International Communication 2000 Abstracts
International Communication Division
Open Competition
The Absence of Fairness in Philippine Newspapers • Geri M. Alumit, Michigan State • Content analysis results of two newspapers, Malaya and Manila Bulletin in the Philippines, show little fairness in the coverage of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. Interviews with reporters and editors at those two newspapers suggest that fairness is not an objective of Philippine journalism, and is also the product of other factors such as laziness, “press release journalism” and “envelopmental journalism.”
Dutch Audience’s Use and Interpretation of Economic News First Results From a Cross-National Explorative Study • Florann Arts, The Amsterdam School of Communications Research • In this paper focus groups show that the public’s relative disinterest in hard economic news is caused by the perceived gap between the issues covered and people’s daily lives. Television programs are perceived to increase the tangibility of economic news. Also, trust in the accuracy of economic coverage was found to be related to people’s confidence in the future state of the economy. The results furthermore suggest that people believe economic news does have more impact on others than on themselves.
Values Representations in International News • Christopher E. Beaudoin and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • This study sets forth a values approach to understanding international news coverage in a prestige American newspaper. Via a content analysis, a system of 13 values — including altruism, freedom, materialism, and peace — was examined in terms of how foreign nations, groups, and individuals were represented. Conflict values were clustered, as were positive values. Asia was stereotyped as materialistic, Western Europe as beautiful, Africa as power ridden, and the Eastern bloc as concerned with the value of security.
Myths and News Narratives: Toward a Comparative Perspective for the Study of News Content • Dan Berkowitz, Iowa and Hillel Nossek, Tel-Aviv • Comparative research across cultures provides a fruitful terrain for research into myths and narratives that are embedded into news content. This study offers a nexis of structuralist and ethnographic approaches that offers a conceptual complement for that vein of research. Following a conceptual discussion, the paper addresses methodological considerations and offers and scheme for conducting research with a cross-cultural research team.
This case study examines media literacy as it relates to the encoding Media Literacy And India’s Ramayan In Nepal: Are TV Aesthetics Universal Or Culture-Bound? • Elizabeth Burch, Sonoma State • This case study examines media literacy as it relates to the encoding and decoding of messages intended for non-western viewers. A qualitative methodology of contextual aesthetics examines how production techniques clarified and intensified the narrative of Ramayan • one of India’s first Hindu soap operas produced for television and aired in India and Nepal in the late 1980s. The purpose is to identify whether televisual conventions are culturally-bound or universal. The study finds that culture plays a key role in the way television messages are constructed and perhaps interpreted.
Linkages of International and Local News • Gene Burd, Texas-Austin • This study of how five daily newspapers made local tie-ins to international news on page one covers the month of January 1999 for the Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News and San Francisco Chronicle-Examiner. It surveys research on criteria for international news, professionals’ worries about scanty resources and skewed priorities, and the sparse training and textbook guides for both staff and free-lancers connecting “main street” to the larger world whose political boundaries are being dissolved by the electronic and natural environment.
From Globalization to Localization: World’s Leading Television News Broadcasters in Asia • Yu-li Chang, Ohio • This paper addresses globalization of CNNI, BBC World, and CNBC in Asia by analyzing and comparing program schedules of these three broadcasters. Globalization for them means adopting regionalization and localization in their programming strategies. CNBC Asia leads in its efforts of localization, followed by BBC World. While CNNI Asia Pacific has not moved beyond regionalization, it may soon adopt localization in Asia.
The Image of Muslims as Terrorists in Major U.S. Newspapers • Natalya Chernyshova, Washington and Lee University/American University in Bulgaria • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Discrepancy of Gratifications of Online News Readers • Jung-Yui Cho, Alabama • Discrepancy of gratifications of online news among U.S. and foreign readers was investigated based on different themes of gratifications including remote access, immediacy, surveillance, and entertainment. The discrepancy between GS and GO was demonstrated to be of statistical significance. Besides, due to the fact that online news provides instant access to hometown news anywhere in the world, international participants of the survey revealed a very active use of the medium with more experience.
Between the Government and the Press: The Role of Western Correspondents and Government Public Relations in Reporting on the Middle East • Mohammed el-Nawawy, West Florida and James D. Kelly, Southern Illinois • Western news correspondents and three Egyptian and Israeli government PR officers were interviewed in 1998 to determine their role perceptions within the context of two theoretical models. Correspondents said analysis of complex issues was their primary role and PR officials said theirs was provision of information to correspondents. Israeli officials were far more accessible and easier to work with than their Egyptian counterparts, but correspondents were more skeptical of Israeli information. The newsmaking model best described the relationship.
Government, Press and Advertising Revenue: Impact of the 27 October, 1987 Suspension of The Star’s License to Publish on The Star and the Competing New Straits Times • Tee-Tuan Foo, Ohio • This study seeks to understand the relationship among an authoritarian government, the newspapers and the advertisers. It content analyzed the advertising that appeared in two Malaysian leading English Newspapers, The Star and the New Straits Times, before and after The Star was temporarily suspended by the government on 27 October, 1987. The results found that the Malaysian government’s suspension of The Star’s publishing license decreased the newspaper revenue and increased those of its main competitor, the New Straits Times, following The Star’s return to publication.
The Transitional Press Concept And English-Language Newspaper Readership In The Post-Communist Czech Republic • Bruce Garrison, Miami • Hachten has identified five political concepts of the world press, including the Western free press model. Ognianova has defined a “transitional press concept” for news organizations in nations that had been under Communist Party control and the newly independent press of Central and Eastern Europe that are moving toward the Western concept. This paper analyzed the role of an English-language newspaper in a region where English is not the dominant language.
Post-Cold War Bulgarian Media: Free and Independent at Last? • Robyn S. Goodman, Alfred • Immediately following the Cold War’s collapse, many Bulgarian journalists suddenly declared the Bulgarian mass media “free.” Ten years later, they now argue that the Bulgarian media are far from achieving an independent, democratic status. This study describes changes in the Bulgarian mass media during the Cold War’s final years through the post-Cold War era to answer the following question: How close are the Bulgarian media to establishing themselves as a free, independent Fourth Estate?
McQuail’s Media Performance Analysis And Post-Communist Broadcast Media: A Case Study Of Broadcasting In Estonia • Max V. Grubb, Southern Illinois • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Prospects And Limitations Of World System Theory For Media Analysis: The Case Of Middle East And North Africa • Shelton A. Gunaratne • This essay points out the potential of applying the world system theory to global communication and media analysis as a “humanocentric” enterprise covering both the present and the past. It attempts to identify the world’s core countries using a weighted index of a country’s size of the economy (GNP) and of the exports. It applies the index to rank order the countries in the Middle East and North Africa region to ascertain the likelihood of a core-periphery structure within the region itself and to test whether media freedom and media penetration follow the pattern of that structure.
Attitudes, Communication Behavior, and Cognition: A Trans-Cultural Test of Grunig’s Situational Communication Theory • Kingsley O. Harbor, Mississippi Valley State • This study tested Situational Communication Theory to ascertain its cross-cultural generalizability. The path model employed here comprised attitudinal, communicative, and motivational variables most of which were predicted by the theory. The systemic relationship so formed explained the intention of Developing World students to or not to return home after their studies in the USA. Study used stratified random sample of 400 Developing World students attending an American university. Phone interview refusal rate was 23%. Data analysis involved regression and path analytical models.
After the Rape: The Elite Newspapers’ Use of Sources in their Coverage of Okinawa, 1995-1998 • Beverly J. Horvit, Winthrop • This paper examines journalists’ use of sources on a noncrisis foreign policy issue • the debate over the U.S. troop presence in Okinawa after a child’s rape. A 1995-1998 content analysis of the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times shows journalists relied heavily on official sources. In addition, eight of 10 American sources quoted were administration sources. Furthermore, the type of sources quoted was dependent on from where the reporters were reporting.
The Relevance of Mass Communication Research in a Global Era: Localization Strategies of International Companies Entering India • Geetika Pathania Jain, North Texas • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Television and Perceptions of Values among Korean College Students • Jong G. Kang, Illinois State and Seok Kang, Georgia • This study was designed to determine whether the relationship between culture and individualistic or collectivistic value structure types truly exist within the Korean sample of college students. Using the postulates and methodology of the value structure theory by Schwarts to mass communication, this study also employed value type analysis to investigate how respondents’ cultural background and television viewing habit are associated with their responses to value types. This study found significant correlations among individualist, collectivist, and mixed value types.
Glocalization As a Metatheory for International Communication Research • Marwan M. Kraidy, North Dakota • This paper proposes glocalization as a metatheory for international communication research. First, the theoretical problematic of international communication is introduced and international communication paradigms are reviewed. Second, the implications of the literature on globalization and localization for international communication theory are discussed. Third, the concept of glocalization is explained and proposed as a metatheory for international communication. The paper concludes by proposing a research agenda for international communication guided by the metatheory of glocalization.
Locating Asian Values in Journalism: A Content Analysis of Web Newspapers • Brian L. Massey and Arthur Chang, Singapore • The two major positions in the debate over Asian values in journalism were tested by a content analysis of news stories posted to English-language Web newspapers in 10 Asian nations. The findings offer some support to each position. Asian values do appear in reporting by Asian journalists. But they are neither pan-Asia values nor applied uniformly to all news events. This work could provide a benchmark for future studies of Asian values in journalism.
The Transitional Media System Of Post-Autocratic Nigeria • Anthony A. Olorunnisola, Penn State • This paper reviews the character of Nigeria’s recent transition in order to politically locate its media system. A combination of press concepts provides the heuristic basis for the suggestion of the margin of political freedom as a way to determine the latitude available to a transitional media. Also, the margin of political freedom enabled a prediction of the intrinsic readiness of the Nigerian media to face post-autocratic challenges.
Sovereignty, Alliance and Press-Government Relationship: A Comparative Analysis of Japanese and U. S. Coverage of Okinawa • Mariko Oshiro and Tsan-Kuo Chang, Minnesota • Within a comparative framework, the purpose of this paper is to determine the form and content of news coverage of the Okinawa reversion issue between the United States and Japan from 1969 to 1972. The Okinawa reversion issue was one of the most important and controversial diplomatic problems in post-war U.S.-Japan relations because of the 1951 security arrangement. The general theoretical approach in this study is based on two major factors that have been found to influence the news content: ideological structure in society and press-government relationship.
Korean Environmental Journalists: How They Perceived A New Journalistic Role • Jaeyung Park and Robert A. Logan, Missouri-Columbia • This study examined how Korean environmental journalists conceptually perceived a new journalistic role that they played in covering environmental campaigns launched by the news media since 1992 in South Korea. Despite being inadvertently put in situation to receive an unprecedented role of encouraging civic participation in environmental preservation, Korean environmental journalists showed considerable sophistication of understanding their social role. They were not only able to differentiate the challenging role conceptually but also understand it clearly and quickly.
Reading and Rating the Press: Press Freedom and Fair Reporting in Zambia • Greg Pitts, Southern Methodist • Democracy’s sweep through Sub-Saharan Africa during the l990s signaled multiparty elections, spawned additional media voices, and at least deference to a free press. Zambia is an example of a new democracy dealing these changes. A survey Zambia Parliamentarians found that 89% of respondents read at least one newspaper. However, Parliamentarians give Zambia’s newest privately owned daily newspaper a low score on fair reporting though resource scarcity and socialization of Parliamentarians may contribute to this perception.
The Flow of News About Environmental Risk in Mexico 1983-97 • Donnalyn Pompper, Tallahassee • This textual analysis of environmental risks of Mexico examined hegemony as encoded in two mainstream U.S. daily newspapers, 1983-1997. Five themes emerged upon examination of images, concepts and premises used in newsmaking. Furthermore, texts underscored power relations between the two nations. U.S. government and industry were influential in matters of air, water and land pollution, habitat loss, and industrial safety in Mexico. Mexican policymakers, by omission, were passive.
A Talking Nation, Not a Talking Individual: A New Order in Tanzania? • Jyotika Ramaprasad, Southern Illinois • Using a survey of 141 journalists, this study profiles the Tanzanian journalist in terms of demographic, workplace and attitudinal variables. The Tanzanian journalist’s pursuit of his profession is deliberate and he subscribes to its lofty ideals. He rates accuracy, analysis, investigation, and such high, and places considerable importance on the public affairs role of journalism, more so than on the material benefits of the job. At the same time, the years of socialization under “ujamaa,” the socialist policy of development which enrolled the press as partner, and the political policy of a one-party state have left their trace and are evident even in these more liberal times.
Factors Affecting the Internet Adoption by Thai Journalists: A Diffusion of Innovation Study • Anucha Thirakanont and Thomas Johnson, Southern Illinois • This research was designed to examine what factors affect the adoption of the Internet by newspaper journalists in Thailand. The diffusion of innovation (Rogers, 1995) was used as a primary theoretical framework for the study with English language introduced as an additional variable. The results indicated that the perceived attributes of innovation • relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability • were useful predictors of the adoption. The additional attribute • English-language compatibility of the Internet • did not turn out to be a significant predictor of adoption because likely-adopters and nonadopters did not appear to be aware of the problem.
The Pacific War: A Retrospective Look at Anti-Japanese Propaganda In The New York Times and Anti-American Propaganda in Asahi Shimbun • Hideko Yoshimoto and Diana Stover Tillinghast, San Jose State • The study, which examines anti-Japanese propaganda in The New York Times and anti-American propaganda in Asahi Shimbun during the Pacific War, found that the propaganda in the Times was a mirror image of the propaganda in Asahi in the time periods from the bombing of Pearl Harbor until Japan’s surrender. This finding held for both newspapers across all five thematic categories of propaganda • authoritarianism, patriotic appeal, self-image, enemy image, and morale manipulation.
Changing Relationships Between The Press And The State: A Sociopolitical And Communication Law Perspective • Kyu Ho Youm, Arizona State • The far-reaching evolution of the statutory framework on the freedom and control of the Korean press since 1987 is a fascinating case study. While there is still a legacy of suppression in some press statutes in Korea, other statutes make press freedom become closer to a reality for Koreans. The press statutes in and of themselves, however, cannot be an accurate indication of how the Korean press exercises its freedom with or without constraint.
Markham Competition
News Media Representation of the Yanomami Indians as a Reflection of the Ideal Audience • Tania H. Cantrell, Brigham Young • Using Narrative Paradigm Theory and Narrative Analysis, this study investigates news media coverage of the Yanomami Indians, an indigenous tribe residing in northern Brazil and Venezuela. Eight themes are described and plausible interpretations of ideal audience member values are presented. This project explores the reflective nature of the news media, discusses insights into the question of human identity, and concludes recommending further study to assess how the Yanomami would tell their own story.
Support of the Film Industries in France and Italy in the late l990s • Joseph Denny, Indiana • France and Italy each possess a proud film history. Both have made significant efforts to bolster their film industries for most of the 20th century. The results have been mixed. This paper examines and compares the efforts of France and Italy to maintain their film industries in the second half of the 1990s. It also offers policy recommendations for the future.
New Portraits in Old Frams: US and Chinese Media Utterances on the 50th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China • Yun Ding, Minnesota • This article seeks to delineate prominent media frames in the brief but intense reportage of the 50th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) by major U.S. and Chinese press. In a renewed attempt to unravel the China Knot, the U.S. media evinced a strong anti-Communist sentiment, whereas the Chinese press, under direct ideological dictate and institutional control, continued to betray its entrenched style of sing-along journalism. Taken together, they afforded us an opportunity to examine how competing discursive communities handled the heavy topic of Communism on the eve of a new century.
We Are French Too, But Different: Radio, Music and The Articulation of difference among Young North Africans In France • Nabil Echchaibi, Indiana • Research on migrants in media studies has focused mainly on representation in and reception of the mainstream media of the host country. While such research is still valuable, it obscures the role of migrants as active participants and producers of alternative media outlets that help in the articulation of their diasporic experience. This essay discusses how, through radio and music, young North Africans in France negotiate, elaborate, and reappropriate different cultural forms to carve out a place for themselves in French culture.
Manufacturing Consent of ‘Crisis’: A Content Analysis of the New York Times’ Reporting on the Issue of North Korean Nuclear Weapon • Oh-Hyeon Lee, Massachusetts • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Communicative Distance and Media Stereotyping in an International Context • Deepak Prem Subramony, Minnesota • This paper transfers the constructs of communicative distance and stereotyping commonly found in the interpersonal communication literature into an international communication context. It hypothesizes that stereotyping by the media of one nation, of news from another nation, is positively correlated with the communicative distance between the two nations. Using innovative operationalizations of the communicative distance and media stereotyping constructs, the paper presents six international content analyses in support of the above hypothesis.
Historicizing Japanese Television Dramas: Technology, Drama Workers, and the Rise and Fall of Social Drama, 1945-1960 • Eva Tsai, Iowa • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
The European Press And The Euro: Media Agenda-Setting In A Cross-National Environment • Olaf Werder, Gainesville • Coverage of the Euro currency introduction was analyzed in the leading news publications in the UK and Germany. Specifically, we probed whether (l) coverage of the same cross-national issue differed in level of support and (2) the two national media applied different news frames. The study showed that the London Times opposed the Euro even with pro-Euro sources, whereas the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung maintained neutrality. The Times used an episodic, while the F.A.Z. employed a thematic style.
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