees — and why BYU is a top feeder school for law, medicine and dentistry. ORCA is accepting applications through October 29. Click here to find out more about ORCA grants. __________________________________________ Follow BYU News on Twitter: twitter.com/byu Source: BYU News

data-content-type="article"

by Todd Hollingshead The hit television show 'Dancing with the Stars' has been around only a few years, but a new study by a Brigham Young University researcher shows that a different type of dancing with the stars happening in the late 1920s may have shaped jazz music as we know it. In an article appearing in the current issue of the Journal of the American Musicological Society, music professor Brian Harker shows that a partnership with a jittering, jiving, dancing duo may have heavily influenced the rhythms of Louis Armstrong, widely recognized as one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time. Harker's article provides evidence that Armstrong's jazz trumpeting actually took on a more free flowing, innovative and flexible style due to his performing duets with the dancers. 'The dancing seems to have pushed jazz in a new direction,' said Harker, who notes that dance's role in the development of early jazz music has not been well understood. Between the summer of 1926 and the summer of 1927, Armstrong entered into a partnership at Chicago's Sunset Café with a husband-and-wife dance team called Brown and McGraw. Armstrong played his trumpet onstage with the dancers, playing rehearsed--though not written--solos that closely matched their steps, movements or facial expressions. 'This couple introduced rhythmic dance movements to Armstrong, which opened up the way to more complicated dance steps,' Harker said. 'And the rhythm of those steps may have changed the way Armstrong performed himself.' During the time of their musical collaboration, Armstrong retuned his approach to rhythm. Whereas previously he tended to rely on more or less fixed rhythms, his recordings in late 1926 and 1927 reveal a style that is free and flexible. This rhythm became the foundation for the new jazz language that emerged in the Swing Era. 'For Harker to be able to piece together what the eccentric dance of the time was like and how it influenced a major player at a turning point in jazz history is truly remarkable,' said Kate van Orden, editor for theJournal of the American Musicological Society and professor of music at the University of California-Berkeley. 'It's masterful work in every respect - its methodological conception, archival research, music analysis and presentation.' Harker uncovered this little known partnership between Armstrong and Brown and McGraw during a research sabbatical in New York City in 2005 and 2006. While digging through an interview with a trumpet player named Doc Cheatham, Harker found references to this partnership. From there, Harker went on a treasure hunt and found additional sources from newspapers, clippings in Armstrong's scrapbooks, census records and a 1926 court case between Brown and McGraw and a club in which they performed. Harker also tracked down a living nephew of the dancing couple who provided additional personal information. Harker learned that Armstrong not only accompanied the duo, but he also worked out solos based on their dancing. 'Big Butter and Egg Man' is one such solo that may have been influenced in this way. A quote from Armstrong on the collaboration is cited in the paper: 'There was the team of Brown and McGraw -- they did a jazz dance that just wouldn't quit. I'd blow for their act, and every step they made, I put the notes to it.' Harker said this finding led to the discovery of other examples of jazz trumpet soloists not only working with dancers, but also getting on stages and performing along with them. It took the BYU researcher two years to harmonize the research and write the paper. It includes the first scholarly writings about Brown and McGraw, a duo that faded out when they couldn't translate their act to movies and radio. This is not the first time Harker has researched Armstrong. The music history and theory professor, who also plays the jazz trumpet, first started studying Armstrong while working on his Ph.D. dissertation. He won the 1999 Irving Lowens Award for his article, ''Telling a Story': Louis Armstrong and Coherence in Early Jazz,' published by Current Musicology. Source: BYU News

data-content-type="article"