When it Comes to Headlines, Winning Really is Everything

Abstract

When newspaper and wire journalists select their sources, they help to determine which people or organizations receive more frequent and extensive public exposure in the print media. These decisions are often analyzed through media visibility studies. Most visibility research has focused on which lawmakers received greater coverage and what variables might predict increased media attention.1 However, there appears to be little if any research focused on other professions that are desirous of news coverage. Media visibility studies that have not dealt with politics have primarily focused on differences in coverage based on age, gender, ethnicity or race.2This study investigates the source selection and visibility of a specific publicity-seeking group-major-college football coaches. Their occupation is marked by contractual obligations to meet with the media and public and by their own self-motivations to seek out news coverage to assist in recruiting and fund-raising efforts.3 This study examines whether print journalists have developed patterns of coverage consistent with their own professional news values or reliant on factors that are not necessarily newsworthy.Major-college football coaches (defined as the 120 coaches in the National Collegiate Athletic Association football bowl subdivision) are a unique group. Poll data indicate that football reigns as the overwhelming favorite choice as an American spectator sport and leisure activity.4 And coaches are distinguished in their reliance on news coverage to foster nationwide rankings and to assist them in recruiting efforts to ensure their professional success. Few other professions require regularly scheduled press conferences with media multiple times per week as do college football coaches. College football coaches also benefit from a phalanx of media-relations staffers who arrange interviews and coordinate speaking appearances and promotional materials for them.5 The potential benefits of increased visibility and the potential pitfalls of shirking media coverage certainly provide enormous incentive for coaches to engage media audiences.Yet the media also may select or emphasize coverage and play a role in which sources are visible. Previous studies have focused on the sophistication of media source choice and shown that coverage improves when media have better awareness and context about how they cover topics and when they make attempts to question why they repeatedly use certain sources.6 A better understanding of why certain individuals are more visible in the media could contribute to more reflection about journalists' sourcing practices.Literature ReviewPrevious studies have found support for an interaction of internal and external factors on selected sources. A content analysis by Weaver and Wilhoit of sources selected across four Congresses found support for predictions that seniority, committee assignment and activity explained visibility.7 Miller conducted a similar study of Congress that found that, even when a legislator actively sought publicity, he or she was limited by the nature of his or her constituency and by the topics in the news.8This study's independent variables were influenced by the work of Matthews, who found that senators' visibility was related to a combination of personal and external factors.9 Weaver and Wilhoit based their study on Matthews' measures and provided the precedent for adaptation and experimentation with such variables.10 Therefore, independent variables were selected that mirrored those previous studies of political leaders wherever possible (e.g., seniority for both senators and coaches) or translated relative measures of success (e.g., committee assignment vs. winning percentage and bowl appearances).Lazarsfeld and Merton found that media confer prestige and enhance authority of certain individuals through legitimizing their status,11 and Klapper noted that media can transform personalities into charismatic symbols to which the public responds. …