Social Representations Theory. A New Theory for Media Research

This article argues that the theory of social representations can give valuable contributions to media research. It offers a new theory-based approach for studying how the media and citizens socially represent societal and political issues colouring our age, or some specific time period. Two fundamental communicative mechanisms – anchoring and objectification – are posited by the theory. These mechanisms, with a set of subcategories, are presented and it is shown how they can be used as conceptual analytical tools in empirical analysis. Concrete examples are given from a study on climate change and the media

Le problème de la compréhension et de la mémorisation des événements d'actualité

Findahl Olle, Höijer Birgitta. Le problème de la compréhension et de la mémorisation des événements d'actualité. In: Bulletin de psychologie, tome 35 n°356, 1982. Langage et compréhension. pp. 749-758

The Kosovo War in the Media - Analysis of a Global Discursive Order

This article, which has a discourse analytical perspective, discusses findings from studies of the Kosovo War in the media covering the whole process from production to reception. Theoretically, a set of different, albeit related, discourses are brought together. It is the discourses of news journalism and propaganda, and the discourse of global compassion. Fairclough´s concept "global discursive order", implying a certain complex of discourses, is used to emphasize that discourses are mixed and interact with each other. In the first part of the paper the social and historical contexts of the mentioned discourses are discussed. The second part of the article presents results from a research project consisting of a set of studies of the Kosovo War in the media. The aim was to study how the media and the audience handled and interpreted this global event. The studies were conducted in Sweden (a non-NATO country) and Norway (a NATO country). A British study of news production was also included. The journalistic process was studied via interviews with reporting journalists, the media coverage of the war was studied by textual analysis, and audience reception was studied by focus groups. Some conclusions: The global discourse of compassion had a strong impact on the media reporting. Media in Sweden and Norway were equally occupied by the fate of the civilian populations and their suffering due both to terror on the ground and to the NATO air attacks. The audience responded to the emotional engagement that the media offered in two ways: either with compassion or with indifference, turning their backs to the suffering. The media never seriously questioned the enemy Milosevic as the only one responsible for the war, and NATO´s self-proclaimed motives. Neither did the audience. In general, however, the Norwegian audience was more willing to accept the NATO propaganda than the Swedish audience. From the start the media in Sweden had a much more outspoken and critical voice compared to media in Norway. But under the impact of subsequent events, especially the misdirected attacks on Albanian refugees, the news media in both countries turned into a mainly critical image of the NATO bombings. Some form of ambivalence regarding the bombings was also quite common among the audience in both countries. In other respects, for example accounts about Russia's role in the conflict, differences between Norwegian and Swedish media remained throughout the conflict. The difference reflected differences in national security and foreign policy traditions