“What’s going on” in Ferguson? Online news frames of protest at the police killing of Michael Brown

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 882-901
Author(s):  
Travis A. Riddle ◽  
Kate M. Turetsky ◽  
Julia G. Bottesini ◽  
Colin Wayne Leach

Public reactions to protests are often divided, with some viewing the protest as a legitimate response to injustice and others perceiving the protest as illegitimate. We examine how online news sources oriented to different audiences frame protest, potentially encouraging these divergent reactions. We focus on online news coverage following the 2014 police shooting of a Black teenager, Michael Brown. Preregistered analyses of headlines and images and their captions showed that sources oriented toward African Americans were more likely to include content conveying racial injustice and legitimacy of the subsequent protests than sources oriented toward a general audience. In contrast, general audience sources emphasized conflict between protesters and police, making fewer references to the protesters’ cause. Whereas much work on media segregation addresses the propensity of audiences to consume different sources, our work suggests that news sources may also contribute to information fragmentation by differentially framing the same events.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-36
Author(s):  
Febri Sri Lestari ◽  
Fedri Ruluwedrata Rinawan ◽  
Irvan Afriandi ◽  
Siti Karlinah ◽  
Insi Farisa Arya ◽  
...  

Abstract The mass media plays a significant role in delivering health-related information to the wider society, so that it can be involved in health programs, including the Measles Rubella (MR) Immunization Campaign. The purpose of this program is to reduce the incidence of measles and rubella which has increased in the last five years in Indonesia. MR immunization coverage target must reach at least 95% in order to form group immunity to break the chain of transmission. However, as of the end of September 2018, the coverage of granting MR immunization nationally only reach 52,71%. This was published by online media throughout different regions in Indonesia with negative, neutral, or positive tendencies. Problems occur when exposure to the media with a negative perspective on vaccine impacts immunization coverage. Based on this, the research aims to map the trend of reporting on MR Immunization based on regions in Indonesia. The method used is content analysis. The object of this study is 410 online news about MR Immunization that was published during the second phase of MR Immunization Campaign, from August 1st until September 30th 2018 in Indonesia. The results of this research show that news coverage is dominated by national news, which is more representative of positive messages. Meanwhile, a province with the most news sources is Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD), which negative tendencies. NAD has the majority of moslem communities who are very sensitive on the sharia law issue. Therefore, unclear certification of vaccine halal became a strong argument to refuse and postpone the MR immunization, and based on the research protocol, this categorized as negative news. Therefore, the health promoters can develop health communication strategies to work more effectively with the media, especially in the regions, in informing health policies and programs, so that news that is published does not upset the public. Abstrak Media massa berperan dalam menyampaikan informasi kesehatan kepada masyarakat luas sehingga dapat dilibatkan dalam program kesehatan, termasuk Kampanye Imunisasi Measles Rubella (MR). Tujuan program ini adalah untuk menurunkan kejadian penyakit campak dan rubela yang meningkat dalam lima tahun terakhir di Indonesia. Target cakupan Imunisasi MR harus mencapai minimal 95% agar terbentuk kekebalan kelompok untuk memutuskan mata rantai penularan. Namun, sampai dengan akhir September 2018, cakupan pemberian Imunisasi MR secara nasional baru mencapai 52,71%. Hal ini dipublikasikan oleh media online dengan kecenderungan negatif, netral, atau positif yang diberitakan dari berbagai wilayah di Indonesia. Permasalahan terjadi ketika paparan media dengan perspektif negatif pada vaksin berdampak pada cakupan imunisasi. Berdasarkan hal tersebut, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memetakan kecenderungan pemberitaan tentang Imunisasi MR berdasarkan wilayah di Indonesia. Metode yang digunakan adalah analisis isi. Objek penelitian ini adalah 410 berita online tentang imunisasi MR yang dipublikasikan selama Kampanye Imunisasi MR fase II, 1 Agustus sampai dengan 30 September 2018 di Indonesia. Hasil penelitian menggambarkan bahwa pemberitaan lebih didominasi berita berskala nasional, yang lebih menggambarkan pesan yang bersifat positif. Sementara itu, wilayah provinsi yang menjadi sumber berita terbanyak adalah Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) dengan pemberitaan berkecenderungan negatif. NAD memiliki mayoritas masyarakat muslim yang peka terhadap permasalahan syariah. Oleh karena itu, ketidakjelasan sertifikasi halal vaksin menjadi alasan untuk penolakan dan penundaan program Imunisasi MR, yang dalam protokol penelitian ini dikategorikan berita negatif. Dengan demikian, promotor kesehatan dapat menyusun strategi komunikasi kesehatan agar bekerja lebih efektif dengan media, terutama di daerah, dalam menginformasikan kebijakan dan program kesehatan sehingga berita yang dipublikasikan tidak membuat resah masyarakat.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 1816-1822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia A Wackowski ◽  
Jennah M Sontag ◽  
Binu Singh ◽  
Jessica King ◽  
M Jane Lewis ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction News media may influence public perceptions and attitudes about electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), which may influence product use and attitudes about their regulation. The purpose of this study is to describe trends in US news coverage of e-cigarettes during a period of evolving regulation, science, and trends in the use of e-cigarettes. Methods We conducted a content analysis of e-cigarette topics and themes covered in US news articles from 2015 to 2018. Online news databases (Access World News, Factiva) were used to obtain US news articles from the top 34 circulating newspapers, four national wire services, and five leading online news sources. Results The number of articles increased by 75.4% between 2015 and 2018 (n = 1609). Most articles focused on policy/regulation (43.5%) as a main topic, followed by health effects (22.3%) and prevalence/trends (17.9%). Discussion about flavor bans quadrupled (6.1% to 24.6%) and discussion of youth e-cigarette use was most prevalent (58.4%) in 2018, coinciding with an increase in coverage about JUUL. JUUL was mentioned in 50.8% of 2018 articles. Across years, articles more frequently mentioned e-cigarette risks (70%) than potential benefits (37.3%). Conclusions E-cigarettes continue to be a newsworthy topic, with coverage both reflecting numerous changes and events over time, and providing repeated opportunities for informing the public and policymakers about these novel products. Future research should continue to track how discourse changes over time and assess its potential influence on e-cigarette perceptions and policy changes. Implications E-cigarette news coverage in the United States increased between 2015 and 2018 and predominantly focused on policy and regulation. Notable spikes in volume were associated with some but not all major e-cigarette events, including the FDA’s deeming rule, Surgeon General’s report, and release of the National Youth Tobacco Survey data in 2018. Coverage of the 2018 National Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Sciences report on the Public Health Consequences of E-cigarettes received minimal news coverage. The high volume in 2018 was driven in large part by coverage of the e-cigarette brand JUUL; over half of news articles in 2018 referenced JUUL specifically.


Journalism ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 626-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunver Lystbaek Vestergaard

Informal chatter has always been part of the scientific community, but with the emergence of online blogs these casual debates have become public. Here, I present a case study of how blog information influenced the online news frames during the December 2010 coverage of the arsenic-based life study. The results show how media frames were homogeneous and transformed abruptly from a positive ‘Gee Whiz’ frame towards a critical frame and lastly to a meta media frame over the course of a few days. From beginning to end, the blogosphere heavily influenced the news content, use of sources and spread of information between news outlets. Such rapid and uncontrollable influence of blogosphere information on online news coverage can be explained theoretically as an example of science grapevine communication.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate M. Turetsky ◽  
Travis A. Riddle

Selective exposure to one-sided news coverage, especially of controversial geopolitical events, may contribute to growing social polarization. Existing research on “echo chambers”—fragmented information environments that amplify homogeneous perspectives—focuses on the degree to which individuals and social media platforms shape informational segregation. Here, we explore whether news organizations directly contribute to echo chambers through the hyperlinks they embed in online articles. Using network and text analysis, we examined coverage of the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and found that online news media exhibited weak community structure and high connectivity across news outlets. However, analyses also indicated that media sources were more likely to link to coverage that was similar to their own in terms of emotional valence and stereotype-relevant aspects of the events. While hyperlinking to diverse news sources may ameliorate fragmented information environments, selectively linking to similar coverage may contribute to growing polarization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 194-210
Author(s):  
Kenneth Lee Tze Wui ◽  
◽  
Wong Win Wei ◽  

The Malaysian government’s move to introduce Jawi-Khat in the Malay-language curriculum in Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools has been fraught with tension and opposition, especially among the Chinese Malaysian community. Being the second-largest ethnic group in Malaysia, the Chinese’s negative response to the initiative has generated some implications for the country’s socio-political order. Sin Chew Daily, the first newspaper to break the news, was accused by then Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng of stirring fears among the Chinese community. Lim’s condemnation of the Chinese daily and the manner in which the whole Jawi-Khat episode played out have raised questions over the roles of Chinese newspapers vis-à-vis their counterparts of other languages in the reportage of the Jawi-Khat move. Thus, a study on the ways three top vernacular-language newspapers in Malaysia, namely, Sin Chew Daily, The Star and Harian Metro, covered this issue, was conducted. The extent of news coverage, news sources, news frames and valence of the reports were analysed. The research findings reveal that each of the newspapers framed the Jawi-Khat controversy differently. Sin Chew remains a classic ethnic newspaper, having reported extensively on the issue and actively pursued the voice of opposition of various stakeholder groups towards a policy that impacts on Chinese education, a key area vital to the Chinese community. Otherwise, the three newspapers have, to varying degrees, performed the interpretive function within a controlled media landscape and attempted to de-escalate conflicts and misunderstanding arising from the Jawi-Khat move. Keywords: Jawi-Khat, media framing, vernacular newspapers, newspaper roles, ethnic relations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katri Uibu

This article investigates how Australian online news covers domestic violence and its homicides by examining the content of 2324 domestic violence articles published online between 2014 and 2016 by ABC News Digital, The Sydney Morning Herald and news.com.au. While content analysis is used to examine the messages in the articles, twelve interviews with reporters and editors were conducted to investigate decision-making behind the coverage. Results show Australian online news coverage is murder-oriented, with reporters and editors regarding such reporting as most effective in growing readership and influencing audiences, therefore deliberately producing coverage that risks being sensational. The article investigates how these media navigate the speed and accuracy balance when covering domestic violence that, as studies indicate, emerges as homicides and breaking news.


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