Reinforcing Stereotypes? Race and Local Television News Coverage of Congress*

Objective. Despite the increasingly diverse legislative records of African‐American members of Congress, much of the population continues to believe that African‐American legislators are interested only in minority issues. If African‐American House members are becoming more like their nonblack colleagues, then why do many citizens continue to hold these stereotypes about African‐American legislators? Methods. We examine local television news coverage of House members and compare the coverage received by African‐American and nonblack incumbents. Results. We find that local television newscasts devote more coverage to African‐American members of Congress but this coverage is also more race oriented, especially in less diverse markets. In fact, local television stations produce more race‐oriented coverage of African‐American legislators regardless of their legislative records on minority issues. Conclusions. Local television news stations may be partially responsible for the prevailing stereotype of African‐American House members who are narrowly focused on race‐oriented issues.     

Effects of Structuring on Students' Perceptions of Career Counseling

This study examines the effects of the use of structuring on participants' impressions of a counselor during an initial career counseling session. A total of 232 undergraduate students viewed a videotape of an initial career counseling session. Both groups observed the identical tape with the exception that one group was additionally shown a brief structuring segment. The 2 groups were compared across the variables of attractiveness, expertness, and trustworthiness as measured by the Counselor Rating Form. The participants were also asked to rate their willingness to see a counselor about a career issue before and after viewing the videotape. Significant differences were found across the dependent measures. Implications of the findings for counselors are discussed.     

Citizen Perceptions of Risks Associated with Moving Radiological Waste

Much has been written about public support or opposition to the siting of hazardous waste facilities and more generally about concern for radioactive contamination. Much less has been written about the perceived risks of citizens'specific concerns about the transportation of radiological waste to temporary or permanent sites. This study reviews the existing literature in the area and presents new data on the subject from an Idaho survey. The new data indicates: (1) age, gender, and knowledge are the key variables predicting opposition to the transportation of such waste, (2) the primary concern among the opposing and unsure public is the planned use of trucks to move the TRU waste, and (3) respondents have high degrees of trust in officials who make decisions based on technical knowledge, are charged with the safety of transporting TRU waste, and who respond to mishaps. These attitudes need to be understood by policymakers and administrators when designing and implementing waste-transportation programs.     

Unpacking Priscilla: Subjectivity and Identity in the Organization of Gendered Appearance

This paper argues that our understandings ofourselves as gendered, as either masculine or feminine,are a power effect of the contemporary discourse ofgender difference. The main premise of the paper is that this social construction of genderallows for gender difference to be resisted — andthe form of resistance analyzed here isgender-inappropriate dress. Two forms ofgender-inappropriate dress — male transvestism and female power dressing —are discussed in the paper and argued to present aparticular kind of challenge to our discursivelyconstituted sense of the rigidity and mutual exclusivityof the gender divide. This analysis is used in theconclusion to offer some critical comments regarding thestrand of organizational analysis which argues for afeminization/reeroticization of the workplace.     

The Career Decision-Making Course: Description and Field Test

The Career Decision-Making Course was designed to help students develop the decisional attitudes and competencies that increase readiness to deal with career-choice tasks and facilitate behavioral responses that meet these tasks. The course addresses career-choice process and content by using the teach-the-test method with Career Maturity Inventory materials. After describing the course, the current article reports the results for a field test of the course. The results indicated that, compared to a control group, 10th-grade students who participated in the course improved their foresight and reduced their decisional difficulties.     

FIRM PARTICIPATION IN STEEL INDUSTRY LOBBYING

Why do firms participate in steel industry lobbying to obtain antidumping and countervailing duties? In contrast to previous work, we find that economic variables, measured at the industry level, do not significantly affect the degree of participation by individual firms. We find that steel producers tend to free-ride, but firms in segments of the steel industry that can control free riding tend to participate more. We also find that the distribution of benefits and the costs of contributing are significant determinants of the number of contributing firms.     

Social Capital,Place of Residence,and College Attendance1

The relationship between social interaction and college attendance is examined across varying types of communities. Structural arrangements and interaction patterns that foster positive relationships are regarded as social capital and are conceptualized as investments that can yield human capital returns in terms of higher educational attainment. Logistic regression procedures are employed to analyze data from the High School and Beyond Longitudinal Study. The social capital model of college attendance is estimated for the full sample and separately for high school students living in urban, suburban, and rural communities. Predicted probabilities of attending college for students with high and low social capital are obtained. Results of these analyses indicate that parental expectation of college attendance is the most powerful predictor of subsequent college attendance among variables examined. Measures of community social capital and parental human capital also strongly predict attendance.