Community structure theory: Difference between revisions

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Community structure theory provides a powerful framework for analyzing society’s influence on media coverage. It has been identified by Funk and McCombs as the “conceptual inverse” of [[Agenda-setting theory|agenda-setting]] <ref>{{cite journal|last2=McCombs|first2=M.|date=2015|year=|title=Strangers on a theoretical train: Inter-media agenda setting, community structure, and local news coverage|url=|journal=Journalism Studies|volume=|page=1-21|pages=|via=|last1=Funk|first1=M.J.}}</ref>, focusing on demographic characteristics of communities shaping news instead of news as a driver of public perception. For example, community structure theory has found repeated links between indicators of vulnerability (such as unemployment levels, poverty levels, crime rate, etc.) and favorable coverage of critical US national issues such as immigration reform or universal health care. <ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Tilted mirrors: Media alignment with political and social change: A community structure approach|last=Pollock|first=J.C.|publisher=Hampton|year=2007|isbn=|___location=Cresskill, NJ|pages=}}</ref> <ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Journalism and human rights: How demographics drive media coverage|last=Pollock|first=J.C.|publisher=Routledge|year=2015|isbn=|___location=London and New York|pages=}}</ref> Further, in cross-national studies comparing national characteristics and reporting on human trafficking, HIV/AIDS treatment access, water handling/contamination, and child labor, media coverage varied significantly with levels of "female empowerment"— female literacy rate, female child life expectancy, and female school life expectancy. <ref name=":0" />

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The modern community structure model originated with the work of University of Chicago’s Robert Park, who in ''The Immigrant Press and Its Control'' <ref>{{Cite book|title=The immigrant press and its control|last=Park|first=R.|publisher=Harper|year=1922|isbn=|___location=New York|pages=}}</ref> first suggested society could influence media. Morris Janowitz <ref>{{Cite book|title=The community press in an urban setting|last=Janowitz|first=M.|publisher=The Free Press|year=1952|isbn=|___location=Chicago and Glencoe, IL|pages=}}</ref> later introduced the concept that press coverage could serve as an index of the social structure and values of distinct communities. Janowitz employed multiple methodologies for his research, including reader surveys, in-depth interviews with journalists, and content analysis of 82 different community newspapers in the Chicago area.

Tichenor, Donohue and Olien <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tichenor|first=P.J.|last2=Donohue|first2=G.A.|last3=Olien|first3=C.N.|year=1973|title=Mass communication research: Evolution of a structural model|url=|journal=Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly|volume=50 (3)|pages=419-425|via=}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite book|title=Community conflict and the press|last=Tichenor|first=P.J.|last2=Donohue|first2=G.A.|last3=Olien|first3=C.N.|publisher=SAGE|year=1980|isbn=|___location=Beverly Hills, CA|pages=}}</ref> evolved Park’s and Janowitz’s work with their concept of “structural pluralism,” finding differences between newspaper reporting in smaller, relatively homogenous metropolitan areas and that in larger, more demographically diverse areas, the latter manifesting more progressive coverage. These University of Minnesota theorists later developed the “guard dog” hypothesis, emphasizing the “social control” role of media, whereby local media function less as watchdogs and more as guard dogs protecting the interests of powerful, elite members of society. <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Olien|first=C. N.|last2=Tichenor|first2=P. J.|last3=Donohue|first3=G. A.|date=1988-06-01|title=Relation between Corporate Ownership and Editor Attitudes about Business|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/107769908806500201|journal=Journalism Quarterly|language=en|volume=65|issue=2|pages=259–266|doi=10.1177/107769908806500201|issn=0022-5533}}</ref>

Other scholars in the late 90s (Hindman, 1999; Demers & Viswanath, 1999; McLeod and Hertog, 1999) also recognized a connection between mass media coverage and community characteristics, but emphasized the role of media less as mechanisms for social control than for social change <ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/231777603|title=Mass media, social control, and social change : a macrosocial perspective|last=P.|first=Demers, David|date=1999-01-01|publisher=Iowa State Univ. Press|isbn=0813826829|oclc=231777603}}</ref>. When Hindman compared media coverage in large vs. small ethic populations, he found a difference in how similar stories were covered based on the relative size of ethnic groups in communities. Similarly, McLeod and Hertog (1999) found news media covered protest mobilizations more favorably in communities with a greater numbers of protesters. Demers and Viswanath (1999) enhanced previous structural findings by exploring the role of media as agents of both social control and social change.

With the introduction of digital tools for analyzing media texts, the community structure model was successfully expanded, tested, and used to study systematic news reports of critical events in communities across the nation and throughout the world by John Pollock, who began identifying this work as “Community Structure” research. <ref name=":1" /> <ref name=":0" /> <ref name=":2">Pollock, J. C. (2013a). Community structure research. In P. Moy (Ed.), ''Oxford Bibliographies Online.'' New York, NY: Oxford University Press.</ref> <ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Media and social inequality: Innovations in community structure research|last=Pollock|first=J.C.|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=|___location=New York|pages=}}</ref>

== Contemporary Applications ==

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{{reflist}}

[[:Category:Media Theories]]

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