The labor movement or union community of America has been in a steady decline for more than a decade. The 1950s saw the pinnacle of success with one-third of the U.S. workforce being unionized. Today only 8% of the private workforce is unionized. One way in which this decline may be perceived as more pronounced is through media alienation. According to journalists across the nation such as Philip M.Dine unions have been alienated by media and its type of union coverage. In this study, I analyze the way in which the New York Times portrays the labor movement during the Bush administration from the years 2001-2008. I utilize a content analysis of terminology and an in-depth sentence-by-sentence method. The findings suggest that political climates may have a pronounced effect on the print presses treatment of unions in its news articles. The study revolves upon issue coverage, general type of coverage per article, most unions represented, and quantity of coverage. The data is collected and presented per year, Bush term and complete terms of Bush presidency between 2001 and 2008. The data collected presents transformations within the union community similar to a media SWOTT analysis of unions for the years 2001-2008. These changes are important for their diverse effects upon th.e work community as a whole. My hypothesis that the press coverage of unions will be negative during the Bush Era (2001-2009) is proven to be incorrect. The press coverage results are abundantly positive for press in both forms of my content analysis. This leads to a great discussion on the future of similar studies and their effect on unions.
","abstract_html":"<p>The labor movement or union community of America has been in a steady decline for more than a decade. The 1950s saw the pinnacle of success with one-third of the U.S. workforce being unionized. Today only 8% of the private workforce is unionized. One way in which this decline may be perceived as more pronounced is through media alienation. According to journalists across the nation such as Philip M.Dine unions have been alienated by media and its type of union coverage. In this study, I analyze the way in which the New York Times portrays the labor movement during the Bush administration from the years 2001-2008. I utilize a content analysis of terminology and an in-depth sentence-by-sentence method. The findings suggest that political climates may have a pronounced effect on the print presses treatment of unions in its news articles. The study revolves upon issue coverage, general type of coverage per article, most unions represented, and quantity of coverage. The data is collected and presented per year, Bush term and complete terms of Bush presidency between 2001 and 2008. The data collected presents transformations within the union community similar to a media SWOTT analysis of unions for the years 2001-2008. These changes are important for their diverse effects upon th.e work community as a whole. My hypothesis that the press coverage of unions will be negative during the Bush Era (2001-2009) is proven to be incorrect. The press coverage results are abundantly positive for press in both forms of my content analysis. This leads to a great discussion on the future of similar studies and their effect on unions.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Zurawski, Mac-Z"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Political and Justice Studies","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Daniel Cortese, Ph.D.","Donald Culverson, Ph.D.","Jason Zingsheim, Ph. D."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2010,"date_issued":"2010-10-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2010-10-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:24:36Z","subjects":["labor","collective bargaining","labor unions","bias","press","newspapers","Communication","Journalism Studies","Unions"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://opus.govst.edu/theses/40","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Daniel Cortese, Ph.D.","Donald Culverson, Ph.D.","Jason Zingsheim, Ph. 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The 1950s saw the pinnacle of success with one-third of the U.S. workforce being unionized. Today only 8% of the private workforce is unionized. One way in which this decline may be perceived as more pronounced is through media alienation. According to journalists across the nation such as Philip M.Dine unions have been alienated by media and its type of union coverage. In this study, I analyze the way in which the New York Times portrays the labor movement during the Bush administration from the years 2001-2008. I utilize a content analysis of terminology and an in-depth sentence-by-sentence method. The findings suggest that political climates may have a pronounced effect on the print presses treatment of unions in its news articles. The study revolves upon issue coverage, general type of coverage per article, most unions represented, and quantity of coverage. The data is collected and presented per year, Bush term and complete terms of Bush presidency between 2001 and 2008. The data collected presents transformations within the union community similar to a media SWOTT analysis of unions for the years 2001-2008. These changes are important for their diverse effects upon th.e work community as a whole. My hypothesis that the press coverage of unions will be negative during the Bush Era (2001-2009) is proven to be incorrect. The press coverage results are abundantly positive for press in both forms of my content analysis. This leads to a great discussion on the future of similar studies and their effect on unions.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Labor and Media: A Strained Relationship"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Daniel Cortese, Ph.D.","Donald Culverson, Ph.D.","Jason Zingsheim, Ph. D."],"dc:creator":["Zurawski, Mac-Z"],"dc:date.available":["2014-07-08T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The labor movement or union community of America has been in a steady decline for more than a decade. The 1950s saw the pinnacle of success with one-third of the U.S. workforce being unionized. Today only 8% of the private workforce is unionized. One way in which this decline may be perceived as more pronounced is through media alienation. According to journalists across the nation such as Philip M.Dine unions have been alienated by media and its type of union coverage. In this study, I analyze the way in which the New York Times portrays the labor movement during the Bush administration from the years 2001-2008. I utilize a content analysis of terminology and an in-depth sentence-by-sentence method. The findings suggest that political climates may have a pronounced effect on the print presses treatment of unions in its news articles. The study revolves upon issue coverage, general type of coverage per article, most unions represented, and quantity of coverage. The data is collected and presented per year, Bush term and complete terms of Bush presidency between 2001 and 2008. The data collected presents transformations within the union community similar to a media SWOTT analysis of unions for the years 2001-2008. These changes are important for their diverse effects upon th.e work community as a whole. My hypothesis that the press coverage of unions will be negative during the Bush Era (2001-2009) is proven to be incorrect. The press coverage results are abundantly positive for press in both forms of my content analysis. This leads to a great discussion on the future of similar studies and their effect on unions.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://opus.govst.edu/theses/40"],"dc:subject":["labor","collective bargaining","labor unions","bias","press","newspapers","Communication","Journalism Studies","Unions"],"dc:title":["Labor and Media: A Strained Relationship"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Political and Justice Studies"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:24:36Z"}