International Communication Division 2010 Abstracts
Bob Stevenson Open Paper Competition
Presidential Candidate Preference Based on Issue Salience and Homophily: A Cross-Cultural Analysis • Iti Agnihotri, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; William Davie, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Lucian Dinu, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Philip Auter, University of Louisiana at Lafayette • The 2008 U.S. presidential election was significant to the extent in which international issues came to the fore and two major candidates contrasted culturally with each other. An international survey of 249 students from the Middle East and the United States compared the effects of issue competency and homophily toward the two candidates. Findings showed Middle Eastern students preferred Sen. Barack Obama on both dimensions, while American students favored Sen. John McCain for different reasons.
From the Periphery to the Center: a Historical Account of ideas Crossing Structural Distance. • Marco Briziarelli, University of Colorado at Boulder • This paper intends to re-assert the value of history in approaching international communication matters. This historical approach will serve here two main objectives: -to give more visibility to a very meaningful historical case, exemplary of what I consider a more ideal model of communication in development compared to the existing one; -as a hermeneutic tool, to make a meta critique of development and communication theory and, at the same time, recuperate the original value of two great thinkers: Gramsci and Freire.
From Heritage to Horror: Five newspapers’ crisis coverage of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks • BRIDGETTE COLACO, TROY UNIVERSITY • This study examines media coverage of the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks that left 188 civilians killed and 308 fatally wounded. It analyzes 2,119 stories published in 10 daily editions of five English newspapers, examining variables of media frames, content orientation, and 3,794 reporters’ sources. India has a booming print media and this study of newspapers in the world’s largest democracy makes significant contribution to literature on framing theory and media functions during a crisis.
Transnational News Media Role in Building Consensus about Muslim Communities in the EU • Vanessa de Macedo Higgins Joyce, Southern Methodist University • This study explores the influences of transnational media’s reporting about 9-11 on European population’s feelings about the Muslim population, with a second level agenda-setting analysis. It focuses on how transnational media reduced differences on how demographic subgroups perceived this community. It found support for increased consensus for those using transnational television, weaker support for those using transnational press. Differences arise within the comparison of the 15 EU countries and the specific demographic analyzed.
Framing the Sichuan Earthquake on U.S. Television • Daniela Dimitrova, Iowa State University; kejun chu, Iowa State University • This study content analyzed coverage of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake on the top three nightly television news programs, ABC World News, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News. Specifically, we looked at how the U.S. media portrayed this international disaster by examining the tone, frames and sources used. The findings indicate that the human interest frame dominated the coverage, which was mostly neutral and often relied on eyewitness accounts.
The Art of Criticism: How African Cartoons Discursively Constructed African Media Realities in the Post-Cold War Era. • Lyombe Eko, University of Iowa • African newspaper cartoons are critical journalistic texts that have spearheaded the struggle for democracy and freedom of expression on the continent. Actually, the African satirical press in general, and cartoons in particular, are the most visible manifestations of the post-Cold War political liberalization of the African continent. This article is concerned with African editorial cartoon narratives of the realities of the African media in the post-Cold War era. It was found that African cartoons are irreverent counter discourses that use African mythic idioms to portray a somber picture of media realities on the African continent, deterritorialize authoritarian leaders for purposes of criticism, and boldly resist abuses of power. It was also found that the Mohammad cartoons affair had an impact on African cartoons.
One Profession—Multiple Identities: Russian Regional Reporters’ Perceptions of the Professional Community • Wilson Lowrey, University of Alabama; Elina Erzikova, Central Michigan university • This study examines perceptions of the journalism professional community by reporters, who work for state and private newspapers in a Russian province. The study found that newspapers with powerful government and oligarchical owners had clear missions, while the paper that struggles to survive as independent lacked clearly articulated goals. Regardless of the type of paper ownership, reporters believed that the journalistic community is disjointed because of the different journalistic values deriving from the professional competition.
Analyzing the Spell of War: A War/Peace Framing Analysis of the 2009 visual coverage of the Sri Lankan Civil Conflict in Newswires • Rico Neumann, University of Arizona; Shahira Fahmy, University of Arizona • The goal of this study was to analyze the extent to which the visual coverage of the final stages of the long-lasting Sri Lankan Civil War relied on war and peace frames. Based on the conceptual work of Norwegian scholar Johan Galtung, who viewed war and peace journalism as two competing frames in covering conflicts and wars, we tested his concept empirically by content analyzing news photographs of the conflict in the three leading newswires.
Dimming Lights and Deepening Shadows over Press Rights in Kyrgyzstan • Eric Freedman, Michigan State University • In March 2005, a relatively nonviolent uprising ousted an authoritarian president in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. In the aftermath of that Tulip Revolution, press rights advocates and journalists welcomed the promise of greatly enhanced freedoms. However, the new regime proved to be as authoritarian and corrupt as its predecessor, and little liberalisation of the press system is evident five years later. The record shows continued physical assaults including murders, of journalists, harassment and libel suits, impediments to access to information, license denials, self-censorship, and only slow movement toward privatising state-owned media. Independent and oppositional media area also remains at financial risk due to the country’s weak economy and high poverty level. Thus twenty years after independence and a half-decade after the Tulip Revolution, Soviet propaganda model for a press system is dead in name but many of its major attributes survive, with significant implications for the continuum of authoritarianism in other post-communist nations.
Adapting Business Communication to A Culturally Diverse Online Marketplace: Exploring the Effectiveness of Cultural Appeals in Internet Advertising • Gennadi Gevorgyan, Xavier University • With communication accommodation theory and Hofstede’s model of cultural dimensions as its main conceptual framework, this study experimentally investigates the role of culture in online marketing communications. By exploring the attitudinal effects of culturally congruent online advertisements, we aim to develop and test a model for bridging the cultural gap in today’s online marketplace. Our study builds on previous cross-cultural business research by going beyond traditional channels of communication and by focusing on the effects of culturally congruent marketing messages in online environments. To have a particularly rigorous test of the cultural congruence effect, we manipulated cultural appeals in two distinct samples: American and Chinese. A randomized block experiment with 240 American and 235 Chinese participants revealed significant attitudinal patterns underlying individual reactions toward culturally oriented marketing messages. Our results showed that culturally congruent advertising, while producing favorable ad and brand attitudes, enhances Web-based communication. Cultural appeals are particularly persuasive when targeting consumers with strong ethnic identities.
Transborder Journalism: Bypassing the Nation to Engage Europe • Kevin Grieves, Ohio University • Previous research indicates the absence of European journalism, hampering the development of a European public sphere. This empirical study examines regional journalism, largely neglected by earlier research, for signs of European journalism that engages directly with neighbors across the border. Qualitative analysis of transborder broadcast content from the Saar-Lor-Lux region reveals that journalists bypass national centers to cover Europe regionally. This paper addresses what has been described as a blind spot in European journalism research.
The Structural Embeddedness of Global News Flow: A Social Network Analysis Approach to International News • Seung Joon Jun, Korea University; Ju-Yong Ha, Inha Univ., Incheon, Korea • This study examined the network of international news flow based on World-Systems theory. Using social network methods, this study attempted to identify the structure of international news and its embeddedness in socio-economic environments of the world-system. It confirmed that the structure pattern of international news flow is similar to what World-Systems theorists have argued. As many communication scholars have argued, the pattern of international news flow is still strongly centered on a few Western countries. Using QAP multiple regression technique this study also found that the structure of the world news is strongly embedded in international economic, political, and cultural contexts. Especially, the economic, diplomatic and interpersonal connections among countries are significant predictor of international news flow.
Journalism in a Complicated Place: The Role of Community Journalism in South Africa • john hatcher, University of Minnesota Duluth • One of the great challenges in a world that is becoming more culturally complex is how media can build community between groups with strong cultural cleavages. In no country are these challenges more pronounced than in South Africa, where a new democracy is making concerted efforts to foster media that will help to overcome a history of oppression based on difference. A qualitative analysis that includes interviews with more than 60 journalists and experts in community media found that journalists in South Africa see themselves as community educators whose role transcends simply reporting the news. The results suggest the greatest obstacle in this country is to find a way to encourage media that serve historically marginalized communities.
Predicting international news coverage: How much influence do gatekeepers have? • Beverly Horvit, University of Missouri; Peter Gade, University of Oklahoma; Elizabeth A. Lance, University of Missouri • Regression models using a content analysis of 2,500 news stories produced by The New York Times, Associated Press and four other newspapers, paired with a dataset for 191 countries, show U.S. coverage of other countries is highly predictable. Logistics factors (e.g., U.S. economic and military relations) predict coverage much more than gatekeeping variables. Together, the variables explain more than 90 percent of the wires’ coverage and 96 percent of the variance in the newspapers’ coverage.
Rural Use of Internet Technology and Economic Development in Nigeria • Primus Igboaka, Bowling Green State University; Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University • This study identifies the characteristics of Internet users in a rural population of southeastern Nigeria.
Results revealed that among the three innovation attributes (relative advantage, compatibility and complexity), compatibility scored the highest, indicating these users’ acceptance of the technology for individual and community use. An analysis of the activities and the users’ impetus shows that Internet is used primarily for activities related to economic development, although many began with just communicating by e-mails with friends and family.
Agenda Building and the Politics of Regime Legitimacy in East Africa • Yusuf Kalyango, Ohio University • This study examined how the governments of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania influence public attitudes to legitimize their regimes through the media. It is based on a survey of 1,395 citizens in 15 provinces of East Africa who were selected using a stratified multistage cluster sampling. We examined whether public attitudes towards regime legitimacy vary between users of the state-owned and the privately-owned media, accounting for education levels. Government influence on public attitudes towards regime legitimacy had a negative influence within provinces and had no significant positive influence across provinces when education levels were high. We find that the EAC governments build their political influence by taking advantage of citizens who are less educated, and who lack the basic understanding of their political rights. The utility of this research and its implications are detailed.
The Korean Netizens’ Online & Offline Collective Activism • HyunMee Kang, Louisiana State Universtiy; Daekyung Kim Kim, Idaho State University • The main concern of the study is the role of internet’s mobilization in collective activism and factors to motivate the internet users to partake in collective activities through the candlelight movement in South Korea. As predictors of the Korean netizens’ participation in collective activities, the study examined social identity and collectivist orientation as well as reliance on news media, use of the internet, political attitude, and issue involvement. A total of 241 Internet users participated in online survey and the linear regression was employed. The results showed that social identity, collectivist orientation, and reliance on news media are significant predictors of the participation in collective activism.
Competition and the Decline of Foreign Television Program Popularity in Indonesia during the 1990s • Tuenyu Lau, self; David Atkin, University of Connecticut • This paper seeks to examine the impact of competition on the popularity of foreign programs in Indonesia during the mid-1990s. Analyzing 1995-1997 ratings data from a television ratings service, the paper suggests that competition has given rise to the popularity of local programs, while foreign program popularity has declined during the same time period. The findings also suggest that cultural proximity is a factor of the popularity of programs. Between 1995 and 1997, Asian programs outnumbered Western programs on the top 100 highest rated program list in Indonesia. Despite the country’s population base of 240 million, Indonesian television broadcasting has not been explored in academic and professional venues. The paper explores implications of study findings for filling this void in the literature.
Reinforcing Functions of Attention to Affective Coverage and Partisans for Attitudes toward the U.S. Policy of Iraq • Jeongsub Lim, Sogang University • Attention to affective coverage and partisans could reinforce the public’s attitudes toward international issues. The present study examines this question by combining a public opinion poll and major media’s affective coverage of Iraq. Results show that people who pay attention to affective coverage hold more positive attitudes or more negative attitudes toward the U.S. policy of Iraq, compared to those who do not pay attention to the coverage. Partisans in combination with attention to the Iraq coverage reinforce these nonneutral attitudes toward the policy. Theoretical implications are discussed.
Sustainability of Organizational Change in the Newsroom: A Case Study from Australia • Brian Massey, East Carolina University; Jacqui Ewart, Griffith University • Organizational-change concepts were applied in a three-year survey study of the sustainability of an ambitious, ongoing newsroom-change program at a group of corporate-owned regional newspapers in Australia. The results suggest a sustained level of change-based momentum for the program in terms of journalists’ openness to change, and their judgments of the goals of change and its effect on their newsrooms. The implication of attitudinal ambivalence toward change as a contributor to momentum for change is discussed.
Culture and Metaphors in Advertisements: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States • Pamela Morris, Loyola University Chicago • Culture and language are intertwined. Metaphors, based on culture, are ubiquitous in thinking and language. As social artifacts reflecting culture, advertising messages provide the opportunity to compare metaphors in different nations. The goal of this paper is to understand how and why metaphors are used and how they differ across countries, as well as how cultural characteristics are used to create compelling ad messages. Using a content analysis of 87 French, German, Italian, Dutch, and American magazine advertisements, variations in metaphor usage and cultural attributes were examined from four culture-bound product groups: food and beverages, automobiles, insurance and finance, and personal care. Findings provide examples for how culture is reflected in language and symbols. The study shows metaphors are exploited in headlines to capture attention throughout all five countries. However, metaphors and cultural attributes are used differently within nations and employed strategically to capture attention, gain interest, and deliver a persuasive message. The study is important in the context of globalization and the debate for whether or not culture is important in advertising. The exploratory project provides theory in culture, language, metaphor, and advertising, and offers a guide for further research about culture.
From Heavy-Handed to a Light-Touch: Protecting Children through Media Regulation in Singapore • Temple Northup, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • Singapore, the small city-state in the hub of Southeast Asia, is one of the most diverse and connected countries in the world. It also has a reputation, in Western media, as having strict laws coming from a government that rules with an iron fist. In light of this, it would seem likely that the Singapore government would try to heavily regulate all media in order to control what messages are seen and heard by its people. However, this is not actually the case. Through an analysis of government codes and reports about television and the Internet, two very contrasting styles of regulation are used by the Singapore government. With television, strict legislative restraints exist that control exactly what can and cannot be broadcast. In contrast, for the Internet, very few guidelines exist and the government relies more on self-regulation through indirect measures like educational programs. These findings are discussed in light of the government’s continued use of children as a justification for any regulations and programs that exist. Through the analysis of the regulations, it becomes clear that the government is interested in passing along the values of social order and social decorum to children.
Effect of a Public Service Announcement for Couple Testing for HIV on Beliefs, Understanding, and Intent to Act • Jyotika Ramaprasad, University of Miami • This paper presents results of an effectiveness test for a PSA to encourage HIV couple testing. Participatory formative research in Uganda identified disclosure of HIV positive status between partners as the major issue and couple testing as the solution. A largely text-based with voiceover PSA was created and tested in Uganda, using a pre-post design. Results indicate effectiveness of the PSA, which will be distributed for use in Uganda.
International Attitudes Toward America: Relationship Status – It’s Complicated • Olga Randolph, Oklahoma State University; Jami Fullerton, Oklahoma State University; alice kendrick, Southern Methodist University • A survey of 67 international students regarding their attitudes toward America, U.S. brands and consumption of U.S. media suggests that their relationship with matters U.S. is, in the words of Facebook syntax, complicated. Respondents felt slightly more favorably toward the U.S. people than the U.S. government, and their region of origin was related to their attitudes. On average, respondents reported that more than one-third of their time with media is spent with U.S. media. Respondents spent the greatest amount of media time with Internet, music, television, books and video. Consumption of U.S. media, and specifically U.S. music and books, was related to attitudes toward Americans. U.S. brands most liked were Apple and Coca Cola; McDonald’s was the most disliked brand; and Nike was named as both a most liked and a least liked brand. Four out of five respondents said, however, that they buy branded products and services that they like, irrespective of country of origin.
Do journalists have information access? Exploring news media freedom and colonial heritage in 42 nations • Jeannine Relly, University of Arizona, School of Journalism • This cross-national exploratory study examined the environment for journalists in a census of developing nations with access-to-information laws (N = 42). At the end of the 12 years studied, less than one-third of all of the countries (29%) had a news media that was free and independent. The greatest proportion of nations with freedom of the news media were common law heritage countries and these nations had the greatest proportion of positive change in the enabling environment for journalists to work and access information under the access-to-information law. By the end of the study, one in five developing nations with access laws had a context that was not free for the news media to practice journalism; and nearly a third of the nations had negative change in this environment, making it clear that adopting an access-to-information law did not necessarily parallel the diffusion of other democratic norms.
A Cross-National Study of Social-Networking Services between the U.S. and Korea • Dong-Hee Shin, Sungkyunkwan University • This study investigated users’ underlying motivations for engaging in social networking through social-networking sites and their relationships with behavior. It examined cross-national differences in motivations for participating in social networking between American and Korean users. The design methods were based on the modified Technology Acceptance Model and structural equation modeling was applied to the data gathered. The TAM factors of social-networking services were analyzed cross-nationally, in a comparative fashion, focusing on the differences in the composition of motives in the two countries. While the results illustrate the importance of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, the two countries show different sets of motivations. Based on the results of this study, practical applications for marketing strategies in social-networking service markets and theoretical applications for cross-country studies are recommended accordingly.
A comparative analysis of earthquake-relief public service announcements in China and the United States • Xiaopeng Wang, University of South Florida St. Petersburg • This content analysis examined Chinese PSAs for Wenchuan, China, earthquake relief in 2008 and U.S. PSAs for Haiti earthquake relief in 2010. China is a high-context culture and the United States is a low-context culture. The U.S. PSAs contained more information than the Chinese PSAs. U.S. PSAs were more likely to feature celebrities and explicitly command the viewers to perform an action, while Chinese PSAs used more symbolic associations and emotional appeals.
Market-Driven Sensationalism in Global TV News: A Comparative Study of 14 Countries • Tai-Li Wang, National Taiwan University • A recent theme in discussions about the quality of television news is its pursuit of commercial interests, which cause broadcasters to attract viewer attention by sensationalizing news. Previous sensationalism studies have focused on the formal presentation of TV news in a single country. The impact of packing TV news in sensational ways was also investigated. However, in terms of a more global picture, how prevalent are sensational topics and presentation formats? Can the relationship between news competition and news professionalism be established? Currently, very limited empirical research exists, in terms of global perspectives, to study how and why TV news has grown to be so sensationalized in recent years. This study conducted a global TV news content analysis of 14 countries. Additionally, a survey was conducted of TV news researchers for those countries, which gauged the news competition levels and professionalism. The results of this study intend to portray a more global picture of sensationalism in TV news, and to disentangle the long-time speculated relationship between news competition and professionalism.
A Comparison of Consumers’ Reactions to Cause-Related Marketing in the US and China • Ye Wang, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Weiping Hu, University of Shanghai • A survey was conducted to investigate the influence of cultural orientations, perception of charitable giving as a social norm, and local culture on CRM-related attitudes and behaviors, under the theory of individualism and collectivism by Triandis and Gelfand (1998). The results indicated that the collectivism orientation and local culture were significant predictors, while the influence of charitable giving as a social norm was often through the influence of cultural orientations.
Procedural Justice Matters More than Distributive Justice: How the Saddam Hussein Trial Became a Show Trial • Jin Yang, University of Memphis • This study analyzed the New York Times and the Washington Post’s coverage of the Saddam Hussein Trial from the justice frame perspective. It found that procedural justice frame was the dominant frame in the trial stories over distributive, interpersonal and informational frames. The identified two negative relationships (between defense sources and procedural justice, between human interest and procedural justice) demonstrated how the procedural justice frame was developed and constructed and pointed to the future research potential.
Al Jazeera: Walking a Fine Line Between a Pro-Western Government and Terrorists • khalaf tahat, Arkansas State University; Lily Zeng, Arkansas State University • Al Jazeera, the pan-regional Arab-based network, has been mired in controversy since it was launched by the government of Qatar in 1996. It gains its reputation in the West mostly because of its airing of videos from the militant terrorist group Al Qaeda. Although Al Jazeera attempted to become self-sufficient through advertising during the first few years, the advertising revenue it generated proved insufficient for its operation. The addition of Al Jazeera English (AJE) in 2006 only worsens the financial situation of the network, since Western cable carriers refuse to include it and it thus remains a marginal voice in the Western media market. Till today, Al Jazeera relies heavily on the financial support of the Qatari government, which maintains an excellent relationship with the U.S. This study asks the question: Why does the pro-Western Qatari government support a network that provide coverage that the Western audience sees negative about or even threatens the West? Through an analysis of the relationships involving Al Jazeera, terrorist groups, the Qatari government, and the West, this study seeks to provide an understanding of how Al Jazeera operates amongst a complicated series of relationship.
Markham Student Paper Competition
Proud, sexy, and highly intoxicated – An expatriate blogger’s conceptions about Finns and Americans • Sanna Ala-Kortesmaa, University of Oregon • The primary purpose of this study was to examine how Finns and Americans were represented in a blog written by an expatriate blogger, what kind of discursive practices were used to create these representations, and if the representations differed based on which nationality he was describing. The results of critical discourse analysis suggest that the representations were mostly negative and focused on Finns. Stereotyping, generalization, and over-lexicalization were used in representations, but the use of interdiscursive superstructures steered the interpretation of them from a negative to a humorous level.
Making the Case for War: CNN and BBC coverage of Colin Powell’s 2003 presentation to the United Nations • Seth Ashley, University of Missouri-Columbia • This paper offers a comparative analysis of news coverage by CNN.com and BBC.com of Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003. Ethnographic content analysis examines the coverage, and an institutional analysis examines the news outlets in broader cultural and economic contexts. The paper concludes that the BBC is better situated to enhance rational-critical dialogue and democratic self-governance through inclusion of a greater diversity of sources and a wider array of opinion.
Understanding Orientalism: The construction of the ‘other’ • Adrienne Atterberry, Syracuse University • Because of the changing relations between the East and West, and the fact that formerly unrepresented people now have to ability to represent themselves, this necessitates revisiting the concept of Orientalism. This paper examines the term Orientalism as it has been used since Edward Said’s initial definition. This paper includes discussion of the subaltern, globalization, and new media as it concerns the importance of continuing to examine instances of Orientalism and the concept of representation of the Other in general. This paper specifically engages with concepts of self, internalized, Aesthetic, commodified, and techno Orientalism as a way to understand the different instances of Orientalism.
A Content Analysis of the New York Times and CNN Coverage of the 2009 Iranian Presidential Election • Kanghui Baek, University of Texas at Austin • This study examines how the New York Times and CNN covered the 2009 Iranian presidential election.This study, in particular, content analyzes the type of events reported and the sources used by the two news entities during the event’s time span. This study contributes to an understanding of how the negative and deviant nature of the international event that was covered by the U.S. media that played a leading role in setting agenda in the international context.
Festival de Viña del Mar: Articulating Chilean Identity Through a National Media Event • Claudia Bucciferro, University of Colorado at Boulder • This study is an analysis of the Festival Internacional de la Canción de Viña del Mar (Viña del Mar’s International Song Festival), which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary in Chile. Within a Cultural Studies framework, it argues that the Festival can be understood as a secular tradition, a media event, and a media ritual conveying meanings that are legitimized by its social and media significance. Using a qualitative approach to review the last three editions of the Festival, this paper explores how issues such as national identity, gender, class, and commodification are presented onstage. It also considers how the Festival constitutes a place for the articulation of a meta-narrative that is relevant for understanding Chilean identity today.
Media freedom and corruption: Media effects on governmental accountability in 133 countries • Lindita Camaj, Indiana University • Relying on Transparency International surveys on corruption perceptions and Freedom House surveys of media freedom, this study measures the relationship between media freedom and corruption, accounting for elements of vertical accountability [electoral competitiveness, civil society and voter turnout] and horizontal accountability [judicial independence and political system]. Hierarchical multiple regression results suggests a strong association between media freedom and corruption that runs from more media freedom to less corruption. The significance of the media freedom coefficient is robust even after controlling for vertical and horizontal accountability, confirming previous studies that regard mass media among the most important determinants of political accountability. Further, this study implies that media freedom might have a greater indirect effect on corruption when coupled with strong institutions of horizontal accountability. The data suggest that media freedom have a greater impact on corruption in countries with a parliamentary political system than in those with a presidential system, and that this impact increases as the judiciary independence increases.
Understanding media frames that cover an ethnic minority group in a homogeneous country: Expanding a generic frame in minority studies • Moonhee Cho, University of Florida; Jaejin Lee, University of Florida; JIN SOOK IM, University of Florida • The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to examine how the media portray the minority group of international married migrant women in Korea, an ethnically homogeneous country, and 2) to reveal whether the proximity characteristic in news value criteria influences the media coverage in terms of volume, frame selection, and tones. By employing both qualitative and quantitative analysis, the study expanded Semetko and Valkenbug’s (2000) generic frames by adding new frames such as the integration and victim frames. Among seven media frames, the integration frame was the most frequently used in news articles covering an ethnic minority group in a homogeneous country.
How Two Irish Newspapers Framed the 2007 British Military Withdrawal From Northern Ireland • Dave Ferman, University of Oklahoma • Frame analysis has often been used to study how the media has described and interpreted conflicts, displays of cultural affinity with audiences, and uses elite sources, as well as the relationship between news coverage and editorial stance on an issue. This paper examines these aspects of framing by studying how two Irish newspapers, the Belfast Telegraph and the Dublin-based Irish Independent, covered the withdrawal of British military forces from Northern Ireland in the summer of 2007 The end of the 38-year Operation Banner was a watershed moment in the Troubles and provides an excellent opportunity for framing analysis, given the two newspapers’ divergent histories, audiences, and long-standing editorial stances on the conflict and the relationship between Ireland and England. Content analysis of both news and opinion stories printed in a four-month period before and after the withdrawal reveal significant differences in coverage.
Pandemic as a Global and Local Health Emergency?: H1N1 News Frames and Its Determinants • Hyejoon Rim, University of Florida; Jinhong Ha, University of Florida • This study examined the message frames and information sources used in H1N1 news coverage between April 1, 2009 and February 28, 2010. Quantitative content analysis of 940 newspaper articles was conducted to examine how message frames and information sources appear differently in H1N1 news media coverage in cross-cultural (i.e., United States and South Korea) and cross-medium contexts (i.e. liberal, conservative and business newspaper). The results show that severity and human interest were the two most prominent frames, and government and health authority sources were most frequently used in the pandemic coverage. We found a positive relationship between frames and sources, which suggests journalists routinely approach certain sources depending on the story frame. U.S. newspapers were more likely to present an attribution of responsibility frame than Korea newspapers, whereas Korea newspapers were more likely to present an action frame. The prominence of frames varied with news institutions. Liberal newspapers were more likely to present the attribution of responsibility frame than conservative newspapers and economic newspapers, while economic newspapers presented the economic consequences frame more frequently than others. Implications of the study are discussed in terms of determinants of news values and their influences on news frames.
Social Media and Social Movements: Facebook and an Online Guatemalan Justice Movement that Moved Offline • Summer Harlow, University of Texas-Austin • In 2009, the Guatemalan president was accused of murder, prompting the creation of Facebook pages calling for his resignation. Using interviews and a content analysis of Facebook comments, this study found that the social network site was used to mobilize an online movement that moved offline. Users’ protest-related and motivational comments, in addition to their use of links and other interactive elements of Facebook, helped organize massive protests demanding justice and an end to violence.
A Political Boss and the Press: The Impact on Democracy of Two Brazilian Newspapers • Summer Harlow, University of Texas-Austin • When Brazil’s president was implicated in a bribery scandal in 2005, Antônio Carlos Magalhães, a long-time senator in Brazil’s Northeast state of Bahia, emerged as one of the president’s most vocal critics. A content analysis of scandal coverage in two Bahia newspapers – one of which Magalhães owned – showed that Magalhães’ newspaper succumbed to owner influence, excluding citizens’ voices as it covered the senator more extensively and favorably than did the competing newspaper.
Thailand’s Internet Policies: The Search for a Balance between National Security and Rights to Information • Chalisa Magpanthong, Ohio University • This research reviews communication policy and its application to Thailand’s management of Internet resources—a contentious battle between national security ideology and a rationale for communication freedoms in the public interest. It investigates the movement of government policy toward increasing control over the public’s use of Internet resources by means of the Computer Crime Act and lese majeste laws, and this research examines public reaction to the government’s unbalanced policies.
Intellectual Games: International Intellectual Property Rights and the Middle Eastern Video Game Industry • Adrienne Shaw, University of Pennsylvania • This paper analyzes the rhetoric rather than the policy of international Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) as they relate to the Middle Eastern video game industry. It draws on textual analysis, economics literature, and a small number of interviews with gamers and game designers from the region. Monroe Price’s Market for Loyalties framework is used to analyze how a dominant discourse in which IPR protections are viewed as a universal good has limited discussions of this nascent industry.
Framing Barack Obama’s first visit to Africa as president: A comparative analysis of African and non-African news coverage • Etse Sikanku, University of Iowa • This study examined how African (The Daily Graphic, The Daily Nation, AllAfrica.com) and non-African news media (The Times, The New York Times, Associated Press) covered Barack Obama’s first visit to sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana). A content analysis of 163 stories found five major themes embedded in media reportage of America’s first black president’s visit to the continent of his father. This includes: globalization, democracy, responsibility, historical and soft news narratives. Even though coverage was neutral across board, the African newspapers concentrated more on the historical and soft news frames while non-African newspapers reported heavily on the democracy and responsibility frame.
The Daily Dance: Agenda-setting, framing, and communication for development at daily State Department briefings • Ed Simpson, Ohio University • In February 2009, the Pew Center’s Project on Journalism Excellence released a special report on U.S. foreign press coverage, noting that while the foreign press corps increased dramatically in the last forty years (from 160 to more than 1,490), the coverage merely has been broadened rather than offering increased diversity or depth. In other words, more outlets are carrying essentially the same stories. This study, guided by framing and agenda-setting theory within a context of communication for development, sought to help explain this phenomenon by examining 242 exchanges during a constructed week sampling of daily U.S. State Department briefings. As suggested by framing and agenda-setting theory, this study found that the State Department tended to reinforce U.S. policies regardless of questions asked; that questions tended to come from a U.S. perspective, and that the U.S. development agenda was a minor part of the discourse. The results of this study suggest that the agendas of neither the State Department nor the mainstream press corps have changed significantly from previous research, despite a shift in stated policy and rhetoric. In addition, the results suggest a need for a deeper examination of how the foreign press is incorporated into the flow of information from the State Department.
More Troops, More War: A Framing Analysis of International News Coverage of the Troop Surge in Afghanistan • James Ian Tennant, University of Texas at Austin • This content analysis examines coverage of the process leading up to President Barack Obama’s decision to send 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The focus is on sources used by The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian and the Al-Jazeera English website, and the presence of two kinds of frames. The analysis showed that the four media outlets relied heavily on official sources while coverage reflected a similar use of frames.
Beyond soap opera for social change: An analysis of Kenya’s The Team Melissa Tully, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Brian Ekdale, University of Wisconsin-Madison • We explore how the TV series The Team, Kenya, adapts the entertainment-education model to include morally ambiguous characters and more participation through social networking and mobile screenings. We analyze how The Team uses the metaphor of sport, while online discussions take the metaphor to its more literal meaning about national unity. This research is based on qualitative methods including interviews, textual analysis of the series, and review of internal documents and the show’s Facebook accounts.
Modernity and Tradition:Technology in Chinese Television Commercials • Ying Xi, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University, China • This article explored China’s mediation between tradition and modernity in the television commercials about technology. A double-level framework was developed on the basis of literature review and was empirically tested by analyzing Chinese television commercials about technology-intensity products on two levels: cultural value themes and the way in which cultural themes are presented. The results indicated coexistence of two levels in a single commercial, and found that general cultural patterns (i.e., cultural value themes expressed in commercials) can be changed and adapted into modernization process while specific cultural patterns (i.e., the way of themes presentation) can remain constant. The study also explained the relations between two levels that specific cultural patterns serve as an ideological goal or as a legitimating principle for people’s present actions while general cultural patterns serve as criteria or as guidance to direct people’s specific actions in their daily life. In addition, the level of modernity was identified as an important factor to influence cultural expression across different product origins.
Sensationalism in News: NBC’s Coverage of The U.S. Presidents’ Visits to China, 1989-2009 • Boya Xu, West Virginia University • This study analyzes NBC’s coverage of the U.S. President’s visits to China from 1989 through 2009, and investigates the evolving characteristics of media framing over time while exploring the impact of sensationalism on the actual content of media reporting. By examining the reporting techniques, types of layperson speaking, and tone in news reporting in different time periods, using quantitative content analysis, it is concluded that the amount of sensationalist features applied in news making continues to rise over the years, while the media interpretation of international communication is applied within the context of foreign policies and bilateral relations.
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