scholarly journals Foreign policy fatigue? Russian mass media agenda setting strategies and public opinion on the 2018 pension reforms

Slovo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen N. Leafstedt
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Pension Reforms ◽  
Media Agenda ◽  
News Events

The scholarship on Russian media is beset with the assumption that the Russian public is unable to ‘vote with their remote’ in a homogenously pro-regime media environment and instead passively accepts messaging from the official mass media. This assumption is assessed here in a case study using quantitative content methods to examine the discrepancies between official mass media agenda-setting and public opinion during the period of salience of the news event of the 2018 pension reforms. The pension reform, as an obtrusive domestic political issue in contrast to the unobtrusive international news events which dominate Russian news coverage, stood out asone of the major events of the year in the view of the Russian public. This article finds that official mass media undertook agenda-setting measures to de-emphasize negative aspects of the pension reform news events, emphasize positive aspects, and distract public attention towards more sensationalist foreign policy news items. However, it also finds that public opinion priorities on news issues were incongruent with media agenda-setting, indicating that official mass media messages are not accepted uncritically by the Russian public. 

Coverage of Cultural Heritage in Mass Media Publications in Zimbabwe

2018 ◽  
pp. 428-442
Author(s):  
Marlvern Mabgwe ◽  
Petronella Katekwe
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Agenda ◽  
Working Hypothesis

This chapter evaluates the pattern and trend of mass media coverage of Zimbabwe's cultural heritage, with a focus on the newspaper publications produced between the years 2010 and 2015. The working hypothesis is that the level and nature of mass media coverage of cultural heritage is directly proportional to the nature of public opinion and attitude towards their own cultural heritage. As such, in order for cultural heritage to make a meaningful contribution to socio-economic and political developmental in Zimbabwe, there is a need for cultural heritage to be visible in all mass media productions. Using document analysis, questionnaires, and interviews, the research identified that the coverage of cultural heritage in mass media in Zimbabwe is alarmingly low. That jeopardizes the regard of cultural heritage as a driver for socio-economic and political development amongst the public. However, through reprioritization of media agenda-setting, media policy, and fostering of a closer collaboration between heritage managers and media professionals, the situation can be salvaged in Zimbabwe.

Elite Editorial Favorability and American Public Opinion: A Case Study of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

1987 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 303-313
Author(s):  
Neil J. Kressel
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Time Trend ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Common Time ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Arab Israeli Conflict ◽  
College Educated

The correspondence between trends in the mass media and trends in public opinion has important practical, theoretical, and methodological implications—even if we cannot untangle the causal relationships involved. The present study attempts to clarify empirically the aggregate-level mass media—public opinion connection for one major political issue, the Arab-Israeli conflict. Mass media data came from a content analysis of 867 elite newspaper editorials on the dispute (1972–1982); public opinion data came from the frequently asked Middle East “sympathy” question. Favorability measures for editorials, mass public opinion, and college-educated public opinion were highly intercorrelated, in part as a result of a common time trend. When this time trend was partialled out, significant relationships remained between editorial opinion and public opinion. In addition, events heavily covered in mass media tended to crystallize opinion among the college educated but not among the mass public.

The ways of using mass media to influence the foreign policy agenda in a democratic and non-democratic state

2017 ◽  
pp. 379-385
Author(s):  
Vitaliy Tereshchuk
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Policy Impact ◽  
Media Influence ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Media Priming ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Mass Media Influence

In the article the ways of mass media use to influence the perception of foreign policy by domestic and foreign public are reviewed. In particular, the features of applying such methods of mass media influence on public opinion as informing, priming, and propaganda by democratic and undemocratic countries are examined. Keywords: Foreign policy, impact on public opinion, mass media, priming, propaganda

Features of the use of digital diplomacy by foreign policy agencies and international organizations

2020 ◽  
pp. 96-105
Author(s):  
O. Karpovich ◽  
G. Troyanskiy
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Digital Diplomacy

Along with traditional methods of providing information through mass media (periodicals, television and radio), digital sources are also widely used in the modern world, which, although not officially registered mass media, play no less a role in shaping public opinion. The emergence of personal blogs, «live magazines», Internet sites and social networks opened a new platform and provided new opportunities. There are actors of various sizes, from presidents of major States to Housewives, from businessmen to human rights activists. Foreign policy is one of the most popular topics.

Public Opinion and the War in Vietnam

1967 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidney Verba ◽  
Richard A. Brody ◽  
Edwin B. Parker ◽  
Norman H. Nie ◽  
Nelson W. Polsby ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Domestic Policy ◽  
Recent Experience ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Life And Death

Foreign policy seems to command more public attention than domestic policy and yet—insofar as it has been, researched—public opinion on foreign policy seems to have less impact on governmental decisions than does opinion in most other issue areas. There are at least two reasons, one normative and one empirical, why public opinion can be regarded as pertinent to some foreign policy questions—especially those associated with “life and death.” Normatively, it is desirable for political leaders in a democracy to commit national resources in ways generally approved by the populace. Large scale military commtiments should, if at all possible, meet with the approval of public opinion. Empirically, if they do not, experience has shown there are circumstances in which public disapproval of the course of foreign policy may be registered in national elections. Specifically, our one recent experience with a situation of partial mobilization and a limited but large-scale and indefinite commitment to military action in Korea did in time produce a distribution of opinion that suggested the war was very unpopular. And though its precise impact on the 1952 presidential election is difficult to assess there is little doubt that the Korean issue contributed significantly to the Eisenhower landslide.Among the questions raised by the Korean experience is whether the American public will easily tolerate the prosecution of long drawn-out wars of partial mobilization. Therefore, it is not surprising that another such war, in Vietnam, has stimulated a concern with public opinion.

scholarly journals Foreign Policy: Public Opinion and Political Legacy

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-220
Author(s):  
Aaron T. Walter
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Mutual Support ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Opinion Polling

Abstract To the degree that public opinion, as domestic variable, influences a leaders decision-making in the area of foreign affairs is significant. Political leaders use public opinion polling to support government position or in attempts to mold policy position(s) in the affirmative. The following article investigates how public opinion affects U.S. presidential foreign policy decisions and to the degree those decisions are the base for political legacy. The theoretical argument is that domestic variables and leaders decisions often act in mutual support of each others in complementary interests and when not the case, it is the leader whose agenda setting or creating a frame impacts public opinion.

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