Internet Learning Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 111

Internet Learning Journal – Volume 4, Issue 1 – Spring 2015
To test significance of the hypothesis, samples were selected from two independent
populations of textbooks. The samples were examined for evidence of scholarly references.
Hypothesis testing was then conducted using a z-test comparing the proportions of the
samples with scholarly references from each of the populations. The null hypothesis was
that the proportion of scholarly references in the two textbook populations would be equal;
the alternate hypothesis was that those textbooks with the more recent publication dates
would have a higher proportion of textbooks with scholarly references than the earlier set of
textbooks.
Hypothesis testing procedure for testing two population proportions was used to examine if
the two samples came from populations with an equal proportion of success. The null and
alternate hypothesis were applied as follows: H 0 : proportion 1 (textbooks published from
1999 to 2002) = proportion 2 (textbooks published from 2003 to 2007) and H 1 proportion 1
(textbooks published from 1999 to 2002) < proportion 2 (textbooks published from 2003 to
2007). The level of significance with a margin of error of 0.05 was applied. A z-test to
compare two sample proportions was applied with calculations from the data collected from
each of the population samples. In order for the hypothesis to be accepted, the proportion of
recently published textbooks must be greater than the proportion of earlier published
textbooks with scholarly references. The results were tabulated using Microsoft Excel ® and
MiniTab ® .
Journalistic Prominence
Budd (1964) conducted one of the first studies to survey a portion of the journalism
profession to develop a device, the Budd Index, to measure newspaper reader attention
score. Budd developed five criteria, and eight randomly selected editors rated the criteria in
terms of importance. The five criteria included (a) multicolumn heads as opposed to onecolumn
heads; (b) a story placed at the top of any page, or above the fold; (c) stories that run
three-fourths of a column; (d) stories with an accompanying photograph; and (e) stories
prominently published on the front page or principal department page.
Budd (1964) removed the fourth criterion because it was not as relevant as the others, and
the editors selected the fifth, second, and first criteria as the most important. The
measurement device was an improvement on an earlier version developed by Teh-Chi Yu in
1949 (as cited in Budd, 1964). According to Budd, “The attention score, in its present form,
is thought to be well suited for use in comparisons of publications similar in physical size”
(p. 260). A cursory examination of 6 of the online teacher textbooks revealed that each was
relatively the same 6 x 9 size or slightly larger. Thus, the closer immediacy terminology
appeared towards chapter 1 in a textbook, based on Budd’s argument, the more the
terminology would be noticed.
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