Press Treatment of the 1958 State Elections in Pennsylvania
| Published date | 01 December 1961 |
| Date | 01 December 1961 |
| Author | James W. Markham |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296101400407 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
912
PRESS
TREATMENT
OF
THE
1958
STATE
ELECTIONS
IN
PENNSYLVANIA
JAMES
W.
MARKHAM
Pennsylvannia
State
University
INCE
THAT
TIME
back
in
1952
when
Adlai
Stevenson
first
expressed
~~
concern
over
the
extent
to
which
&dquo;we
are
developing
a
one-party
press
~~
in
a
two-party
country
researchers
have
sought
either
to
discover
a
basis
for
such
a
charge,
or
to
prove
it
unfounded.
Perhaps
a
score
of
reasonably
objective
studies
of
press
performance
during
election
campaigns
have
been
re-
ported,
but
the
evidence
so
far
is
fragmentary,
providing
little
basis
for
general-
ization
about
any
substantial
part
of
the
American
press.
Investigations
have
concentrated
either
on
the
newspapers
of
a
single
city
or
state,
or
upon
selected
cases
of
news
treatment
(such
as
the
Nixon
and
Stevenson
campaign
fund
revelations
in
1956),
instead
of
upon
a
substantial
proportion
of
campaign
news.
Only
a
few
have
provided
data
based
on
samples
of
content
or
samples
of
newspapers
serving
an
area.
These
studies2
taken
together
appear
to
justify
the
following
statements
about
the
newspaper
election
coverage
that
has
been
examined:
(1)
Some
evidence
has
been
found
of
favoritism
in
the
news
columns
of
some
newspapers
toward
one
political
party
in
news
stories,
news
pictures,
and
in
display
treat-
ment ;
(2)
cases
of
political
bias
in
the
news
usually
were
found
to
be
related
1
Stevenson’s
statements,
made
to
a
group
of
editors
at
Portland,
Oregon,
seemed
to
indicate that
he
had
in
mind
the
opinion
function
of
the
press.
"I
have
been
well
impressed
by
the
fair
treatment
accorded
me
by
most
newspapers,
including
most
of
those
aligned
editorially
with
the
opposition...
,"
he
said.
But,
"I
am,
frankly,
considerably
concerned
when
I
see
the
extent
to
which
we
are
developing
a
one-party
press
in
a
two-party
country....
A
free
society
means
a
society
based
on
free
competition
and
there
is
no
more
important
competi-
tion
than
competition
in
ideas,
competition
in
opinion.
This
form
of
competition
is
essential
to
the
preservation
of
a
free
press.
Indeed,
I
think
the
press
should
set
an
example
to
the
nation
in
increasing
opposition
to
uniformity...."
See
New
York
Times,
September
9,
1952.
2
Reports
reviewed
here
include
the
following:
"G.O.P.
Gets
More
Headlines/Survey
Shows
the
President
and
Nixon
with
59%
Front
Page
Stories,"
New
York
Times,
November
4,
1956;
Robert
Batlin,
"San
Francisco
Newspapers’
Campaign
Coverage:
1896-1952,"
Journalism
Quarterly,
XXXI
(1954),
279-303;
Nathan
Blumberg,
One
Party
Press?
Coverage
of
the
1952
Presidential
Campaign
in
35
Daily
Newspapers
(Lincoln:
University
of
Nebraska
Press,
1954);
Ray
Erwin,
"One
Party
Press
Found
in
Survey
by
University,"
Editor &
Publisher,
March
30,
1957,
p.
11;
Le
Roy
C.
Ferguson
and
Ralph
H.
Smuckler,
Politics
in
the
Press
(East
Lansing:
Michigan
State
College,
1952);
Charles
E.
Higbie,
"Wisconsin
Dailies
in
the
1952
Campaign,"
Journalism
Quarterly,
XXXI
(1954),
56-60;
Douglas
Kelley,
"Press
Cover-
age
of
Two
Michigan
Congressional
Elections,"
Journalism
Quarterly,
XXXV
(1958),
447-
50 ;
Sidney
Kobre,
"How
Florida
Newspapers
Handled
the
1952
Presidential
Campaign,"
Journalism
Quarterly,
XXX
(1953),
163-69;
Nathan
Maccoby
and
Malcolm
W.
Klein,
"Newspaper
Objectivity
in
the
1952
Campaign,"
Journalism
Quarterly,
XXXI
(1954),
285-
96 ;
James
W.
Markham
and
Guido
H.
Stempel
III,
"Analysis
of
Techniques
in
Measuring
Press
Performance,"
Journalism
Quarterly,
XXXIV
(1957),
187-91;
Markham
and
Stempel,
Pennsylvania
Daily
Press
Coverage
of
the
1956
Election
Campaign
:
A
Measurement
of
Performance
(University
Park:
School
of
Journalism,
Pennsylvania
State
University,
1957);
Richard
Meister,
"Political
News
Left
to
Wires
and
Tape,"
Editor
&
Publisher,
July
6,
1957,
p.
49;
Raymond
B.
Nixon
and
others,
A
Proposal
for
the
Study
of
the
Role
and
Performance
of
the
American
Daily
Newspaper
in
the
1956
Presidential
Election
Campaign
(Sigma
Delta
Chi
Committee
on
Ethics
and
News
Objectivity,
1955);
Arthur
Edward
Rowse,
Slanted
News
:
A
Case
Study
of
the
Nixon
and
Stevenson
Campaign
Funds
(Boston:
Beacon
Hill
Press,
1957);
Harry
M.
Scoble,
Jr.,
Press
and
Politics
(Boston:
Boston
University
Studies
in
Political
Science,
No. 3,
1957);
Frank
Sleeper,
"Survey
Questions
’Passive
Coverage,"’
Editor &
Publisher,
August
2,
1959,
p.
12.
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