Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1985

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Communication

Major Professor

Paul G. Ashdown

Committee Members

Michael Keen, June Adamson

Abstract

Without the weekly community newspaper, people in small towns would be largely uninformed about the events and "comings and goings" of their neighbors and friends.

This study investigated the newspapers and news-sheets in Norris, Tennessee, a model town built for the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 and managed by the government until 1948. Since its beginning, Norris has had a local news source. The Norris News was published "by and for TVA" employees, the short-lived Norris Times, the Norris Town Council News and the bulletin from the Office of the Superintendent of Education were published by local residents. The weekly "county" newspaper provided a section for Norris news edited by Norris residents. Most significant to the town was the Norris Bulletin, a weekly news-sheet published for more than 37 years by veteran reporter for the Cincinnati (Ohio) Post, Anne Henle. Upon Henle's retirement from the Bulletin October 4, 1985, it was taken over by the Norris correspondent for the Clinton (Tenn.) Courier-News, Jayne Luzadder Kelly.

The major sources for this study were Norris and Anderson County newspapers, as well as TVA memoranda, reports, articles and bulletins. Interviews with Norris residents and letters and interviews with former residents provided valuable material for the thesis.

Although paid-circulation newspapers had been attempted, none has been successful. Norrisonians have been satisfied with the free weekly bulletin.

The new editor of the Norris Bulletin plans a paid-circulation newspaper that would extend beyond the boundaries of Norris. She needs to consider what her readers' attitudes toward her plan before moving ahead.

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