‘The BP is a great British company’: The discursive transformation of an environmental disaster into a national economic problem

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-127
Author(s):  
Rahel Cramer
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Research Question ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Problem ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Underlying Assumption ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Media

In the contemporary globalized economy, multinational companies have come to hold considerable power that may previously have rested with nation states. However, state structures remain relevant. With Brexit, the year 2016 featured an exemplary case in which the ongoing importance of nation states came to the fore. Preceding the British referendum to exit the European Union (EU), discourses of national identity were deployed to promote a vote for the anti-globalization campaign. It is against this background that this research investigates how the relationship between multinational corporations and nation states is constructed in news discourse. The underlying assumption is that news actively construct rather than merely reflects the nature of this relationship. Drawing on Social Actor Analysis and Transitivity as a theoretical framework, this study examines news coverage of the BP oil spill that occurred in the United States in 2010 but was caused by a multinational company headquartered in the United Kingdom. The main research question is ‘How does the media establish a link between multinational corporations and nation states?’. To address this central question, this study investigates how (1) corporate responsibility is assigned, (2) the role of the nation state is portrayed and (3) victim status is allocated in the news. Findings show that the nature of the problem is constructed differently according to diverging national interests or priorities of the two nations represented by the media sources analyzed. The study indicates that the discourse around British nationality emphasized in the political struggle around Brexit was already mobilized extensively in the years leading up to the referendum.

scholarly journals Methodology to Study Behavioral Aggression Due to the Impact of Television Programs

2015 ◽  
pp. 8-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yurii Havrylets ◽  
Volodymyr Rizun ◽  
Sergii Tukaiev ◽  
Mykola Makarchuk
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Media Effects ◽  
Aggressive Behaviour ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Television Programs ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Ability To Act ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Impact

The problem of violence on television and its impact on behavioural aggression of the audience occupies a leading position in media effects studies. The main objective of the study was to explore the available methodology used by scientists in the United States and in the European Union to explore the behavioural aggression due to the impact of television programs. Through the classification of findings of the television-induced aggression empirical studies, the methodological framework of the main research methods in this field was formulated. This structure contains two basic types of research methods. First one studies the media-induced aggressive behaviour (using observation and fixing of aggression acts); second one explores the media impact on viewers’ aggressive inclinations. The latter type of techniques does not deal with the behaviour, but only with the ability to act aggressively, and with its help the researcher can only make inference about the likelihood of aggressive actions in the future. Thus, an empirical study of aggressive behaviour is in many aspects more complicated, but this approach allows obtaining more statistically significant data. Instead of that, evaluating aggressive inclinations enables accumulating a large amount of raw (unprocessed) data in faster and easier way. Results / findings. The first attempt was made to systemize all the methods of the TV-induced aggression studies, used by the U.S. and the EU scientists in their respective explorations. Special emphasis was made on the usage of the psycho-physiological measurements in the experimental research of the TV violence impact. It was found that due to the lack of sufficient veracity in the estimation of the impact of long-term media effects, the methods of fixing the short-term effects prevail in the majority of respective studies. Our further studies in this respect will be concentrated on the problematic of formation of aggressive tendencies under the influence of television programs in the long run.

The Commercial Fourth Estate in the 2014–2019 Election Campaigns

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katia Mihailova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Fourth Estate ◽  
Main Research ◽  
The Media

The paper presents results of media monitoring during the election campaigns held in Bulgaria between 2014 and 2019 – after the adoption of the new Electoral Code in 2014 until the last local elections in 2019. The main research question is to what extent the media as mediators in the election campaigns know, respect and comply with the legal regulations concerning their activities during such campaigns. The results outline the models of legal socialization of the Fourth Estate in the election campaigns. They also show patterns of compliance and violation of the legal framework. In addition, they reflect the way in which the media work to change the regulations in question. The research sample included between 117 and 180 media service providers in various election campaigns. There were representatives of all media subfields – traditional media, new media, yellow media, brown media, Prokopiev’s media, Peevski’s media, as well as Russian and American “propaganda media”. The period of research includes almost two full election cycles ‒ two parliamentary elections, two European elections, two local elections, and one presidential election which was held after the clear definition of the legal framework for media in the 2014 Electoral Code. No changes were made to this framework during the study and prior to the publication of this paper. This leads to conclusions regarding the electoral legislation and the regulation of the media system in the electoral process.

Consumption Patterns and Cultural Values in Europe

2013 ◽  
pp. 211-257
Author(s):  
Agnes Neulinger ◽  
Tino Bech-Larsen ◽  
Jacob Rosendahl ◽  
Audur Hermannsdóttir ◽  
Regina Karveliene ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Drinking Behaviour ◽  
Drinking Patterns ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Beverage Consumption ◽  
Main Research

The chapter focuses on cultural differences in consumption across Europe and describes general attitudes towards consumption and brands, the significance of shopping, and how these are linked to the motives of consumption of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. These topics have been analysed using the Hofstede dimensions, and the evaluation also considers regional differences within the European Union. The main objective of this research is to attempt to understand consumption patterns and national cultural dimensions, general consumption values, and what their connections are to alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinking patterns. The main research question is how cultural styles influence consumption styles within Europe. This analysis concluded that some European societies are more adaptable to cross-cultural influence than others in relation to beverage consumption. The authors’ findings suggest that the cultural dimensions identified by Hofstede supported the understanding of cultural differences related to purchasing, brands and beverage consumption both at national and individual levels. However, there is an overlap between some countries in their drinking behaviour, which supports the claim that existing cultural patterns cannot fully explain the new beverage trends, especially in alcohol consumption. This indicates the necessity of a shift toward new dimensions with regard to beverage consumption and/or eventually consumer behaviour.

LANDSCAPING PALESTINE: REFLECTIONS OF ENCLOSURE IN A HISTORICAL MIRROR

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Fields
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
South African ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gated Communities ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
Nation States ◽  
New Generation ◽  
And Control

When in 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, and South African apartheid soon followed, it appeared even to political realists of the period that such systems, with their landscapes of walls and practices of separation, would rapidly be consigned to historical memory. In one of the great ironies of recent history, however, a new generation of such landscapes is proliferating in the wake of 1989, used by practitioners of power to promote systems of segregation and control movements of groups designated as threats by virtue of their representation as “other.” Reflecting collective psychologies of fear, these environments range from urban-based gated communities, where class prejudices against the poor and apprehension about crime coalesce in “fortified enclaves” within Cities of Walls, to borderlands between nation–states where hostility to immigrants and prejudices against ethnic others converge in creating what scholars describe as The Wall Around the West. Despite differences, these landscapes share a similar aim: they use built environments as defensive fortifications to preempt the circulation of people across territorial space based on class, religious, and ethnic divides. In this way, gated communities in São Paulo and Los Angeles, the walled borderlands of Melilla and Ceuta separating the European Union from Africa, and the walled border of Operation Gatekeeper separating the United States from Mexico, are broadly comparable.

From Afghanistan to Chechnya: News Coverage by Izvestia and the New York Times

2000 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga V. Malinkina ◽  
Douglas M. McLeod
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
The New York Times ◽  
Media System ◽  
Russian Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact

This study analyzed newspaper coverage of conflicts in Afghanistan and Chechnya by the New York Times and the Russian newspaper Izvestia to examine the impact of political change on news coverage. The Soviet Union's dissolution included dramatic changes to the Russian media system. In addition, the dissipation of the Cold War changed the foreign policy of the United States. A content analysis revealed that the changes to the media system in Russia had a profound impact on Izvestia's coverage, but political changes had little impact on the New York Times' coverage.

scholarly journals Mapping the coevolution, leadership and financing of research on viral vectors, RNAi, CRSPR/Cas9 and other genomic editing technologies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Fajardo Ortiz ◽  
Annie Shattuck ◽  
Stefan Hornbostel
Keyword(s):  
Viral Vectors ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Network Clustering ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Genomic Editing

AbstractIn the present investigation, we set out to determine and compare the evolution of the research on viral vectors, RNAi and genomic editing platforms as well as determine the profile of the main research institutions and funding agencies. A search of papers on viral vectors RNAi, CRISPR/Cas, TALENs, ZFNs and meganucleases was carried out in the Web of Science. A citation network of 16,746 papers was constructed. An analysis of network clustering combined with text mining was performed. In the case of viral vectors a long term process of incremental innovation in which the clusters of papers are organized around specific improvements of clinical relevance was identified. The most influential investigations on viral vectors were conducted in the United States and the European Union where the main funders were government agencies. The trajectory of RNAi research included clusters related to the study of RNAi as a biological phenomenon and its use in functional genomics, biomedicine and pest control. A British philanthropic organization and a US pharmaceutical company played a key role in the development of basic RNAi research and clinical application respectively, in addition to government agencies and academic institutions. In the case of CRISPR/Cas research, basic science discoveries led to the development of technical improvements, and these two in turn provided the information required for the development of biomedical, agricultural, livestock and industrial applications. The trajectory of CRISPR/Cas research exhibits a geopolitical division of the investigation efforts between the US, as the main producer of basic research and technical improvements, and China increasingly leading the applied research. A set of philanthropic foundations played a key role in specific stages of the CRISPR/Cas research. Our results reflect a change in the model in the financing of science and the emergence of China as a scientific superpower, with implications for the trajectory of development for applications of genomic technologies.

scholarly journals THE RESURGENCE OF NATIONALISM: THE BREAKUP OF YUGOSLAVIA

2020 ◽  
pp. 39-42
Author(s):  
Sergey Asaturov ◽  
Andrei Martynov
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Balkan Wars ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Balkan States ◽  
The Eu

The choice between modern nation-building and integration into supranational European and Euro-Atlantic structures remains a strategic challenge for the Balkan countries. Success in solving this problem of predominantly mono-ethnic Croatia and Slovenia has not yet become a model to follow. Serbian and Albanian national issues cannot be resolved. Serbia's defeat in the Balkan wars of 1991–1999 over the creation of a "Greater Serbia" led to the country's territorial fragmentation. Two Albanian national states emerged in the Balkans. Attempts to create a union of Kosovo and Albania could turn the region into a whirlpool of ultra-nationalist contradictions. The European Union has started accession negotiations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro. The success of these negotiations depends on the readiness of the EU and the ability of these Balkan states to adopt European norms and rules. The accession of all Balkan nation-states to the European Union must finally close the "Balkan window" of the vulnerability of the united Europe. Nation-building in the Balkans on the basis of ethnic nationalism sharply contradicts the purpose and current values of the European integration process. For more than three decades, the EU has been pursuing a policy of human rights, the rule of law, democracy and economic development in the Balkans. The region remains vulnerable to the influences of non-European geopolitical powers: the United States, Russia, Turkey, and China. The further scenario of the great Balkan geopolitical game mainly depends on the pro-European national consolidation of the Balkan peoples and the effectiveness of the European Union's strategy in the Balkans.

The Relationships Between Climate Change News Coverage, Policy Debate, and Societal Decisions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. B. Tindall ◽  
Mark C.J. Stoddart ◽  
Candis Callison
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
General Public ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Practices

This article considers the relationship between news media and the sociopolitical dimensions of climate change. Media can be seen as sites where various actors contend with one another for visibility, for power, and for the opportunity to communicate, as well as where they promote their policy preferences. In the context of climate change, actors include politicians, social movement representatives, scientists, business leaders, and celebrities—to name a few. The general public obtain much of their information about climate change and other environmental issues from the media, either directly or indirectly through sources like social media. Media have their own internal logic, and getting one’s message into the media is not straightforward. A variety of factors influence what gets into the media, including media practices, and research shows that media matter in influencing public opinion. A variety of media practices affect reporting on climate change─one example is the journalistic norm of balance, which directs that actors on both sides of a controversy be given relatively equal attention by media outlets. In the context of global warming and climate change, in the United States, this norm has led to the distortion of the public’s understanding of these processes. Researchers have found that, in the scientific literature, there is a very strong consensus among scientists that human-caused (anthropogenic) climate change is happening. Yet media in the United States often portray the issue as a heated debate between two equal sides. Subscription to, and readership of, print newspapers have declined among the general public; nevertheless, particular newspapers continue to be important. Despite the decline of traditional media, politicians, academics, NGO leaders, business leaders, policymakers, and other opinion leaders continue to consume the media. Furthermore, articles from particular outlets have significant readership via new media access points, such as Facebook and Twitter. An important concept in the communication literature is the notion of framing. “Frames” are the interpretive schemas individuals use to perceive, identify, and label events in the world. Social movements have been important actors in discourse about climate change policy and in mobilizing the public to pressure governments to act. Social movements play a particularly important role in framing issues and in influencing public opinion. In the United States, the climate change denial countermovement, which has strong links to conservative think tanks, has been particularly influential. This countermovement is much more influential in the United States than in other countries. The power of the movement has been a barrier to the federal government taking significant policy action on climate change in the United States and has had consequences for international agreements and processes.

De beleidsagenda en het 'wereldbeeld' dat Vlaamse media aanreiken

Res Publica ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-196
Author(s):  
Peter Janssens
Keyword(s):  
News Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Main Question ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
International Issues ◽  
International Status ◽  
World Image ◽  
Selection Of

Given the two important functions of the media, offering a world image and setting the public agenda, the main question in this article is : "What is the image of society offered by the media ?" For that purpose three years of the radio programme "BRT-Aktueel" are analyzed on the basis of a printed index. A distinction is made between home news, news on states, news on groups of countries and international organizations. The main conclusions are :1. Most of the coverage concerns foreign issues ;2. Within each category there is a clear influence of temporary events. This influence seems more important for foreign topics ;3. The news coverage is strongly concentrated on a relatively small number of issues. This conclusion applies on all categories ;4. Social and domestic policy dominate the home news ;5. The coverage of international issues deals mostly with Europe, then with the USSR, and the United States. Other countries are part of the periphery and get attention when a major crisis occurs.The question rises which factors determinate the selection of issues. Within the limits of this research a few factors can be mentioned : geographical proximity, the structure of the media, the role of press agencies, the international status of a country, the selection by the journalist. It is quite clear that this problem of objectivity ofthe media is a major problem which is linked to the role of the media in a democratie society.

What’s in a Word?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy A. Naples
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
State Governance ◽  
The Media ◽  
Materialist Feminist

Drawing on a materialist feminist analysis of austerity discourse, this chapter foregrounds the dynamics of gender, race, nation, and class to put into sharp relief the “relations of ruling” that contour the everyday lives of diverse individuals, families, communities, and nations during and following the Great Recession of 2008–9. This approach allows for a comparison of the role of the state in the United States and Europe and considers the intersection of the media, state actors, and economic analysts in post-liberal state governance. This multi-institutional approach enhances our understanding of general patterns across the United States and the European Union as well as differences between nations.

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