[3] The modern community structure model originated with the work of University of Chicago's Robert Park, who in The Immigrant Press and Its Control [4] first suggested society could influence media.
Morris Janowitz [5] later introduced the concept that press coverage could serve as an index of the social structure and values of distinct communities.
Janowitz employed multiple methodologies for his research, including reader surveys, in-depth interviews with journalists, and content analysis of 82 different community newspapers in the Chicago area.
[9] When Hindman compared media coverage in large vs. small ethic populations, he found a difference in how similar stories were covered based on the relative size of ethnic groups in communities.
Third, Pollock and coauthor findings often challenged the traditional “guard dog” hypothesis by concluding that media can often reflect the interests of more vulnerable stakeholders.