Research Questions/Results

Copies of twenty-two articles that were published on page one of the newspaper during this time period were obtained from microfilm records in the University of Mississippi’s J.D. Williams Library.  All materials were available from this resource.  A codebook was developed that established objective standards for judging the articles on the basis of the following: (1) whether the first three paragraphs were positive, negative, or neutral; (2) whether the headlines were positive, negative, or neutral; (3) whether the stories were written by staff writers, wire reporters, or carried no byline; (4) whether the articles were placed above or below the fold; and, (5) whether the tone of the editorials was positive, negative, or neutral.


For the purposes of this study, “positive” means language that supports cultural change in the status quo; “negative” means language that supports the status quo; and “neutral” means objective language that states the facts without taking a position.  Staff writers are defined as employees of the newspaper, wire service reporters are defined as not employees of the newspaper, and without a byline refers to an absence of attribution.  Similarly, story placement was defined as above the fold, or above the middle of the front page; or below the fold, meaning below the middle of page one.