scholarly journals Serving the populist agenda. How German public media broadcasters inadvertently facilitate populist movements by evoking fear and anger

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 482-515
Author(s):  
Kimon Kieslich ◽  
Frank Marcinkowski
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
News Media ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Communication Styles ◽  
Commercial Television ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Public Media ◽  
Populist Movements

The term Media Populism is used to indicate a ‘involuntary complicity’ between news media and populist movements based on the convergence of commercial media logic and populist communication style. It grants populists and their messages a high degree of media visibility. According to the literature, this applies more to tabloid media and infotainment content in commercial television than to upmarket media outlets and news programs. In this paper, we refer to another form of involuntary collaboration between news media and populists that is not based on similar communication styles, but simply on the fact that news media have to report on topics which populists claim issue ownership for. This applies foremost to upmarket media and public service broadcasting, which are obliged by their own quality standards or legal mandate to report completely and comprehensively on all topics of public concern. We are especially interested in the emotional response of German audiences to news coverage on two topics: mass migration and the role of Islam in Germany. With the help of two experiments, we demonstrate that public service news reporting on these issues provokes strong negative emotional reactions. What is more, our results indicate that media induced fear and anger lead to increased support for anti-migration and Islam-critical demands. Hence, German public service broadcasters may not only be ‘secret accomplices’ in creating negative emotions towards Muslim migration, but also facilitate populist movements.

scholarly journals Aggression and Older Adults: News Media Coverage across Care Settings and Relationships

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura M. Funk ◽  
Rachel V. Herron ◽  
Dale Spencer ◽  
Starr Lee Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
English Language ◽  
Frame Analysis ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Policy Responses

ABSTRACT Systematic, in-depth exploration of news media coverage of aggression and older adults remains sparse, with little attention to how and why particular frames manifest in coverage across differing settings and relationships. Frame analysis was used to analyze 141 English-language Canadian news media articles published between 2008 and 2019. Existing coverage tended towards stigmatizing, fear-inducing, and biomedical framings of aggression, yet also reflected and reinforced ambiguity, most notably around key differences between settings and relations of care. Mainstream news coverage reflects tensions in public understandings of aggression and older adults (e.g., as a medical or criminal issue), reinforced in particular ways because of the nature of news reporting. More nuanced coverage would advance understanding of differences among settings, relationships, and types of actions, and of the need for multifaceted prevention and policy responses based on these differences.

News, Children, and Young People

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eiri Elvestad
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
News Media ◽  
Television News ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Uses And Gratification ◽  
Media Environments ◽  
People First

Studies of how children and young people relate to news have made important contributions to the field of journalism. As early as the early 1900s, children’s and young people’s news exposure was considered with interest. News exposure plays an important role for citizenship in democracies, and for news media organizations, recruiting new generations of audiences is important for survival in the future. From the early days, scholars have mainly focused on four areas in studies of news children and young people. First, the role of mass media as an agent of political socialization and how news exposure can inspire children and young people to civic engagement. Second, the introduction of television and television news increased the numbers of studies of children’s and adolescent’s emotional reactions to news coverage, and the emotional reactions to violence in the news coverage in particular. Third, an increasing focus on children’s rights and children as a minority group has further inspired studies of representation of children and young people in the news. Finally, inspired by methodological approaches focusing on people’s motivation for the use of different media and how they were used (“uses and gratification” studies), a main area for researchers has been to grasp how children and young people engage with news and how they do so in changed media environments. In the last decade, journalism studies have increasingly focused on how children and young people receive, evaluate, produce, and share news in social media.

scholarly journals News coverage and attitudes on immigration: Public and commercial television news compared

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 642-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Jacobs ◽  
Cecil Meeusen ◽  
Leen d’Haenens
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Negativity Bias ◽  
Commercial Television ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Balanced Information ◽  
Over Time

Public and commercial news follow distinct logics. We evaluate this duality in television news coverage on immigration. First, by means of a large-scale content analysis of Flemish television news ( N = 1630), we investigate whether immigration coverage diverges between both broadcasters. Results show that, despite an overall negativity bias and relative homogeneity between the broadcasters, commercial news contains slightly more sensational and tabloid characteristics than public news. The latter promotes a more balanced view of immigration. These differences are stable over time. Second, using cross-sectional and panel data, we assess whether a preference for public versus commercial news is associated with an attitudinal gap in anti-immigrant attitudes. Findings demonstrate that individuals who prefer commercial news are more negative towards immigrants. We suggest that differences in news content may explain this attitudinal gap. In light of the debate around ‘public value’ offered by public service media across Europe, we tentatively conclude that public broadcasters have the potential to foster tolerance and provide balanced information by prioritizing a normative view over a market logic. The linkage between news coverage and the gap in attitudes between commercial and public news viewers warrants closer investigation in the future.

Eén bril, vele visies?

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50
Author(s):  
Willem Buyens ◽  
Peter Van Aelst
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Economic Issue ◽  
Cultural Issue ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Content Type ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Content Diversity

Abstract One outlook, many perspectives? Diversity in Flemish news media and the perception of the audience A diverse range of actors and viewpoints can safeguard the quality of news reporting and the distribution of attention to different sides to a story. In this study, we look at the differences in content diversity between the news coverage on two (one socio-economic and one socio-cultural) cases in the Flemish news environment and how these differences translate into perceptions of diversity and bias with the audience. Despite limited differences in content diversity, we find that news items on the sociocultural and socio-economic case highlight different actors. Moreover, news items on the socio-cultural case are more neutral, while the coverage on the socio-economic issue contains more (balanced) viewpoints. These differences in content are largely translated into differences in perception. However, we find that a slight bias in perception of tone in the coverage on the socio-cultural issue is due to personal characteristics and issue-relevant attitudes.

Reporting the unsayable: Scandalous talk by right-wing populist politicians and the challenge for journalism

Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492110017
Author(s):  
Mats Ekström ◽  
Marianna Patrona ◽  
Joanna Thornborrow
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
News Media ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Analytic Approach ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Commercial Networks ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The Uk

This paper focuses on the moral work of journalism as displayed and enacted in the reporting practices used in news coverage of scandalous talk by right-wing populist (RWP) politicians. Using a qualitative discourse-analytic approach, we analyze a set of cases of journalistic framing of RWP talk recently circulating in Sweden, Greece, France and the UK, and examine ways in which anti-democratic or racist talk is represented within print, online and broadcast news media. We show how the complex dynamics of different kinds of discursive framing of scandalous talk construct boundaries between right and wrong which contribute to processes of normalising populist discourses and agendas. Moreover, we call attention to the challenge that this poses for contemporary journalism both within public service and commercial networks, as reporting on right-wing populism involves a balancing act between disparate constraints and exigencies of journalism.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Volume of News Reporting and Opioid-Related Deaths in the United States: Comparative Analysis Study of Geographic and Socioeconomic Differences (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulin Hswen ◽  
Amanda Zhang ◽  
Clark Freifeld ◽  
John S Brownstein
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
News Media ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
County Level ◽  
Opioid Epidemic ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
News Reports

BACKGROUND News media coverage is a powerful influence on public attitude and government action. The digitization of news media covering the current opioid epidemic has changed the landscape of coverage and may have implications for how to effectively respond to the opioid crisis. OBJECTIVE This study aims to characterize the relationship between volume of online opioid news reporting and opioid-related deaths in the United States and how these measures differ across geographic and socioeconomic county-level factors. METHODS Online news reports from February 2018 to April 2019 on opioid-related events in the United States were extracted from Google News. News data were aggregated at the county level and compared against opioid-related death counts. Ordinary least squares regression was used to model opioid-related death rate and opioid news coverage with the inclusion of socioeconomic and geographic explanatory variables. RESULTS A total of 35,758 relevant news reports were collected representing 1789 counties. Regression analysis revealed that opioid-related death rate was positively associated with news reporting. However, opioid-related death rate and news reporting volume showed opposite correlations with educational attainment and rurality. When controlling for variation in death rate, counties in the Northeast were overrepresented by news coverage. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that regional variation in the volume of opioid-related news reporting does not reflect regional variation in opioid-related death rate. Differences in the amount of media attention may influence perceptions of the severity of opioid epidemic. Future studies should investigate the influence of media reporting on public support and action on opioid issues.

scholarly journals Muted resistance: The deployment of youth voice in news coverage of young women’s sexuality in Aotearoa New Zealand

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-99
Author(s):  
Tracy Morison ◽  
Sarah Herbert
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Young People ◽  
News Media ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Youth Voice ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Youth Sexuality ◽  
Feminist Poststructuralist

Youth sexuality is typically constructed as a social problem, and associated with a range of negative consequences for larger society and for young people themselves – especially young women. The media play a role in perpetuating this dominant construction, but may also offer a space for resistance. In this article, mainstream news media reportage on youth sexual and reproductive issues in Aotearoa (New Zealand) is discursively analysed to identify instances of resistance to oppressive discourses. Taking a feminist poststructuralist perspective, the aim is to connect news reporting, as a representational practice, with broader relations of power. The focus of the analysis, therefore, is on whether and how young people are allowed a voice in news reportage, and to what effect their voices are deployed. The analysis demonstrates not only that youth voice is relatively muted in comparison to experts, but also that it is frequently used to reinforce the dominant constructions of youth sexuality (as problematic and risky). Yet, instances of resistance are also evident. These are assessed in relation to their impact on gender power relations, and possibilities for amplifying resistance are discussed.

scholarly journals Climate change news reporting in Pakistan: a qualitative analysis of environmental journalists and the barriers they face

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
pp. A03 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asim Sharif ◽  
Fabien Medvecky
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Global Risk ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
The Media ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

Climate change is a global risk as its causes and effects are not limited to national borders, but the risks and the responsibility are not evenly spread [Beck, 2009]. Pakistan is facing especially severe impacts in the form of disasters, floods, droughts, rising temperatures, cyclones and rising sea levels due to global emissions, despite its national emissions being nominal and accounting for only 0.46% of worldwide emissions [World Bank, 2018]. Ironically, the level of public awareness of climate change is low in Pakistan compared to not only advanced countries, but also to other countries in the South Asian region [Zaheer and Colom, 2013]. A contributing factor behind this is the communication gap between the media and the broader public. This study aims to explore the factors responsible for the limited coverage of climate change in the news media, leading to confusion, uncertainty, denial and low levels of climate change awareness in Pakistan. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with media professionals and the findings show that political, economic, social, cultural, technological and scientific factors influence the news coverage of climate change issues.

scholarly journals A Semantic Preprocessing Framework for Breaking News Detection to Support Future Drone Journalism Services

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Michail Niarchos ◽  
Marina Eirini Stamatiadou ◽  
Charalampos Dimoulas ◽  
Andreas Veglis ◽  
Andreas Symeonidis
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Data Retrieval ◽  
Breaking News ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Video Footage ◽  
Media Organizations ◽  
Definition Of

Nowadays, news coverage implies the existence of video footage and sound, from which arises the need for fast reflexes by media organizations. Social media and mobile journalists assist in fulfilling this requirement, but quick on-site presence is not always feasible. In the past few years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and specifically drones, have evolved to accessible recreational and business tools. Drones could help journalists and news organizations capture and share breaking news stories. Media corporations and individual professionals are waiting for the appropriate flight regulation and data handling framework to enable their usage to become widespread. Drone journalism services upgrade the usage of drones in day-to-day news reporting operations, offering multiple benefits. This paper proposes a system for operating an individual drone or a set of drones, aiming to mediate real-time breaking news coverage. Apart from the definition of the system requirements and the architecture design of the whole system, the current work focuses on data retrieval and the semantics preprocessing framework that will be the basis of the final implementation. The ultimate goal of this project is to implement a whole system that will utilize data retrieved from news media organizations, social media, and mobile journalists to provide alerts, geolocation inference, and flight planning.

scholarly journals Interpretive Journalism

Communication ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Salgado
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Daily News ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
News Stories ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Media Environments ◽  
The Impact

Interpretive journalism has been defined in extant research as a style of news reporting that is opposed to descriptive journalism. Rather than simply describing what happened and providing source-driven and fact-focused accounts, it provides journalistic interpretation and analysis through explanations, evaluations, contextualizations, or speculations by the journalist. The prominent role of the journalist in news coverage is linked to the disbelief in value-free facts and in interest-free sources, thus making it necessary to explain the context and interpret the relevance and impact of facts, events, and statements. Interpretive journalism is thus a style of reporting centered on the journalist to the detriment of sources, which empowers journalists, by giving them more control over content, through the selection of themes and the possibility of adding new meaning to news stories. This style of journalism thus potentially impacts on the purpose and tone of news reports as well. It can take the form of signaled comment and analysis or of journalistic interpretations intermixed in straight news stories. The latter has been pointed as problematic, as it gives the journalist tools to induce certain ideas or evaluations in the audiences’ mind, without explicitly warning that those are the journalist’s own interpretations. Interpretive journalism has been often the subject of normative evaluations. It still is controversial in the journalistic cultures that are most committed to objectivity in guiding news narratives, and in other cases it is interconnected with the role of journalism as the fourth estate and its contribution to the healthy functioning of democracy. Some critics consider that it introduces subjectivity and partisan (and other) bias in the news reports, which can, for this reason, discredit journalists and journalism itself. Despite the criticism, interpretive journalism is not recent; in fact, it is rooted in the inception of journalism itself. Newsweekly journalism is the most acknowledged and one of the earliest forms of interpretive journalism: it is substantiated by the fact that daily news media provide the facts, and the purpose of weekly news media outlets is to provide the interpretation of those facts. But interpretive journalism can be found in any type of media outlet. The idea that journalists should not only report the increasingly complex world, but also explain and interpret it, has become relatively widespread today, especially given the impact of the Internet on the amount of news media outlets and information available stemming from all kinds of sources, including shady sources. In fact, in today’s complex media environments, the relevance of interpretive journalism may increase, in the sense that it could be regarded as journalists’ important comparative advantage, when any person can now publish/post information. In research, interpretive journalism has been the subject of multiple approaches and it has been mixed with other concepts. Given that these other concepts always attribute a central role to the journalist and to her/his interpretations, interpretive journalism could be viewed as an umbrella concept.

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