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=|pages=1–21|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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== Contemporary applications ==

Pollock and coauthors made three key contributions to community structure theory. First, they conducted among the first US nationwide and cross-national studies using the community structure model, comparing multiple large metropolitan areas and countries, expanding study sample sizes beyond a focus on one or two cities. Second, Pollock et al. also evolved the theory to include a Media Vector methodological tool for measuring both content direction and editorial prominence of articles, then combining them into a single score, thereby adding a way to consider editorial evaluation as well as article content. Third, Pollock and coauthor findings often challenged the traditional “guard dog” hypothesis by concluding that media can often reflect the interests of more vulnerable stakeholders.<ref name=":1" /> Community structure studies are related to work focusing on the roles of [[social capital]] (in political science and sociology literatures) and [[social determinants of health]] (in health communication and public health literatures) and [[social ecological model]]s (in sociology and public health). In 2008, Pollock authored the entry on the "Community Structure model" for the International Encyclopedia of Communication,<ref>{{Cite book|title=International Encyclopedia of Communication, IIII|last=Pollock|first=J.C.|publisher=Blackwell|year=2008|isbn=|editor-last=Donsbach|editor-first=W.|___location=London, UK|pages=870-873870–873|chapter=Community structure model}}</ref>, and in 2013, he authored an authoritative annotated bibliography on Community Structure scholarship for Oxford Bibliographies Online.<ref name=":2" />

== References ==