This study analyzed the frequency and placement given to male and female sources and story subjects in news-paper coverage and their relationship to the gender of the reporter, A content analysis of 889 stories found that male sources and subjects received more mentions and were placed more prominently in the stories. Controlling for structural and editorial influences, results indicated that the presence of females in the byline is a significant predictor of females appearing within the news story.

Based on uncertainty reduction theory, this paper argues that individuals were motivated to seek information and learn about the September 11 terrorist attacks to reduce uncertainty about what happened. Results from a panel survey indicate that negative emotional response was a strong predictor of efforts to learn. Analyses also show that relative increases in newspaper, television, and Internet use from Wave 1 to Wave 2 were positively related to efforts to learn about the attacks. The findings extend uncertainty reduction theory to the mass media context thereby contributing to our understanding of uses and gratifications.

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This content analysis examined how Twitter is used as a content dissemination tool within the news industry. Using Gans’ conception of news values as a theoretical framework, this study looked at tweets of nine news organizations during a 4-month period to determine how individuals, links, news headlines and subject areas were employed within the 140-character limits. Results indicated that regional media tended to differ in Twitter usage from both local and national media and that broadcast news agencies were more likely to tweet multimedia packages than were print-based organizations. Crime and public affairs were the most tweeted topics. Implications of results were discussed.

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