scholarly journals If it bleeds, it leads? Changing death coverage in The New Zealand Herald

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Barnes ◽  
Elesha Edmonds

Death has become more prominent in the news in the past four decades. Articles about a murder or accident, which in the past may have featured on page five or seven of daily newspapers, now often take up all of the front page of The New Zealand Herald. New categories have also emerged, including the threat of death or near death. This is evident from the increase in human interest stories which not only report the details of the incident but also capture emotion. This article follows the increased visibility of death stories on the front page of New Zealand’s largest newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, and investigates how that coverage has changed over time. International scholars have examined the visibility of death in the media closely. However, research is sparse about exactly how this large body of work correlates with New Zealand print media. Therefore, this study aims to close this gap by using content analysis to discuss the prominence of death in The New Zealand Herald over four decades from the 1970s, and the reasons for increased coverage of threats of death or near death.

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Chaqués Bonafont ◽  
Frank R. Baumgartner

AbstractSpain's newspapers are characterised by strong partisan identities. We demonstrate that the two leading newspapers nonetheless show powerful similarities in the topics of their coverage over time. The media system is strongly related to the policy process and it shows similar levels of skew (attention focuses on just a few topics) and friction (attention lurches rapidly from topic to topic) as others have shown for policy processes more generally. Further, media attention is significantly related to parliamentary activities. Oral questions in parliament track closely with media attention over time. Our assessment is based on a comprehensive database of all front-page stories (over 95,000 stories) in El País and El Mundo, Spain's largest daily newspapers, and all 7,446 oral questions from 1996 to 2009. The paper shows that explanations of friction and skew in governmental activities should incorporate media dynamics as well. Political leaders are clearly sensitive to media salience.


2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison O'Connor ◽  
Patricia Casey

AbstractObjectives: There have been concerns in the international literature that the manner in which psychiatry and psychiatric patients is portrayed in the print media is negative and sensational. If correct this has serious implications for the stigma and prejudice that our patients will suffer. This study was designed to evaluate the content and tone of articles relating to psychiatry. It was compared with a broadly similar study published in 1995 and will form the base from which to measure changes in psychiatric coverage over time.Method: All the daily broadsheets, one daily tabloid and three Sunday broadsheets were examined for a six month period in 1999 and all articles, letters or headlines incorporating psychiatry-related material were examined. Using specific definitions, articles and headlines were examined for tone and content as well as for the contribution of mental health professionals.Results: Overall 0.65 articles per newspaper per day were found. News items and feature predominated, with forensic issues receiving the greatest attention. The tone of the articles was either neutral or positive and the improvement in the tone of articles in the tabloids was particularly noticeable when compared with an earlier study. This is very different from the findings of international studies. However, the headlines were more sensational in tone than the contents of the articles themselves. Increasingly the opinion of health professionals was sought but contributions from psychiatrists remained low, writing just two articles and constituting 15% of health professionals whose opinions were sought. Nine per cent of items constituted misuse of terms.Conclusions: The Irish print media are not hostile to psychiatry and there has been an improvement in tone and type of article in the past five years. Greater involvement of psychiatrists in the media and particularly more direct engagement with editors is required if there is to be a shift from coverage of forensic matters in favour of informative articles as well as improvement in the headline tone.


2020 ◽  
pp. 107769902098478
Author(s):  
Teresa Gil-Lopez

This study uses content analysis of protest coverage and sourcing practices by five major U.S. daily newspapers over the past two decades (1998–2017) to examine the prevalence and evolution of a set of devices of representation present in news coverage of protest groups. They have been traditionally ascribed to a pattern of mainstream coverage deemed marginalizing of protest groups, the “protest paradigm.” The study concludes that the prevalence of marginalizing devices is stable over time, and that the degree of adherence to the paradigm in news stories systematically varies across protest type and geography. Implications of these findings are discussed.


1994 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 887-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Abelman

This content analysis evaluates political topics and themes of televangelist Pat Robertson's high-profile news program The 700 Club during the early months of the 1992 presidential campaign. Considered the media arm of the Religious Right, this program was found to go against the trend of increasingly political and less religious content observed in earlier analyses of equivalent episodes during the 1983, 1986, and 1989 seasons. In addition, political topics were addressed more neutrally than in the past. The study discusses the possible impact of an increasingly competitive telecommunication environment on religious broadcasters.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Brosius ◽  
Erika J van Elsas ◽  
Claes H de Vreese

Over the past decade, the European Union has lost the trust of many citizens. This article investigates whether and how media information, in particular visibility and tonality, impact trust in the European Union among citizens. Combining content analysis and Eurobarometer survey data from 10 countries between 2004 and 2015, we study both direct and moderating media effects. Media tone and visibility have limited direct effects on trust in the European Union, but they moderate the relation between trust in national institutions and trust in the European Union. This relation is amplified when the European Union is more visible in the media and when media tone is more positive towards the European Union, whereas it is dampened when media tone is more negative. The findings highlight the role of news media in the crisis of trust in the European Union.


2011 ◽  
Vol 140 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Sherry ◽  
Angela Osborne

In 2008, Melbourne became the first Australian city to host the Homeless World Cup (HWC), an annual international sporting event that aims to raise the profile of homelessness and social marginalisation. This article first examines relevant print media articles relating to the HWC by identifying key themes through thematic and content analysis. It then examines the polarised reporting of the HWC by two print media outlets, The Age and the Herald Sun, and argues that each outlet's coverage served to reinforce its own established position on the key political and social issues, in this instance homelessness, asylum seeking and immigration. The divergence in the discourses constructed in each paper provides a demonstrative example of the capacity of the media to use events of all sorts to consolidate their political and commercial positions.


BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. e023485
Author(s):  
Caroline Louise Miller ◽  
Aimee Lee Brownbill ◽  
Joanne Dono ◽  
Kerry Ettridge

ObjectivesIn 2012, Australia was the first country in the world to introduce plain or standardised tobacco packaging, coupled with larger graphic health warnings. This policy was fiercely opposed by industry. Media coverage can be an influential contributor to public debate, and both public health advocates and industry sought media coverage for their positions. The aim of this study was to measure the print media coverage of Australian’s plain packaging laws, from inception to roll-out, in major Australian newspapers.MethodsThis study monitored mainstream Australian print media (17 newspapers) coverage of the plain packaging policy debate and implementation, over a 7-year period from January 2008 to December 2014. Articles (n=701) were coded for article type, opinion slant and topic(s).DesignContent analysis.ResultsCoverage of plain packaging was low during preimplementation phase (2008–2009), increasing sharply in the lead into legislative processes and diminished substantially after implementation. Articles covered policy rationale, policy progress and industry arguments. Of the news articles, 96% were neutrally framed. Of the editorials, 55% were supportive, 28% were opposing, 12% were neutral and 5% were mixed.ConclusionsProtracted political debate, reflected in the media, led to an implementation delay of plain packaging. While Australian media provided comprehensive coverage of industry arguments, news coverage was largely neutral, whereas editorials were mostly supportive or neutral of the policy. Countries seeking to implement plain packaging of tobacco should not be deterred by the volume of news coverage, but should actively promote the evidence for plain packaging in the media to counteract the arguments of the tobacco industry.


1988 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Atwater

Treatment of environmental news was examined in concert with readers' perceptions of environmental topics. A content analysis of three midwest daily newspapers indicated a majority of environmental stories examined appeared within the first four pages of the newspapers. Disposal of wastes, quality of water and hazardous substances were perceived by readers as the most important environmental topics prominently reported by the media.


Author(s):  
Tasaddaq Hussain Qureshi ◽  
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Aslam Pervez

This paper focuses on the frames; through which execution of Mumtaz Qadri’s editorialized by the Urdu print media of Pakistan. Eighteen editorials on the selected topic, from March 1, 2016, to April 1, 2016, are selected as a sample from five leading national newspapers viz. Jang, Nawa-e-Waqt, Ausaf, Ummat, and Islam. Freedom of expression and blasphemy depicted through consistency and discord frames is explored with the help of Galtung’s peace and violence journalism indicators. The content analysis approach is applied, with the Framing theory providing theoretical background. It has been found that Media portrayed the issue through discord frame as a dominant frame, which approved the notion of Galtung that media usually portray the conflicts through violence journalism frame. It also approved that the media have not continued framing by a uniform pace. They play an active role in opinion formation of a public. With the passage of time media changed their framing tone from discord to the consistency frames. This proves that media is conscious to enjoy the right of freedom of expression with reference to the blasphemy, in such a volatile situation.


2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Hannis

This article provides a statistical picture of print freelancers, the largest freelance sector in New Zealand. Compared with journalists employed in the print industry, freelancers had generally the same ethnic profile and distribution throughout the country, but were more likely to be older and female. In our content analysis, 20 percent of daily newspapers’ copy, a third of weekly newspapers’ copy, and about 60 percent of magazine copy came from freelancers. The analysis suggests the newspapers found freelancers particularly useful in providing specialist copy and comment. 


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