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Abstract Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Privacy on the Internet: The Internet has had an enormous impact on the lives of computer users around the world in the past decade. In addition to creating an "information superhighway," it has also opened up a new form of business known as e-commerce. Although e-commerce has simplified individual's lives with its convenience and accessibility, it has also sparked a heated debate over whether a person's information being transferred over the Internet is a private item. Proponents of regulation that would protect Internet users' believe that by governing the transmission of this data individuals would be safeguarded against such computer "evils" as electronic mass-mailings (spamming), telemarketing, credit card theft, and viruses. On the other hand, opponents trust that the e-commerce companies can regulate themselves and that the information sent over the World Wide Web should be accessible to all users. Despite the fact that both sides of this issue have evidence to support their view, the debate continues on a political as well as an economic level. In this study, primary research was conducted to investigate how newspapers from different cities in the United States reported on Internet Privacy. The study compared hypotheses on different city characteristics and newspaper coverage of Internet Privacy using the "community structure approach," tested in earlier versions in Minnesota by Tichenor, Donohue and Olien (1973, 1980) and elaborated in nationwide studies by Pollock and others (1977, 1978,1994-2000), suggesting that certain demographic structures of a community are systematically linked to newspaper reporting on critical issues. A national cross-section sample of 21 newspapers was selected
from the DIALOG newspaper database, and a sample of 25 articles above
350 words in each newspaper on Internet Privacy were drawn from January
27th of 1996 to November 7th of 2000. The resulting total of 495 articles
was analyzed using content analysis. A single score, the Janis-Fadner
Coefficient of Imbalance, was calculated to combine attention given
to each article as well as reporting direction (favorable, balanced/neutral,
or unfavorable). Pearson correlations were used to link different city
characteristics to coverage of Internet privacy regulation. The coefficients
of imbalance (ranging from .211 to -.137) demonstrated a clear pattern
of variation. Through Pearson correlation results, two city characteristics
had a significant relationship to newspaper coverage: a measure of "vulnerability"
- percent below the poverty line (r= .377; p = .046); and a measure
of "privilege" -- percent in technical/professional occupations
(r = -.372; p = .048). Factor analysis of city characteristics revealed
that "vulnerability", "violated buffer", and "life
cycle position" are the three clusters of significant or nearly
significant results in the Pearson correlations. Vulnerability and "Life
Cycle Position" were further emphasized as noteworthy after regression
analysis of the factors found that the characteristics of "families
with children under 18" and "percent below the poverty line"
in a city, accounted for nearly 30 percent of the variance in coverage
of Internet Privacy regulation. |