Content Matters

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (8) ◽  
pp. 1031-1059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rens Vliegenthart ◽  
Stefaan Walgrave
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Issue Ownership ◽  
The Media ◽  
Questioning Behavior ◽  
The Government ◽  
Issue Content ◽  
Opposition Parties

Why do MPs devote attention to some issues while ignoring others? The question of the issue content of parliamentary activities has been neglected in previous research. The authors use longitudinal data on parliamentary questioning in Belgium and Denmark, two similar European democracies. The analyses show that the questioning behavior of MPs is structured according to clear patterns. Opposition parties ask more questions in general. MPs tend to focus on the issues the government parties have put forward as being important. Furthermore, MPs ask more questions about issues the media have paid attention to and about issues their party cares about and identifies with. In their questioning, opposition MPs are more strongly influenced by issue ownership and media coverage. The Belgian and Danish MPs follow largely the same pattern.

scholarly journals Indonesian Online Media’s Construction of ‘Maritime’

Pomorstvo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-23
Author(s):  
Kundharu Saddhono ◽  
Ermanto
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Neutral Medium ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
General Relations ◽  
Grammatical Structures

The concept of maritime (maritime) is frequently discussed among the Indonesian people, a fact that may be attributed to the emphasis that has been given to maritime issues by President Joko Widodo since his candidacy. This article applies Faircloughian approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) to understand the coverage of ‘maritime’ in Indonesian online media. This paradigm has been selected because the media does not simply act as a neutral medium through its publication and coverage; rather, media have specific ideologies, which can be described and analyzed through critical discourse analysis. This approach focuses on three aspects when analyzing written discourses: representations, relations, and identities. Representation refers to specific words and grammatical structures to construct reality; relations refer to the connections between the subjects as depicted in the discourse; and identity refers to reporters’ positions in their coverage of online media, including their biases. In general, relations and identities in Indonesian online media coverage have been oriented towards the government and society. The government has been constructed ambiguously by online media, but depictions of government have tended to be positive, with a focus on the success of its maritime programs.

scholarly journals Simulating public interest: the issue of the public voice in the fee-for-carriage debate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Williams
Keyword(s):  
Policy Process ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Hearings ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada ◽  
Severe Degree ◽  
The Impact

"One of the most fractious Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC, or the Commission) policy hearings on record has recently come to a close. This was no run-of-the-mill, watch-the-paint-dry policy hearing. Tempers and passions flared as two industry titans, over-the-air (OTA) broadcasters, such as CTV and Canwest Global, and broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) such as Shaw Communications, Bell Canada and Rogers Inc. fought the battle of their lives over an issue called fee-for-carriage (FFC). The media covered the issues day in and day out. Canadians bombarded the CRTC with dose to 200,000 comments and the Government of Canada forced the CRTC to hold an additional hearing just to address the impact the decision could have on the public. With extensive media coverage and uncharacteristically active public participation, could this public policy process be deemed 'democracy in action'? This paper will argue that this is not the case. Through a discourse analysis of the debate within two distinctly differentiated public spheres -- 1) the battling media campaigns and 2) the CRTC public hearings in November and December of 2009 -- this paper will show that the public's ability to define its own interest, using its own voice, is tarnished to such a severe degree that this policy process fails"--From Introduction (page 3).

COVID-19 and the Mass Media

2021 ◽  
pp. 509-518
Author(s):  
Subir Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Graphical Representation ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
The Government

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.

scholarly journals 50 days of war on innocent civilian: Ma’an news agency coverage of Israeli and Palestinian conflict

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4.9) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Wesam Almahallawi ◽  
Hasmah Zanuddin
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Arab World ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Government Control ◽  
News Agency ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right

Since the TV broadcasting was established in Arab countries until the 1990s, broadcasting during this specific time was based on a government control model, which derived from the view of broadcasting as an instrument of state advance that must be under the control from government. This kind of TVs, limits the broadcasting to highlight the government issue (1). In these kind of TVs, they focus with the leader’s opinion more than the Palestinian problem. By the way, the theme in Arab media determined to highlight the leader’s opinion who claims the right to speak on behalf of Palestinians. In September 1991, the first private TV in the Arab world was established when MBC went on the air from London. More private TVs followed after that like: Orbit in 1994 and ART in 1995, both based in Italy owned by Saudi businessmen, Future Television and LBC, both Lebanese based in Beirut, in 1995, and Al-Jazeera based in Qatar in 1996. In 2002 the number of the Arab TV stations was expanded to more than 150 TVS as government or privately owned, with capability of reaching the Arab people in any place in the world. This paper focuses on the media coverage of the conflict between two parties Palestine and Israel. The preview studies show that, in a conflict the media has an influential role and has responsibility for increasing violence or contributing to the resolution of conflict and mitigation of violence (2). This study examined 61 news coverage and framing of the Israel and Palestine conflict, known as the 50 days’ war from 8 July – 26 August 2014 by Ma’an News Agency, which delivers news to Ma’an TV (Palestinian satellite television station). A quantitative content analysis was employed to examine the news published during the war using five generic frames developed by (3). Holsti Inter-coder reliability and validity test value is 0.988 or 98% agreement. The results showed that conflict and human-interest frames were significantly visible compared to other frames in Ma’an news coverage. Portrayal of images of civilian killing, children and women killed in their homes and suffrage news coverage, in this war. Responsibility frame stressed on hospitals bombing and embargo of medications which reduced chances for Palestinian of immediate medical help. The economic frame highlighted the economic and financial losses of Palestinians as consequences of 50 days’ war. Most of them lost their income, businesses, agriculture land and homes and became refugees.  

scholarly journals Media coverage of major infrastructural projects

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Hezron Mogambi
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Public Address ◽  
Infrastructural Development ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government ◽  
Placement Type ◽  
Public Holidays

This paper examines the role of the media in portraying infrastructure projects in Kenya. The paper analyses print media and more specifically the main newspapers in Kenya- The Nation newspapers and The Standard newspapers published in a period of one calendar year; between January 1st 2014 and December 31st 2014.To establish which stories fall into infrastructure and related categories, the researchers identified keywords that were found in the story. These were transport, power, building and construction, telecommunication and water and sanitation. In order to understand how The Nation and The Standard newspapers primed infrastructure information. The paper looked at article placement, type of story, tone, article size, theme of article, focus, function and article prominence. It also looked at captions and graphics use. The research found that both newspapers had most of articles on infrastructure published in the inner pages leaving prime pages for other news, especially politics. Major infrastructure stories found their space on the cover page only when the President made a public address especially during Kenya’s public holidays. The study also found out that that infrastructure theme that was mostly covered was transport even as most of issues came from the government and the media only reported events as they unfolded-reactive reporting. In-depth analysis of infrastructure issues was not given emphasis. The reporters tended to only answer the elements of news; the 5Ws and H only. The impacts of the stories were not stressed nor were there investigative pieces on the subject. More space of prominence needs to be allocated to infrastructural development issues.

‘It just seemed like your normal domestic violence’: ethnic stereotypes in print media coverage of child abuse in New Zealand

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 707-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Maydell
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Ethnic Stereotypes ◽  
The Press ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Ongoing Concern

Child abuse in New Zealand is a matter of ongoing concern for the government, public officials, health practitioners and wider society, with most information on the issue coming from mass media, which have played an influential role in forming public opinion. This study investigates the coverage of serious child abuse between November 2007 and November 2009 in three largest New Zealand newspapers: The New Zealand Herald, The Dominion Post and The Press. The analysis of 205 articles shows that three-quarters of the data described severe physical abuse and/or death, and one-quarter described sexual abuse. More than half of all media pieces (56%) represented reporting of ‘crime stories’, such as police and court reports, in addition to statistical data, recommendations and critique (44%). Two cases of Nia Glassie and the Kahui twins’ deaths were sensationalised by the media and were described or mentioned in 63 articles altogether. The dominant construction of child abuse as a ‘Māori issue’ was achieved through individual framing, focused on the personalities of the perpetrators and their inferred innate characteristics, such as being prone to violence and dysfunctional by nature, which were further generalised to Māori society as a whole.

scholarly journals Spaces of becoming - Space shapes public and public (re)shapes their own spaces

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaishali Aggarwal ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
City Development ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Public Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Fights over the ‘right to the city’ have emphasized the interests of the four main actors within the city development of India since the first cases of revolting social movements in Delhi. The four actors can be classified as the social movements, the public, media and the government. The case of India Gate in Delhi is illustrative not only of how the differences between the actors come into surface, but of also of how these actors change their priorities, their stance and their tools, in order to secure their position in the city. Many scholars have analysed the role of social movements and how it evolves in the process. But what about the role of government as an entity that is in between the interests of social movements, public and media? How and why do they change their stance when a movement takes place? What are their limitations? The India Gate case can give the answers to these questions, as it examines the multiple transformations of this space over time. This paper emphasizes on the idea of Space. How space shapes public and public (re)shape their own spaces. India gate. This space has been stuck between the idea of being a space or a branded space. It was assumed that media plays a prominent role in acting like a watchdog in democracies, but this paper looks at how media if used rightfully can be forced for a good in oppressive regimes and therefore, a vigilant and alert media can act as an external trigger or an emergency- wake up call for the youth of India to take the cause of freedom seriously. Rightfully as put up by Ritish (2012), an external event or issue may allow for the manifestation of a flash fandom in the form of flash activism. Since, social movement’s needs mass media attention for amplification of their claims, the media also join the movements too create the news. Lastly, the consequences of the media coverage for social movements, in terms of organisation, reaching political change and obtaining favourable public opinion is comprehended in three different case studies.

scholarly journals Blaming threatened species: media portrayal of human–wildlife conflict

Oryx ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley A. Dayer ◽  
Alicia Williams ◽  
Emily Cosbar ◽  
Meagan Racey
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Charadrius Melodus ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Science Community ◽  
The Media ◽  
Human Conflict ◽  
The Government

AbstractRecent literature has urged the conservation science community to distinguish between human–wildlife and human–human conflict. Mislabelling conflicts is thought to constrain problem definition and hinder appropriate solutions. New to this discussion, we studied how the media is framing conflict. The focus of our research was conflict surrounding conservation of a protected species. The piping plover Charadrius melodus is federally listed as threatened on the Atlantic coast of the USA. Our research focused on characterizing the tone and framing in media coverage of the plover and its conservation. We were interested in how the source of the conflict was framed: are the species itself, policies, or the government agencies administering legal restrictions blamed for the conflict? We analysed 725 articles (199 unique articles, not including those run by multiple media sources) written about the plover in the region during January 2014–September 2015. Articles were analysed qualitatively by two coders. We found the overall tone of the unique articles was most frequently positive towards the bird and/or its conservation (48%), followed closely by neutral (or balanced) articles (46%). Few articles were negative (6%). Nonetheless, framing that blamed a source for the conflict was present in 34% of the unique articles. The plover itself was blamed in twice as many articles as the policies or government agencies enacting the regulations. This framing was also the strongest predictor of article tone. Understanding how the media portrays piping plovers can help guide organizations interested in proactive media relations and other solutions to de-escalate this conflict.

scholarly journals Tracking the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Bedggood
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Select Committee ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
Government Response ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
A Site

This paper analyses the media coverage of the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill in I he New Zealand Herald and the National Business Review which followed the Bill's passage into law. It considers the media as a 'site of struggle' through their publication of the attempts to influence the Government to change or retain measures, from contending perspectives of both businesses and trade union leaders. Their different views were strongly expressed in the initial reporting in the 'Working to Rules' series in the Business Herald which examined the new provisions for bargaining in the bill. The reports of the submissions to the Select Committee also covered diverse views from the community.The paper assesses the Government response to these viewpoints in terms of the modifications to the original Bill and compares the requirements for bargaining in the new law to those in the Employment Contracts Act 1991 (see Harbridge, 1993) with those in the Employment Relations Act (see Boxall 2001, Wilson 2001).

scholarly journals La conducta de los públicos para legitimar el acoso escolar como problema social a través de la agenda de los medios

Obra digital ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 151-167
Author(s):  
Maria Carmen Carretón Ballester ◽  
Francisco Lorenzo Sola
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Social Problem ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
School Bullying ◽  
Joint Strategy ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Agents ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion

Las noticias sobre acoso escolar en los medios de comunicación en España están despertando interés político, mediático y social en general. Este aumento de contenido en las agendas de los medios junto con el anuncio del Gobierno de elaborar una estrategia conjunta, ha suscitado nuestra hipótesis de que el acoso escolar es un problema social de interés público. No se conoce la estrategia y las acciones tomadas parecen no responder a un plan estratégico diseñado por los actores sociales y políticos. Analizar dos años de noticias, nos permite averiguar esta premisa para la campaña de prevención del acoso desde una estrategia proactiva de relaciones con los públicos.Behaviour of the general public in establishing school bullying as a social problem through the media.AbstractNews about bullying in the media in Spain is raising political, media and social interest in general. This increase in media coverage, together with the declared intention of the Government of developing a joint strategy, has given rise to the hypothesis that bullying is a social problem of public interest. The strategy for this has not yet been defined and actions undertaken to date do not seem to respond to any strategic plan of social and political agents. By analysing two years of news, we have been able to examine this premise about the campaign to prevent bullying through a proactive public relations strategy.KeywordsBullying, proactive strategy, public interest, public relations, social problem.

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