Drawing on studies dealing with the relationship between family and work, the authors develop a model of youth labor force participation incorporating household, local economic, and individual variables. Data are from the 1980 Public Use Microdata Sample D (PUMS-D) for 16-to 18-year-old males and females living with their parents. The findings suggest that household structural characteristics and family resources have a significant effect on youths entering the labor force. Implications of the findings are discussed.
The media, it is argued, are agents of legitimation - for themselves as well as others. Issues and social actors become recognized as important when they appear within the limelight of the news, and reporters are relied upon to correctly choose among the myriads of issues and actors vying for their attention. What happens, though, when an economically important cultural icon becomes a health threat? This is the situation facing news organizations in Southern Louisiana where oysters are both loved and loathed as food. We study newspaper presentations of oysters in Southern Louisiana over a ten-year period to investigate the ways in which this issue was approached. In many of the instances when negative articles appeared, positive statements could be found in the same issue of the newspaper, creating what we refer to as chiastic - defined as two parallel lines moving in opposite directions - media presentations. The presence of this type of news reporting is discussed in terms of the economic and cultural importance of the oyster, the economics of newspapers, and the stance of news organizations as cultural authorities.
Irradiation has been touted as a way to safeguard the food supply. When we asked oyster harvesters in Southern Louisiana about their awareness and knowledge concerning this postharvest technology, we found that nearly half of them had never heard about it. We decided to look closer at the irradiation debate that has been taking place in two regional newspapers (Louisiana and Florida) to try to understand why the coverage of this issue may not be of interest to oyster harvesters. We interviewed reporters and sources who were involved in this coverage, and argue that one possible reason is that journalists have decided who the experts are on the issue, and have framed the controversy over irradiation as a public relations battle, and sources have not been overly opposed to this type of newswork. This type of journalism may have the effect of alienating those individuals whose livelihoods may be greatly impacted by the adoption of this technology. In addition, these findings have implications for individuals and groups interested in attracting the media spotlight concerning food safety issues.
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