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This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

THE 1979 ' 1982 RECESSION:
A BOOM FOR BUSINESS NEWS

presented by

NANCY JACKSON CRAWLEY

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

MASTERS deein JOURNALISM

 

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Date 4%

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THE 1979—1982 RECESSION: A BOOM FOR BUSINESS NEWS

By

Nancy Jackson Crawley

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirement
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

School of Journalism

1985

ABSTRACT
1979—1982 RECESSION: A BOOM FOR BUSINESS NEWS
By

Nancy Jackson Crawley

This study tests whether business news coverage in
newspapers increases as the economy worsens. A content
analysis was conducted of two constructed weeks of five
Michigan newspapers in the last quarter of 1979 and in
1982, when the recession peaked. Appropriate business
editors were surveyed for their reaction to the hypothesis.

This study found that business news increased in the
newspapers. The greatest increase was found in the Flint
_9urna1. Editors generally agreed that the recession
played a role in the increase.

This study also asked whether there was more business
coverage in a city with severe recession than in one with a
healthier economy. No evidence for such a trend was found.
Coverage was found to correspond with the increase in
unemployment in two cities, Flint and Grand Rapids.

The study asked what kind of business news increases in
a recession. Local-state recession-sensitive news was

found to increase at a rate corresponding to the level of

recession in comparison with other newspapers studied.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank my thesis director, Frederick
Fico of Michigan State University, whose assistance was
crucial to the success of this thesis.

I also am grateful for the assistance of Michael
Cooper, Richard Perrin and Keitha Breault, all of Ferris
State College, and the patient support of my husband,

Gary Michael Crawley.

ii

INTRODUCTION

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

METHODOLOGY

FINDINGS

DISCUSSION

APPENDICES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

iii

18

22

36

.62

.67

.71

10.

11.

12.

LIST OF TABLES

Amount of space devoted to business in 1978
and 1982, expressed in average percent of
total news hole . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Increase in news hole devoted to business
coverage between 1978 and 1982 . . . . . . 37

Increase in unemployment 1979-1982 compared
with increase in business coverage . . . . 39

Increase in Page 1 business stories between
1978 and 1982 and average number of front
page business stories . . . . . . . . . . 40

Percent of increase in business story graphics
and average percent of news hole devoted to
graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Percent of news hole devoted to all recession
news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Percent of news hole devoted to 1982 local
recession news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Percent of news hole devoted to local and
state recession business news in 1982 . . . 47

Percent of news hole devoted to national
recession news in 1982. . . . . . . . . . . 48

Percent of news hole devoted to state
recession news in 1982 . . . . . . . . . . 48

Percent of news hole devoted to "good"
business news in 1982 . . . . . . . . . . 50

Percent of business news devoted to local and
state recession news in 1982 . . . . . . . 52

iv

 

13. Percent of business news devoted to local
recession news in 1982 . . . . . . . . . . 52

14. Percent of business news devoted to state
recession news in 1982 . . . . . . . . . . 53

II
II

 

INTRODUCTION

Journalism studies have focused on how to make the
business sections of newspapers more popular with readers,
but rarely have they examined the relationship between
business news and economic realities.1 This study attempts to
fill that gap. It examines how a newspaper’s coverage of
business and economic news is influenced by a major
fluctuation in the economy.

A study by two business professors in 1980 pointed to a
trend among newspapers to increase business coverage as the
economy declines.2 Other factors, such as changes in the
hometown’s economic base, international trade, the national
political scene, or changes within the newspaper also may
boost business coverage. This study, however, is limited to
testing the hypothesis put forth by Georgia State University
business professors Howard D. Feldman and Craig E. Aronoff.

They conducted a trend analysis of five major newspapers
between 1968 and 1978 and noted a substantial surge in
business coverage during the 1971-75 recession. Coverage
increased throughout the decade but more slowly before and
after that period. They predicted that the next recession
would prompt another surge in coverage. "More business
coverage can be expected in bad economic times than in good,"

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they concluded.3

This study tests the hypothesis by comparing the amount
of business and economic news published in five newspapers
before that "next recession" which arrived in 1979, and at
the height of the recession in 1982. Additionally,
appropriate business editors were surveyed about coverage
during the recession. Among other questions, they were asked
their reaction to the Feldman-Aronoff hypothesis: Do
newspapers increase business coverage during poor economic
times more than during stable or good economic times?

This study also extends the Feldman-Aronoff study by
examining what kind of business news may increase during a
recession. The second hypothesis of this study proposes that
it is local recession-sensitive news that increases as a
city’s recession environment worsens.

This study is important because business journalism, long
a weak link in newspapers, is significant to the average
reader. The economy plays a vital role in the lives of
Americans. It determines the abundance of jobs, the rate of
pay and the level of fringe benefits, the price of housing
and the cost of groceries.

An editor of the Wall Street Journal, explaining the
popularity of his newspaper, was quoted in 1981 as saying,

"Economics is increasingly important in people’s minds.

3

People have an interest in savings and public policy and how
to educate their kids and finance their homes."4

Media leaders believe that readers no longer want merely
stock and bond prices from their business news. "People want
to know why the cost of sugar has gone sky—high," Katherine
Graham, chairman of the Washington Post Co., said in a
1974 speech cited by Feldman and Aronoff. 5

If the economy and business have become increasingly
important in the eyes of newspaper publishers, how has
coverage corresponded to the realities of the economy? Has
the economy had an impact on the way that newspapers cover
such matters?

This study contributes information about how business
coverage in newspapers changes in relation to a major shift

in the economy. It also offers explanations for the changes.

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INTRODUCTION NOTES

1. Steve M. Barkin, "Changes in Business Sections
1931-1979," Journalism Quarterly 59 (Autumn 1982): 436.

 

2. Howard D. Feldman and Craig E. Aronoff, "Trends in
Newspaper Coverage of Business and Economics, 1968—1978,"
Newspaper Research Journal 1 (July 1980): 54-65.

3. Feldman, p. 54.
4. Dom Bonafede, "Reagan’s Supply-Side Policies Push
Economics Writers into the Spotlight," flgtional Journal 26

September 1981, p. 1725.

5. Feldman and Aronoff, p. 54.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Newspapers refuse to stand still. Editors manipulate
style and content in response to many pressures, including
changes in American life. Researchers have found that some
of the changes in American life influence newspapers more
than others.

The women’s liberation movement in the 1970s, for
instance, prompted many newspapers to transform the
traditional women’s section into a lifestyle section.
Miller found in a 1975 content analysis of four major
newspapers that the perception of change was greater than
the reality. Cosmetic touches, such as a new section name
and trendy graphics, had not changed the editors’
inclination to lump all women’s news in this section, she
reported.1

As the Third World’s influence has grown in
international affairs, newspapers have been chided for
emphasizing European news at the cost of news about
underdeveloped nations. But Haque found in a 1983 content
analysis of three leading newspapers that 65 percent of
their international news hole was devoted to the Third
World, nullifying the critics’ sting.2

Change, however, was more substantial on the sports
desk. An increasing interest among Americans in sports and
leisure activities has led to an overhaul of the sports

5

 

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section, according to Anderson. He surveyed more than one
hundred sports editors across the country in 1982 and found
that they agreed that sports writing had improved, sports
staffs were more professional, "rah-rah" writing had
diminished and that more space was being devoted to local
and state sports than had been three years earlier.3

The business section has not been immune to the
pressures of a changing society either. Once the
Cinderella of journalism, business and economic reporting
came into its own in the 19703. Observers credited the
energy crisis and the recession of the early 1970s with
drawing attention to the area. NBC newsman John Chancellor
dubbed business and economic news the decade’s most
important story in the 1970s.4

The deepening recession and Reagan’s supplymside
economics were credited with sustaining interest into the
1980s. "Across the country, there is a rising awareness of
the relationships between Pennsylvania Avenue, Wall Street
and Main Street,” wrote Dom Bonafede in the National
Journal in 1981. "It is the stuff of headlines. Rare is
the front page that does not offer articles describing,
explaining, analyzing and correlating the twists and turns
of employment, inflation and production.5

In recent years, researchers had documented that surge

in interest. Economic editors, in response to surveys,

7
have reported a substantial increase in reader interest. A
1975 survey of business editors showed that more than two—
thirds estimated that popular interest in financial news
had "increased substantially" and about one-fifth judged it

had "more than doubled."5

For decades before, however, business news bore the
brunt of sharp criticism. Critics labeled business
coverage as "out of touch," misleading, shallow and "a

great wasteland." Business pages were slapped for offering
little more than a listing of stock and bond prices.
Business stories were said to exploit financial anxiety and
newspapers were accused of assigning untrained reporters to
handle complex economic issues.7 The criticism was raised
as long ago as 1938 when a study by Carsell described
business pages as being "obsessed" with stock and bond
markets. Carsell urged newspapers to write about business
affairs with a broader audience in mind.8

Some improvement came in the aftermath of the Depression
and the New Deal. Emery and Emery in their book, The Press
and America, attribute the increase in interpretive
writing, including economic coverage, to the new political
and economic environment of the New Deal reforms. "01d
beliefs that difficult subjects like science and economics
could not be made interesting to readers were discarded out

of sheer necessity,’ they wrote.9 Labor news also took on

8

new importance. "Fuller interpretation of the problems of
labor management relations now became the good reporter’s
goal," they asserted.1°

While economic coverage may have broadened after the
Depression, interest in business news did not. Swanson
found in a 1955 study that business news ranked at the
bottom of the totem pole for American newspaper readers.
In his survey of 130 dailies, readers ranked business news

30th and dead last in popularity.11

The problem with business news, said Gallup in a 1955
article, was that newspapers still insisted on
concentrating on stocks and bonds, news that interested
only one out of every six readers. "What about the other

five~sixths of the population whose problems of making ends
meet are even greater?" Gallup asked.12 He put his finger
on the reason that Americans later would grow hungry for

more economic information.

It is just as important to a day laborer to learn that
the demand for his work is increasing and that the rate

of pay is up 10 cents an hour, as it is for a General
Motors stockholder to learn that his stock has gone up a
half-point. Nearly everyone is interested in knowing how

to get a better job, how to keep it and how to get on in
the world.13

It took two decades after the articles by Gallup and

Swanson, but in 1975 Hubbard found business editors were

9
noting a surge in reader interest. Comparing surveys of
business editors in 1965 and 1975, he found that 67 percent
of the editors estimated that popular interest in financial
news had "increased substantially" during those ten years
and about one—fifth believed that it had more than doubled.
Editors attributed the increase to an end of "economic
isolationism" in public thinking and he quoted a Midwest
editior as saying the economic isolationism ended "when the
balance of payments crisis brought home to people (that)
their jobs depend on relative wages in Japan or the whim of
a few Arab oil 1eaders."14
The increase in interest perceived by editors
corresponded to an increase in their coverage. Hubbard’s
survey found that 22.4 percent of the editors reported a
substantial increase in their coverage of the stock market
and more than half said they had substantially increased
coverage of local business and business-related subjects.
A third of the editors, most from larger papers, also
reported a rise in investigative techniques, indicating a
more aggressive approach to covering business.15
However, editors continued to complain about being
shunted to the back of the newspaper, in the "slop page" or

the "junk heap.' They said their pages’ identity was eroded
by placing them so far back in the paper. "I suspect many

of our readers never come to (business)," one editor

10

lamented.16

Hubbard said he could not pinpoint the exact cause of
the surge in business news, but he suggested a link with
the economy. "Though the precise causes of the surge and
diversification in demand for business news are ill—
defined, they are undoubtedly connected with the nation’s
business health," he wrote.17

The publishing market may be the best evidence that an
appetite for business news was sharpening in the late
19705. One research firm predicted in 1978 that city and
regional business publications may be the next major growth
area in publications and said that the competition from
specialized publications had already forced daily
newspapers into expanding business coverage.18

Business Week in 1981 reported that the Association of
Area Business Publications, which had only 15 members when
launched in 1978, had increased its membership to 53
publications within three years. "Everybody and his brother
is trying to get into business (news)," said the
association’s president C. Robertson Trowbridge. As a
result, predicted Business Week, newspapers would increase
their business coverage to remain competitive.19

Several years after Hubbard reported the surge in reader
interest, Hynds reported that business writing had

improved. Surveying 186 business editors for a 1980

11

article, he concluded that dailies, particularly the larger
newspapers, were more aware of the need for business
coverage, were devoting more space to business news, and
were assigning better trained reporters to business
stories.20

Forty percent of the newspapers carried weekly business
sections, 29 percent carried a daily business page and 10
percent, a daily section. Only half had carried that
amount of business news for more than five years and only
41 percent for more than 10 years. Six percent of the
newspapers devoted at least 15 percent of their news hole
to business news; 22 percent devoted 10 percent; 62.4
percent devoted at least 5 percent, and 7 percent devoted
one percent or less to business news.21

Hynds also found that the size of the newspaper, but not
its geographic location, made a difference in the amount of
business news published. More than three-quarters of the
larger newspapers (50,000 and up) had either a daily page
or a daily section. Space allotted to business news was
growing, but it was still less than the space devoted to
sports, women’s, family or crime news or to the editorial
page. Business news took precedence over religious and
arts news.22

Stempel, a decade before, also looked at how newspapers

divided up their news hole. Conducting a content analysis

12
of the four largest and the four smallest newspapers in
Michigan for a 1962 article, Stempel measured space devoted
to 11 categories of news. His purpose was to determine
whether content patterns of small dailies are similar to
those of big city dailies.

The categories included "economic activity," which can
be assumed to be similar to business and economic news.
Space (in terms of percent of total news hole devoted to
each category of news) given to economic news ranged from

8.4 percent at the Detroit Free Press to 20.7 percent at

 

the Dowagiac News. Economic news ranked third in terms of

space at the Detroit News (15 percent), Flint Journal (11.8

 

percent), and Grand Rapids Press (12.1 percent). War and
defense news ranked first at all three papers. (Popular
amusements ranked second at the Detroit News. Human

interest stories ranked second at the Flint Journal and
politics and government ranked second at the Grand Rapids
Md“

The best vantage point for surveying the changes in
business news is offered by Barkin in his content analysis
of business sections in three major newspapers between 1931
and 1979. He counted stories longer than five column
inches for news of individual firms, the national economy,
international economy, consumer, and professional business

community.

13
He found that the obsession with stocks and bonds, as
cited by Carsell in 1938 and Gallup in 1955, had diminished
over those 48 years. International economic news had
steadily grown as a percentage of all business news. More
space also was devoted to businessmen and women in the

newspaper’s communities but coverage of individual firms

had not increased significantly. Consumer news, despite
the consumer movement of the 1960s, also showed little
increase. "Today’s business sections," Barkin concluded,

"appear less dominated by Wall Street and Washington." 24

Barkin also noted that researchers have not paid much
attention to actual business news content and have ignored
the relationship between business coverage and the economy.
"Historically, little research has involved the content of
business news or examined how well the coverage reflects
economic realities. Interest instead has focused on what
needed to be done to make business sections more popular
with readers."25

A similar concern was noted by Rippey in 1981 in a study

of how business executives perceive local business
coverage. "There has been no systematic study among all
U.S. daily newspapers of the way in which business news is

covered," he wrote.26
Feldman and Aronoff did study the relationship between

coverage and the economy. The two conducted a trend

l4
analysis of news published in five major dailies between
1968 and 1978.

Analyzing 20 Sunday issues of each newspaper over the
ten years, they measured coverage by the number of column
inches devoted to business and economic topics in all
sections except the business-financial section and by the

total number of articles on business—economic topics in all

sections of the newspaper. The newspapers were located
across the country. The two measures were chosen as

"determinants of absolute growth of newspaper coverage of
business and economic topics over time."

Their objective was not to determine the causes of
variation, but to chart trends. They found that each
newspaper showed an upward trend in space devoted to
business news and in the depth of coverage, as measured by
the average length of articles. They also found an upward
trend in placing business and economic articles outside the
business and financial section. Although they had not been
looking for such a connection, they found a strong link
between the amount of coverage and the condition of the

economy .

In almost every instance there was a rapid increase in
the coverage of business and economic topics during the
middle years of 1971—75. This period was marked by an
increasing interest in inflation, recession, the oil
crisis, and by the growth of investigative reporting
coming out of the post—Watergate era.

15

The relatively serene economic years of 1968—1970 and
the lower level of economic coverage during this period
suggests the worsening of general economic conditions
affects the extent of coverage of business and economic
topics.27

In their conclusion, they attribute the increase in
business coverage between 1971—1975 to "an apparent
response to such massive occurrences as the deepest

recession in 50 years and the severe energy shortage."28
They also predicted that another recession would boost the

amount of business news again.

Business coverage appears to be counter cyclical.

Given the conflict nature of business reporting, more
business coverage can be expected in bad economic times
than in good times . . . The predicted occurrence of
another recession in the near future and new
complications in the energy picture should cause another
upsurge in the coverage of business and economic

issues.29

Having found the pattern once, Feldman and Aronoff are
asking whether that pattern will appear again. Have they
found a genuine link between the state of the economy and
the level of business coverage or merely a one—time

phenomenon? The present study explores this question.

 

16
REVIEW OF LITERATURE NOTES

1. Susan H. Miller, "Changes in Women’s/Lifestyle
Sections," Journalism Quarterly 53 (Winter 1976): 641-647.

2. S.M. Marzharul Haque, "Is U.S. Coverage of News in
Third World Imbalanced?" Journalism Quarterly 60 (Autumn
1983): 521-524.

 

 

3. Douglas M. Anderson, "Sports Coverage in Daily
Newspapers," Journalism Quarterly 60 (Autumn 1983): 497-
500.

4. Howard D. Feldman and Craig E. Aronoff, "Trends in
Newspaper Coverage of Business and Economics, 1968—1978,"

Newspaper Research Journal 1 (July 1980): 55.

5. Dom Bonafede, "Reagan’s Supply—Side Policies Push
Economics Writers into the Spotlight," National Journal 26
September 1981, p. 1723.

6. Feldman and Aronoff, p. 55.

7. The observations were made in order by George Gallup,
Herbert Stein and Lyle Harris.
Gallup, "Changes in the Newspaper in the Next 20 Years,"

Journalism Quarterly 32 (Spring 1955): 17. Stein, "Media
Distortions: A Former Official’s Views,"
Columbia Journalism Review (March—April 1975): 37, 39.

 

”Economic Coverage: D as in Dismal," Time, 20 January
1975, p. 62.
8. Howard Carsell, "Business News and Reader Interest,"

Journalism Quarterly 15 (Summer 1938): 191-195.

9. Edwin Emery and Michael Emery, The Press and America:
Interpretative History of the Mass Media 4th ed. (Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall Inc. 1978), pp. 368—369.

10. Ibid.

11. Charles E. Swanson, "What They Read in 130 Daily
Newspapers," Journalism Quarterly 32 "(Winter 1955): 417.

12. Gallup, p. l8.
13. Ibid.

14. Hubbard, p. 489.

 

 

 

 

 

17
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid., p. 492.
17. Ibid., p. 488.
18. Ernest C. Hynds, "Business Coverage Is Getting

Better," Journalism Quarterly 57 (Summer 1980): 298.

 

 

19. "New Journals Tell the Local Business Story," Business
Week, 5 October 1981, p. 126.

20. Hynds, p. 368.

21. Ibid., p. 299.

22. Ibid.

23. Guido H. Stempel, "Content Patterns of Small and

Metropolitan Dailies," Journalism Quarterly 39 (Winter
1962): 88—90.

 

24. Barkin, p. 439.

 

25. Ibid.

26. John N. Rippey, "Perceptions by Selected Executives
of Local Business Coverage," Journalism Quarterly 58
(Autumn 1981): 387.

27. Feldman and Aronoff, p. 65.

28. Ibid., p. 58.

29. Ibid., p. 63.

30. Ibid., p. 64.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

This study is a logical follow to the work of Feldman
and Aronoff. It tests whether their hypothesis will hold
in the recession that followed their work. In their study,
Feldman and Aronoff found evidence of an increase in one
recession. If further evidence can be found in a second
recession, then the theory gains greater validity and
journalism has another clue as to what factors influence
the way in which newspapers as organizations behave.

Journalism education will be aided because the
economy’s influence on news coverage will be more apparent
and therefore the rationale for requiring more business and
economic training for reporters will be buttressed.

The study’s first challenge, then, is to test the

hypothesis put forth by Feldman and Aronoff.

Hypothesis 1: Business coverage will increase as
economic conditions worsen.

Research Question 1: Was there, as predicted, an
upsurge in business news in newspapers during the 1979-
82 recession?

Even after testing that hypothesis, a great deal more is

18

19
left unknown about the influence of the economy upon
news coverage.

Recessions are not uniform in their punishments. Some
cities suffer more than others. That poses the question:
What influence does the degree of recession have upon news
coverage? Thus, this study extends the Feldman and Aronoff
study and looks at how the amount of business news changes
in relation to the city in which it was published. This
question is particularly important in this country because
much of American newspaper journalism is locally and

community based.

Hypthesis 2: The deeper the recession in a city, the
more business news will be published in the city’s
newspaper.

Research Question 2: Did a newspaper in a city with
severe recession publish more business news than did a
city with less severe recession?

If, indeed, cities with more recession carry more
business news, what kind of business news increases with
recession? Knowing the answer to this question helps
researchers to pinpoint more carefully how the economy
influences business coverage. It also, perhaps, could help
journalists become more conscious of their responses to the

economy and therefore more effective in their news

decisions.

20

With this question in mind, a second aspect of this
investigation was designed. While earlier studies used
topic categories in coding business stories —- news of
consumers, individual industries, business persons, and so
on -- this research explores the content of stories
according to their reflection of economic conditions. The
study proposes the hypothesis that it is news specifically
reflecting the recession, rather than business news

generally, that increases with a city’s recession.

Hypothesis 3: Business news specifically reflecting
the recession will correspond to the rate of recession in a
city.

Research Question 3: Do newspapers in cities with more
recession have more recession—sensitive business stories
than do newspapers in cities with less recession?

Recession—sensitive news also may be broken down into
several categories. While coding recession—sensitive news,
the study also asks whether the geographic base of a story
makes a difference. This too would help journalists and

researchers to understand how newspapers react to the

economy. If recession—sensitive news increases with a
city’s recesssion, what kind of stories are increasing:
local, state, national, or international? The study

proposes the hypothesis that, in a country where journalism

21
is locally and community based, it is local recession news

that increases as a city’s economy worsens.

Hypothesis 4: Local recession~sensitive business
stories will correspond to the rate of a city’s
recession.

Research Question 4: Do newspapers in cities with

greater recession carry more local recession—sensitive
business stories than newspapers in cities with less
recession?

These last three hypotheses are extensions of the

Feldman and Aronoff concept. Specifically, the increase in
coverage should correspond to the rankings of the
recession’s severity in each city. Further, news should

logically deal with the economic crisis that has brought
about the increased news coverage.

These findings should offer clues about the ingredients
in the relationship between the economy and business
coverage. In conclusion, this study is a test of and
expansion on the hypothesis posed by Feldman and Aronoff

that a connection exists between business coverage and the

condition of the economy.

METHODOLOGY

This study differs from the earlier studies of business
news that were based either on surveys of editors and
readers or on content analysis. This study combines both
content analysis of business news and a survey of business
editors. The advantage of this method is that the results
will include both actual measurement and the rationale
behind that coverage. This study also examines categories
of business news as they reflect the economy, a form of
content analysis not used in the studies cited.

Hubbard and Hynds based their conclusions on surveys of
a large number of editors which, in the final analysis, is
still subjective information -- what editors say they did.
The findings are based on the beliefs and perceptions of
the editors without corresponding information on what kind
of news those editors actually published.

Barkin, as well as Feldman and Aronoff, used forms of
content analysis to test the increase in business coverage
and then offered some ideas on the cause of the increase,
without consulting business editors. Admittedly, Barkin
would have had a difficult time coming up with business
editors as far back as 1931. Likewise, Feldman and Aronoff
were not interested in the reasons for the changes, but
only in documenting the changes.

22

23

Further, Feldman and Aronoff were very selective in the
newspaper issues they chose to analyze. They examined only
Sunday issues and excluded the financial or business
section when measuring space devoted to business and
economic news.

The content analysis for this study conforms most with
the defintion given by Berelson (1952): Content analysis is
a research technique for the objective, systematic and
quantitative description of the manifest content of

communication.1 The study measured news based upon its

manifest appearance, not the intention of the editors as
surmized by the researcher. It used a systematic method of
defining and locating the appropriate material and
conducted an intra-coder reliability test to ensure

objectivity in coding.

Content analysis, however, is a limited tool. It
cannot be used to infer the motives of the communicator,
the newspaper business editor in this case. To compensate
for that deficiency, a survey also was used in this study
to ask why editors made the choices they did and to what
effect.

Thus, the approach to testing this thesis is two—fold.
Specifically, a content analysis of five newspapers, the
Detroit News (1984 daily circulation 650,683), Elia;

Journal (198,493), Grand Rapids Press (132,662), Lansing

24
State Journal (69,087) and the Ann Arbor News (47,414) was
conducted for the last quarter of 1978 and 1982.
Additionally, a survey was conducted of the business
editors of those publications to gain their perspectives on
business reporting trends.

Michigan is a logical choice for examining the effects
of a recession upon news coverage. While many parts of the
country suffered from the bleak economy in those years,
none suffered more than Michigan. One out of every eight
workers was idled in the state in 1981. Month after month
during the recession, Michigan claimed the dubious honor of
leading the nation by reporting the highest monthly
unemployment rates in the country. The worst annual
unemployment rate came at the very depth of the recession
in 1982 when 15.5 percent of Michigan’s workers were
jobless.2

The classic definition of a recession was used to define
the time period for this research: a decline in the Real
Gross National Product (GNP) for two consecutive quarters.
Real refers to the adjustment made in figures to constant
1972 dollars, thus eliminating the influence of inflation.

The newspapers were chosen as publications in cities at
the two extremes in this recession: most severely affected
and least affected. In order of rates of recession, (as

indexed by unemployment) from worst to least affected, they

25

are: the Flint Journal, Detroit News, Lansing State

 

Journal, Grand Rapids Press and Ann Arbor News.

 

Flint was the gloomiest city in the nation for much of
the recession. Unemployment in Genesee and Shiawassee
counties was staggering, reaching 17.7 percent in 1980 and
climbing to 20.8 percent in 1982. Personal per capita
income actually dropped, despite strong inflation, by 1.3
percent while other areas of the state were able to eke out
at least a minor gain.4

Home of the recession—wracked auto industry, Detroit
became a national symbol of the new Rust Belt.
Unemployment in its home counties (Livingston, Lapeer,
Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair and Wayne) peaked at 16 percent
in 1982. In December of 1982, the rate was 17.7 percent.5

The pill was less bitter for Lansing and Grand Rapids,
which did not rely as heavily upon the ups and downs of the
auto industry. Unemployment in Lansing’s Ingham and Eaton
counties was 10.4 percent in 1980, dropped to 10.1 percent
in 1981 and rose to 12 percent in 1982. Per capita income
rose 4.2 percent in 1982 over 1981. In Grand Rapids’ Kent
and Ottawa counties, unemployment was a relatively low 8.3
percent in 1980 and only reached double figures in 1982
when the rate was 11.9 percent.6

Ann Arbor’s Washtenaw County recorded the lowest

unemployment rate among the state’s urban areas for 1982 --

26
9.9 percent, close to the national civilian unemployment
rate of 9.7 percent. During 1980, Ann Arbor had an
unemployment rate of 8.1 percent, less than half that of

Flint’s that year and not far from the national rate of 7

percent. In 1981, Ann Arbor’s unemployment rate dropped to
7.8 percent. Per capita income rose 3.5 percent from 1981
to 1982.7

The 1979—82 recession was a double—dipped recession,
with low points in 1979-80 and 1982. According to the
President’s Council of Economic Advisers, the first
quarterly drop in GNP occurred in the second quarter of
1979 when GNP fell 1.7 percent. The economy stagnated for
several quarters and then dropped 0.4 percent in the second
quarter of 1980 and 1.5 percent in the second quarter of
1981. The GNP plummeted for two consecutive quarters in
the last quarter of 1981 and the first of 1982. It sank
more than 5 percent each quarter. GNP fell 2.5 percent in
the last quarter of 1982 and then a recovery began to pick
up steam.8

Other indicators, however, are important in defining a
recession. Corporate profits before taxes dropped from
$179 billion in 1979 to $169 billion in 1980. After a
slight recovery in 1981, profits plunged to a bleak $149.6
billion.9 Industrial production and utilization of

industrial capacity also deteriorated in those years,

27

sinking 3.6 percent in 1980, rebounding 2.7 percent in 1981
and dropping a whooping 8.2 percent in 1982. 1°

For purposes of this study, the rate of recession will
be measured by the level of unemployment in a newspaper’s
home counties. This indicator is applied uniformly to all
five newspapers’ home counties and is recognized by
economists and government statisticians as a significant
statistic in measuring the health of the economy. The
federal government in 1961 established the President’s
Committee to Appraise Employment and Unemployment
Statistics because of "their importance as measures of the
economic health and well—being of the nation." This is not
to say that there is any single measure of the nation’s
economic health, but the rate of employment is considered
among the most significant in determining its health. 11

Fourteen issues of each of the five newspapers from the

last quarter of 1978, just prior to the recession, were
selected at random. The dates were chosen to construct two
weeks of publication. Corresponding dates were then

selected from the last quarter of 1982, the low point of
the recession. As a result, both sets of weeks in 1978 and
1982 had the same number of days from October, November and
December. Likewise, each day was compared with a day at
approximately the same point of the quarter. The procedure

was designed to avoid as much as possible any seasonable

28
variations that would exaggerate or minimize differences
between the 1978 and 1982 content.

Feldman and Aronoff’s definition of economic and
business news will be used in this study. In their 1980
article, ”Trends in Newspaper Coverage of Business and
Economics, 1968-78," they classified business news for
their content analysis as:

1.) having a title or headline.

2.) addressing a business or economic topic
throughout its content.

3.) being concerned with one or more of the
following: production, distribution and
consumption of wealth and goods; resource
allocation; labor; finance; taxation; buying and
selling of commodities and services; foreign
commerce and trade; agribusiness; business and
the environment and government’s role in
business.12

Included in this definition are newspaper articles,
photographs, charts, drawings and other illustrations.

A question arises about including stock and bond market
tables. Aronoff and Feldman did not measure column inches
within the financial sections and so did not face this
question. When counting stories in all sections, they
counted the stock and bond tables as one story. Because
some form of listings was carried consistently six days a
week in the five Michigan newspapers, using or not using

the tables in this content analysis would increase or

decrease the actual number of column inches by a consistent

29
amount. Thus the comparative results would not be changed
either way. But because the focus of this study is on the
decisions editors make in covering business news during a
recession, the decision was made to not use the stock and
bond tables.

The first phase of content analysis, using microfilm,
measured column inches devoted to business news stories and
graphics and then counted the number of business stories
appearing on the front page.13 (See Appendix A.)

For the 1982 issues, a second content analysis was
conducted to code news according to its reflection of the
economy. The coding measured column inches of local,
state, national and international recession-sensitive news
as well as good economic news. (See Appendix B.)

The second phase of content analysis categorized news
as "recession-sensitive" or "good."

Recession-sensitive stories include news about events

and trends that are a result of the recession, such as a
reports on declining productivity and raises in
unemployment levels, layoffs at factories and plant

closings, and government efforts to stem the recession
tide. Such stories also include the jobs bill debated by
Congress through the last half of 1982 and the struggle of
the state of Michigan to cope with its tremendous load of

unemployment payments. This news may not always be

30
completely negative, such as the announcement by General
Motors that it would pay out $300 Christmas bonuses to the
thousands of laid-off GM workers in 1982. While this news
was good news, it was an event that occurred because a
recession had thrown so many people out of work.

Labor news was included in this recession category only
when there was a connection with the recession. Thus,
almost all of the stories about the United Auto Workers
negotiations with the auto industry in 1982 fell into this
category because the issues included sizable concessions on
the behalf of workers to help out the striken auto
industry. But almost none of the stories about routine
labor negotiations belong in this category, including the

semi-annual negotiations between school districts and their

teachers.
"Good" economic news stories are the opposite of
recession-sensitive news. These are stories about a strong

economy or a major improvement in the economy. Included in
this would be stories about new business or factories
opening or existing business or factories expanding,
substantial improvements in economic indicators, if the
statistic is interpreted as being a sign of a true
improvement and not a statistical fluke or aberration, and

other stories about comebacks in the business and

industrial sector. Not included in this definition are

31
stories that, while upbeat, are not indications of a robust
economy, such as profiles and features on people and
businesses.

For both the recession and "good" business news
categories, sub-categories were created for local news
(news pertaining to the circulation area of newspaper),
state news (news outside the circulation area but within
the state of Michigan), national news (news about or within
the nation) and international news (news outside the United
States or involving the United States and an outside
interest).

Following the work of Feldman and Aronoff, the study
used a standard column measurement for all single-column
copy to even out variations in width. Where a story has
been set in a double-column type, the study assigned a
double factor to the measurement. Where the width was a
column and a half, a factor of 1.5 was assigned.

Once the data were collected, the means for business
news coverage, illustrations, and front-page stories for
each newspaper were computed in the first phase of the
content analysis. Likewise, the means for local, state,
national, and all—recession sensitive news and "good"
economic-business news were computed in the second phase.
The mean represents the average amount of space, as a

percentage of the total news hole, devoted to each category.

32
The means for these categories were expected to provide
an indication of any change in coverage between 1978 and
1982 as well as between newspapers during the recession in
1982. The count of front-page business stories was
designed to provide an indication of any change in the
degree of prominence afforded business news.

A matched pairs t-test was used to test for significance
in the difference in means between the 1978 and 1982 data
for each newspaper. Matched pairs t—testing was chosen
because the 1982 dates were matched to the randomly
selected 1978 dates. An analysis of variance was used to
test for significance in the difference between means in
the 1982 figures for recession news in the five newspapers.
A matched pairs sign test was used for the analysis of the
front page story count.

An intra-coder reliability test was conducted to test
for discrepancies in coding.14
As the second phase of this study, business editors of
the newspapers in 1978 and 1982 were surveyed. They were
asked whether business coverage had increased during the
recession, whether more illustrations had been used and
what kind of business increased, if it increased at all.
They also were asked whether they agreed with the
Aronoff-Feldman hypothesis. Do newspapers increase

business coverage in bad economic times more than in good

33
times?

Because such a small sample was used, the results cannot
be taken as statistical evidence but as explanation for the
results of the content analysis.

A standard, two—page survey form with a stamped,
addressed envelope was mailed to each of the editors, some
of whom had moved to other newspapers or other positions at
the newspaper. (See Appendix C.)

Results of the survey were expected to provide
additional support and possible explanation for the results
of the content analysis.

Of the nine editors identified as responsible for
placing business news in the newspapers in those years,
seven returned surveys or were interviewed by telephone
when no survey was returned. At least one editor from each

newspaper participated in the survey.

34

METHODOLOGY NOTES

1. Ole R. Holsti, Content Analysis for the Social
Sciences and Huaanities, (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley
Publishing Co., 1969), p. 3.

2. Michigan, Employment Security Commission, Job Service,
Michigan Labor Market Review vol. 37, no. 12 (December
1981), p. 3.

3. While it is correct to say that, among the state’s
urban areas, Flint recorded the highest unemployment rate
in 1982 and Ann Arbor the lowest rate, there were counties
that recorded more extreme rates. They were, however,
rural and thinly populated areas. Isabella County in mid-
Michigan reported the absolute lowest unemployment rate
that year -- 8.4 percent. In this rural county, the number
of unemployed workers that year was only 2,450. Several
counties in the Upper Peninsula reported the highest
unemployment in 1982. But in this area, the unemployed
numbered only a few thousand, sometimes only a few hundred.
The absolute highest rate was recorded in Presque Isle
County -- 24.6 percent. The figures came from David I.
Verway, editor of the Michigan StatialicallAbatrapl, 18th
ed. (Detroit, Michigan: Bureau of Business Research, Wayne
State University, 1984), pp. 153-165.

4. Michigan Statiatical Abstract, pp. 203-204 on per capita
income and pp. l53~265 for unemployment figures.

5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.

8. U.S., Council of Economic Advisers, Economic Indicators
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
January 1981 and January 1983), p. 1 of both.

 

9. Econoaic Indicators, January 1983, p. 8.
10. Ibid, p. 12.

11. Douglas Greenwald, ed. Encyclopedia of Econoaics (New
York, N.Y.: McGraw Hill Book Co., 1982), p. 98, 334.

35

12. Feldman and Aronoff, p. 55.

13. More specifically, the first phase of content analysis
measured:

-— column inches devoted to business news stories,
including headline and byline space. Commentary, such as
letters to the editor and editorials on business topics,
was measured as well and combined with this figure.

-- column inches devoted to illustrations, including

drawings, photos, graphics, charts and other visual
devices.
-- number of business stories appearing on the front
page.

14. The intra-coder test showed a 89 percent agreement
between the way coding was conducted in February 1985 and
during the intra-coder test in May 1985.

 

FINDINGS

Content Analysis Discussion

 

Content analysis indicates that the five Michigan
newspapers increased coverage of business and economic news
as the recession grew worse.

The Flint Journal, in a city with the highest
unemployment among the five and therefore the greatest
amount of recession, increased coverage the most. Between
1978 and 1982, the newspaper expanded space devoted to
business and economics by 170 percent.

Analysis of the other four newspapers found a smaller

 

 

 

increase in coverage during the recession. The Detroit News
increased coverage by 14.1 percent; the Lansing State
Journal, 7.3 percent; the Grand Rapids Press, 26 percent,

 

and the Ann Arbor News, 17 percent.

Overall, coverage by the five newspapers increased an
average of 33 percent between 1978 and 1982. A t-test found
the increase to be significant.1

Tables 1 and 2 detail the increase in space devoted to

business and economic news for the five newspapers between

1978 and 1982.

36

37

Table 1: Amount of space devoted to business news in 1978
and 1982, expressed in average percent of total
news hole.

Community Percent of news hole devoted to business news:
1978 1982
Flint 5.0 13.3
Ann Arbor 9.7 11.0
Lansing 10.1 10.8
Detroit 8.5 9.7
Grand Rapids 7.4 9.3
Table 2: Increase in news hole devoted to business coverage

between 1978 and 1982.

Community Percent of Increase Perct of 1982 Unemploy.
increase rank unemployment rank

Flint 170% 1 20.8% 1

Grand Rapids 26% 2 11.9% 4

Ann Arbor 17% 3 9.9 5

Detroit 14% 4 16.0% 2

Lansing 7% 5 12.0% 3

A matched pairs t—test found the increase for the Flint
and Grand Rapids newspapers (Table 2) significant, beyond
the .001 and .05 levels respectively. Increases for the
other three newspapers were not statistically significant.

It is clear from the analysis results, however, that
there was a trend toward increasing coverage of business and
economic news during the recession. Thus, it can be said
that this study generally supports Hypothesis 1, which

states that business and economic coverage will increase as

38
economic conditions worsens.

The results of the statistical test also suggest a
different analysis of the data. The reason for Flint’s
increase fits Hypothesis 1 best. With the highest level of
unemployment, Flint was expected to show the greatest
increase in coverage. But why did the Grand Rapids
newspaper record an increase in coverage greater than cities
with higher 1982 unemployment rates?

One answer may be that among the five newspapers’ home
counties, Flint and Grand Rapids recorded the greatest
increase in unemployment between 1979, when the recession
began, and 1982.

Unemployment in Flint’s Genessee and Shiawassee counties
soared from 8.8 percent at the beginning of the recession in
1979 to 20.8 percent in 1982, an increase of 136 percent.
Unemployment in Grand Rapids’ Kent and Ottawa counties
climbed from 5.5 percent to 12 percent, an increase of 116

percent.2 (See Table 3)

39

Table 3: Increase in unemployment 1979—1982 compared with
increase in business coverage 1978-1982.

City Percent of Increase Percent of Unempl.
news increase rank increase in increase
unemployment rank
Flint 170% 1 136% 1
Grand Rapids 26% 2 116% 2
Ann Arbor 17% 3 68% 5
Detroit 14% 4 100% 4
Lansing 7% 5 114% 3
As noted earlier, only the first two increases in
business coverage, those for Flint and Grand Rapids, were
statistically significant. Those two correspond in rankings
exactly in Table 3 but not in Table 2. Chance may have

played a role in the increases found for Ann Arbor, Detroit
and Lansing. However, just looking at the statistically
significant figures, it could be argued that it is the
trauma of recession that causes newspapaers to increase
coverage of business and economic news, rather than the
absolute unemployment rate for a single year. In other
words, a city may suffer more trauma even if the
unemployment rate never climbs as high as it does in another
city.

An analogy may be made at the personal level. A family
whose income drops from $900 to $400 a week may feel more
constrained by the recession than the family whose income

drops from $500 to $350. The change, not the final figure,

40
may be the significant factor here.
The content analysis also found that business and
economic news was given far more prominence during the
recession than before. The number of business and economic

stories on the front pages of the 140 newspapers analyzed

jumped dramatically between 1978 and 1982. The Flint
Journal again led the pack by a considerable margin. (See
Table 4.)

While the Flint newspaper carried about one front page
business story only every two days in 1978, it carried more

than two a day by 1982.

Table 4: Increase in front page business stories between
1978 and 1982, average number of front page
business stories

Community Percent of Avg. no. of front page stories

increase 1978 1982

Flint 276% .57 2.14

Ann Arbor 108% .79 1.64

Detroit 75% 1.93 3.14

Grand Rapids 72% .79 1.36

Lansing 57% 2.14 3.36

A sign test for matched pairs found statistical
significance in the increase for Flint and Lansing. Test

results for Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Detroit could not

reJect the null hypothesis that the increases could be

41
ascribed to chance sample selection.

However, an increase in front page stories by as much as
108 percent and even 75 percent suggests that there is
evidence of a change in newspaper priorities during the
recession.

Although Flint showed the greatest increase, Lansing on
the average printed the most front-page economic and
business stories in both 1978 and 1982. It was followed by
Detroit which printed the second most in both years as well.
In fact, the newspapers kept their relative positions in
terms of number of front page stories in 1978 and 1982. It
appears the recession, regardless of its severity, had
approximately the same influence on each of the newspaper’s
decision to award prominence to business and economic news.

Use of illustrations and graphics increased sharply in
three of the five newspapers. Such an increase could be
interpreted as an attempt to make business and economic
stories more understandable and to emphasize the importance

of the information. Again the Flint Journal led the way, as

 

Table 5 shows.

 

42

Table 5: Percent of increase in business story graphics and
average percent of news hole devoted to graphics.

Community Percent of Pct. of space devoted to graphics
increase 1978 1982
Flint 265% .41 1.50
Lansing 114% .42 .90
Detroit 107% .82 1.70
Ann Arbor 10% 1.00 1.10
Grand Rapids —16% .84 .71
A t-test found the increase for Flint, Lansing and

Detroit newspapers to be significant.3

The first phase of content analysis found a trend among
newspapers to increase coverage, use more graphics and give
more prominence to business news during the recession.

The data support the idea that it is the increase in
unemployment, rather than the absolute rate of unemployment
in any given year, that corresponds to the increase in
business coverage during a recession.

The data did not give support to the hypothesis that
there is a connection between the severity of a city’s
recession ——in terms of absolute unemployment —- and news
coverage, however.

Flint, with the highest unemployment, carried the most
coverage by the end of the recession and recorded the
greatest increase in coverage during the recession. But

Detroit, which had the second worst economy, did not record

43

the second highest level of coverage. Instead, it had the
next-to-lowest increase in coverage and next—to—lowest
coverage. The relationship did not hold as might have been
expected in this refinement of the Feldman and Aronoff
hypothesis. Instead it was Flint and Grand Rapids, cities
with the greatest increase in unemployment during the
recession, that recorded the greatest increase in business
coverage.

The study is thus unable to offer clear support to

Hypothesis 2 that the deeper the recession in a city, the
more business news will be published in the city’s
newspaper.

The study did find a component of business news that
increased with the local recession, specifically local

recession-sensitive news.

Research Hypothesis 3, also an extension of the Feldman
and Aronoff hypothesis, suggested that business news
specifically reflecting the recession economy should
correspond to the level of recession in a city. The more

recession, the more news reflecting the recession should be
published. If true, this would be an indication that the
health of the economy is an indicator of economic and
business coverage in a newspaper.

Research Hypothesis 4, again extending the original

hYpothesis, suggested that it is specifically local

44
recession business news that corresponds to the city’s
worsening economy.

To test Hypotheses 3 and 4, a second content analysis
was conducted on only the 1982 newspapers used in the first
study. This content analysis coded both recession—sensitive
and "good" economic news at the local, state, national and
international levels.

The mean for all categories of 1982 recession news
combined (local, state, national and international) as a
percent of total news hole gave greater support than the
earlier data for the Hypothesis 3 that the more local

recession, the more recession news. (See Table 6.)

Table 6: Percent of news hole devoted to all recession news
in 1982
Community Percent of Rank 1982 Rank
news hole unemployment

Flint 6.30 1 20.8 1
Lansing 3.60 2 12.0 3
Grand Rapids 3.58 3 11.9 4
Detroit 3.46 4 16.0 2

Ann Arbor 2.82 5 9.9 5

An analysis of variance indicated high statistical
signficance for differences between cities in the data.4
While the ranking did not correspond perfectly with that

for unemployment, the extremes of the trend were there.

45
Flint, with highest unemployment, had the most recession
news and Ann Arbor, with the lowest unemployment, had the
least. Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids had nearly the
same percentage, roughly 3.5 and were grouped in the center.

The question arises: Is there a component of recession
news that more perfectly corresponds to a city’s extent of
recession?

Logic suggests that it is local recession news that
should increase as the amount of local unemployment
increases. (Local in this sense means the general readership
area.)

A near—perfect relationship did emerge for 1982 content
coded for local recession news. The city with the highest
1982 unemployment, Flint, had a newspaper that devoted the
greatest amount of space to local recession news. (See Table
7.)

The order held down the line until the last two, Grand
Rapids and Ann Arbor, which reversed their positions but

were very close in their coverage of local recession news.

46

Table 7: Percent of news hole devoted to 1982 local
recession news

Community Percent of Rank 1982 Rank
news hole unemployment

Flint 2.18 1 20.8% 1

Detroit 1.69 2 16.0% 2

Lansing .96 3 12.0% 3

Ann Arbor .62 4 9.9% 5

Grand Rapids .34 5 11.9% 4

Although Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids switch places, they

are within 0.3 percent of one another. It can be thus
argued that the trend generally holds. Perhaps at a certain
level of lower unemployment, the relationship between

content and the local economy is less influential.

An analysis of variance showed the differences to be
highly significant.5

Computing a combination of local and state recession
news as a percentage of news hole also results in a ranking
that strongly supports a variation of Hypothesis 4: the more
local recession, the more local-state recession news. (See

Table 8.)

47

Table 8: Percent of news hole devoted to local and state
recession business news in 1982

Community Percent of Rank 1982 Rank
news hole unemployment

Flint 3.49% 1 20.8% 1

Detroit 2.18% 2 16.0% 2

Lansing 1.82% 3 12.0% 3

Ann Arbor 1.46% 4 9.9% 5

Grand Rapids 1.36% 5 11.9% 4
Interestingly, however, state recession news alone did

not reflect the unemployment rankings.

Again Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids reversed positions.
But this time, they finished even more closely to one
another. They are within 0.1 percent of each other in
coverage. In the analysis for only local recession news,
there was 0.3 percent gap in the means for coverage. Thus,
the two cities with the least unemployment also had
virtually the same coverage of local and state unemployment
news. The other newspapers corresponded exactly to their
unemployment rankings.

An analysis of variance found the differences to be
highly significant.6

Perhaps, one could argue, the same findings hold for the
other categories of news, but that was not the case.
National recession news showed no resemblence to the

unemployment rankings. An analysis of variance showed no

48

statistical significance for the differences.

Table 9: Percent of news hole devoted to national recession
business news in 1982

Community Percent of Rank 1982 Rank
news hole Unemployment

Flint 2.0% 1 20.8% 1

Grand Rapids 1.84% 2 11.9% 4

Lansing 1.66% 3 12% 3

Ann Arbor 1.36% 4 9.9% 5

Detroit 1.17%. 5 16% 2
State recession news also did not reflect the

unemployment ranking.

Table 10: Percent of news hole devoted to state recession
news in 1982

Community Percent of Rank 1982 Rank
news hole unemployment

Flint 1.31% 1 20.8% 1

Grand Rapids 1.02% 2 11.9% 4

Lansing .86% 3 12.0 3

Ann Arbor .84% 4 9.9 5

Detroit .49%. 5 16.0% 2
An analysis of variance showed no statistical

significance in the differences.

The amount of international news reflecting the
recession in the United States was too small to be analyzed
meaningfully.

Thus, it cannot be said that state or national recession

 

49
news increases with a city’s level of unemployment. Only
local recession news and a combination of state and local
newss corresponded to unemployment. It appears that as a
city sinks into recession, its newspaper responds by
printing more news about the local and state economic
situation.

The pattern did not hold for "good" economic news
published by the five newspapers were not statistically
significant in an analysis of variance.

The ranking for good news, however, was similar to the
order found for all categroies of recession or "bad" news in
1982: Flint, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor and Detroit.
(See Table 6.) A possible conclusion is that newspaper
editors developed a sensitivity to any economic news whether
it carried good or bad messages about the economy’s health.

(See Table 11.)

Table 11: Percent of news hole devoted to "good" business
news in 1982

Community Percent of 1982

news hole Rank Unemployment Rank
Flint .97% 1 20.8% 1
Lansing .55% 2 12.0% 3
Grand Rapids .50% 3 11.9% 4
Ann Arbor .36% 4 9.9% 5
Detroit .30% 5 16.0% 2

The ranking also raises questions. Why should Flint

have nearly twice as much "good" business news as Lansing

50

and Grand Rapids and three times as much as Ann Arbor, when
Flint had double the unemployment of those cities? If the
suggestion made earlier is true, it may be that the severity
of Flint’s recession exerted such an influence that Ella;
Journal editors were made particularly sensitive to any
"economic barometer" news that reflected either an
improvement or a deterioration in the local economy.

But why should the Detroit News carry so little good

 

business news in relation to the other newspapers? The
answer may lie in the fact that the News is a considerably
larger newspaper than the other four and has more
orientation to state—wide coverage. It is less likely that
the News would have carried stories about the average new
business, which makes up the bulk of "good" business news,
than would a smaller newspaper.

On the other hand, the News could be expected to have
run many "bad" economic news stories during the recession
because it was often of much greater scope, such as stories
about entire auto plants being mothballed and hundreds of
workers being thrown out of work. Compare such a story with
a new fish store opening. In that case, the News is more
likely to run the "bad" news story and not the "good." But a
smaller newspaper would be expected to run both. As a
result, the total number of column inches of "good" business

news would be affected.

51

There are several other ways of looking at the data in
the second round of content analysis.

Feldman and Aronoff, in one of numerous comparisons,
examined categories of business news as a percentage of all
business news published in a newspaper. Thus far, this
study has compared the categories of business news against
the total news bole available, rather than against space
solely devoted to all business news. Adapting that
comparison for this study, a perfect relationship was found
between coverage and unemployment levels.

The perfect relationship emerged when a percentage was
calculated for a combination of local and state recession
news as a percentage of all 1982 business news coded. Such
a relationship suggests that it may be the combination of
local and state recession news that is the component that
varies in direct relation to unemployment, a variation on
Hypothesis 4. (See Table 12.)

Table 12: Percent of business news devoted to local and
state recession news in 1982.

Community Percent of Rank 1982 Rank
business news unemployment

Flint 26.2% 1 20.8% 1

Detroit 22.5% 2 16.0% 2

Lansing 16.8% 3 12.0% 3

Grand Rapids 14.6% 4 11.9% 4

Ann Arbor 13.3% 5 9.9% 5

A ranking based solely on local recession news as a

 

52
percentage of business news did not follow the unemployment

order. (See Table 13.)

Table 13: Percent of business news devoted to local
recession news in 1982.

Community Percent of Rank 1982 Rank
business news unemployment

Detroit 17.4% 1 16.0% 2

Flint 16.4% 2 20.8% 1

Lansing 8.86% 3 12.0% 3

Ann Arbor 5.6% 4 9.9% 5

Grand Rapids 3.66% 5 11.9% 4

A ranking based solely on state recession news as

percentage of all business news also did not follow the

unemployment order but was much farther from the mark. (See
Table 14.)
Table 14: Percent of business news devoted to state

 

recession news in 1982.

Community Percent of Rank 1982 Rank
business news unemployment

Grand Rapids 10.97% 1 11.9% 4

Flint 9.85% 2 20.8% 1

Lansing 7.96% 3 12.0% 3

Ann Arbor 7.64% 4 9.9% 5

Detroit 5.05% 5 16.0% 2

Why should the figure for local and state news, rather
than simply local news, correspond more perfectly with the
unemployment figures? The answer may lie in the definition

of local and state news. Local news was defined as any

53
story written about the newspaper’s immediate circulation
area. Stories outside that area, but within Michigan, fell
into the state category. Thus, news about a plant closing
in a town 50 miles away often was coded as state news, but
in reality the story usually had high local interest in
terms of employment and economic impact. This is one of the
problems of content analysis. The coding requires a
category decision based upon manifest content rather than
the latent content. But that content may be taken into

account in the interpretation of data.7

Content Analysis Conclualgn

The data in the first content analysis found an overall
trend among the newspapers to increase business and economic
news during the recession. The data did not, however,
support the claim that the more recession, the more general
business and economic news would be published.

The second content analysis found, however, that local
recession news and a combination of local and state
recession news are the components of business and economic
news that correspond to the level of recession in a city.

Results of the tests of the hypotheses thus are as
follows:

Hypothesis 1: The data support the claim by Feldman and

Aronoff that business coverage will increase as economic

54
conditions worsen.

Hypothesis 2: The data do not support the hypothesis
that the deeper the recession in a city, the more business
news will be published in the city’s newspaper.

Hypothesis 3: The data offer some support for the
hypothesis that the amount of business news reflecting the
recession will correspond to the level of recession in a

city.

Hypothesis 4: The data do not support the hypothesis
that local recession-sensitive business news will correspond

to the level of a city’s recession.

Survey Results

Most of the business editors at the newspapers said that
the recession spurred the increase, although a few insisted
that the increase was part of a less specific phenomenon -—
a general economic awakening within their newspaper and
America as a whole. In the final analysis, however, that
awakening may have as its root cause the instability brought
on by recent recessions.

All seven editors responding said that their newspapers’
business and economic coverage increased between 1978 and
1982. Six said coverage increased significantly, one said

slightly. Four of the seven linked the increase to the

55
recession, one was not sure.

Some editors, however, were reluctant to agree that the
recession pushed their newspaper into more business
coverage. Among those who did not see a link was former
Detroit Newa business editor Kenneth Ross, now business

editor of the Hartford Courant in Connecticut. He wrote in

 

a letter accompanying his survey:

The increase conicided with the recession, the
recession wasn’t the direct cause of it. That was more a
general shift in attitudes on the part of News management.

I think the interest of readers in business news is
more closely related to the impact of the business
community on an area than the ebb and flow of good and bad
times. Hartford, with virtually no unemployment and a
healthy, diversified economic base, seems just as
interested in business news as Detroit.

Ross summed up his observations, "The trend (in
coverage) is upward, regardless of the times."

Ed Kotler, who edited business news for the Grand Rapids

Press in 1982 and now is a copy editor, argued in the

opposite direction. The recession increased the coverage,
he said. "There was a snowball effect. People had trouble
getting car loans, mortgages, personal loans, the whole
system underwent a dramatic overhaul," he said in a

telephone interview.
It is interesting to note that the samples of the Grand
Rapids Press showed an increase in business news during the

recession of 26 percent while the Detroit News showed an

 

increase of only 14 percent.

56
The former Detroit Newa business editor, however, said
that the recession may have contributed to the prominence
given to business news. "The recession may have resulted in

a greater number of our (Detroit Newa) stories going to Page

 

l on a regular basis,’ he wrote. The data support him. The
content analysis found in a 75 percent increase in front
page business stories between 1978 and 1982, a far greater
increase than the 14 percent increase in coverage.

A1 Wilhelm, metro editor of the Flint Journal, was

responsible for assigning a variety of copy editors to

handle business news in 1978 and 1982. He credits the
recession only "partially" with causing the increase in
business news that was "more people oriented in terms of
impact."

The Flint newspaper has continued to publish more
business news. "We’re out of the recession and we’re still

increasing coverage,’ he said in a telephone interview. To
support this contention, he noted that, in the past year,
the number of business reporters has increased from two to
four, and that two of those are working on masters of
business administration degrees.

Support for the Feldman-Aronoff hypothesis was stronger
when the question was asked more abstractly. Five of the

seven editors agreed or probably agreed with Feldman and

Aronoff’s statement that newspapers publish more business

57

news during a recession than during stable economic times.

"Bad news is news,’ said Ray Sleep, business columnist for

the Ann Arbor News. "You don’t write about a sunny day. But

 

if you have a blizzard, you write a story."
Lyn Billitteri, business editor at the Lansing State
Journal in 1978 and now state news copy editor with the

Tampa Tribune, also agreed. "Readers perceive more economic

 

impact on their lifestyle when things go badly; oddly, they
don’t seem to see the impact when things go well,” she
wrote.

Like Wilhelm, she believes that the increase in coverage
has been maintained in the recovery period. She wrote:

The increase in business news coverage has continued,
perhaps because awareness of its importance was heightened
during the recent recession. More likely, though, it’s
because of increased (business) advertising revenues . .
brought about by the recession and deregulation—induced
changes in the market place.

The editors were less sure whether coverage increased
more in a recession than in boom times. An extraordinary
surge in the economy, they said, would merit extra coverage.
"A major plant opening is as big a story as a major plant
closing," wrote Chris Andrews, business editor at the
Lansiag, State Journal during the last half of 1982 and now
news editor.

The survey also lent support to the hypothesis that

local and state recession news increased as the local

58
recession grew worse. When asked what kind of news
increased the most during the recession (local and state
business news, business columns, or wire business news),
local and state business news was cited most often.

Four of the seven editors said that a new or extra
business page was added during the recession, further
supporting the idea that coverage increased. They were
editors from the Flint Journal, Ann Arbor News, Detroit News

and Lanalnngtate Journal. All seven editors said their

 

newspapers increased use of graphics to illustrate their

business stories.

Business Editor Survey Conclusions

 

The editors involved in placing business news in their
newspaper offer a perspective that could not be obtained
from the content analysis alone.

They are better able to answer the question of why
business news coverage increased during the recession.
Specifically they bolster the hypothesis that a downturn in
the economy causes newspapers to focus more sharply on the
businesses and industries that fuel that economy.

Thus, the results of both the content analysis and
survey support the Feldman and Aronoff hypothesis that a
recession leads to more coverage of business and economic

news .

59

There was not, of course, unanimous agreement about the
cause of increased coverage, although a strong trend
emerged. Other factors may be involved with the editors’
assessment of the cause. It is only human nature to believe
that a change, particularly one for the better, was caused
by the initiative of the person or persons involved, instead
of having the change thrust upon them by external events.

Recessions also are not "breaking" news that erupt one
afternoon and are reported the next day. They are, instead,
long—term trends that build over time and may modify the
behavior of editors in a gradual way, rather than overnight.
Thus, it may be more difficult for an editor to pinpoint the

exact cause of a 26 percent increase in business news over

four years, except to say that there was an economic
awakening.

Finally, those who don’t agree also may be correct.
Perhaps, the recession did not increase news. But none of

the editors surveyed was able to pinpoint another reason
except for the vague term, economic awakening, which in the
long run may be the same phenomenon as editors increasing

business coverage in response to a downturn in the economy.

In fact, most of the editors agreed that coverage was
boosted during the recession and most, but not all, agreed
that the recession was the root cause. More agreed,

however, with the Feldman-Aronoff hypothesis when it was

60
state abstractly.
In general, most business editors, viewing events three
to six years afterward, could see the pattern that was

suggested by Feldman and Aronoff.

 

61

FINDINGS NOTES

1. A t-test for the overall increase in business news among the
five newspapers between 1978 and 1982 found t equals 2.348, which
exceeds the 2.306 called for in a t-chart at the 95 percent
confidence level and eight degrees of freedom.

2. David I. Verway, ed., Michigan Statistical Abstract, 18th
ed. (Detroit, Michigan: Bureau of Business Research, Wayne State
University, 1984), p. 157—160.

3. A t-test for the increase in business graphics in the Flint,
Detroit and Lansing newspapers found t equals 4.54, 2.59, and
2.54 respectively. The t-chart at the 95 percent confidence
level and 26 degrees of freedom called for a t of at least 2.056.

4. The analysis of variance test for the percent of news hole
devoted to allerecession news found f equalled 5.604, far
exceeding the f of 2.65 called for in an f table at the 95
percent confidence level. As in all of the analyses of variance
for a sample of 14 in this study, a note of caution is added. The
low sample size may have a modest normality departure.

5. The analysis of variance test for local recession news found
f equalled 6.61. The f table at 95 percent significance calls
for an f of 2.65.

A follow-up matched pair t—test indicated statistical
significance for the differences between Detroit and Lansing, and
between Lansing and Grand Rapids. The t—test found t was 2.397
and 2.074 respectively. The t-test for the other pairings did
not reject the null hypothesis that the amount of news in one
newspaper was no greater than in another.

6. The analysis of variance test for local and state recession
news found f was 5.937. The f chart at 95 percent significance
called for 2.65.

A follow—up matched pairs t—test found high statistical
significance in the difference between Flint and Detroit’s
coverage. T was 2.241. The t-chart at 95 percent significance
called for a t of 1.771. The t-test did not reject for the other
pairs of newspapers the null hypothesis that local and state
recession coverage was not greater from one newspaper to the
next.

7. Ole R. Holsti, Content Analysis for the Social Science and
Humanities, (Readings, Mass., Addison—Wesley Publishing Co.,
1969), p. 12, 13.

   

 

DISCUSSION

Through the last two decades, researchers have charted
the slow emergence of business news from obscurity to front—
page visibility. They have offered vague reasons for this
blossoming. The importance of the economy in the average
reader’s life is often mentioned. But the economoy is
always with us. What is there about the economy that
prompts more or less emphasis on business news?

This test and extension of Feldman and Aronoff’s
hypothesis -- that a connection exists between the economy’s
worsening condition and the amount of business news printed
-- attempts to fill that gap. The content analysis and a
survey of business editors found that the newspapers
increased business and economic news during a recession, and
that it was the local recession news that increased in
relation to the level of recession.

From another perspective, it could be argued that this
study simply documents a steady increase in coverage over
time, unrelated to the recession. Hubbard’s study, for
example, ten years ago found a gradual increase and
improvement in business coverage in the preceeding decade.

But Hubbard’s 1975 survey of editors came at the
conclusion of the severe 197l~75 recession. Moreover, the
results were compared to results of a survey in 1965, a good
economic time in America. It could be argued that, in fact,

62

63
Hubbard’s study supports, rather than detracts from, the
Feldman-Aronoff hypothesis. Note that Feldman and Aronoff
based their hypothesis on the surge of business between 1971
and 1975, the same surge that Hubbard documented. But
Feldman and Aronoff also found that the increase in coverage
leveled off after 1975 when the economy regained momentum.

A big change between Hubbard’s 1975 survey and the small
sampling of editors in this study is the finding that
business news has moved up the ladder of prominence. Where
editors in 1975 complained about business news buried in the
back of the paper, editors in 1985 commented that during the
recession business news was pulled to the front of the
paper. Many also said that the focus on business news has
been maintained in the recovery. The content analysis of
140 issues of five newspapers, which found a 57*276 percent
increase in Page One stories, is even stronger evidence of
this move to the front of the paper.

Although it is not possible to compare directly the
percentages of business and economic news as found by
Stempel in 1962 (because the definitions probably do not
coincide), it is possible to compare the relative rankings
of those papers. He found the following order, in terms of
most coverage: the Detroit Newa, Flint Journal, and §papg
fiapida Preaa. The 1962 ranking appears to be determined by

size of newspaper. In this study, the ranking is Flint,

 

64
Detroit, and Grand Rapids. Something -- the economic roller
coaster rides of recent years, according to this study -—
has caused the realignment so that the ranking follows the
degree of unemployment in those cities.

This study also supports the Hynds findings that editors
perceive greater public interest in business and economic
news. This study also indicates that editors are finally
heeding the advice of Carsell and Gallup who urged that
business news be written with a broader audience in mind.

Several findings have raised interesting questions for
mass communication researchers.

Does business coverage increase as much in boom economic
times as it does in poor economic times? Several editors
suspect that is the case. If this is so, then perhaps it is
not the direction of the economy but the degree of change
that is the prime influence in business coverage. The
question could be investigated further by comparing the
results of this study with a content analysis of newspapers
in boom economies during the same period, such as in the
some parts of the Sun Belt in the early 1980s.

Further, is local economic and business news the
component that increases in a boom? The questions addresses
the sensitivity of local news decisions to the local
economy. This, again, could be investigated by comparing

lVesults of this study wth a content analysis of newspapers

 

65
in the Sun Belt.

This study’s failure to clearly support Hypothesis 2
also raises questions. What percent of unemployment
triggers an increase in coverage and can a specific level of
unemployment be pinpointed? Or is the trauma of recession -
- such as the relative increase in unemployment —— the
triggering mechanism? The possibility of such a
relationship was raised in this study but more needs to be
done to confirm its existense. A long-range study could be
conducted, comparing the amount of business coverage and
changes in unemployment rates over several decades.

This study confirms a link between the economy and
business coverage. Future studies are needed to pinpoint
the mechanisms of that linkage.

Results from this study also may be used by newspaper
editors in making decisions about business coverage.
Newspapers, both those studied here and by Feldman and
Aronoff, have expanded coverage in a recession. Editors
indicated in this study and others that readers want to know
about the economy and business. Given this information, an
editor may ask: Is the newspaper currently meeting the
demand for economic and business news?

Editors also may use this study in making decisions
abcnit the kind of business news that is important during a

recnession. In this study, it is local and state recession—

 

66
sensitive news that has increased with the local rate of
recession. Editors may ask themselves whether their
newspaper has responded adequately to a local recession with
sufficient information about the effects of national and
international trends on recession and, ultimately, on local
readers.

Journalism educators may use this study to support
increased training in business and the economy for student
journalists. These journalism graduates likely will find
themselves working for publishers and broadcasters who
increasingly demand more business and economic news,
particularly during an economic downturn.

In conclusion, the relationship between the economy and
newspaper coverage is just emerging. The importance of the
relationship makes investigation in this field an intriguing

one.

 

APPEND ICES

 

 

67

APPENDIX A

Content analysis coding form ——

Phase 1

 

 

 

Name of newspaper:

Date of publication:

Page 1 Total : Inches of: Inches of: Number of :

number: column : business : business 1 front page 1
1 inches 2 news : graphics 1 business stories:

Totals

 

 

 

 

 

 

News
Name
Date

Page:
no.

Content analysis

to be coded is b

of newspaper:

68

APPENDIX B

coding form —— Phase 2

usiness recession—sensitive news.

 

of publication:

Total : Local
column: news
inches: inches

 

State
news
inches

Nat’l
news
inches

Intern’l:

news
inches

Good
news
inches

 

 

 

 

 

I
I
I
I
I
l
I
i
l
I
l
O
I
t
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
0
I

 

Totals

 

69

APPENDIX C

Survey of business editors

Dear editor:
I am researching the connection between the amount of
business news published between 1978 and 1982 and the

condition of the economy. Would you kindly answer these
questions? If you wish, you may add comments on the back.
Please return the form in the addressed, stamped envelope

supplied. Thank you for your help.

1. What is your title?

2. How long have you held this position? How long were you
business editor?

3. How may years have you worked in journalism?

4. How many years have you worked for this newspaper?
5. What training in business and economics have you had?

Work as a business-financial reporter
College courses in economics, business or finance
Seminars in business—financial reporting
__ Other (Please describe)
6. How did the business coverage in your newspaper change,
if at all, in the recession of 1979—82?
Coverage increased significantly (Skip to Question 8).
_ Coverage increased slightly (Skip to Question 8).
_ Coverage remained unchanged.
Coverage decreased slightly.
__ Coverage decreased significantly.
7. Why was there a decrease in business news, in your
estimation? (Or why was there no change in the amount of
business news?)
8. If coverage increased, how did it increase? You may
check more than one line.

More local or state business news was published.
More columns were used (financial, real estate,
employment, etc.).

__ More wire business stories were published.
9. Did the newspaper use more photographs, illustrations, or
graphs to illustrate a business story?
__ Yes __ No
10. Did the newspaper add a new business page during
those years?
_ Yes No

 

 

 

MET-17*... —~—m~—~T~r > "~r—w , ' . a" ""

70

11. Did your business reporters receive additional training
in those years?
__ Yes __ No

12. If business coverage increased, was the increase linked
to the recession?

__ Yes __ No
13. Do you think readers are more interested in business
news during a recession than in good economic times?

__ Yes __ No
14. Do you think readers are more interested in business news
during a recession than in stable (not particularly bad or
good) economic times?

__ Yes __ No
15. Several researchers have theorized that newspapers provide
more business news during a recession than during stable

 

 

 

 

economic times. What do you think?

16. Those researchers also have theorized that newspapers
provide more business news during a recession than during
good economic times. What do you think?
Thank you for your assistance. Please return this in the
envelope provided. If the envelope is missing, please

return to:

Nancy Crawley
514 Locust St.
Big Rapids, MI. 49307

 

B IBLIOGRAPHY

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, Douglas A. "Sports Coverage in Daily Newspapers.”
Journalism Quarterly 60 (Autumn 1983): 497—500.

 

Ann Arbor News, 1 October - 31 December 1978; 1 October —
31 December 1982.

Budd, Richard W.; Thorp, Robert, K.; and Donohew, Lewis.
Content Analysis of Communications. New York: MacMillan
Co., 1967. ‘

Barkin, Steve M. "Changes in Business Sections, 1931—1979."
Journalism Quarterly 59 (Autumn 1982): 435—439.

 

Bonafede, Dom. "Reagan’s Supply—Side Policies Push
Economics Writers into the Spotlight." National Journal
13 (September 26, 1981): 1723-1727.

Carswell, Howard. "Business News and Reader Interest."
Journalism Quarterly 15 (Summer 1038): 191—195.

 

Detroit News, 1 October - 31 December 1978; 1 October — 31
December 1982.

"Economic Coverage: D as in Dismal."
p.

Time, 20 January 1975,

Emery, Edwin, and Emery, Michael. The Press and America:

 

Interpretive History of the Mass Media 4th edition.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice—Hall Inc., 1978.

 

Feldman, Howard D. and Aronoff, Craig E. "Trends in
Newspaper Coverage of Business and Economics,
1968-1978." Newspaper Research Journal 1 (July 1980):
54—65.

 

Flint Journal, 1 October — 31 December 1978; 1 October — 31
December 1982.

Gallup, George. "Changes in the Newspaper During the Next
20 Years." Journalism Quarterly 32 (Spring 1955): 17—20.

Grand Rapids Press, 1 October — 31 December 1978; 1 October
— 31 December 1982.

 

71

 

72

Greenwald, Douglas, ed. Encyclopedia of Economics. New
York, N.Y.: McGraw Hill Book Co., 1982.

 

Haque, S.M. Mazhrul. "Is U.S. Coverage of News in Third
World Imbalanced?" Journalism Quarterly 60 (Autumn
1983): 521-524.

 

Holsti, Ole R. Content Analysis for Social Sciencea and the
Humanities. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing
Co., 1969.

 

Hubbard, J.T.W. "Business News in the Post-Watergate Era."
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Hynds, Ernest C. "Business Coverage Is Getting Better."
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Kanner, Bernice. ”How Now, Dow Jones." New York, 7 June
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Lansing State Journal, 1 October — 31 December 1978; 1
October - 31 December 1982.

 

Mainero, Frank A. "How Dailies Tackle Business/Financial
News." Public Relationa Journal August 1977, pp. 8-9.

Michigan Employment Security Commission, Job Service.
Michigan Labor Market Review Vol. 37, No. 12. December
1981, p. 3.

Miller, Susan H. "Changes in Women’s/Lifestyle Sections."
Journaliam Quarterly 53 (Winter 1976): 641-647.

 

 

Moffat, Donald W. Economics Dictionary; New York, N.Y..
American Elseview Publishing Co. 1976, p. 233.

 

"New Journals Tell the Local Business Story.’ Business

Week, 5 October 1981, pp. 126, 130.

Peterson, Robert A.; Kozmetsky, George; and Cunningham,
Isabella. "Perceptions of Media Bias Toward Business."
Journaliam Quarterly 59 (Autumn 1982): 461—464.

Rippey, John N. "Perceptions by Selected Executives of
Local Business Coverage." Journalism Quarterly 58
(Autumn 1981): 382-387.

 

 

73

Stempel, Guido H. "Content Patterns of Small and
Metropolitan Dailies." Journalism Quarterly 39 (Winter
1962): 88—90.

 

Swanson, Charles E. "What They Read in 130 Daily
Newspapers." Journalism Quarterly 32 (Winter 1955): 417.

 

U.S. Council of Economic Advisers. Economic Indicators
January 1981; January 1983.

 

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
Statistical Abstract of the U.S. 1984. 104th edition.
December 1983.

Verway, David, ed. Michigan Statistical Abstract. 18th
edition. Detroit, Mich.; Bureau of Business Research,
Wayne State University, 1984.

"Wall Street Journal Implements Programs to Improve Product
and Trim Expenses to Meet Competitive Challenge." Editor
& Publisher, 6 October 1984, p. 13.

 

 

 

73

Stempel, Guido H. "Content Patterns of Small and
Metropolitan Dailies." Journalism Quarterly 39 (Winter
1962): 88—90.

 

Swanson, Charles E. "What They Read in 130 Daily
Newspapers." Journalism Quarterly 32 (Winter 1955): 417.

U.S. Council of Economic Advisers. Economic Indicators
January 1981; January 1983.

 

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
Statistical Abstract of the U.S. 1984. 104th edition.
December 1983.

 

Verway, David, ed. Michigan Statistical Abstract. 18th
edition. Detroit, Mich.; Bureau of Business Research,
Wayne State University, 1984.

 

"Wall Street Journal Implements Programs to Improve Product
and Trim Expenses to Meet Competitive Challenge." Editor
& Publisher, 6 October 1984, p. 13.

 

 

 

 

This is to certify that the

thesis entitled
presented by

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

K r
. odegreein JOUY‘VIK ISW)

Major professor
Date 131.1778;

0—7639 MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution

  

 

 

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