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This study examines newspapers' preparedness for public health emergencies and seeks to explain why some newspapers are better prepared than others. Findings from a regional survey of newspaper managers showed that few newspapers have crisis plans, and few have sufficiently trained or specialized staff for public health coverage. A model predicting level of preparedness received mixed support. As expected, organizational preparedness and professional orientation had significant effects on level of staff preparedness, but environmental factors such as level of toxins in the community and the degree of pluralism in the community's power structure failed to predict.Journalists are critical players in communicating information about health risk to the public. In the event of a public health emergency, there is an unusually high need for information, and the mass media are generally best able to meet this need.' Most adults in the United States, for example, first learned of the September 11,2001, attacks via the mass media.* The anthrax outbreak in fall 2001, the emergence of SARS in 2003, and health risks from Hurricane Katrina were all covered prominently in news outlets around the However, news reports of bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases have been faulted for inaccurate, incomplete, and sensational coverage that may contribute to public misunderstanding of risks: public panic, and even loss of life.5Research suggests media organizations are unprepared to cover these kinds of events in part because their journalists lack sufficient expertise in science and medicine? In the last few years, newsroom budgets for training have been slashed, and with resources stretched thin, time off for training is a luxury few newsrooms can a f f~r d .~ Media organizations have also done little planning for community health crises. In a 2004 survey, the Media Security and Reliability Council found that 15% of radio and 47% of television outlets had disaster recovery plans in place, and a much smaller percentage had rehearsed plans.8 No one appears to have examined newspapers' preparedness. This study examines the level of preparedness of newspapers for public health emergencies and seeks to explain why some newspapers are better prepared than others. A model predicting prepared-

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Adopting a systems framework from the sociology of occupations, this study proposes a model to explain the vulnerabilities of journalism in the face of challenges from blogging, and the conditions under which journalists are likely to change their practices to address these vulnerabilities. A test of this model shows that editors' awareness of local blogging activity corresponds to increased use of blogs as sources, discussion of blogs in planning meetings and adoption of the blogging form on news websites.

As the news market has become increasingly competitive, the mainstream news media have changed dramatically. The concept of tabloidization suggests that stories about politics and civic issues have been replaced by content that is intended to be entertaining. These stories might emphasize sensationalized or lewd details and celebrities rather than information that is designed to keep the public informed of government policies and societal issues. This type of news is similar to what one might expect to see in a tabloid publication at the checkout counter at a grocery store. The term tabloidization suggests that the mainstream media are borrowing the techniques used by the tabloid press to grab the attention of the audience. Much of the literature related to tabloidization suggests that the process has had a negative effect on the audience and journalistic values by dumbing down the news. There are those who argue that the process can have positive effects on consumers by making them attend more closely to the news. Scholars typically suggest the tabloidization has occurred as a response to competition.