Anti-Muslim Voting and Media Coverage of Immigrant Crimes

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Mathieu Couttenier ◽  
Sophie Hatte ◽  
Mathias Thoenig ◽  
Stephanos Vlachos

Abstract We study how news coverage of immigrant criminality impacts voting in one of the most controversial referendums in recent years – the 2009 Swiss minaret ban. We combine a comprehensive crime detection dataset with detailed information on newspaper coverage. We first document a large upward distortion in media reporting of immigrant crime during the prereferendum period. Exploiting quasi-random variations in crime incidence, we find a positive first-order effect of news coverage on support for the ban. Quantification shows that, in absence of the media bias, pro-ban vote would have decreased from 57.6% to 53.5% at the national level.

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob-Moritz Eberl ◽  
Markus Wagner ◽  
Hajo G. Boomgaarden

Media coverage can influence how citizens think about their political leaders. This study explores how three types of media bias (visibility bias, tonality bias, and agenda bias) affect voter assessments of politicians’ traits. Bias effects should be stronger for political traits (such as competence) than for nonpolitical traits (such as likability). Biases may also interact in their effects: Specifically, visibility bias should moderate the impact of tonality bias. Combining media, party, and survey data through manual content analysis of newspaper coverage ( N = 2,680) and party press releases ( N = 1,794), as well as a three-wave voter survey ( n = 927) during the 2013 Austrian election campaign, we find substantial effects of tonality bias and agenda bias on political trait perceptions. The effects are less clear for nonpolitical trait perceptions. Although visibility bias has no direct impact, there is evidence that it moderates effects of tonality bias on candidate perceptions.


1995 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Wright ◽  
Francis T. Cullen ◽  
Michael B. Blankenship

Although investigative reports have contributed to the social movement against white-collar crime, few studies assess the extent to which the media socially construct corporate violence as a “crime.” We examine this issue through a content analysis of newspaper coverage of the fire-related deaths of 25 workers at the Imperial Food Products chicken-processing plant, which resulted in the company's owner pleading guilty to manslaughter. The analysis revealed that newspaper reports largely attributed the deaths to the lax enforcement of safety regulations but did not initially construct the deaths as a crime or subsequently publicize the criminal convictions.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Flynn ◽  
Irina Harris

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.


BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. e023485
Author(s):  
Caroline Louise Miller ◽  
Aimee Lee Brownbill ◽  
Joanne Dono ◽  
Kerry Ettridge

ObjectivesIn 2012, Australia was the first country in the world to introduce plain or standardised tobacco packaging, coupled with larger graphic health warnings. This policy was fiercely opposed by industry. Media coverage can be an influential contributor to public debate, and both public health advocates and industry sought media coverage for their positions. The aim of this study was to measure the print media coverage of Australian’s plain packaging laws, from inception to roll-out, in major Australian newspapers.MethodsThis study monitored mainstream Australian print media (17 newspapers) coverage of the plain packaging policy debate and implementation, over a 7-year period from January 2008 to December 2014. Articles (n=701) were coded for article type, opinion slant and topic(s).DesignContent analysis.ResultsCoverage of plain packaging was low during preimplementation phase (2008–2009), increasing sharply in the lead into legislative processes and diminished substantially after implementation. Articles covered policy rationale, policy progress and industry arguments. Of the news articles, 96% were neutrally framed. Of the editorials, 55% were supportive, 28% were opposing, 12% were neutral and 5% were mixed.ConclusionsProtracted political debate, reflected in the media, led to an implementation delay of plain packaging. While Australian media provided comprehensive coverage of industry arguments, news coverage was largely neutral, whereas editorials were mostly supportive or neutral of the policy. Countries seeking to implement plain packaging of tobacco should not be deterred by the volume of news coverage, but should actively promote the evidence for plain packaging in the media to counteract the arguments of the tobacco industry.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Hoffman

Battle terminology such as “fight,” “conquer,” and “hero” and imagery that compares doctors and patients to superheroes, soldiers and athletes have become increasingly prevalent in hospital foundation communications. The use of these metaphors has been highly controversial. While some audiences have praised foundation campaigns that use this type of messaging for emphasizing the strength of patients and hospital staff, encouraging patient families, and motivating patients to be resilient, others argue that these campaigns marginalize those who are unable to overcome their health conditions, positioning them as failures or losers. While the use of battle metaphors in hospital communications has been a heated topic in online discussion, little is known about the impact of this language on the media coverage and financial support that they generate for hospitals. This paper presents a multimodal discourse analysis of the communications of six hospital foundations in Toronto, Canada followed by a quantitative and sentiment analysis of the media coverage each foundation has received within the last fiscal year. The aim of this paper is to determine if there is a relationship between the use of battle metaphors in hospital foundation communications and the amount and sentiment of media coverage. According to agenda setting theory, media coverage has a palpable impact on public action. Therefore, the findings of this research may assist hospital foundations in developing useful communications practices they can employ to increase media exposure and, consequently, attract more donations to support their institutions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Héctor Perla

AbstractThis article examines the determinants of public support for the use of military force. It puts forward a Framing Theory of Policy Objectives (FTPO), which contends that public support for military engagements depends on the public's perception of the policy's objective. However, it is difficult for the public to judge a policy's objective because they cannot directly observe a policy's true intention and influential political actors offer competing frames to define it. This framing contestation, carried out through the media, sets the public's decision-making reference point and determines whether the policy is perceived as seeking to avoid losses or to achieve gains. The FTPO predicts that support will increase when the public perceives policies as seeking to prevent losses and decrease when the public judges policies to be seeking gains. I operationalize and test the theory using content analysis of national news coverage and opinion polls of U.S. intervention in Central America during the 1980s. These framing effects are found to hold regardless of positive or negative valence of media coverage.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Van Aelst ◽  
Rosa van Santen ◽  
Lotte Melenhorst ◽  
Luzia Helfer

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.


Journalism ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 1608-1627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen GF Jonkman ◽  
Damian Trilling ◽  
Piet Verhoeven ◽  
Rens Vliegenthart

This study on news coverage of highly visible company types in a Dutch daily quality newspaper ( NRC Handelsblad; N = 14,363), during the economic crisis (2007–2013), shows that attention to banks (and to a lesser extent also to the automobile and components industry) had a structural negative influence on media agenda diversity. The majority of the other salient company types had a significant positive impact on diversity. These results suggest that banks attracted attention at the expense of more varied, diverse coverage during the crisis. Our findings extend knowledge of agenda-building dynamics in relation to organizational news by considering characteristics of the broader media agenda. We discuss our findings in light of causes and consequences of media coverage of salient businesses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-302
Author(s):  
Emel Ozdora-Aksak ◽  
Colleen Connolly-Ahern ◽  
Daniela Dimitrova

News shapes audiences’ views of people and events beyond their immediate physical environment. Since the mass migration of refugees from Syria represents one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history, its news coverage necessarily shaped the way global audiences understood the crisis. This qualitative study employs critical discourse analysis (CDA), specifically Van Leeuwen’s Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis (2008) as a social practice approach, to reveal and compare the discursive strategies used in the print media coverage of the Syrian refugees in three European countries: Turkey, Bulgaria and the UK. The findings show significant differences in the discourse used to describe the refugees and different approaches in terms of contextualization, spaces and actions depicted in the media coverage in each country. The study reveals the ongoing dialogue between journalistic practice and political decision making in three countries impacted to varying extents by the ongoing crisis.


Kinesis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Otávio Baggiotto Bettega ◽  
Cesar Vieira Marques Filho ◽  
Luís Felipe Nogueira Silva ◽  
Silvan Menezes Dos Santos

A pesquisa busca identificar os sentidos atribuídos à dimensão tática do Futsal na cobertura midiática do jornal “A Razão”, da cidade de Santa Maria – Rio Grande do Sul – Brasil. Foi realizada pesquisa descritiva e exploratória, de análise de produto midiático, com abordagem qualitativa dos dados recolhidos nos arquivos impressos do jornal, de 1990 até 1999. Os resultados apontam o ganho de visibilidade tática do papel do goleiro no jogo a partir das modificações nas regras, da relação entre o individual e o coletivo, das estratégias na relação ataque e defesa e da metodologia de treino e desenvolvimento dos jogadores. As matérias trazem visibilidade à dimensão tática do jogo de Futsal, mas são apresentadas de forma superficial e fragmentada. Futsal’s tactical dimension in the news coverage of a santa-mariense journal (1990 - 1999)The research seeks to identify the meanings attributed to the tactical dimension of futsal in the media coverage from Santa Maria-RS city newspaper A Razão. A descriptive and exploratory research was carried out, analyzing media product, with a qualitative approach to the data collected in the newspaper's printed files from 1990 to 1999. The results show a greater visibility for the tactics since the change of rules, the goalkeeper role in the game, the relationship between the individual and the collective, offensive and defensive relationship strategies and the players’ training and development methodology. The articles bring visibility to the tactical dimension of the futsal game, but are presented in a superficial and fragmented way.La dimensión táctica del fútbol sala en la cobertura de noticias de un periódico santa-mariense (1990 - 1999)La investigación busca identificar los significados atribuidos a la dimensión táctica del fútbol sala en la cobertura mediática del periódico A Razão en la ciudad de Santa Maria /RS. Se realizó una investigación descriptiva y exploratoria, analizando el producto de los medios, con un enfoque cualitativo de los datos recopilados en los archivos impresos del periódico desde 1990 hasta 1999. Los resultados muestran que la táctica gana visibilidad a partir de los cambios en las reglas, el papel del portero en el juego, la relación entre el individuo y el colectivo, del estrategias en la relación de ataque y defensa y la metodología de entrenamiento y desarrollo de los jugadores. Los artículos aportan visibilidad a la dimensión táctica del juego de fútbol sala, pero se presentan de manera superficial y fragmentada.


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