scholarly journals Media Coverage of Acts of Terrorism: Troubling Episodes and Suggested Guidelines

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
The Past ◽  
Il Y A ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Terrorist Events ◽  
Public Criticism ◽  
Crisis Situations

Abstract: During the past 40 years there have been many instances in which media coverage of terrorist events was problematic and irresponsible, evoking public criticism and antagonizing the authorities. This article aims to shed light on the intricate relationships between government, media, and terrorists. Through close scrutiny of irresponsible actions of some media outlets in crisis situations in the U.S., the U.K., Israel, Canada, and Germany, it argues that important lessons should be learned, indicating the need to develop a set of guidelines for responsible media coverage of terror. One might think that in this triangle of government, media, and terrorists the media would side with the government in the fight against terror. This study shows that this was not always the case. Résumé : Au cours des quarante dernières années, il y a eu plusieurs situations où la couverture médiatique du terrorisme s’est avérée problématique et irresponsable, suscitant des critiques de la part du public et contrariant les autorités. Cet article vise à mettre au clair les rapports complexes entre le gouvernement, les médias et le terrorisme. En examinant attentivement les actions irresponsables de la part de certains médias lors de crises aux États-Unis, au Royaume-Uni, en Israël, au Canada et en Allemagne, l’article soutient qu’il y a des leçons importantes à apprendre et indique le besoin d’établir des normes sures pour assurer une couverture médiatique du terrorisme qui soit responsable. On supposerait que les médias appuient le gouvernement dans sa lutte contre le terrorisme; pourtant, cette étude montre que ceci n’a pas toujours été le cas.

scholarly journals The Terrorists’ Best Ally: The Quebec Media Coverage of the FLQ Crisis in October 1970

2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Basic Premise ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Media ◽  
Dramatic Action ◽  
National Emergency ◽  
Terrorist Events ◽  
Public Criticism

Abstract: During the past 40 years or so there have been many instances in which media coverage of terrorist events was problematic, evoking public criticism and antagonizing the authorities. The paper opens by mentioning some of the most troubling episodes and then reflects on some incidents that took place in Canada, a country that has not typically suffered from terrorism. The paper focuses on the FLQ crisis in October 1970, arguably the most problematic event of all, and shows that some organs of the French media co-operated with the terrorists because they felt sympathy with the FLQ's basic premise and did not really perceive them as terrorists. The crisis escalated rapidly into a state of national emergency and the War Measures Act was invoked. Some segments of the media played a significant role in provoking the authorities to such a dramatic action. Résumé: Au cours des quarante dernières années à peu près, il est survenu plusieurs incidents où la couverture médiatique d'actes terroristes a posé des problèmes, soulevant la critique du public et éveillant l'antagonisme des autorités. Cet article commence par mentionner quelques-uns des épisodes les plus troublants, après quoi il examine quelques incidents qui ont eu lieu au Canada, un pays qui n'a pas typiquement souffert de terrorisme. L'article se concentre sur la crise du FLQ en octobre 1970, peut-être l'incident le plus problématique parmi tous, et montre que certains organes des médias francophones ont coopéré avec les terroristes parce qu'ils sympathisaient avec la raison d'être fondamentale du FLQ et ne percevaient pas ses membres comme étant réellement des terroristes. La crise s'aggrava rapidement, menant à un état d'urgence nationale, et on invoqua la Loi sur les mesures de guerre. Certains organes médiatiques ont contribué de manière significative à encourager les autorités à prendre ces mesures draconiennes.

scholarly journals The Role of the Media in Shaping and Propagating May Day Rituals

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 377-423
Author(s):  
Slađana Josipović Batorek ◽  
Valentina Kezić
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cult Of Personality ◽  
May Day ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Rituals

The Communist Party of Yugoslavia’s (CPY) rise to power in 1945 was followed by a period of fundamental socio-political changes that encompassed all aspects of life. In order to establish a complete political and ideological authority, the government attempted to suppress all elements which, in their view, were not aligned with the doctrine of the Communist Party. As a result, everything that was perceived as remnants of the old socio-political order was marginalised, such as religion, tradition and customs. Moreover, reinterpretation of the past also took place, as well as creation of new rituals and Tito’s cult of personality. Accordingly, a completely new calendar of official, state holidays was established, deprived of any national or religious tradition. One of those holidays was May Day, which was celebrated for two days and whose purpose, like most other holidays of that period, was to create uniqueness of feelings and actions in society, focusing on the working class, socialism, CPY, Yugoslavia and Josip Broz Tito. Besides, celebrations of major anniversaries and holidays, including May Day, presented an opportunity for transmission of ideological and political messages, most often articulated through numerous slogans which clearly defined the direction in which the society should move. The media played a key role in this process. Therefore, the central part of the paper consists of the analysis of newspaper articles from Glas Slavonije in order to understand its role in the implementation of those new political rituals and social values.

Where the Fault Lies: Representations of Addiction in Audience Reactions to Media Coverage of the Opioid Epidemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-102
Author(s):  
David Russell ◽  
Kelly M. Thames ◽  
Naomi J. Spence ◽  
Callie M. Koeval
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Opioid Epidemic ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Facebook Pages ◽  
Overdose Deaths ◽  
The U.S

The unprecedented number of deaths in the U.S. attributed to opioids has been referred to as an “epidemic of addiction.” Media coverage of the epidemic has stoked public discussion of addiction on social media platforms. This article describes how addiction is represented in comments on media coverage of the “opioid epidemic” and examines the relationship between media framing and audience representations of addiction. Content analysis methods were applied to data obtained from news posts ( n = 397) and comments ( n = 2,836) on the Facebook pages of 42 newspapers in Ohio, where overdose deaths are among the highest in the U.S. Eleven percent of comments were identified as referencing addiction ( n = 319). These comments were classified into two overarching categories: (1) support, disease, and contributing factors expressed support for persons affected by the epidemic, represented addiction as a disease requiring treatment, and highlighted social and structural factors seen as contributing to the epidemic (61.1% of comments referencing addiction); and (2) misdirected attention and individual blame questioned the media focus on addiction and overdose deaths, highlighted individual choices to misuse opioids, and suggested that media coverage of the epidemic diverts attention away from other social problems viewed as being more worthy of public attention (38.9% of comments). Representations of addiction in comments were found to be independent of (not associated with) frames in media coverage ( p = .945). Together, these results suggest that while a majority of commenters represent addiction as a legitimate social problem that warrants intervention and support, a substantial minority are dismissive of the epidemic, express anger and disdain for persons who use opioids, and seek to counter popular narratives of social and structural factors contributing to addiction.

scholarly journals Indonesian Online Media’s Construction of ‘Maritime’

Pomorstvo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-23
Author(s):  
Kundharu Saddhono ◽  
Ermanto
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Neutral Medium ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
General Relations ◽  
Grammatical Structures

The concept of maritime (maritime) is frequently discussed among the Indonesian people, a fact that may be attributed to the emphasis that has been given to maritime issues by President Joko Widodo since his candidacy. This article applies Faircloughian approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) to understand the coverage of ‘maritime’ in Indonesian online media. This paradigm has been selected because the media does not simply act as a neutral medium through its publication and coverage; rather, media have specific ideologies, which can be described and analyzed through critical discourse analysis. This approach focuses on three aspects when analyzing written discourses: representations, relations, and identities. Representation refers to specific words and grammatical structures to construct reality; relations refer to the connections between the subjects as depicted in the discourse; and identity refers to reporters’ positions in their coverage of online media, including their biases. In general, relations and identities in Indonesian online media coverage have been oriented towards the government and society. The government has been constructed ambiguously by online media, but depictions of government have tended to be positive, with a focus on the success of its maritime programs.

scholarly journals Simulating public interest: the issue of the public voice in the fee-for-carriage debate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Williams
Keyword(s):  
Policy Process ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Hearings ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada ◽  
Severe Degree ◽  
The Impact

"One of the most fractious Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC, or the Commission) policy hearings on record has recently come to a close. This was no run-of-the-mill, watch-the-paint-dry policy hearing. Tempers and passions flared as two industry titans, over-the-air (OTA) broadcasters, such as CTV and Canwest Global, and broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) such as Shaw Communications, Bell Canada and Rogers Inc. fought the battle of their lives over an issue called fee-for-carriage (FFC). The media covered the issues day in and day out. Canadians bombarded the CRTC with dose to 200,000 comments and the Government of Canada forced the CRTC to hold an additional hearing just to address the impact the decision could have on the public. With extensive media coverage and uncharacteristically active public participation, could this public policy process be deemed 'democracy in action'? This paper will argue that this is not the case. Through a discourse analysis of the debate within two distinctly differentiated public spheres -- 1) the battling media campaigns and 2) the CRTC public hearings in November and December of 2009 -- this paper will show that the public's ability to define its own interest, using its own voice, is tarnished to such a severe degree that this policy process fails"--From Introduction (page 3).

COVID-19 and the Mass Media

2021 ◽  
pp. 509-518
Author(s):  
Subir Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Graphical Representation ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
The Government

COVID-19 is the cause of the greatest pandemic of the century that affects almost every nation of our globe. In India, mass media has played a significant role in this pandemic situation. The media coverage revealed fearlessly the condition of COVID-19 and provides a pictorial view of the situation in front of the readers and viewers. The main objectives of these fearless journalistic works were to provide the public valuable authentic information, create awareness among the public, eliminate fake propaganda and fake news, highlight the problem face by the ordinary public, and to provide the government a medium to speak with the public for the public interest. Mass media served as a vital weapon to fight against COVID-19. The valuable information and instructions provided by mass media created awareness among the public and which played a major role to deescalate the graphical representation of active COVID-19 cases. The outbreak of COVID-19 and the dogmatic approaches of the mass media in the pandemic situation have recalled the concept of media as the third pillar of democracy.

Covid-19, Media Reporting, and the Role of Bioethicists

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 137-138
Author(s):  
Federico Nicoli ◽  
◽  
Paul J. Cummins ◽  
Joseph A. Raho ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The Other ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
The U.S

"In the aftermath of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, media coverage was scrutinized for sensationalism, weakness in explaining scientific uncertainty, dehumanization of patients, and lack of contextualization. The current COVID-19 crisis presents an opportunity to assess whether the media learned its lesson. Results are mixed. Early reporting on the origin of COVID-19 in “wet markets” indicates that the media continues to do poorly with contextualization. On the other hand, stories on mortality and the infectiousness of COVID-19 indicate there has been improvement. The situation remains fluid as COVID-19 threatens to transform into a pandemic at the time of submission. Data from new countries may alter the reported rates of lethality and infectiousness, and media reporting on these changes may or may not be responsible. The explosion of social media, as a medium to promote reporting, could provide bioethicists a tool to direct the public to reliable stories and criticize inaccurate ones. Using a bioethics perspective, this poster will critically evaluate the quality of U.S. and Italian news media’s reporting on the evolving scientific understanding of COVID-19 and its contextualization. The presentation will employ QR technology to provide links to media coverage of COVID-19 from the U.S. and Italian news media. After critically appraising the quality of COVID-19 reporting, this poster will consider if bioethicists: 1) should provide comment to the media on pandemics; 2) should correct reporting for the public and 3) have a duty to publicly criticize sensationalism in the media. "

The Arctic: Press, Policy and the Arctic Council

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-38
Author(s):  
Yelena Yermakova
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Media

The changing situation in the Arctic due to global warming has prompted media coverage of a supposed “scramble for the Arctic,” an “Arctic boom,” or an “Arctic Bonanza.” Some even go further, deploying the rhetoric of a “New Cold War,” predicting an inevitable clash between the United States and Russia over interests in the region. The press coverage in both countries over the past decade reflects this new sensationalism. The academic literature unequivocally confirms that the press exerts substantial influence on governmental policy makers, and vice versa. However, while scholars agree that international organizations (IOs) are essential to shaping policies, the existing literature lacks research on media’s relationship with IOs, which often struggle to obtain the coverage and publicity they deserve. The Arctic Council has provided an effective platform for constructive dialogue and decision making involving the USA and Russia. Accordingly, despite disagreements in other regions of the world, the two global powers have managed to cooperate in the Arctic – notwithstanding recent media coverage painting a different and incomplete picture. This project surveys the media coverage of the Arctic over the past decade in Russia and the USA and its correlation with the Arctic Council’s activities. The analysis draws upon two prominent news organizations in Russia (Kommersant and Izvestiya) and two in the USA (the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal), as well as the Arctic Council’s press releases from June 2006 to June 2017. The paper finds that there is a clear disconnect between media coverage of the region and the Arctic Council’s activities. It recommends that the media pay more attention to the organization, particularly since it is the only prominent platform for international cooperation in the Arctic.

An Analysis of Web Coverage on the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake Disaster

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shosuke Sato ◽  
Fumihiko Imamura ◽  
Masahiro Iwasaki ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
2016 Kumamoto Earthquake ◽  
Kumamoto Earthquake ◽  
The Past ◽  
The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake ◽  
The Media ◽  
Web News ◽  
Human Support ◽  
The Web

In this study, we analyzed big data consisting of news published on the web about the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake over the course of a month and compared it with earthquakes that have occurred in the past. Our findings are summarized as follows: 1) In the case of web news on the Kumamoto earthquake, the “media half-life” of the disaster, or the time it took for media coverage to decrease to half of its peak amount, was one week, which is roughly the same as that of the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake. 2) The scope of human support corresponded to the scope and coverage of human and material damage, and no municipalities deviated from this, which means that, remarkably, we did not see any disparities in news coverage or human support, as was the case with the Great East Japan Earthquake.

scholarly journals 50 days of war on innocent civilian: Ma’an news agency coverage of Israeli and Palestinian conflict

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4.9) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Wesam Almahallawi ◽  
Hasmah Zanuddin
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Arab World ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Government Control ◽  
News Agency ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right

Since the TV broadcasting was established in Arab countries until the 1990s, broadcasting during this specific time was based on a government control model, which derived from the view of broadcasting as an instrument of state advance that must be under the control from government. This kind of TVs, limits the broadcasting to highlight the government issue (1). In these kind of TVs, they focus with the leader’s opinion more than the Palestinian problem. By the way, the theme in Arab media determined to highlight the leader’s opinion who claims the right to speak on behalf of Palestinians. In September 1991, the first private TV in the Arab world was established when MBC went on the air from London. More private TVs followed after that like: Orbit in 1994 and ART in 1995, both based in Italy owned by Saudi businessmen, Future Television and LBC, both Lebanese based in Beirut, in 1995, and Al-Jazeera based in Qatar in 1996. In 2002 the number of the Arab TV stations was expanded to more than 150 TVS as government or privately owned, with capability of reaching the Arab people in any place in the world. This paper focuses on the media coverage of the conflict between two parties Palestine and Israel. The preview studies show that, in a conflict the media has an influential role and has responsibility for increasing violence or contributing to the resolution of conflict and mitigation of violence (2). This study examined 61 news coverage and framing of the Israel and Palestine conflict, known as the 50 days’ war from 8 July – 26 August 2014 by Ma’an News Agency, which delivers news to Ma’an TV (Palestinian satellite television station). A quantitative content analysis was employed to examine the news published during the war using five generic frames developed by (3). Holsti Inter-coder reliability and validity test value is 0.988 or 98% agreement. The results showed that conflict and human-interest frames were significantly visible compared to other frames in Ma’an news coverage. Portrayal of images of civilian killing, children and women killed in their homes and suffrage news coverage, in this war. Responsibility frame stressed on hospitals bombing and embargo of medications which reduced chances for Palestinian of immediate medical help. The economic frame highlighted the economic and financial losses of Palestinians as consequences of 50 days’ war. Most of them lost their income, businesses, agriculture land and homes and became refugees.  

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