Evolution of Concept “Black” in the US Media Discourse

Media discourse is an effective tool for projecting and shaping the public perception of a certain idea or image. The article focuses on the linguistic and semantic representation of the concept “Black” in the American media discourse with a particular attention to how the concept representation has evolved from the 1990s to 2010s. The study employed corpus methodology (keyness, frequency, concordances) to analyze news articles from “The New York Times” and “The Los Angeles Times”, which were arranged into three corpora according to the publication date (1990s, 2000s, 2010s). The corpus analysis established a number of changes in the concept “Black” representation manifested primarily through the high relevance keywords and high frequency collocations. Dominant semantic components were identified in the concept representation in each corpus, as well as notable shifts in core and peripheral aspects within these semantic components. The analysis showed that although the semantic components ‘racial / ethnic inequality’ and ‘economic issues’ remain at the core of the concept in each corpus, they are expressed through connections with other semantic components which may vary throughout three decades, such as ‘culture’ in the 1990s, ‘education’ and ‘politics’ in the 2000s and ‘police brutality and profiling’ and ‘appearance’ in the 2010s.

Representation of Older Adults in COVID-Related Newspaper Coverage

Based on clinical and epidemiological evidence, COVID-19 infection can occur in people of all ages; however, the media typically focuses its attention on the vulnerability of older adults and individuals with chronic illnesses. This study aims to explore the representation of older adults during the first month of the pandemic in the U.S. by comparing the narratives of older adults and younger adults in national media sources. A systematic search identified 115 articles published in four major newspapers in the U.S. included USA Today, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post between March 11 and April 10, 2020 in which older adults and younger adults were quoted on topics related to the intersection of COVID-19 and aging. Quotes were inductively reviewed using thematic content analysis. In 115 articles, there were 265 quotes from older adults (n=104, 39%) and younger adults (n=161, 61%). When comparing patterns that were common or distinctive between older and younger individuals quoted, three key themes emerged: 1) impacts of COVID-19 on older adults and resulting vulnerability, 2) debated perspectives over the value of older adults’ lives, and 3) a counternarrative of resiliency among older adults. This study provides the opportunity to understand how the pandemic may impact representations of older adults and findings emphasize the importance of voice among older adults to combat ageist messaging and promote counternarratives to assumptions of vulnerability. Also, it suggests for policymakers and practitioners to insight into how the representation of older adults is disseminated by media.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

Η 8η Μαΐου 1945 σηματοδότησε το τέλος του Β' Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου στην Ευρώπη και θεωρητικά την αρχή της παγκόσμιας ειρήνης και ανοικοδόμησης. Η Γερμανία είχε χάσει τον πόλεμο, έναν πόλεμο που προκάλεσε εκατομμύρια θύματα και μια κατεστραμμένη Ευρώπη. Παρότι η Γερμανία ηττήθηκε και καταστράφηκε, η οικονομική της δυναμική δεν καταστράφηκε αλλά υπέβοσκε "εγκλωβισμένη κάτω από τα ερείπια". Συγκεκριμένα, η γη της εξακολουθούσε να είναι πολύτιμη, η γεωγραφική της θέση μεταξύ Ανατολής και Δύσης ήταν ακόμη στρατηγική και η βιομηχανία της μπορούσε να ανοικοδομηθεί από το καταρτισμένο και εξειδικευμένο εργατικό της δυναμικό και όλα αυτά ενώ ξεκινούσε ένας νέος πόλεμος, ο Ψυχρός Πόλεμος. Η διατριβή αυτή εξετάζει τον τρόπο με τον οποίο η ταχεία και ακραία μετατόπιση της αμερικανικής εξωτερικής πολιτικής προς τη (Δυτική) Γερμανία από το 1945 έως το 1950 αιτιολογήθηκε στον αμερικανικό λαό και εν συνεχεία έγινε αποδεκτή από αυτόν. Συγκεκριμένα, η συγγραφέας της μελέτης εξέτασε εάν ο αμερικανικός Τύπος ήταν το μέσο που διαμόρφωσε την αμερικανική κοινή γνώμη προκειμένου να συγκεντρώσει υποστήριξη για την μεταβαλλόμενη αμερικανική εξωτερική πολιτική ή εάν και η κοινή γνώμη επηρέασε τη θέση του Τύπου απέναντι στην αμερικανική εξωτερική πολιτική. Ένα σχετικό ερώτημα είναι πώς η κοινή γνώμη και ο Τύπος επηρέασαν την εξωτερική πολιτική και πώς οι υπεύθυνοι διαμόρφωσης της εξωτερικής πολιτικής προσπάθησαν να διαμορφώσουν την κοινή γνώμη μέσω του Τύπου. Για τη μελέτη αυτής της τριγωνικής σχέσης (εξωτερική πολιτική, Τύπος, κοινή γνώμη) η συγγραφέας επέλεξε ορισμένα έντυπα μέσα ενημέρωσης ευρείας κυκλοφορίας (Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, TIME, LIFE) και ορισμένα έντυπα μέσα ενημέρωσης ειδικού ενδιαφέροντος και συγκεκριμένου πολιτικού προσανατολισμού (Commentary, Human Events, Nation) καθώς και τα αποτελέσματα των δημοσκοπήσεων του οργανισμού Gallup για την μέτρηση της αμερικανικής κοινής γνώμης. Η μελέτη έδειξε ότι σε πολιτικό επίπεδο, η απειλή του Ψυχρού Πολέμου και ο κίνδυνος της κομμουνιστικής επέκτασης επισκίασαν γρήγορα το παρελθόν της Γερμανίας και μετέτρεψαν τη χώρα από εχθρό σε σύμμαχο. Τα έντυπα μέσα ενημέρωσης ευρείας κυκλοφορίας, ήδη από τον περίφημο «Λόγο της Ελπίδας» του Μπερνς τον Σεπτέμβριο του 1946 ή και νωρίτερα ακόμα, πρόθυμα αποδύθηκαν στην προπαγάνδιση του ψυχροπολεμικού αφηγήματος, στο οποίο η Δυτική Γερμανία κατείχε ρόλο στρατηγικού συμμάχου για τις ΗΠΑ. Η διακυβέρνηση Τρούμαν επιδοκίμασε τα μέσα αυτά ενώ αποδοκίμασε σε ένα βαθμό, τα μικρότερα έντυπα που διατήρησαν μια πιο ισορροπημένη και όσο το δυνατόν αμερόληπτη στάση. Με τη στάση της πλειοψηφίας του Τύπου ευθυγραμμίστηκε από πολύ νωρίς και η πλειοψηφία του αμερικανικού λαού που συμμετείχε στις δημοσκοπήσεις του οργανισμού Gallup. Τέλος, η συγγραφέας χρησιμοποίησε το «μοντέλο προπαγάνδας», που αναπτύχθηκε από τους καταξιωμένους κοινωνικούς επιστήμονες Edward S. Herman και Noam Chomsky, για να καταδείξει τους τρόπους με τους οποίους τα μέσα ενημέρωσης παρουσιάζουν τις ειδήσεις ώστε να «κατασκευαστεί» δημόσια συναίνεση.

The USSR and Cold War Legacy: Implications for the Current International Agenda

Interview with Michael A. Reynolds, Director of the Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies of Princeton University, USAMichael A. Reynolds is an American historian and political analyst. His teaching and research range over the geography of the Middle East and Eurasia and covers the themes of empire, international relations, nationalism, geopolitics, ethnic confl ict, and religion and culture. He is the author of Shattering Empires: The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, 1908-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 2011), co-winner of the 2011 American Historical Association’s George Louis Beer Prize, a Financial Times book of the summer, and a Choice outstanding academic title. He is the editor of Constellations of the Caucasus: Empires, Peoples, and Faiths (Markus Weiner, 2016). Reynolds also writes on contemporary issues related to Turkey, Russia, the Caucasus region and U.S. foreign policy. His writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The National Interest, and War on the Rocks, among other venues. He holds a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton and an MA in Political Science from Columbia.

Media Analysis of News Articles During COVID-19: Renewal, Continuity and Cultural Dimensions of Creative Action

Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to adapt quickly, and to reexamine interactions and responsibilities toward communities in creative ways. This paper presents a qualitative media analysis (Altheide and Schneider, 2013) of 50 online news articles (Los Angeles Times and New York Times) published between March 17th and August 6th, 2020 using the key-words “creativity” and “COVID-19.” Informed by a definition of creativity as actions that are considered both “new” and “appropriate” (Sternberg and Lubart, 1999), articles describing a “creative action” were kept for analysis. These articles highlight creative responses to the COVID-19 quarantine in various domains including architecture, fashion, and faith. In this paper, we discuss the themes derived during this analysis- “renewal and continuity” and “the multidimensionality of creativity” which elaborate and contextualize a perspective of socio-cultural creativity theory and propose two implications of this study. The first implication posits that creativity was an observable, cultural response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The second implication offers a broader concept of how cultural resources function as dynamic constraints or “affordances” within the Five A’s model of creativity (Glǎveanu, 2013). Discussion of further research through the lens of socio-cultural creativity is discussed.

Hajj 2013: The Western Media Discourses

Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam and is the largest religious gathering on the globe. Every year, over two million Muslims make their way to Mecca to perform Hajj. The current study attempted to explore the themes that were dominant in the print media discourses of United Kingdom and United States about holy event Hajj. The study also tried to find out that how the Western print media constructed the identity of Muslims holy event. The qualitative discourse analysis has been used as a research design for this study. The two UK English dailies i.e. Daily Mail and The Guardian, and one online news publication IBTimes while two US English dailies i.e. Los Angeles Times and USA Today, and one online publication Huff Post have been selected for this purpose. A total of 20 news items from the year 2013 have been selected for the analysis. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in the assortment of themes by print media of UK and US. The Western media used the discourses of sectarianism and terrorism, and also highlighted the issues of Muslim sects. The results also revealed that the Western newspapers presented the importance of Hajj, but they also associated the gathering of Muslims with fears and threats.

The 2021 Middle East agenda of U.S. media

The escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been testing the Biden administration since May 2021, with exposing the current Middle East agenda of U.S. media and its impact on Biden’s and democrats’ reputation. Despite the fact that the press has a certain, if restricted, influence on politics, intuitively, journalists come up with understanding of public opinion on Biden. This article deals with the problem of the U.S. president’s publicity through the lens of the current media discourse, with author relying on the descriptive method, discourse analysis and content analysis of materials in American mainstream media such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall-Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Politico, Newsweek and Time. In conclusion, the author assumes that – alongside with the problems of inflation, economic crisis and the pandemic – the coverage of the recent Arab-Israeli escalation in the U.S. press has an additional negative impact on Biden’s reputation and his odds of winning the 2024 future election.

Ageism in COVID-19-Related Media Coverage: Examining Publications During the First Month of the Pandemic

The media has consistently described older adults as the population most vulnerable to COVID-19. Anti-ageism critics have taken issue with the oft-repeated statement that “only” older adults are at risk, a construction that dismisses and devalues the nuances within this population. The purpose of this study was to analyze instances of ageism in national media sources during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic search returned 287 articles concerning older adults and COVID-19 published in four major newspapers in the United States—USA Today, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post—between March 11 and April 10, 2020. Combining the strengths of content analysis and critical discourse analysis, we deductively and inductively reviewed the articles for patterns related to implicit and explicit forms of ageism. While ageism was rarely discussed explicitly, ageist bias was evident in implicit reporting patterns, such as frequent use of the phrase the elderly, which was often paired with statements describing older adults as vulnerable. Infection and death rates among older adults, as well as institutionalized care practices, were among the most commonly reported topics, providing a limited portrait of aging during the pandemic. While some authors utilized a survivor narrative by portraying older adults as having survived hardships, this construction implicitly places blame on those unable to do so. Older adults, when quoted directly, produced more complex and nuanced narratives of aging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such narratives can combat societal ageism and promote self-determination and -definition.

Covid-19 Mapping with Microsoft Power BI

The purpose of the map and dashboard is twofold. First, Microsoft’s Power BI software presents a reasonably easy means by which many can make reasonably robust data visualizations with minimal expertise in mapping and programming languages. Unlike some competing data visualization and online mapping software packages that require specialized software or skills, ordinary citizens and students, new to data collection and management can create an appealing dashboard-style presentation within a few minutes with minimal guidance. Familiarity with the function and logic of spreadsheet software seems to be the only prerequisite. Many businesses, colleges, and universities already provide access to the Microsoft Office suite of software, further extending the appeal of using Power BI. The COVID-19 dashboard featuring case data by date, city, county, and / or neighborhood in Southern California was created in less than one-half hour using a connection to publicly available data shared by the Los Angeles Times via GitHub. The map allows visitors to select individual communities from a map, which prompts dynamically linked graphs and tables to display data for only that community. The second purpose of this dashboard is to allow users to rapidly analyze local data trends, perhaps following school openings / closings, changes in the status of businesses, or social protests movements. Epidemiologists have expressed concern over the effects of the protest marches and untimely changes in rules regarding businesses and schools on COVID-19 rates. Compounding the need for such a map are concerns about differential COVID-19 infection rates in communities of color, whose citizens were already at an elevated risk of death from COVID-19. This map and dashboard demonstrates that these concerns were not unfounded.