Geographic and source biases in network television news 1982‐1984

US network evening news portrayal of the new South Africa

“…The interviewees were categorised by gender, political affiliation and occupation. These measures of diversity were chosen based upon previous work done by Gans (1979) and Whitney et al, (1989). Gans (1979) found that journalists tend to prefer sources with values like their own, and this often precludes the interviewing of reactionary or radical individuals or groups for a report.…”

“…If the American news media reflect these changes made by the South African government, we will see more diversity in who has access to the media in the second period. We have selected the traits of political affiliation, occupation, and gender as measures of diversity in media sources because they have been previously tested in work by Gans (1979) and Whitney et al, (1989).…”

Journal of Applied Communications vol. 93 (3-4) Full Issue

“…Reporters try to choose the best sources for a given story based on the source's institutional position, knowledge, accessibility, or cooperativeness, or some combination of these characteristics. However, previous research has documented that a source's political power or social influence often unduly influences such choices, causing government officials and corporate spokespersons to be overrepresented in the source pool (Whitney, Fritzler, Jones, Mazzarella, & Rakow, 1989). For example, Ashlock, Cartmell and Kelemen (2006) reported that 34.88 percent of the sources for information about BSE cited by stories in their sample were government officials and 23 percent were industry representatives, but only 4.49 percent were university scientists.…”

Impact of Reporter Work Role Identity on News Story Source Selection: Implications for Coverage of Agricultural Crises

“…Reporters try to choose the best sources for a given story based on the source's institutional position, knowledge, accessibility, or cooperativeness, or some combination of these characteristics. However, previous research has documented that a source's political power or social influence often unduly influences such choices, causing government officials and corporate spokespersons to be overrepresented in the source pool (Whitney, Fritzler, Jones, Mazzarella, & Rakow, 1989). For example, Ashlock, Cartmell and Kelemen (2006) reported that 34.88 percent of the sources for information about BSE cited by stories in their sample were government officials and 23 percent were industry representatives, but only 4.49 percent were university scientists.…”