Presidential Rhetoric and News Rhetoric

2018 ◽  
pp. 9-23
Author(s):  
Ying Roselyn Du

This study examines the role of U.S. presidents as a news source in the media agenda shaping process. DICTION text-analysis software was used to analyze transcripts of U.S. presidents' state of the union addresses and related news coverage from 1981 to 2007. DICTION software calculated scores for five major dimensions of content in the addresses and related news stories. Results revealed that the addresses and related news coverage contained dissimilar rhetoric, suggesting that, overall, the presidents had little influence on independent media outlets in that regard.

Author(s):  
Ying Roselyn Du

This study examines the role of U.S. presidents as a news source in the media agenda shaping process. DICTION text-analysis software was used to analyze transcripts of U.S. presidents’ state of the union addresses and related news coverage from 1981 to 2007. DICTION software calculated scores for five major dimensions of content in the addresses and related news stories. Results revealed that the addresses and related news coverage contained dissimilar rhetoric, suggesting that, overall, the presidents had little influence on independent media outlets in that regard.


2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (03) ◽  
pp. A01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariechel J. Navarro ◽  
Jenny A. Panopio ◽  
Donna Bae Malayang ◽  
Noel Amano Jr.

This article presents key results of a ten-year study of media coverage of agricultural biotechnology in the Philippines, the only country in Asia to date to approve a biotech food/feed crop (Bt corn) for commercialization. The top three national English newspapers – Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Philippine Star were analyzed to determine patterns of media attention measured by coverage peaks, tone, source of news, keywords, and media frames used. Biotechnology news was generally positive but not high in the media agenda. News coverage was marked by occasional peaks brought about by drama and controversial events which triggered attention but not long enough to sustain interest. The study provides a glimpse into the role of mass media in a developing country context. It shows how a complex and contentious topic is integrated into the mainstream of news reporting, and eventually evolves from an emotional discourse to one that allows informed decision making.


2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 817-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Atwell Seate ◽  
Dana Mastro

Numerous empirical investigations demonstrate that exposure to the stereotypic and oftentimes threatening portrayals of race/ethnicity in the media predict a wide range of unfavorable intergroup outcomes. The current study extends this work by experimentally examining the role of emotions in this process. Specifically, a 2 (Immigration Threat: Present/Absent) × 2 (Ingroup Emotion Endorsement: Present/Absent) + 1 (Control Group) experimental design tests the influence of exposure to immigration news stories on group-level emotions and intergroup behaviors. Findings indicate that exposure to threatening immigration news coverage indirectly influences intergroup outcomes through group-level emotions. Exposure to immigration news indirectly produces active and passive harming behaviors through feelings of contempt. These results provide an important first step in understanding a broader array of media-related intergroup processes and effects.


Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 1471-1489
Author(s):  
Y Roselyn Du

Social media is widely seen as playing a crucial role in the Arab Uprisings. This study compares news coverage in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan regarding social media in the Arab Uprisings. Content analysis of 162 news stories revealed that media in the three regions constructed their coverage within different frames, despite the events being geographically remote to the three Greater China regions and occurring in countries with which Greater China has little cultural, religious, ethnical, or economic connections. Overall, a clear pro-social-media pattern was found in Hong Kong and Taiwan media coverage, whereas in mainland China social media and the users involved in the Arab Uprisings were treated in the news in an obscured or unfavorable manner. Mainland China’s coverage was less likely to mention censorship of social media in the revolutions, whereas Hong Kong and Taiwan media frequently reported censorship and took a stance against it. Hong Kong and Taiwan media were also inclined to relate situations in the Arab Uprisings to mainland China. Such variations in the media coverage arguably are mainly due to ideological differences.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Guinaudeau ◽  
Anna M Palau

This article argues that external factors of EU coverage in the media need to be reassessed against domestic factors, in particular how parties modulate media attention to EU affairs. We explain which parties may set the EU on the media agenda, and how parties interact with events depending on the level of conflict over EU issues. Drawing on the first long-term analysis of partisan agenda-setting of EU affairs in the media – based on ARIMA time-series models of monthly data collected for six newspapers from 1990 to 2015 – we determine the scale of partisan agenda-setting and find partial support for our model. Political parties do not face the intrusion of EU issues, but some of them are actively involved in this process.


2016 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gemma Musacchio ◽  
Giovanna Piangiamaore

<p><em>Media's </em><em>power in setting the public’s agenda for discussion can affect </em><em>perception and debate upon disasters. </em><em></em></p><p><em>In the frame of a dialogical approach to science communication, </em><em>we challenge here the paradigm for which issues that experts considered valuable are not in the Media's agenda. We studied the way Media addressed the Amatrice 2016 sequence and</em><em> discuss story-telling. Specific indicators were analyzed to assess to what extent the scientific coverage, risk reduction and damage issues are covered. </em><em></em></p><p><em>First results show that Media do think valuable to provide public with an in-depth </em><em>scientific coverage and refers to authoritative sources. As time goes by and aftershocks Magnitude decreases a more reflexive thinking is triggered; news stories include more risk reduction indicators than damage. Although memory of past earthquakes is always part of the story one month after the main shock risk reduction disappear from the media agenda. </em></p><p><em>We also explored the level of public engagement in risk reduction and found out that</em><em> Media still seem not believe that citizens should be active part of the debate upon their own safety.</em></p>


Author(s):  
Maxwell McCombs ◽  
Sebastián Valenzuela

This chapter discusses contemporary directions of agenda-setting research. It reviews the basic concept of agenda setting, the transfer of salience from the media agenda to the public agenda as a key step in the formation of public opinion, the concept of need for orientation as a determinant of issue salience, the ways people learn the media agenda, attribute agenda setting, and the consequences of agenda setting that result from priming and attribute priming. Across the theoretical areas found in the agenda-setting tradition, future studies can contribute to the role of news in media effects by showing how agenda setting evolves in the new and expanding media landscape as well as continuing to refine agenda setting’s core concepts.


Author(s):  
Baldwin Van Gorp ◽  
Dave Sinardet

In this chapter, the authors analyse the role of Belgian news media in policy-making. The chapter starts with a characterization of the Belgian media landscape, with its absence of ‘national’ media, a strong public service broadcast and an increasing degree of media concentration. Next, by analysing the ways in which the media report on and define issues, the chapter explores how the media are generators of knowledge, what their resources are, and what influence they have on decision-makers. What is the current role of the Belgian news media as policy players; how are policy problems framed; and what is their role as advocates, investigators and evaluators? To answer these questions, the authors rely on empirical research on Belgian media, agenda-setting, and framing.


Journalism ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 146488491986782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryll Ruth R Soriano ◽  
Clarissa C David ◽  
Jenna Mae Atun

News media’s construction of crime and drugs can shape and change public perceptions and influence popular acceptance of policy and state responses. In this way, media, through selection of sources and framing of narratives, act as important agents of social control, either independently or indirectly by state actors. This article examines how the Philippine government’s anti-drug campaign, and the thousands of deaths resulting from them, has been depicted by the media to the public. We conducted a discourse analysis of television news stories to extract dominant frames and narratives, finding a pattern of over-privileging of State authority as a source, resulting in a monolithic message of justifying the killing of suspects. Furthermore, the ‘event-focused’ slant, which dominates the character of reports by media, inevitably solidifies the narrative that the deaths are a necessary consequence of a national public safety campaign. By relying almost exclusively on this narrative, to the exclusion of alternative frames, the media amplifies and crystallises the state’s narrative. As we critically examine how drugs, drug use and the zero-tolerance policy are positioned through discourse in news texts, the article raises important implications to the ethics and role of journalism in politics and provides explanations relating to crime-reporting norms, values and media organisation realities in the country.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Van Aelst ◽  
Rosa van Santen ◽  
Lotte Melenhorst ◽  
Luzia Helfer

AbstractThis study on the role of media attention for the Dutch question hour answers three questions: to what extent is media attention a source of inspiration for oral parliamentary questions? What explains the newsworthiness of these questions? And what explains the extent of media coverage for the questions posed during the question hour? To address this, we present a content analysis of oral parliamentary questions and related press coverage in five recent years. The results show first that oral questions are usually based on media attention for a topic. Concerns about media influence should however be nuanced: it is not necessarily the coverage itself, but also regularly a political statement that is the actual source of a parliamentary question. The media are thus an important “channel” for the interaction between politicians. Second, our analysis shows that oral questions do not receive media attention naturally. Several news values help to explain the amount of news coverage that questions receive. “Surfing the wave” of news attention for a topic in the days previous to the question hour seems to be the best way to generate media attention.


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