How does beauty shape political television news? The effect of Israeli politicians’ facial attractiveness on the tone of their news coverage

Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1397-1414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Markowitz-Elfassi ◽  
Yariv Tsfati
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Facial Attractiveness ◽  
Political Consultants ◽  
Unit Increase ◽  
The Public Sphere

Media coverage plays an important role in the political career of politicians. The news media attention that politicians receive depends not only on political and socio-demographic variables, but also on their communication skills and personal characteristics such as physical appearance. This study explores the effect of facial attractiveness on the tone of the televised news coverage of Israeli parliament members. Results demonstrate a positive association between facial attractiveness and the overall coverage. In addition, each unit increase on the attractiveness scale was associated with an increase of 34 percent in the expected number of favorable appearances on TV news, but this association was slightly above the accepted 0.05 criterion for hypothesis testing. There was no significant effect of facial attractiveness on unfavorable or neutral coverage. These findings are interpreted. Implications for journalistic practices, political consultants, and access to the public sphere are discussed.

Looking over the channel: The balance of media coverage about the “refugee crisis” in Germany and the UK

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Maurer ◽  
Jörg Haßler ◽  
Simon Kruschinski ◽  
Pablo Jost
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
British Government ◽  
News Value ◽  
The Uk

Abstract This study compares the balance of newspaper and television news coverage about migration in two countries that were differently affected by the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015 in terms of the geopolitical involvement and numbers of migrants being admitted. Based on a broad consensus among political elites, Germany left its borders open and received about one million migrants mainly from Syria during 2015. In contrast, the conservative British government was heavily attacked by oppositional parties for closing Britain’s borders and, thus, restricting immigration. These different initial situations led to remarkable differences between the news coverage in both countries. In line with news value theory, German media outlets reported much more on migration than did their British counterparts. In line with indexing theory, German news coverage consonantly reflected the consensual view of German political elites, while British news media reported along their general editorial lines.

scholarly journals The ignored audience: A multi-method reception study on children and television news in Albania

Childhood ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emiljano Kaziaj ◽  
Sofie Van Bauwel
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
News Media ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Broadcast News ◽  
Emotional Maturity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Reception Study ◽  
The Public Sphere

Children are not considered to be an appropriate audience for news coverage based on their presumed lack of emotional maturity, critical thinking and proper knowledge. This article challenges these views by presenting the opinions of children aged 10–15 who report having watched broadcast news nearly every day. Additionally, the views of adults aged 25–62 are investigated. Children contest to the ways they are being portrayed by the news media and demonstrate their need to be considered as active participants in the public sphere, which is presented by the news media as an exclusive domain for adults.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn J. Parry-Giles
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Gendered Spaces ◽  
Gendered Politics ◽  
Visual Framing ◽  
American Nation

This introductory chapter discusses the major themes that have informed the news coverage of Hillary Clinton since the start of her public life. In particular, emphasis is placed on news media and its preoccupation with “authenticity”—an issue that has often permeated media coverage of Clinton. This chapter briefly sets out the evolutionary news narratives and visual framing devices used to cover one very public political woman over the span of sixteen years. Furthermore, it considers the historical and gendered spaces of the American nation-state, wherein this coverage is situated. As the chapter shows, scholarship on nationalism and its connection to theories of character and authenticity, gendered politics, and news function as the primary critical lenses used to examine the television news coverage of Hillary Clinton.

scholarly journals Enduring Gender Bias in Reporting on Political Elite Positions

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Hooghe ◽  
Laura Jacobs ◽  
Ellen Claes
Keyword(s):  
Gender Bias ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Multilevel Regression ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Women In Parliament

In Belgium, like in numerous other democracies, the representation of women in parliament has risen sharply in recent decades, partly because of gender quota legislation. This rapid evolution implies that traditional notions on the presence of gender bias in media reporting need to be re-assessed. Relying on data from more than six thousand full newscasts, we examine the allotted speaking time to members of parliament (MPs) from 2003 until 2011 in the two main television news broadcasts in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to determine which factors influence the probability and volume of television news coverage of MPs. The results indicate that—even controlling for alternative explanations—news media persist in a biased treatment of female MPs: Female MPs are significantly less likely to be allotted speaking time, and they receive less speaking time than their male colleagues. Moreover, results show that this gap in media coverage is present especially for elite and thus newsworthy positions. Apparently, gender bias in the media persists, even when the political system evolves rapidly toward equal representation.

Issue ownership as a determinant of political parties’ media coverage

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Van Camp
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Good News ◽  
Issue Ownership ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Source Of Information

Abstract For many citizens, news media are the most important source of information about relevant political topics and actors. As a consequence, it is crucial to investigate who gains media coverage and why. Leaning on two classic news sourcing criteria, suitability and availability, we claim that issue owners can be seen as good news sources. By combining a content analysis of television news with data collected through a journalist survey, we investigate whether issue ownership is a determinant of political parties’ news coverage. Results confirm that issue ownership is a predictor of parties’ news coverage, even when controlling for ministerial competences.

Do Auditors Respond to Media Coverage? Evidence from China

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen X. Gong ◽  
Ferdinand A. Gul ◽  
Liwei Shan
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Audit Fees ◽  
Good News ◽  
High Coverage ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Financial News ◽  
Using Data

SYNOPSIS This paper examines whether news coverage of client firms is associated with their audit fees. Using data from China listed firms during 2004–2013, we find that high coverage client firms are on average charged higher audit fees, irrespective of the media tone. This positive association is stronger for large auditors than for small auditors, and for bad news than for good news. The main results hold for both state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs, and for both politically connected and non-connected firms. The results are robust after controlling for the effects of information asymmetry, auditor choice, internal corporate governance, and alternative measurements of the key variables. Overall, our evidence is supportive of the view that auditors assess high coverage clients as higher risk audits requiring greater audit efforts. We conclude that the financial news media plays a disciplining role in China through its potential to trigger reputational sanctions and regulatory action.

Elite News Coverage of Climate Change

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxwell Boykoff ◽  
Gesa Luedecke
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

During the past three decades, elite news media have become influential translators of climate change linking science, policy, and the citizenry. Historical trends in public discourse—shaped in significant part by elite media—demonstrate news media’s critical role in shaping public perception and the level of concern towards climate change. Media representations of climate change and global warming are embedded in social, cultural, political, and economic dimensions that influence individual-level processes such as everyday journalistic practices. Media have a strong influence on policy decision-making, attitudes, perspectives, intentions, and behavioral change, but those connections can be challenging to pinpoint; consequently, examinations of elite news coverage of climate change, particularly in recent decades, have sought to gain a stronger understanding of these complex and dynamic webs of interactions. In so doing, research has more effectively traced how media have taken on varied roles in the climate change debate, from watch dogs to lap dogs to guard dogs in the public sphere. Within these areas of research, psychological aspects of media influence have been relatively underemphasized. However, interdisciplinary and problem-focused research investigations of elite media coverage stand to advance considerations of public awareness, discourse, and engagement. Elite news media critically contribute to public discourse and policy priorities through their “mediating” and interpretative influences. Therefore, a review of examinations of these dynamics illuminate the bridging role of elite news coverage of climate change between formal science and policy, and everyday citizens in the public sphere.

Welcome to the Party

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khadijah Costley White
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Audience Appeal

This chapter lays out the Tea Party’s history as a mass-mediated construction in the context of journalism, political communication, and social movement studies. It argues that the news coverage of the Tea Party primarily chronicled its meaning, appeal, motivations, influence, and circulation—an emphasis on its persona more than its policies. In particular, the news media tracked the Tea Party as a brand, highlighting its profits, marketability, brand leaders, and audience appeal. The Tea Party became a brand through news media coverage; in defining it as a brand, the Tea Party was a story, message, and cognitive shortcut that built a lasting relationship with citizen-consumers through strong emotional connections, self-expression, consumption, and differentiation.

Just Like Leaves in the Wind? Exploring the Effect of the Interplay of Media Coverage and Personal Characteristics on Issue Salience

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agatha Kratz ◽  
Harald Schoen
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Impact

This chapter explores the effect of the interplay of personal characteristics and news coverage on issue salience during the 2009 to 2015 period and during the election campaign in 2013. We selected four topics that played a considerable role during this period: the labor market, pensions and healthcare, immigration, and the financial crisis. The evidence from pooled cross-sectional data and panel data supports the notion that news coverage affects citizens’ issue salience. For obtrusive issues, news coverage does not play as large a role as for rather remote topics like the financial crisis and immigration. The results also lend credence to the idea that political predilections and other individual differences are related to issue salience and constrain the impact of news coverage on voters’ issue salience. However, the evidence for the interplay of individual differences and media coverage proved mild at best.

Media coverage of the unfolding crisis of domestic terrorism in the United States, 1990–2020

2021 ◽  
pp. 2046147X2199601
Author(s):  
Diana Zulli ◽  
Kevin Coe ◽  
Zachary Isaacs ◽  
Ian Summers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Domestic Terrorism ◽  
Definitional Uncertainty

Public relations research has paid considerable attention to foreign terrorist crises but relatively little attention to domestic ones—despite the growing salience of domestic terrorism in the United States. This study content analyzes 30 years of network television news coverage of domestic terrorism to gain insight into four theoretical issues of enduring interest within the literature on news framing and crisis management: sourcing, contextualization, ideological labeling, and definitional uncertainty. Results indicate that the sources called upon to contextualize domestic terrorism have shifted over time, that ideological labels are more often applied on the right than the left, and that definitional uncertainty has increased markedly in recent years. Implications for the theory and practice of public relations and crisis management are discussed.

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