Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of the No Child Left Behind Act: A Community Structure Approac

Authors:

• Janna Lee Raudenbush (College of New Jersey)
• Alyssa Conn (College of New Jersey)
• Gina Miele (College of New Jersey)
• John C. Pollock (College of New Jersey)

Abstract:

Utilizing the community structure approach, as developed in nationwide studies by Pollock and others (1977, 1978, 1994-2002), this study investigated links between city characteristics and nationwide newspaper coverage of the No Child Left Behind (NLCB) act. A national cross-section sample of 21 newspapers was selected from the NewsBank database. Within the sample period of January 8th, 2002 to January 8th, 2007, articles with at least 250 words were evaluated for content and assigned an article direction of �effective�, �ineffective�, or �neutral�. Each article was assigned a prominence score based on the article�s placement, length, headline size, presence of photographs or graphics and dominance. The article�s direction and prominence were combined to determine a Media Vector. Finally, using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Pearson correlations and regressions investigated links between city demographics and coverage direction. The cities� media vectors ranged from 0.0922 to -0.2433, with only four cities receiving positive, or �effective�, media vectors. Pearson correlations found that six city demographics were significantly related to the newspaper coverage of the NLCB act. Both vulnerability measures - percent unemployed (r = 0.564, p = 0.004) and percent below the poverty level (r = 0.528, p = 0.004) - provided significant results. Stakeholders including percent African American (r = 0.566, p = 0.004), percent Catholic (r = -0.441, p = 0.023), and percent Evangelical (r = 0.361, p = 0.054), as well as a measure of privilege, percent families with incomes over $100,000 (r = -0.433, p = 0.025), were significant as well. Regression analysis revealed that percent African American accounted for 32% of the variance.