Effects of Linguistic Abstractness in the Mass Media

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 99-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Geschke ◽  
Kai Sassenberg ◽  
Georg Ruhrmann ◽  
Denise Sommer

Media coverage contributes to the perpetuation of stereotypes and prejudice. So far, research has focused on biased content rather than style in reporting about minorities. One such stylistic dimension is the so-called linguistic intergroup bias: The tendency to describe positive behavior of members of one’s own group and negative behavior of other groups’ members in a more abstract way (compared to the same behavior of the respective other group). Recipients of communication biased in this way judge the described individuals in line with abstract descriptions (i.e., own-group members more positively than members of other groups). The current study demonstrates that linguistically biased news reports about minorities lead to higher levels of prejudice. Hence, media coverage does not only affect attitudes about minorities by what is reported, but also by how it is presented.

Author(s):  
Zira Hichy ◽  
Graziella Di Marco

This chapter is focussed on linguistic bias in intergroup relations. It is based on the linguistic intergroup bias model, according to which people use different words for describing people and their behaviour on the basis of group membership. In particular, they attribute positive behaviours of ingroup members and negative behaviours of outgroup members to stable enduring characteristics, while attributing negative behaviours of ingroup members and positive behaviours of outgroup members to transitory characteristics dependent on situation or context. This kind of linguistic bias may occur not only in informal communication but also in the mass media, where it can reinforce positive or negative social stereotypes without viewers or readers necessarily being aware how this process is taking place. The chapter concludes that recognizing and limiting the use of such biased language is an important component in producing quality journalism.


Author(s):  
Eli Jamilah Mihardja ◽  
Prima Mulyasari Agustini ◽  
Guson P Kuntarto

This study intends to describe the discourse of the geopark in Indonesia in the Indonesian media. Media coverage is a form of knowledge in society, including about geopark in the context of sustainable regional development. Data was obtained based on analysis of media content (local and national) during 2019 and analyzed. by using sociology knowledge approach of discourse. As a result, the mass media, as a source of knowledge in society, should be able to play a greater role in providing understanding to audiences about the geopark and aspects of sustainable regional development.


Author(s):  
Stefaan Walgrave ◽  
Peter Van Aelst

Recently, the number of studies examining whether media coverage has an effect on the political agenda has been growing strongly. Most studies found that preceding media coverage does exert an effect on the subsequent attention for issues by political actors. These effects are contingent, though, they depend on the type of issue and the type of political actor one is dealing with. Most extant work has drawn on aggregate time-series designs, and the field is as good as fully non-comparative. To further develop our knowledge about how and why the mass media exert influence on the political agenda, three ways forward are suggested. First, we need better theory about why political actors would adopt media issues and start devoting attention to them. The core of such a theory should be the notion of the applicability of information encapsulated in the media coverage to the goals and the task at hand of the political actors. Media information has a number of features that make it very attractive for political actors to use—it is often negative, for instance. Second, we plead for a disaggregation of the level of analysis from the institutional level (e.g., parliament) or the collective actor level (e.g., party) to the individual level (e.g., members of parliament). Since individuals process media information, and since the goals and tasks of individuals that trigger the applicability mechanism are diverse, the best way to move forward is to tackle the agenda setting puzzle at the individual level. This implies surveying individual elites or, even better, implementing experimental designs to individual elite actors. Third, the field is in dire need of comparative work comparing how political actors respond to media coverage across countries or political systems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-155
Author(s):  
Susan J. Palmer ◽  

This article focuses on how NRMs are depicted in the mass media in the province of Quebec, and examines some of the ethical, deontological and legal issues reflected in journalistic coverage of controversial groups known as “sectes” or “cults” in the francophone and anglophone medias. These groups include: Les Apôtres de l’Amour Infini, Le Mouvement Raëlien, L’Église essénienne chrétienne, L’Ordre du Temple solaire, La Cité Écologique de Ham-Nord, la Mission de l’Esprit-Saint, and Lev Tahor. News reports on these groups, collected over a period of fifteen years, will be analyzed within the framework of James A. Beckford’s 1994 study, “The Mass Media and New Religious Movements.” Relying on Beckford and models supplied by other sociologists, this chapter will identify various types of biased approaches used by journalists and analyzes the external pressures that shape their stories. Finally, it will attempt to explain why Quebec’s new religions are consistently portrayed by journalists as controversial and threatening, in a manner that tends to generate and perpetuate conflict.


2008 ◽  
pp. 109-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Shulman ◽  
Richard Clément1

Abstract The role of verbal communication in the transmission of prejudice has received much theoretical attention (Hecht, 1998; Le Couteur & Augoustinos, 2001), including the features of the linguistic intergroup bias (Maass, Salvi, Arcuri, & Semin, 1989), yet few studies have examined the acquisition of an out-group language as a factor in mitigating prejudicial speech. The conditions under which minority Canadian Francophones use linguistic bias when communicating about the in- and out-group (i.e., Canadian Anglophones) were investigated. Data was collected from 110 Francophone students. Predictions were confirmed but only when out-group identification was considered. Further, out-group identification and second language confidence were both related to a decrease in out-group derogation; however, the same factors appear to promote linguistically biased speech toward the in-group. Results are discussed within current intergroup communication theory.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Coelho Bezerra ◽  
Carolina Christoph Grillo

RESUMO Com referência à eclosão de protestos no Brasil desde junho de 2013, este trabalho analisa o modo como a violência deflagrada durante as manifestações é narrada pela grande mídia e coletivos midiativistas, atentando-se para os interesses expressos nas narrações dos fatos. Constatamos que a imprensa corporativa tende a não problematizar a violência policial e a enfatizar a atuação de “vândalos”, ao passo que os midialivristas costumam culpar a polícia pela ocorrência de confrontos e representar positivamente as ações associadas à tática Black Bloc. O texto apresenta uma descrição analítica da guerra de narrativas travada por estes dois segmentos do jornalismo.Palavras-chave: Mídia; Midiativismo; Violência; Manifestações; Polícia.ABSTRACT Regarding the outbreak of protests in Brazil since June 2013, this paper analyses how violence unleashed during demonstrations is narrated by the mass media and mediactivist collectives, focusing on the interests expressed in the narration of facts. We found that corporative press tends to take police violence as unproblematic and to emphasize the actions of so-called “vandals”, while mediactivists usually blame police for the emergence of clashes and positively represent actions associated to the Black Bloc tactics. The text presents an analytical description of the war of narratives fought between these two segments of journalism.Keywords: Media; Mediactivism; Violence; Protests; Police.


Author(s):  
Rudianto Rudianto

In every presidential election event, the neutrality of the mass media is always a controversy. This happens in any country, including Indonesia.It is interesting to see how online mass media in Indonesia discourse political events after the 2014 presidential election. With the power of speed in presenting news, online media such as detik.com, kompas.com, vivanews.co.id are competing to present their frames on political events that took place.  The focus of this article's study is on online mass media coverage of political events that occurred after the 2014 presidential election. The study was conducted with content analysis of five online media, namely detik.com, kompas.com, okezone.com and republika.co.id. The conclusion obtained is the post-2014 presidential election media discourse, especially after the voting on 9 July 2014, generally revolves around the quick count results of the survey institution's version and the winning claims of each candidate. The mass media, especially detik.com, kompas.com and vivanews.com, compile a discourse with a tendency to take sides with one of the pairs based on the results of the survey institute's quick count.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 1666-1692
Author(s):  
Aaron M. Hoffman ◽  
José Kaire

Exposure to a single report about terrorism in the mass media can trigger a range of emotional and political reactions. The consequences of exposure to several terrorism reports in row, however, are a matter of controversy. We examine the effects of prolonged terrorism coverage using an experimental design that combines self-report measures of emotions and political attitudes with instantaneous biometric data on emotions. Consistent with research on nonassociational learning, we find that exposure to multiple videos habituates people to depictions of terrorism: the longer people watch terrorism coverage, the less intense their reactions are to the images of terrorism they see. Some images and videos, however, contribute to this result more than others. This suggests that the ultimate effects of terrorism coverage depend on the interplay between the quantity and quality of reporting, not the quantity alone.


Author(s):  
Subir Sinha

COVID-19 is the cause of the greatest pandemic of the century that affects almost every nation of our globe. In India, mass media has played a significant role in this pandemic situation. The media coverage revealed fearlessly the condition of COVID-19 and provides a pictorial view of the situation in front of the readers and viewers. The main objectives of these fearless journalistic works were to provide the public valuable authentic information, create awareness among the public, eliminate fake propaganda and fake news, highlight the problem face by the ordinary public, and to provide the government a medium to speak with the public for the public interest. Mass media served as a vital weapon to fight against COVID-19. The valuable information and instructions provided by mass media created awareness among the public and which played a major role to deescalate the graphical representation of active COVID-19 cases. The outbreak of COVID-19 and the dogmatic approaches of the mass media in the pandemic situation have recalled the concept of media as the third pillar of democracy.


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