The Mars Meteorite: A case study in controls on dissemination of science news

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Kiernan
Keyword(s):  
American Association ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Science News ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Reports

Through interviews with participants and analysis of media reports, this paper reconstructs the preparations for the 1996 announcement of the discovery of evidence of fossilized life in a meteorite from Mars. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) attempted to manipulate the timing and manner of press coverage. Contrary to the stated rationale for embargoes on science news, premature disclosure of the paper in the media resulted in news coverage that was largely accurate.

Media reporting on public procurement: an analysis of UK press coverage, 1985–2018

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Flynn ◽  
Irina Harris
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Media ◽  
International Comparative

Purpose The media is an important actor in public procurement, but research on its role is limited. This paper aims to investigate how the media has engaged with public procurement, using UK newspapers as a case example. Design/methodology/approach The method consisted of searching Nexis database for news articles on public procurement; automatic extraction of article attributes such as length, section, authorship; and manually coding each article for its theme and industry context. This produced quantitative indicators about the extent and focus of press coverage on public procurement. Findings Press coverage of public procurement increased between 1985 and 2018. The focus of coverage has been on governance failure and socio-economic policy. Governance failure, which includes corruption, cronyism and supplier malpractice, is associated with construction, outsourcing and professional services sectors. Socio-economic policy, which includes supporting small suppliers and favouring domestic industry, is associated with manufacturing, defence and agriculture. Research limitations/implications The analysis included UK media only. While the trends observed on the extent and focus of public procurement news coverage likely reflect the situation in other countries, international comparative research is still required. Practical implications Government officials should be more proactive in countering the “negativity bias” in news coverage of public procurement by showcasing projects where value-for-money has been achieved, services have been successfully delivered and social value has been realised. Social implications The media accentuates the negatives of public procurement and omits positive developments. The end-result is a selective and, at times, self-serving media narrative that is likely to engender cynicism towards public procurement. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on media coverage of public procurement. It highlights that while there are similarities between media and academic treatment of public procurement, particularly in relation to its socio-economic side, the media emphasises governance failings and negative developments to a greater extent.

From Newspaper to Parliament and Back? A Study of Media Attention as Source for and Result of the Dutch Question Hour

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Van Aelst ◽  
Rosa van Santen ◽  
Lotte Melenhorst ◽  
Luzia Helfer
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Media Influence ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
News Values ◽  
Media Attention ◽  
Political Statement ◽  
The Media

AbstractThis study on the role of media attention for the Dutch question hour answers three questions: to what extent is media attention a source of inspiration for oral parliamentary questions? What explains the newsworthiness of these questions? And what explains the extent of media coverage for the questions posed during the question hour? To address this, we present a content analysis of oral parliamentary questions and related press coverage in five recent years. The results show first that oral questions are usually based on media attention for a topic. Concerns about media influence should however be nuanced: it is not necessarily the coverage itself, but also regularly a political statement that is the actual source of a parliamentary question. The media are thus an important “channel” for the interaction between politicians. Second, our analysis shows that oral questions do not receive media attention naturally. Several news values help to explain the amount of news coverage that questions receive. “Surfing the wave” of news attention for a topic in the days previous to the question hour seems to be the best way to generate media attention.

scholarly journals Rights and Representation: Media Narratives about Disabled People and Their Service Animals in Canadian Print News

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-76
Author(s):  
Lana Kerzner ◽  
Chelsea Temple Jones ◽  
Beth Haller ◽  
Arthur Blaser
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
The Many ◽  
Media Narratives

Canadian news coverage is reflecting and shaping an evolution of thought about how we must publicly account for animals’ roles in the disability rights movement. Through a textual analysis of 26 news media articles published between 2012 and 2017, this research demonstrates that the media play a key role in reporting on discrimination, yet media narratives about service animals and their owners too often fail to capture the complexity of policies and laws that govern their lives. In Canada, there is widespread public confusion about the rights of disabled people and their service animals. This incertitude is relevant to both disability and animal oppression. This research identifies nine frames within the media narratives, as well as evaluating perspectives from critical animal studies in the news articles. These frames, which emerge in the media reports, in their descriptions of human and (less often) animal rights, illustrate public confusion surrounding these rights. The confusion is inevitable given the many laws in Canada that govern service animals. Thus, to give context to the news coverage, this article also surveys the legal protections for disabled people who use service animals in Canada, and suggests that until the news media understand the legalities surrounding service animals, they will not be well equipped to fulfil their role of informing the public. This is a lost opportunity in light of the media’s potential role as a pivotal tool to educate the public about disability and animal rights.

State–Media Consensus on Going to War? Australian Newspapers, Political Elites, and Fighting the Islamic State

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter E. Mulherin ◽  
Benjamin Isakhan
Keyword(s):  
Political Elite ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Media Frames ◽  
The Media ◽  
Present Case Study ◽  
Press Criticism

This article assesses the link between the state and the media in their coverage of foreign policy decisions. It holds up to empirical scrutiny the claim that genuine press criticism can only occur within the bounds of political-elite debate. Taking the Australian government’s 2014 decision to fight the Islamic State as its case study, it explores areas of consensus and dissensus between political discourse and the media. Conducting a qualitative analysis of three media frames used by major newspapers, it tests the “indexing hypothesis” and concludes that some press coverage went beyond the parameters of political-elite debate. This finding of independent criticism has implications beyond the present case study, as it helps us better understand the role of the media in democracies—specifically, holding governments to account when sending their nations to war.

scholarly journals Elections, news cycles, and attention to disasters

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candace Forbes Bright ◽  
Braden Bagley
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Baton Rouge ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Media Agenda ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Political elections, especially presidential elections, have a tendency to overshadow other events, including disasters. Response to disasters during elections, such as Hurricane Matthew and the Baton Rouge flooding in 2016, are often dependent on attention given to them from the media, as well as prominent political figures and political candidates candidates. The purpose of this paper is to explore how election cycles affect government response to disasters and ultimately demonstrate the dependency of crisis communication on media agenda-setting for presenting saliency of disaster risk and needs. Design/methodology/approach Responses from presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, as well as President Barack Obama, in regards to the Baton Rouge flooding and Hurricane Matthew, were observed using media reports and social media accounts. These results were matched with key events from the presidential election timeline. Findings There is a positive relationship between news exposure and attention, and also between attention and civic response. In regards to the 2016 presidential election, news coverage of the release of the Donald Trump-Billy Bush tape distracted national attention from the approach, landfall, and recovery of Hurricane Matthew. Information subsidies provided by the candidates directed the media agenda away from the needs of the communities and individuals impacted by these disasters. Originality/value Disasters are often assumed to be value-free because they are “blind to politics.” Here, it is argued that this was not the case in relation to these two disasters. Thus, the authors encouraged more research be conducted to clarify the impact that political elections have on strategic news coverage of disasters and ultimately on disaster response.

scholarly journals Learning from 2016: predicting elections through Twitter

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Stroh ◽  
Sebastian Reiserer
Keyword(s):  
News Coverage ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Election Cycle ◽  
The Us ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
The Media ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
To Come

What happened during the news coverage for the 2016 election cycle(s) is a case study that will be studied for years to come. The failure to accurately predict Brexit or Donald Trump’s success in the US presidential election left everybody perplexed as neither, especially the latter, was ever predicted to occur. This research investigates the failures of the media to predict Trump’s election and investigates whether Twitter can be used in the place of existing procedures to correctly predict elections. Data obtained through this research shows that online discussion of Trump by Twitter users was higher than discussion of Hillary Clinton during four critical events leading up to election day. This paper argues that this data can be used to make successful predictions for election outcomes. The findings and conclusion help underscore the importance of this type of research, not only in terms of predicting elections via Twitter, but also in terms of how such insights might benefit the media and its audiences.

In the Frame: Crime and the Limits of Representation

1996 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Young
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Representation ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Reports

Recent research in criminology has taken up the question of the representation of crime. This article seeks to show, by means of a case study, that the question of representation should be addressed less in terms of its correspondence to reality, but rather in terms of its own structures. These structures enable us to see how crime is staged as a problem in and of cultural representation. The case study analysed is that of the James Bulger case in Britain: the murder of a two year old boy by two 10 year old boys, the ensuing trial and sentencing of the boys for murder and abduction. The article analyses three themes which were prominent in the media reports (representations of the nature of childhood; the maternal relation; and the paternal figure). The article also demonstrates, by means of an analysis of the reliance upon a technology of the image in the case, that there are limits to representation: as the desire or demand for representation seeks to see the event of abduction and murder, that event can only be represented as lack or absence.

scholarly journals La couverture de presse et ses fonctions légitimantes

Criminologie ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald D. Crelinsten
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
The Press ◽  
Official Definitions ◽  
Justice Model ◽  
The Media ◽  
Police Activity

This paper examines the legitimating function of press coverage by means of a specific case study of political violence. Dissident actors who resort to violence to achieve their political goals are generally treated by the authorities as common criminals. This criminal justice model is reproduced and reinforced in the press by selective focus on specific, narrow topics at the expense of political analysis. These topics include the victims, the threat of future attacks, police activity, and the declarations of those in authority. In the October Crisis of 1970, this process was temporarily disrupted and a transient symmetry was achieved whereby the point of view of the dissident actors and their supporters received as much attention as the official perspective of the authorities. With the invocation of the War Measures Act, this symmetry was destroyed and press coverage once again returned to an almost exclusive focus on official definitions of the situation. The author suggests that this pattern of press coverage reflects a transient disruption in the legitimating function of the media whereby, in normal times, the reporting of “news” can reproduce and reinforce official views of dissident actors who use violence for political ends.

scholarly journals Mind the gap: Health reporting in the Pacific

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Cullen
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Health Reporting ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Cultural Taboos ◽  
The Media ◽  
Health Journalism ◽  
Extensive List

Previous research on developing health journalism in the Pacific region has encouraged journalists to think outside the box when it comes to reporting health, and to view it as more than just drugs and doctors. Factors such as politics, economics, religion, education, gender inequality and traditional cultural taboos influence health outcomes to varying degrees. This perspec­tive on health provides an extensive list of news and feature stories for the media, and yet, this wider focus on the determinants of health is not what drives health journalism in many Pacific countries. This article uses a case study of press coverage of HIV in Papua New Guinea from 2000 2010 to show how coverage of HIV or other communicable diseases in the Pacific need a much wider frame than that of drugs and doctors.

scholarly journals TRENDS IN PRESS COVERAGE OF FEMINIST ACTIVITY IN THE UAE MEDIA: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-46
Author(s):  
Alaa Makki ◽  
Marcel Issa Al Juinat
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Study ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Conservative Form ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Cultural Processes ◽  
The Media ◽  
Arab Societies ◽  
Shed Light

This study seeks to shed light on Arab societies in general and the Emirati society in particular, as we find that customs and traditions have given the conservative form of women, Which, in turn, is reflected in the entirety of its relations, and its social and cultural processes in particular are closely related to the media institution that reproduced this model by adopting conservative contents, except in very few cases, which is often associated with some feminist institutions. In this study, the researchers focused on identifying the most important shapes, templates, trends, and areas occupied by all of these coverage. And then determine its contents and meanings. that is through analyzing the coverage and its types and all the arts of journalistic editing, News coverage is made up of the type of news and report, while the explanatory coverage is by the type of press article Investigation and press dialogue, as for the documentary coverage, it is related to the means of highlighting, whether they are news or non-news photos, figures and drawings.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document