Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Reed College of Media

Department

Reed College of Media

Committee Chair

George Esper.

Abstract

This project consists of two studies used to analyze "elite," media-savvy, and "non-elite," non-media savvy, sources in civic and traditional journalism. For the first study, four newspaper series about mining and aging, 22 articles total, examined source use in the practice of civic journalism. The results for the mining comparison were significant; however, the results for the aging comparison were not significant. For the second study, the writers and editors of the news projects, and other journalism professionals were interviewed to determine the cause of the mixed significance. The interviews revealed the intentions of the civic writers were not the intent of civic journalism; sources used by civic journalists were not chosen based on civic journalism standards; and there was confusion on how one defines civic journalism. The purpose of this research was to discover what type of sources are used in civic and traditional journalism news projects, and why.

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