Abstract:
ABSTRACT
COMPETING IDENTIFICATIONS AMONG A NEWSPAPER’S
JOURNALISTS AND ADVERTISING SALESPEOPLE
by
William F. Kelvin
Master of Arts in Communication Studies
California State University, Chico
Fall 2009
This thesis is a case study attempting to explain the cause of ideological
disagreements among a single newspaper’s journalists and its advertising salespeople.
The impetus for this study was the researcher’s work experience at this newspaper
organization, in both the editorial and advertising departments (not simultaneously). The
researcher was informed about divergent, department-based perspectives on past and
present interdepartmental episodes, and witnessed agitation during and after
communication interactions resulting from work-based interdepartmental disagreements.
The researcher hypothesized that such conflicts were caused by value differences
between members of these two departments.
Using a previously successful study of newspaper journalists’ identifications
as a model, the researcher used a standardized instrument to survey journalists and
advertising salespeople at one Northern California, mid-sized daily newspaper. The
author measured the strength of respondents’ identifications with their employing
organization and their respective professions and departments. These measurements were
taken for the purpose of determining if these employees’ organizational, professional or
departmental identifications might have had some role in the interdepartmental
disagreements communicated to and witnessed by the author. While this study found no
significant differences between editorial employees’ identifications or between editorial
and advertising employees’ identifications, advertising employees surveyed identified
significantly more strongly with their profession than with their organization, while
journalists surveyed identified in the same direction, but their scores only approached
statistical significance. Interactions between professional tenure and departmental
identification were also found, as long-term newspaper employees identified significantly
stronger with their department than did mid-term employees.
