Misleading Media Portrayals in a Globalized World

2019 ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Tymoteusz Chajdas
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Media Portrayals ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Power

This chapter discusses the phenomenon of media power and dissemination of misleading and spurious representations. The author argues that global mass media can increasingly be seen as devices of control. This is inferred from a frequent use of Orientalist discourses when portraying the Middle East, which bestows the media messages with hidden power structures. These messages, along with the emergence of social media and a high saturation of visual media, contribute to strengthening of media power. This enables the state to justify its control and political actions. By drawing on Orientalism and by exploring media portrayals of the Middle East, this chapter suggests that misrepresentations produced by the media should be seen as a violent rhetoric which aims at acting to discipline Middle Eastern bodies and trapping them in a cycle of alienation. The analysis discusses media coverage of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, the war in Iraq, and 9/11. The author suggests that through the practice of alienating subjects from society, mass media create an opportunity for them to turn to extremes.

Un modelo para analizar la representación simbólica del escándalo de corrupción política desde la teoría del framing: aplicación al ‘caso Umbra’ | A model to analyze the symbolic representation of the political corruption scandal from the framing theory

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rocío Zamora ◽  
Juan Antonio Marín Albadalejo
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
Symbolic Representation ◽  
Public Image ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Power ◽  
Political Scandals

Resumen Lo que algunos ya llaman una cultura política del escándalo (Barkin, 1999; Thompson, 2001; Castells, 2009) ha supuesto el reconocimiento del poder de los medios en la construcción simbólica del escándalo, a partir del énfasis en ciertos marcos interpretativos con los que se narran las conductas que condicionan la percepción pública de los escándalos políticos. Este trabajo se centra en la representación simbólica de los escándalos de corrupción política. El análisis de la cobertura periodística sobre un caso de gran actualidad en Murcia, el ‘caso Umbra’, demuestra que, además de por el relato político-técnico, legal y moral, los escándalos de corrupción política pueden ser también enmarcados desde el enfoque reputacional, es decir, a partir de preocupación por el deterioro de la imagen que la proliferación de escándalos de corrupción política ofrece sobre un territorio concreto y  sus instituciones.Palabras clave Escándalo político, corrupción política, framing, cultura política, poder político.AbstractWe live in, as some scholars called, a scandal political culture (Barkin, 1999; Thompson, 2001; Castells, 2009) that has supposed the recognition of the media power in the symbolic construction of scandals, where the emphasis in certain interpretive frames with which behaviours are narrated determine public perceptions of the political scandals. This article focuses on the symbolic representation of political corruption scandals. The analysis of the media coverage on this great current importance case in Murcia, called the ‘Umbra’ case, demonstrates that, besides the political- technical, legal and moral, the political corruption, scandals can be framed also from the reputation approach, that is to say, from the worried deterioration on the public image that political corruption scandals proliferation supposes on a concrete territory and his institutions.Keywords Political scandal, political corruption, framing, political culture, political power.

3. The media and ‘law and order’

Criminology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Jones
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Violent Crime ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Media Portrayals ◽  
Serious Crime ◽  
People’S Daily ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media

This chapter presents that fact that, in Britain, most of the information that people receive about crime is second-hand. As relatively few people are victims of serious crime, the offending images that are formed in the minds of the majority largely come from reports and discussions in the mass media. Indeed, with growing urbanisation, it is increasingly necessary to rely on the media to find out what has been happening in one’s own neighbourhood. The chapter considers whether the mass media’s reporting of crime has a significant impact on people’s daily lives and their attitudes to ‘law and order’ issues. There is also a body of research evidence suggesting that media portrayals of violent crime may inspire some people to engage in ‘copycat’ incidents.

Media and Economic Inequality

2020 ◽  
pp. 70-88
Author(s):  
Andrea Grisold ◽  
Hendrik Theine
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Data Analyses ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Approaches To Study ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Power ◽  
Information Providers

Chapter 4 reviews a focused selection of the existing research which sheds light on the role that the media play in relation to the circulation of certain sets of ideas and discourses concerning inequality issues and redistribution policies (i.e., the shaping of inequality preferences and beliefs). The main aim in this chapter is to analyse prior empirical studies which explore how this is shaped and informed by media coverage and engagement. To do so, the authors first outline the findings of survey data analyses on individuals’ perception of inequality, and their related position towards the necessity of redistribution. After that, the chapter provides a systematic overview of contemporary empirical studies which examine the media coverage of economic inequality and redistribution policies, and thus debate the role mass media play as information providers. We assess the underlying assumptions and the methodological approaches guiding the respective empirical findings, highlight the merits of this body of work and identify open questions for further research. The last part of this chapter provides a discussion of (currently rather neglected) political economy theories that offer rich theoretical approaches to study media, power, and inequality, thus an enhanced theoretically informed understanding beyond the mere empiricism.

International Media Coverage of the Pakistan Super League

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
David Cassilo ◽  
Danielle Sarver Coombs
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
International Media ◽  
News Sources ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Media ◽  
Super League

The Pakistan Super League launched in 2016 with massive enthusiasm in its “cricket-mad” nation. However, safety concerns stemming from a 2009 terrorist attack in Lahore, Pakistan, meant all matches were played in the United Arab Emirates until the tournament’s final game in 2017—the ultimate test in seeing if top-level cricket could return to Pakistan. In this study, the authors examine framing of the creation in 2013 and first 2 years of the Pakistan Super League from news sources in Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. This study offers an opportunity to understand how Middle Eastern sport and the sport’s connection to national identity are framed in the media across multiple countries during a pivotal time for cricket in Pakistan.

Political Agenda Setting and the Mass Media

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefaan Walgrave ◽  
Peter Van Aelst
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
The Individual

Recently, the number of studies examining whether media coverage has an effect on the political agenda has been growing strongly. Most studies found that preceding media coverage does exert an effect on the subsequent attention for issues by political actors. These effects are contingent, though, they depend on the type of issue and the type of political actor one is dealing with. Most extant work has drawn on aggregate time-series designs, and the field is as good as fully non-comparative. To further develop our knowledge about how and why the mass media exert influence on the political agenda, three ways forward are suggested. First, we need better theory about why political actors would adopt media issues and start devoting attention to them. The core of such a theory should be the notion of the applicability of information encapsulated in the media coverage to the goals and the task at hand of the political actors. Media information has a number of features that make it very attractive for political actors to use—it is often negative, for instance. Second, we plead for a disaggregation of the level of analysis from the institutional level (e.g., parliament) or the collective actor level (e.g., party) to the individual level (e.g., members of parliament). Since individuals process media information, and since the goals and tasks of individuals that trigger the applicability mechanism are diverse, the best way to move forward is to tackle the agenda setting puzzle at the individual level. This implies surveying individual elites or, even better, implementing experimental designs to individual elite actors. Third, the field is in dire need of comparative work comparing how political actors respond to media coverage across countries or political systems.

Authoritarianism, Civil Society and Democracy in the Middle East: Mass Media in the Persian Gulf

2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhad Kazemi ◽  
Augustus Richard Norton
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Persian Gulf ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Persian Gulf

The published literature on the topic of “Authoritarianism, Civil Society, and Democracy in the Middle East” is extensive and unwieldy. Partly due to space constraints, we propose to review the topic under six framing questions and then provide a selected and representative bibliography at the end.The ideas of political reform and democracy are often the mainstay of debates within Middle Eastern polities. In general, there is ample awareness of democracy deficit and poor governance in the region. Democracy refers most basically to the ability of citizens to hold their governments accountable, and to change their political leaders at regular intervals. Instead, accountability to the public is generally weak in the region, and rulers are more likely to change as a result of actuarial realities than a withdrawal of public confidence.

scholarly journals Batalhas nas ruas, guerra nas redes: notas sobre a cobertura midiática da violência em manifestações │ Battles on the streets, war on the networks: notes on the media coverage of violence at protests

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Coelho Bezerra ◽  
Carolina Christoph Grillo
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Analytical Description ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media

RESUMO Com referência à eclosão de protestos no Brasil desde junho de 2013, este trabalho analisa o modo como a violência deflagrada durante as manifestações é narrada pela grande mídia e coletivos midiativistas, atentando-se para os interesses expressos nas narrações dos fatos. Constatamos que a imprensa corporativa tende a não problematizar a violência policial e a enfatizar a atuação de “vândalos”, ao passo que os midialivristas costumam culpar a polícia pela ocorrência de confrontos e representar positivamente as ações associadas à tática Black Bloc. O texto apresenta uma descrição analítica da guerra de narrativas travada por estes dois segmentos do jornalismo.Palavras-chave: Mídia; Midiativismo; Violência; Manifestações; Polícia.ABSTRACT Regarding the outbreak of protests in Brazil since June 2013, this paper analyses how violence unleashed during demonstrations is narrated by the mass media and mediactivist collectives, focusing on the interests expressed in the narration of facts. We found that corporative press tends to take police violence as unproblematic and to emphasize the actions of so-called “vandals”, while mediactivists usually blame police for the emergence of clashes and positively represent actions associated to the Black Bloc tactics. The text presents an analytical description of the war of narratives fought between these two segments of journalism.Keywords: Media; Mediactivism; Violence; Protests; Police.

scholarly journals Media in the Middle East

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-278
Author(s):  
Abdelwahab El-Affendi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Hard Work ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Systems ◽  
Comprehensive Study

As evidenced by its subtitle, this book is a mighty ambitious work. Theeditors, recognizing the "woeful lack of information on the [Middle East's]media systems," present the book as "the first comprehensive study of thestructure and functions of the mass media in the Middle East." And it tooka lot of hard work, being the "culmination of more than two years ofresearch and writing by 32 mass media scholars from across the MiddleEast and the United States."The books covers twenty-one countries. The Middle East is definedhere as most Arab countries (Morocco, Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia wereleft out) plus Iran, Turkey, Israel, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.There is no question that a serious gap in information exists in the areathe book attempts to cover. It is also safe to say that the researchersinvolved did a great job, assembling in one volume a wealth of infomiationon the structure of the media in the Middle East. One can at a glance gleanup-to-date information about what publications are produced in each country,who owns them, what radio and television channels are available, whattimes they broadcast, what regulations exist, and how the media fit in thefuller picture ...

scholarly journals The Language of Risk and Vulnerability in Covering the COVID-19 Pandemic in Swedish Mass Media in 2020: Implications for the Sustainable Management of Elderly Care

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10533
Author(s):  
Katarina Giritli Nygren ◽  
Maja Klinga ◽  
Anna Olofsson ◽  
Susanna Öhman
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The Media ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Discursive Constructions

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic—in terms of climate, economy and social aspects—cannot yet be fully assessed, but we can already see how the pandemic is intensifying already existing socio-economic inequalities. This applies to different population groups, particularly the elderly. In this article, our goal is to identify the linguistic constructions of elderly citizens in Swedish mass media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 from a sociological and corpus linguistics perspective. More specifically, our aim is to explore the discursive formations of the elderly in Swedish media during the pandemic and how these formations relate to risk as well as the discursive constructions of in- and out-groups. Drawing on corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS), inspired by discourse–historical analysis (DHA), we examine the media coverage of COVID-19 by three Swedish newspapers published during 2020: Aftonbladet, a national tabloid; Svenska Dagbladet, a national morning newspaper; and Dalademokraten, a regional morning newspaper. In this article, the news articles and their messages are considered performative to the extent that—for example, at the same time as a story is expressed—the elderly are at risk of becoming seriously ill due to COVID-19; moreover, a position of vulnerability for the elderly is simultaneously created. The result reveals that the elderly were constructed as an at-risk group, while visitors, personnel and nursing homes were constructed as being risky or a threat to the elderly.

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