Divergences in the English-language News Media in Singapore

Although the Chinese media’s construction of unmarried citizens as ‘leftover’ has incited much controversy, little research attention has been given to the ways ‘leftover men’ are represented in discourse. To fill this gap, this study performs a critical discourse analysis of 65 English language news reports in Chinese media to investigate the predominant gendered discourses underlying representations of leftover men and the discursive strategies used to construct their identities. The findings show that the media perpetuate a myth of ‘protest masculinity’ by suggesting that poor, single men may become a threat to social harmony due to the shortage of marriageable women in China. Leftover men are represented as poor men, troublemakers and victims via discursive processes that include referential, predicational and aggregation strategies as well as metaphor. This study sheds light on the issues and concerns of a marginalised group whose predicament has not been given much attention in the literature.

Download Full-text

Trying and Failing and Trying again: Work in the Media

Artha - Journal of Social Sciences ◽

10.12724/ajss.54.4 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 61-70

Author(s):

Rosamma Thomas

Keyword(s):

News Media ◽

English Language ◽

Book Publishing ◽

Work Conditions ◽

Body Language ◽

Personal Account ◽

Career Trajectory ◽

Growth Prospects ◽

The Media ◽

The Times

This paper is an historical auto-ethnographic account by a middle aged journalist who has worked in the English language media in India for about 20 years. English language media staff is among the best paid in the country. Even so, work conditions are far from ideal, and the pandemic this year has rendered several journalists jobless. This is a personal account of one career trajectory that spans book publishing, work on national radio, newspapers and a news agency. Growth prospects are curtailed for women in the news media; one boss at the Times of India¸ India’s largest English daily, told the author that her “body language” betrayed a lack of interest in work.

Download Full-text

Aggression and Older Adults: News Media Coverage across Care Settings and Relationships

Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement ◽

10.1017/s0714980820000197 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Laura M. Funk ◽

Rachel V. Herron ◽

Dale Spencer ◽

Starr Lee Thomas

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

News Media ◽

Media Coverage ◽

English Language ◽

Frame Analysis ◽

News Coverage ◽

News Reporting ◽

Policy Responses

ABSTRACT Systematic, in-depth exploration of news media coverage of aggression and older adults remains sparse, with little attention to how and why particular frames manifest in coverage across differing settings and relationships. Frame analysis was used to analyze 141 English-language Canadian news media articles published between 2008 and 2019. Existing coverage tended towards stigmatizing, fear-inducing, and biomedical framings of aggression, yet also reflected and reinforced ambiguity, most notably around key differences between settings and relations of care. Mainstream news coverage reflects tensions in public understandings of aggression and older adults (e.g., as a medical or criminal issue), reinforced in particular ways because of the nature of news reporting. More nuanced coverage would advance understanding of differences among settings, relationships, and types of actions, and of the need for multifaceted prevention and policy responses based on these differences.

Download Full-text

Locking Out the Mother Corp: Nationalism and Popular Imaginings of Public Service Broadcasting in the Print News Media

Canadian Journal of Communication ◽

10.22230/cjc.2007v32n2a1826 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sue Ferguson

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Public Service ◽

News Media ◽

English Language ◽

Democratic Values ◽

Public Service Broadcasting ◽

Print News ◽

Democratic Principles ◽

Société Civile ◽

Media Choices

Abstract: Early promoters of public-service broadcasting (PSB) in Canada emphasized its democratic and nationalist merit. Of these twin pillars, only nationalism appears to still be standing. In this article, the author surveys the vision of PSB that emerged in the national English-language print media during the 2005 CBC/Radio-Canada lockout and suggests that our peculiar brand of multicultural nationalism (which underestimates the divisions within civil society) has subsumed democratic values. Yet, she argues democratic principles—particularly those of access, participation, and publicness—are critically important to defending the relevance of PSB in the current environment of seemingly endless media choices and borderless technology. Résumé : Les premiers promoteurs de la radiotélédiffusion de service public au Canada mettaient l’accent sur ses mérites démocratique et nationaliste. Aujourd’hui, de ces deux piliers, il semble que le mérite nationaliste soit le seul qui tienne bon. Dans cet article, l’auteur analyse la vision de la radiotélédiffusion de service public que l’on retrouve dans la presse écrite nationale de langue anglaise au cours du lock-out de CBC/Radio-Canada en 2005 et elle suggère que notre type spécifique de nationalisme multiculturel (qui sous estime les divisions de la société civile) a englobé les valeurs démocratiques. Toutefois, l’auteur affirme que ces principes démocratiques—en particulier ceux d’accessibilité, de participation et de valeurs publiques—sont extrêmement importants lorsqu’il s’agit de défendre la pertinence de la radiotélédiffusion de service public dans le contexte actuel de soi-disant choix infinis de médias et de technologies sans frontières.

Download Full-text

Racializing the Audience: Immigrant Perceptions of Mainstream Canadian English Language TV News

Canadian Journal of Communication ◽

10.22230/cjc.2008v33n4a2030 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 33 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Minelle Mahtani

Keyword(s):

News Media ◽

Social Life ◽

English Language ◽

Television News ◽

Pilot Project ◽

Canadian English ◽

Tv News ◽

Minorités Visibles ◽

Grand Public ◽

Immigrant Identities

Abstract: This paper offers an analysis of a pilot project that examines the perceptions of English-language TV news among two racialized groups: self-identified Iranian-Canadians and Chinese-Canadians. This research indicates that, according to participants, mainstream Canadian English-language TV news does not necessarily offer racialized immigrant audiences a space through which to see themselves reflected accurately as part of Canada’s rich social life beyond the celebration of ethnic events and festivals. Participants explained that they appreciated Canadian English-language television news, with important caveats. They would like to see the Canadian English-language television news media create spaces in which they could see their own ethnic, racial, cultural, and immigrant identities reflected within the backdrop of the Canadian multicultural state.Résumé : Cet article présente l’analyse d’un projet pilote qui examine comment deux groupes raciaux différents perçoivent les actualités télévisuelles en anglais : les Canadiens iraniens et les Canadiens chinois. Cet recherche indique que, d’après les participants, les actualités télévisées grand public en anglais n’offrent pas nécessairement aux spectateurs provenant de minorités visibles immigrantes un espace où ils peuvent se reconnaître en tant que participants dans la riche vie sociale du Canada en dehors du cadre d’événements et de festivals ethniques. Les participants ont expliqué que, bien qu’ils apprécient les nouvelles télévisées canadiennes de langue anglaise, ils ont des réserves importantes à leur égard. En effet, ils aimeraient que ces médias créent plus d’espaces leur permettant de voir leurs propres identités ethniques, raciales, culturelles et immigrantes reflétées dans le contexte du multiculturalisme canadien.

Download Full-text

Media Reporting of the Emergence of the 1968 Influenza Pandemic in Hong Kong: Implications for Modern-day Situational Awareness

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness ◽

10.1097/dmp.0b013e3181abd603 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 3 (S2) ◽

pp. S148-S153 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

James M. Wilson ◽

Marissa Iannarone ◽

Chunhui Wang

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

News Media ◽

Influenza A ◽

English Language ◽

Situational Awareness ◽

Southern China ◽

Influenza Pandemic ◽

World Health ◽

Media Reporting ◽

Health Organization

ABSTRACTObjective: We investigated local media reporting during the emergence of influenza A/Hong Kong/68 in Hong Kong to understand how indolent social awareness contributed to delays in warning of the pandemic.Methods: Daily output from 1 English-language and 4 local Chinese-language newspapers published in Hong Kong between July 1 and August 31, 1968 were manually reviewed for all references to the presence of respiratory disease or influenza in southern China and Hong Kong. Public announcements from the World Health Organization Weekly Epidemiological Record were used to approximate international awareness.Results: Influenza A/Hong Kong/68 appeared abruptly in Hong Kong and within 1 week began to affect the functioning of the health care sector as well as civil infrastructure due to worker infection and absenteeism. Substantial delays in communication between Guangzhou, China, and Hong Kong officials contributed to delays in warning globally.Conclusions: The 1968 experience emphasizes the need to use the news media in the operational setting as a critical component in warning of a pandemic. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2009;3(Suppl 2):S148–S153)

Download Full-text

Investigating evaluation and news values in news items that are shared through social media

Corpora ◽

10.3366/cor.2016.0093 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 227-257 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Monika Bednarek

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

News Media ◽

English Language ◽

Online News ◽

News Values ◽

News Value ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Linguistic Focus ◽

News Corpus ◽

News Sharing

The sharing of news through social media platforms is now a significant part of mainstream online media use and is an increasingly important consideration in journalism practice and production. This paper analyses the linguistic characteristics of online news sharing on Facebook, with a focus on evaluation and news values in a corpus of the 100 ‘most shared’ news items from ‘heritage’ English-language news media organisations. Analyses combine corpus linguistic techniques (semantic tagging, frequency analysis, concordancing) with manual, computer-aided annotation. The main focus is on discursive news values analysis (DNVA), which examines how news values are established through semiotic resources, enabling new empirical insights into shared news and adding a specific linguistic focus to the emerging literature on news sharing. Results suggest that all ‘traditional’ news values appear to be construed in the shared news corpus and that there is variety in terms of the items that are widely shared. At the same time, the news values of Eliteness, Superlativeness, Unexpectedness, Negativity and Timeliness seem especially important in the corpus. The findings also indicate that ‘unexpected’ and ‘affective’ news items may be shared more, and that Negativity is a more important news value than Positivity.

Download Full-text

South African newspaper coverage of COVID-19: A content analysis

Journal of African Media Studies ◽

10.1386/jams_00052_1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 333-350 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Herman Wasserman ◽

Wallace Chuma ◽

Tanja Bosch ◽

Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam ◽

Rachel Flynn

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

South African ◽

News Media ◽

Media Coverage ◽

English Language ◽

Newspaper Coverage ◽

Front Page ◽

News Stories ◽

African Media ◽

Negative Tone

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has led to unprecedented media coverage globally and in South Africa where, at the time of writing, over 20,000 people had died from the virus. This article explores how mainstream print media covered the COVID-19 pandemic during this time of crisis. The news media play a key role in keeping the public informed during such health crises and potentially shape citizens’ perceptions of the pandemic. Drawing on a content analysis of 681 front-page news stories across eleven English-language publications, we found that nearly half of the stories used an alarmist narrative, more than half of the stories had a negative tone, and most publications reported in an episodic rather than thematic manner. Most of the stories focused on impacts of the pandemic and included high levels of sensationalism. In addition, despite the alarmist and negative nature of the reporting, most of the front-page reports did not provide information about ways to limit the spread of the virus or attempt to counter misinformation about the pandemic, raising key issues about the roles and responsibilities of the South African media during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study shows that South African newspaper coverage of COVID-19 was largely negative, possibly to attract audience attention and increase market share, but that this alarmist coverage left little possibility for citizens’ individual agency and self-efficacy in navigating the pandemic.

Download Full-text