Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

1979

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Journalism and Mass Communications

First Advisor

Richard Lee

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a profile of South Dakota's typical women broadcasters. The profile will report how long they have worked in broadcasting, what their age was when they started in the industry, how many stations they have worked for, if their previous job was in broadcasting, if they were living in the present town before they took their current job, how they first heard about the opening for their position, and why they entered the broadcasting profession. The study is also an attempt to find out the attitudes of women in broadcasting toward job performance, sex discrimination, job satisfaction, and eventual job objectives. In addition, the profile includes basic demographic data such as age, marital status, number of children, educational status, major fields of study, salary, working hours, specific job duties and time spent in each duty. The profile is based on a questionnaire sent to the 154 women currently working in nonclerical jobs in broadcasting in South Dakota.

The results of this research are compared with other studies of women in broadcasting, particularly a national study conducted by Abigail Jones Nash in 1974 of women working in broadcast journalism. The Nash study assessed newswomen's job satisfaction. Nash found that two-thirds of the newswomen’s aid they had been discriminated against on the job because of their sex. Are as of pay, promotion, and story assignments were frequently mentioned examples. But despite perceived discrimination, more than eight out of ten newswomen responding to the survey expressed overall satisfaction with their jobs. The data on salaries indicated that newswomen were being paid less than the average news staffer. And from one - third to three-fourths of the respondents felt their opportunities in various areas of employment were not as good as those of men.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Women broadcasters -- South Dakota.
Broadcasters -- South Dakota.
Women in the mass media industry -- South Dakota.

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

82

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Included in

Communication Commons

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