scholarly journals The ethics of news media reporting on coronavirus humor

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Miczo
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Early Phase ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Online News ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The Media

Abstract This essay explores the news media’s portrayal of humor during the early phase of COVID-19-related lockdowns. Examining a collection of online news articles reveals the media tended to frame the issue as an ethical one (e.g., “is it okay to laugh at the coronavirus?”). After reviewing work on humor ethics, a qualitative content analysis of 20 news media articles is presented. Three issues from the news stories are identified, allowing comparison of the media’s claims against the ethical principles articulated. The essay concludes with a consideration of how news media’s coverage of humor fits within a broader pandemic narrative.

Young adults know that their issues are not represented in the news: Israeli young adults and mainstream news media

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benny Nuriely ◽  
Moti Gigi ◽  
Yuval Gozansky
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Online News ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Media

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the ways socio-economic issues are represented in mainstream news media and how it is consumed, understood and interpreted by Israeli young adults (YAs). It examines how mainstream media uses neo-liberal discourse, and the ways YAs internalize this ethic, while simultaneously finding ways to overcome its limitations. Design/methodology/approach This was a mixed methods study. First, it undertook content analysis of the most popular Israeli mainstream news media among YAs: the online news site Ynet and the TV Channel 2 news. Second, the authors undertook semi-structured in-depth interviews with 29 Israeli YAs. The analysis is based on an online survey of 600 young Israelis, aged 18–35 years. Findings Most YAs did not perceive mainstream media as enabling a reliable understanding of the issues important to them. The content analysis revealed that self-representation of YAs is rare, and that their issues were explained, and even resolved, by older adults. Furthermore, most of YAs' problems in mainstream news media were presented using a neo-liberal perspective. Finally, from the interviews, the authors learned that YAs did not find information that could help them deal with their most pressing economic and social issue, in the content offered by mainstream media. For most of them, social media overcomes these shortcomings. Originality/value Contrary to research that has explored YAs’ consumerism of new media outlets, this article explores how YAs in Israel are constructed in the media, as well as the way in which YAs understand mainstream and new social media coverage of the issues most important to them. Using media content analysis and interviews, the authors found that Young Adults tend to be ambivalent toward media coverage. They understand the lack of media information: most of them know that they do not learn enough from the media. This acknowledgment accompanies their tendency to internalize the neo-liberal logic and conservative Israeli national culture, in which class and economic redistribution are largely overlooked. Mainstream news media uses neo-liberal discourse, and young adults internalize this logic, while simultaneously finding ways to overcome the limitations this discourse offers. They do so by turning to social media, mainly Facebook. Consequently, their behavior maintains the logic of the market, while also developing new social relations, enabled by social media.

scholarly journals Framing science: How opioid research is presented in online news media

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Matthias ◽  
Alice Fleerackers ◽  
Juan Pablo Alperin
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Online News ◽  
Science Journalism ◽  
Related Research ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Media ◽  
Understanding Of Science

Through their coverage and framing, popular news media play an instrumental role in shaping public perception of important issues like the opioid crisis. Using a detailed coding instrument, we analyzed how opioid-related research was covered by US and Canadian online news media in 2017 and 2018, at the height of the crisis. We find that opioid-related research is not frequently mentioned in online news media, but when it is, it is most often framed as valid, certain, and trustworthy. Our results also reveal that the media predominantly present research findings without context, providing little information about the study design, methodology, or other relevant details—although there is variability in what kind of news stories mention opioid-related research, what study details they provide, and what frames they use. Potential implications for the future of science communication and science journalism, as well as the public perception and understanding of science, are discussed.

scholarly journals #Notallcops: Exploring ‘Rotten Apple’ Narratives In Media Reporting of Lush’s 2018 ‘Spycops’ Undercover Policing Campaign

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 177-194
Author(s):  
Nathan Stephens Griffin
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
Institutional Accountability ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
High Street ◽  
Viral Nature ◽  
The Media

This article examines the media framing of the 2018 ‘paid to lie’ campaign of Lush, a high-street ethical cosmetics firm. The viral nature of Lush’s intervention into the undercover policing of activism in the United Kingdom highlights the significance of media reporting in the construction of narratives surrounding policing and activism. A qualitative content analysis was undertaken of articles published online in the immediate aftermath of the campaign launch. Based on this analysis, this article argues that the intensely polarised debate following Lush’s ‘paid to lie’ campaign is representative of a wider discursive framing battle that continues to persist today. Within this battle, the state and police establishment promote ‘rotten apple’ explanations of the undercover policing scandal that seek to individualise blame and shirk institutional accountability (Punch 2003). This is significant, as identifying systemic dimensions of the ‘spycops’ scandal is a key focus for activists involved in the ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry (Schlembach 2016).

scholarly journals ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’—Australian media industry attitudes to regulation and accountability reforms

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Lidberg
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Media Industry ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
Independent Media

When the Australian Independent Media Inquiry (IMI) published its report most mainstream media reporting focused on the suggested statutory-based News Media Council and largely ignored any discussion of the underlying issues—public trust in journalism and news media and accountability for its practices. The aim of this study was to capture the attitudes held by the media industry toward these issues. Based on a content analysis of 33 submissions to the IMI and the Convergence Review it can be concluded that only 15 percent of the submissions addressed trust or media accountability issues. Furthermore, the submissions illustrate a disconnect between the attitudes held by some media proprietors and the trust deficit reality displayed in multiple studies of the public’s attitudes to journalism and news media.

scholarly journals De-contextualisation fuels controversy: the double-edged sword of humour in a hybrid media environment

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-64
Author(s):  
Sara Ödmark
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Young Women ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
The Media

Humour has a unique way of delineating social boundaries, and comedy can function as a double-edged sword; it can strengthen bonds and bring people together, or divide through provocation and violation of social norms. As a consequence, humour controversies are telling events that contain the possibility of highlighting cultural and political sensibilities – even more in the current political landscape, with increasing media fragmentation. This study analysed four humour functions through the theoretical lens of media framing, via three cases of humorous content that caused controversies in the Swedish news media. These cases were one divisive radio roast of a politician, one TV satire segment that was received as racist, and one audio podcast with young women who challenged a Swedish political consensus climate. Framing is the power of media to select and highlight certain aspects of issues, and by extension, shape public opinion. By subjecting the media coverage of these three controversies to a qualitative content analysis, the framing was examined and discussed in the light of four humour functions: identification, clarification, enforcement, and differentiation (Meyer 2000). Furthermore, the study examined the media context and the role it played in the framing of the controversies. One main finding was that the most uniting humour function of identification could be transformed into the most dividing humour function of differentiation through a shift in media context.

scholarly journals Environmental Realities: Evaluating Climate Change Coverage of Philippine Online News Media

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Marc Agon Pacoma
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Relative Increase ◽  
Online News ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
The Media ◽  
Information Media

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues at the present time, imposing great threats to human life and society. With issues surrounding climactic information, media seemed to play the most important role in addressing this problem. The inadequacy of researches on climactic coverage by media had motivated the researcher to embark on this exploration. This content analysis compared daily coverage of online news portals (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Bulletin and Philippine Star) on climate change and climactic science-related issues from 2015-2016. The results indicated that there was a relative increase on climate change coverage by the media in a span of two years. Environmental frames, government sources, the Paris Agreement, the news section, and wired photos were the dominant themes that emerged during the coding process, which reflects and resonates similar findings of research inquiries on climate change coverage.

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