scholarly journals A Case Study of Functional Subjectivity in Media Coverage: The Gulf War on TV

1996 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lise Garon
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Television News ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Influence Strategies ◽  
International Media ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Time News ◽  
Cas A

Abstract: This paper tests the hypothesis of functional subjectivity through empirical data about international media coverage. The Gulf War was chosen as the test case. Twenty-eight evenings of prime-time news, from CNN, TV5, CBC, and CBV--all subject to the same military propaganda and censorship--were compared in order to determine the relationship between subjectivity in television news reports and the media's hypothetical influence strategies. The four networks took an ambiguous stance toward military information. However, their subjective reports were compatible with their national positions and possible influence strategies that aim to capture the public eye. Résumé: Ce texte vise à vérifier empiriquement l'hypothèse de la subjectivité fonctionnelle dans l'information internationale transmise par les médias. L'étude de cas a porté sur la guerre du Golfe. Vingt-huit soirées de journaux télévisés, chez CNN, TV5, CBC et CBV, tous soumis à la même propagande militaire et à la même censure, ont été comparées dans le but d'examiner si le dosage objectivité/subjectivité ne pouvait pas correspondre à de possibles stratégies visant à capter ou à maintenir un auditoire. Les données recueillies indiquent que ce dosage a été compatible avec les situations nationales respectives des quatre réseaux et la gestion de leur image.

Professional or personal framing? International media coverage of the Israel–Hamas prisoner exchange deal

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuval Karniel ◽  
Amit Lavie-Dinur ◽  
Tal Samuel Azran
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Television News ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
International Media ◽  
Fox News ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Quantitative Content ◽  
Political Events ◽  
News Networks

This article explores whether national political agendas influenced the content of domestic and foreign television news media coverage of the 2011 Israel–Hamas Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal. The deal, which released Israeli soldier Shalit in exchange for 1,027 prisoners, is the largest prisoner exchange agreement in Israeli history for a single live soldier, but the third largest prisoner exchange agreement as a whole. A quantitative content analysis was conducted on 2,162 news reports from five international and national news networks – BBC, CNN, Fox and Israel’s Channels 1 and 2. The findings suggest important differences in the way foreign and national news networks cover controversial political events. Findings reveal that Israeli networks strongly aligned themselves with the government’s position, while the BBC provided the most balanced coverage. Prominent differences were found between the two US channels – CNN and Fox News. This work builds on a growing body of research on media framing of political events.

scholarly journals Breaking the language barrier? Comparing TV news frames across texts in different languages

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-420
Author(s):  
Sumaya Al Nahed
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Television News ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
News Frames ◽  
International Media ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Tone Of Voice ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
The Impact

This article examines two factors which have become increasingly important in today’s multi-channel international media environment, but which add significant extra levels of complexity to framing analysis: language differences and tone of voice. Through case studies examining English and Arabic language television news reports, the article considers some of the difficulties facing researchers who aim to compare spoken texts in different languages about the same events. In particular, the author focuses on the different cultural understandings of the appropriateness of emotive language in Arabic and English language journalism, and argues that in order to analyse the framing of stories in television news it is necessary to take account of the role of reporter tone in building frames. By comparing Al Jazeera’s and the BBC’s coverage of the 2011 Arab uprisings, the article aims to bridge some methodological gaps in this area, and to advance the reliability and validity of studies that attempt to compare news frames of the same events in different languages. It also considers the additional challenge of comparing tones of voice, particularly if they fluctuate throughout the story. Ultimately, the article proposes ways of going beyond literal understandings of both language and tone in order to establish the impact of both on the construction of news frames.

Lawyers and Courts in French Popular Culture

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Villez
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Television News ◽  
Legal Culture ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Reports ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
Over Time

From watching imported American popular culture dramas focusing on criminal justice, French television viewers have become confused as to how their own legal system really works. They have erroneous expectations of behaviours in court, like addressing judges by the wrong title, a title that comes from poor dubbing. Or they will refuse to answer questions, thinking they have Fifth Amendment protections, when they do not. They know very little of the organization of courtroom space. Since it is forbidden by law to take photographs or film trials in France, it is difficult to bring accurate court images to the public. The French produce police dramas, but very few series or made-for-television movies on justice, thus providing no alternatives for these erroneous criteria. They do, however, produce documentaries and docudramas dealing with past investigations or with timely issues such as recidivism or reintegration into society after prison. Documentaries, although pertinent, give viewers only one-shot access to the representations of justice and the legal professions they contain. The do not facilitate the acquisition over time of a legal culture. In addition to the confusion, the French have a negative image of lawyers as motivated by money and politics rather than justice. Films and French television fictions are responsible for this impression. Television news reports are short and give incomplete accounts of the law or on-going proceedings. Sometimes lawyers are interviewed in these reports, but never prosecutors or judges. Judges and prosecutors are magistrats, not lawyers. They train in different institutions from lawyers and are civil servants, so they are not as likely as lawyers to be making a lot of money, nor are they free to make public statements. The image of these professions is consequently more positive in the French imagination as portrayed in the popular culture.

scholarly journals Media coverage of calls to rename low-risk cancers: a content analysis

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. e038087
Author(s):  
Brooke Nickel ◽  
Ray Moynihan ◽  
Alexandra Barratt ◽  
Juan P Brito ◽  
Kirsten McCaffery
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Invasive Treatment ◽  
International Media ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Future Work

ObjectivesThe use of more medicalised labels can increase both concern about illness and the desire for more invasive treatment. This study analyses the media’s coverage of an Analysis article in The BMJ which generated a large amount of high-profile international media coverage. It aims to understand how to better communicate messages about low-risk cancers and overdiagnosis to the public.DesignContent analysis of media coverage.SettingMedia was identified by Isentia Media Portal, searched in Google News and cross-checked in Factiva and Proquest databases from August 2018.MethodsMedia headlines, full text and open access public comments responding to the coverage on the article proposing to ‘rename low-risk conditions currently labelled as cancer’ were analysed to determine the main themes.Results45 original media articles and their associated public comments (n=167) were identified and included in the analysis. Overall, headlines focused on cancer generally and there was little mention of ‘low-risk’, ‘overdiagnosis’ or ‘overtreatment’. The full text generally presented a more balanced view of the evidence and were supportive of the proposal, however, public responses tended to be more negative towards the idea of renaming low-risk cancers and indicated confusion. Comments seemed to focus on the headlines rather than the full article.ConclusionsThis study offers a novel insight into media coverage of the complex and counterintuitive problem of overdiagnosis. Continued deliberation on how to communicate similar topics to the public through the mainstream media is needed. Future work in the area of low-risk cancer communication should consider the powerful impact of people’s previous experience with a cancer diagnosis and the criticism about being paternalistic and concealing the truth from patients.

scholarly journals Television News Coverage of COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria: Missed Opportunities to Promote Health Due to Ownership and Politics

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110326
Author(s):  
Oberiri Destiny Apuke ◽  
Bahiyah Omar
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Media Ownership ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
Negative Tone ◽  
Privately Owned

This study examined Television news coverage of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria from February 2020 to July 2020. The focus was on African Independent Television (AIT), a privately owned TV, and Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), a government-owned TV. We also interviewed ( n = 30) participants to understand their view on media coverage of the pandemic. We found that the TV stations paid adequate attention to the issues of COVID-19. However, the private media allocated more prominence to the coverage of COVID-19. By implication, the private media had more COVID-19 stories telecasted on its headline which also appeared as the first headline in many cases. Furthermore, they had more stories that were aired 61 seconds and above. The findings also showed that the government media outlet cited more of government officials while the private media dueled more on the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The private media had more negative tone stories, and most of its stories used visual and motion footages. Overall, our findings suggest that media ownership and politics play a large role in the coverage of COVID-19 in Nigeria. This has affected the attitude of the public as many of them no longer see the pandemic as something serious, but rather politically motivated virus to highlight the failings of the political party in power.

“We've toiled without end”: Publicity, Crisis, and the Suicide “Epidemic” in Greece

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 1007-1036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Davis
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Suicide Rate ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
International Media ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Many ◽  
Historical Difference

AbstractThis paper addresses the rising suicide rate in Greece since the economic crisis began in 2008. By 2011, Greek and international media were reporting the Greek suicide rate as the fastest rising in Europe; dozens of “spectacular” public suicides were taken as symptoms of an “epidemic.” In this paper, I explore different accounts of this “epidemic”: statistical studies and press reports on suicide since the crisis; notes written by people who committed or attempted suicide in public during the crisis; and narratives of suicidality from psychiatric patients before the crisis, in dialogue with local psychiatric epidemiologies. These accounts summon three axes of comparison around suicide in Greece: historical difference, defined by the economic crisis and the time before; locale, contrasting the public sphere of media coverage and consumption with a particular region distinguished by its “suicidogenic” features; and evidence, moving from the public discourse on suicide to clinical ethnographic research that I conducted in northeastern Greece a decade ago. I show that each way of accounting for suicide challenges the epistemologies and evidence at work in the others; the tensions and the interactions among them are signs of indeterminacy in suicide itself, taken as an object of inquiry. In the public discourse on the Greek crisis, the many meanings of suicide have been condensed and fixed as a politics of protest. Yet, I argue, comparison among epistemologies of suicide and recognition of its indeterminacy generate a space for thinking about suicide beyond the publicity of the crisis.

scholarly journals Quand la droite nationaliste montre les minarets : la médiatisation ambiguë d’une initiative populaire en Suisse

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Television News ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Program ◽  
Public Recognition ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Using Data

This contribution addresses the anti-minaret referendum accepted by the Swiss people in 2009, using data drawn from the main television news program in French-speaking Switzerland. The analysis tries to point out ambiguities in the media coverage of this referendum and to show how increasing the Muslims’ visibility worked against their public recognition. The clarification of the concept of visibility pays attention to the ways in which certain actors (politicians of the nationalist right) force others (the Muslims of Switzerland) to appear in the public sphere, creating controversy and publicizing their identity aspirations. This investigation leads to an inquiry on the normative conditions necessary for democratic debate.Cette contribution revient sur l’initiative anti-minarets acceptée par le peuple suisse en 2009, à partir de matériau provenant du principal journal de la Télévision suisse romande. L’analyse tente de ressaisir les ambiguïtés inhérentes à la médiatisation de cette initiative et de montrer comment la visibilisation des musulmans a joué en défaveur de leur reconnaissance publique. L’élucidation du concept de visibilité se veut attentive à certaines formes d’instrumentalisation par des acteurs (des politiciens de la droite nationaliste) qui en forcent d’autres (les musulmans de Suisse) à apparaître dans l’espace public, afin de susciter une controverse et publiciser leur programme identitaire. L’enquête débouche sur une interrogation relative aux conditions normatives nécessaires à la tenue d’un débat démocratique.

scholarly journals No buzz for bees: Media coverage of pollinator decline

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (2) ◽  
pp. e2002552117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott L. Althaus ◽  
May R. Berenbaum ◽  
Jenna Jordan ◽  
Dan A. Shalmon
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Pollinator Decline ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Time News ◽  
Population Crisis ◽  
Pollinator Declines ◽  
Pollinator Populations

Although widespread declines in insect biomass and diversity are increasing concerns within the scientific community, it remains unclear whether attention to pollinator declines has also increased within information sources serving the general public. Examining patterns of journalistic attention to the pollinator population crisis can also inform efforts to raise awareness about the importance of declines of insect species providing ecosystem services beyond pollination. We used the Global News Index developed by the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign to track news attention to pollinator topics in nearly 25 million news items published by two American national newspapers and four international wire services over the past four decades. We found vanishingly low levels of attention to pollinator population topics relative to coverage of climate change, which we use as a comparison topic. In the most recent subset of ∼10 million stories published from 2007 to 2019, 1.39% (137,086 stories) refer to climate change/global warming while only 0.02% (1,780) refer to pollinator populations in all contexts, and just 0.007% (679) refer to pollinator declines. Substantial increases in news attention were detectable only in US national newspapers. We also find that, while climate change stories appear primarily in newspaper “front sections,” pollinator population stories remain largely marginalized in “science” and “back section” reports. At the same time, news reports about pollinator populations increasingly link the issue to climate change, which might ultimately help raise public awareness to effect needed policy changes.

Scapegoating in media coverage: Analysing blame-giving rituals in the public sphere

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-278
Author(s):  
Christine Viertmann
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Group Affiliation ◽  
Social Mechanism ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Business News ◽  
Deutsche Bahn ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Index Value

This article explores scapegoating in media coverage by analysing news reports on three former CEOs of large German corporations (Deutsche Börse, Deutsche Bank, and Deutsche Bahn) during crisis situations. Scapegoating is defined as a social mechanism including its linguistic construction as an archetypal narrative. The scapegoat role for each CEO was analysed by using content analysis of business news reports (n = 864) from eight print newspapers and one online paper. A new methodology was developed based on a combination of the Linguistic Category System proposed by Semin and Fiedler and the rhetorical approach of Narrative Theme Analysis formulated by Boje. In addition, eight semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with Hartmut Mehdorn (former CEO of Deutsche Bahn), two communication directors, and five business journalists. The results revealed differences in attribution of the so-called ‘sacrificial marks’ or ‘stigmata’ related to a CEO’s group affiliation and personality. A scapegoat index value S is presented as the measurand to capture the scapegoat role of a person in media texts. The limitations of the study are linked to the small number (three) of case studies and the new methodology that needs further testing.

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