Elections, Wars, and Protests? A Longitudinal Look at Foreign News on Canadian Television

This study reports on the Canadian data from a recent international content analysis of broadcast news in 18 countries. With a mind to Robert A. Hackett’s longitudinal analysis of foreign news on CBC and CTV in 1989, the current study addresses questions of foreign news prominence, geographic distribution, topic coverage, and variation between networks, noting differences and similarities in the content of foreign news in light of shifting cultural, political, and economic environments; news production processes; and communication technologies. This analysis provides an update to Hackett’s seminal work, painting a picture of the Canadian foreign news landscape two decades later

At the Edge of the Modern?: Diplomacy, Public Relations, and Media Practices During Houphouët-Boigny\u27s 1962 Visit to the United States

Toward the end of the first decade after the decolonization of most African countries, there emerged a scholarly polemic about the weight of bureaucratic politics in the making of foreign policy in the Third World. A mirror of the reigning modernization paradigm that informed most postwar area studies and social sciences, the discussion unintentionally indexed the narcissism of a hegemonic discourse on political development and statecraft. Graham Allison and Morton Halperin—the original proponents of the bureaucratic model—implied in their largely U.S.-centric model that such a paradigm was not applicable to non-industrialized countries since the newly decolonized countries, for the most part, lacked the institutional/organizational base and political tradition needed to conduct a modern foreign policy. Félix Houphouët- Boigny—leader of the newly independent Ivory Coast—was hardly mentioned in the scholarly debates on the bureaucratic model. Yet one can use the conjuncture of his visit to the United States in May 1962 to explore the arguments developed by the protagonists in the polemic that ensued the publication of the Allison-Halperin theory

Under-cover: The influence of event- and context-traits on the visibility of armed conflicts in German newspaper coverage (1992–2013)

Although armed conflicts are an intensively researched domain in communication science, not much is known about the factors influencing their visibility in the news media. Based on research on the international flow of news, we identify traits of conflicts and the nations involved that potentially determine visibility. In our study, we combine data on 119 armed conflicts between 1992 and 2013 and an analysis of German newspaper coverage. We can show that several event- and context-oriented factors exert an influence on how much attention the media devote to a conflict. Conflict visibility was determined by the geographical distance between the reporting country and the conflict, the involvement of nuclear weapons, a military involvement of the reporting country, political sanctions imposed by supranational organizations, and (to a lesser extent) the number of fatalities

Changing of international information flow : a case study of Taiwan stories in U.S. newspapers, 1982-1992

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2998905

Doing Good and Looking Good in Global Humanitarian Reporting: Is Philanthrojournalism good news?

This chapter investigates if and how a private donor’s apparent motivation to ‘look good’ – or to generate symbolic capital – interacts with a news organization’s ability to ‘do good’ by producing public service content. We address this issue by reporting on the findings of a year-long study of the online humanitarian news organisation – IRIN – as it became primarily funded by a new donor. We argue that whilst it is possible that the Foundation’s pursuit of symbolic capital may have had some effect on how IRIN sought to ‘do good’, it did not appear to affect the extent to which IRIN was either willing or able to ‘do good’. Indeed, our analysis makes clear that the influence of the Foundation only had an effect on IRIN when it combined with other factors, especially journalists’ own values and organizational strategies. Ultimately, this case highlights the limits of generalized claims about the likely influence of a donor’s desire to ‘look good’ on a news organization

Reassessing presidential influence on state legislative election outcomes

I reassess the influence of presidential approval on state legislative election outcomes, incorporating the period from the 1940s to the 1970s in my analysis. Previous research finds that presidential approval has a significant effect, but such findings may be biased-they focus on elections after the 1970s, when the president was more visible to the public. Using an original state partisan balance dataset, I measure the effects of presidential approval and find that it has as much influence on state legislative elections from the 1940s to the early 1970s. These findings may engender concerns of state legislative accountability-if state legislators’ electoral prospects become increasingly reliant upon assessments of the president than themselves, they are less likely to feel beholden to voters and uphold their interests

Framing Tibet: A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Newspapers, 2008-2011

Contemporary Tibet is the subject of one of the world\u27s longest running ethno-territorial conflicts, dating from just after the People\u27s Republic of China was founded in 1949 (Sautman & Dreyer, 2006). And due to the huge difference between U.S. and China on political as well as culture dimension, the understanding of Tibet is also varies. Since observing media frames is one of the ways to better understanding the relationship between U.S. vs. Tibet and China vs. Tibet according to Gamson and Modigliani (1987): a media frame as a central organizing idea or story line that provides meaning to an unfolding strip of events... The frame suggests what the controversy is about, the essence of the issue (p. 143). Therefore, this study identifies the news frames present in American and Chinese newspapers\u27 coverage about the Tibet issue, and ascertain differences between the two nations in the performance of the framing function. The study also aims to determine framing patterns: How did these frames change over the years

Italy in the Australian news media, 2005-2012

Presents a systematic analysis of the coverage of Italian matters in the Australian news media in the period 2005-2012. Executive summary The study presents a systematic analysis of the coverage of Italian matters in the Australian news media in the period 2005-2012. As far as the authors are aware it is largest study of the representation of Italy in the news media of a foreign country ever undertaken.   The study was undertaken by the University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre (N&MRC) in association with the On. Marco Fedi, who commissioned research on coverage of Italian politics in selected Australian newspapers.   During the period covered by the study there was more than usual interest in Italian political developments in Australia, both because of their inherent newsworthiness and because of the newly-acquired right of direct participation of expatriate Italians in Australia in the 2006 and 2008 Italian general elections.   To obtain as wide a view of Italy in the Australian news as practicable both the press and television were included in the study.   Three well -known and respected newspapers, namely The Australian, the major national newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) published in Sydney and The Age published in Melbourne were selected for the study. All editorial matter in all issues of these newspapers for the years 2005-2012 was searched using ‘Factiva’– a business information and research tool owned by Dow Jones & Company. The initial search for relevant news in the press generated a very large number of items (around 10,000) which were then assessed individually for relevance and eligibility for inclusion in the analysis. This process generated a data set of 5325 news items

The Effect of the Gorbachev Era (1985-1991) on Newsweek\u27s Photo Coverage and Image of the Soviet Union

This study examined 729 photos and cutlines published in NEWSWEEK\u27s International Section that depicted events that occurred in the Soviet Union during the Gorbachev Era (1985-1991). The period saw change in Soviet domestic affairs (especially glasnost) and foreign relations (especially New Political Thinking or NPT) that cumulatively led to the end of the Cold War. NEWSWEEK coverage of the Gorbachev Era was compared to NEWSWEEK coverage of the Chernenko interlude (February 1984-February 1985) in order to have a base line for comparison. NEWSWEEK increased its coverage of the Soviet Union during the Gorbachev Era. There were more editions, photos, and cutlines that depicted the era. A more diverse mix of content was covered. An increase occurred in content that prior to glasnost was considered taboo. NEWSWEEK depicted the Soviet Union in a more positive way in terms of Slant, Image, and Overall Image. International relations were depicted positively, Gorbachev and his spouse were depicted positively, but domestic turmoil was depicted negatively. NEWSWEEK had many gatekeepers. Photojournalists were important gatekeepers. Photos and cutlines were important conveyors of content and image. It was more difficult to measure latent content of photos than manifest content

Language Abstractness as Discursive Microframes: LCM Framing in American Coverage of International News

The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether articles covering countries with different levels of proximity and relations to the U.S. would be framed differently in American news media. In particular, this study employs the Linguistic Category Model, a tool for measuring language abstractness. This study incorporates scholarship from mass communication, international relations and linguistics. The literature review discusses international news coverage by American reporters and journalists; past scholarship examining linguistics in news text, including linguistic relativity theory and critical discourse analysis; and framing literature, focusing specifically on the framing building process and international news frames. After, the Linguistic Category Model is introduced, which is used to code for language abstractness. Two constructed weeks of news, encompassing a sample size of 960, were coded for their LCM frame and most important country discussed. Seven proximity and interaction country characteristics were applied to each article based on most important country discussed: distance, trade flow, language, military aid, regime type, development and conflict. The LCM frame was the dependent variable, while the country characteristics were the independent variable. Results show that the variables regime type, development and conflict were most related to changes in the LCM frame. While increased polity and development decreased language abstractness, increased conflict increased language abstractness. One interaction (conflict + development) included in the model was also influenced LCM frame. Implications of this are discussed, and the LCM frame is identified as a discursive microframe