International Communication 1997 Abstracts
International Communication Division
Sold American: The Influence of U.S. News Consultants on Newscasts in Great Britain and Germany • Craig Allen, Arizona State University • With little fanfare, American news consultants recently have made major inroads into the news media abroad. In the first examination of international news consulting, consulted newscasts in the UK and Germany were found to have most of the characteristics of consulted local TV newscasts in the United States. Further investigation revealed that U.S. consultants operate not just in these two countries but in at least eighteen others. Because issues in domestic TV news have transferred overseas, more study of international news consulting is indicated.
Three American Newspapers’ Stand Toward the Arab-Israeli Conflicts • Khaled M. Batarfi, University of Oregon • This study explores questions of bias in U.S. prestige press in relation to Mideast conflicts. It content-analyzed the editorials of The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The New York Times published within a month of three Arab-Israeli conflicts. Coders looked for statements about aggression, intransigence, peace seeking, terrorism, land legitimacy, action justification, competence and incompetence attributed to either party. They also qualitatively evaluated the paragraphs for bias. Statistical tests supported all the hypotheses.
The Importance of International Contributions To the Evolution of Mass Communication Theory • Bruce K. Berger, University of Kentucky • Mass communication theory-making is often considered to be an American invention, and one largely based on empirical research methodology. However, this paper identifies some of the substantial contributions of international scholars to mass communication theory within three broad categories of theory: social/behavioral, critical/cultural, and normative. It’s further demonstrated that these international contributions are rich and generative in that they increase our stock of communications knowledge and broaden our search for an illuminating theoretical framework.
New York Times’ Use of Symbolism In Foreign Conflict Reporting: The Case of the Eritrean War (1962-1991) • Messeret Chekol, Minnesota • The question of whether the media are independent of U.S. foreign policy or its followers in foreign news reporting has been a subject of debate among international communication scholars for sometime. This paper takes the New York Times as representative of mainstream media, and attempts to analyze its use of symbolism in the Eritrean war over a span of two political periods covering a total of 29 years (1962-1991). These two periods are marked by two regimes in Ethiopia (the host country of the war) which maintained sharply contrasting relations with the United States. We hypothesize that the media tend to follow U.S. foreign policy in international news reporting: therefore, the New York Times’ use of symbolism in reporting on the Eritrean conflict is likely to follow the changing U.S. policies toward the situation over the years.
To Mourn, to Cheer, or to Fear? Three Different Chinese Perspectives on the Death of Deng Xiaoping • Shiau-Ching Chou, Margaret E. Thompson, University of Denver • This paper examines the news coverage of Deng Xiaoping’s death in February, 1997, by three newspapers in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, using discourse analysis within a critical theoretical framework. The results reveal that the Chinese government, directly or indirectly, influenced the gatekeeping process of all three newspapers. Although the newspaper reports reflected different political perspectives toward ongoing issues regarding China’s relationship to Hong Kong and Taiwan, all appear to reflect more conservative attitudes toward the Chinese government.
Looking East, Leading West: Ideology, Foreign Policy and International News in the Electoral Victory of the Bulgarian Communist/Socialist Party in 1990 • Anelia K. Dimitrova, University of Northern Iowa • This study investigates the relationship between ideology, foreign policy and international news in the cataclysmic changes in 1990. Specifically, it explores how the Bulgarian Communist Party agenda-setting newspaper Dello, and later, its successor, Duma. articulated the party’s foreign policy new priorities during the dramatic collapse of the Soviet bloc. Looking East, but leading West, the Bulgarian Communist/Socialist party traded its former ideological subservience to the Soviet Empire for its evolving political and economic interest in the United States. Ultimately, this strategy ensured its electoral victory in the first free democratic elections in 1990.
Through the Dragon’s Eyes: News of the United States in the Press Releases of the New China News Agency • Charles Elliott, Hong Kong Baptist University • News coverage research was conducted to explore how the U.S. was portrayed in the press releases of the New China News Agency. Content analysis was used to examine content and presentation features of news items about the United States issued in the l950s and l980s. A comparison of time periods indicated a more positive and objective image of the United States in the latter period. Changing standards of professionalism were also indicated in content and presentation style differences.
Global News Flow in Africa: Nigerian Media Coverage of International News, 1979-1995 • Festus Eribo, East Carolina University • This study, a part of the global news flow analysis in 1995, focuses on Nigeria. Using a content analysis, it compares the 1995 study with an earlier study in 1979. The findings support other analysis of geographic and cultural proximity as predictors of news coverage in the United States, Russia, and other countries. Findings such as the increase in the coverage of international trade over the coverage of international politics and the prominence of gender issues point to changes in the coverage of international news in Nigeria between 1979 and 1995; some evidence of post-cold war effects on the media.
Why the Opening of Japan’s Exclusive Press Clubs to Foreign Reporters Will fail to Advance Japanese Press Freedom • Hal Foster, University of North Carolina • Japan opened its exclusive press clubs, or kisha clubs, to foreign journalists in the summer of 1993. The club system had long been accused of fostering government management of the news, so both Japanese and non-Japanese critics of the clubs expressed hope that the presence of foreign reporters would lead to Japanese reporters being less reluctant to take on the establishment. This paper contends the critics’ hopes will be dashed Ñ for four reasons.
Fujimori Puts the PR in Peru and PromPeru Leads the Way: How the President is Projecting his Administration’s Neoliberal Policies • Alan Freitag, Ohio • A relatively small government agency called PromPeru is behind an aggressive, comprehensive, corporate-style communication campaign that is channeling the message of Peru’s extraordinary President Alberto Fujimori in an effort to recast Peru’s image in the global arena. This paper examines that agency and analyzes its techniques and output within the context of the political and economic forces that underpin Fujimori’s objectives. The agency is employing classic PR techniques to attract international investment on a grand scale; its efforts may signal a major step forward in Latin America’s PR evolution.
Terrorists on the Web: Propaganda and Public Diplomacy in Cyberspace • Alan Freitag, Ohio • When rebels captured 450 international hostages in Lima, Peru, on Dec. 17, 1996, they also elevated the level of sophistication of correlated mass media techniques aimed at maximum impact on the global stage. Part of their plan included a slick, extensive, multi-language site on the World Wide Web. This paper analyzes that site within a dual framework of propaganda and public diplomacy theories, concluding that circumspection is needed to understand fully the potentially manipulative effects of this surprising use of the new mass medium.
International News Agency Coverage of the Fourth World Conference on Women • C. Anthony Giffard, University of Washington • This study examines coverage of the Fourth World Conference on Women by three international news agencies: the Associated Press, Reuter and Inter Press Service. The research question is whether common criticisms of coverage of women and gender issues are substantiated, and whether there were differences in the coverage by the three agencies. We found little to substantiate allegations that women are depicted in a condescending or degrading manner. There was a tendency, however, for central concerns of the conference to be overshadowed by important but peripheral issues.
Who’s Setting the News Agenda on Sino-American Relations? Prestige Press Coverage from 1985 to 1993 • Robyn S. Goodman, Alfred University • This study examined whether Sino-American news coverage was more government independent after the Cold War’s collapse than during the Cold War proper. Content analysis of 1,177 New York Times and Washington Post articles and 399 government articles were compared via descriptive statistics and time series analysis. The study concluded that Sino-American press coverage from the Cold War’s demise through the post-Cold War era was more government independent than its Cold War predecessor.
Getting the News: How Japanese and American International Correspondents Choose Their Sources • Beverly Horvit, University of Missouri-Columbia • No Abstract available.
Development News From a Developed Country: A Content Analysis of Spanish Regional Television’s Contributions to CNN World Report, 1987-96 • Paul Husselbee, Ohio • Spain has struggled over the past two decades to repair its global image as a backward, repressive country. Simultaneously, she has attempted to revive a sluggish economy while coexisting with ever-increasing demands for political and cultural autonomy by its two of her most economically solvent regions Catalonia and the Basque Country. Television stations were established in these regions in 1983, in part to promote their respective languages and customs. Employing an alternative definition of development news, this study analyzes these stations contributions to CNN World Report over the international news program’s first nine years. Key research questions include the extent to which Spain’s regional television stations have used CNN World Report to distribute development news and longitudinal trends in the coverage.
The United States-China Copyright Dispute: A Two Level Games Analysis • Krishna Jayakar, Indiana University • For some years, U.S. media and computer software industries have alleged that they lose billions of dollars to copyright piracy in China. Negotiations under Special 301 have produced a series of domestic laws and international agreements with China, without affecting the rising trend of piracy statistics. Why is China unwilling to take action against a pirate industry even at the risk of trade sanctions? Why is the U.S. reluctant to impose sanctions even when statistics clearly indicate that its objectives are not being realized? This paper uses two level games theory to explore these questions. It summarizes the growth of the Chinese copyright system since the late 1970s under the influence of domestic and international factors. It then traces out the connection between domestic interest group configurations and international agreements, and the influence of negotiating strategies on the outcome of two level games. Based on this analysis, the paper finally discusses the prospects for future Special 301 enforcement actions.
Hegemonic Frames and International News Reporting: A Comparative Study of the New York Times Coverage of the 1996 Indian and Israeli Elections • Ritu K. Jayakar, Indiana University • The 1996 elections in Israel and India were considered to be crucial for important national objectives in both countries. The determinants of international news coverage in the U.S. press lead us to expect that there will be important quantitative and qualitative differences to the coverage accorded to the two events. This paper looks for these differences in The New York Times’ coverage of the Indian and Israeli elections. It uses the framing theory to abstract the major themes and narrative streams in the election coverage. In brief, the Indian election coverage was cast in the frame of the exotic east, while that of Israel was covered in the framework of the Arab-Israeli peace process.
AFKN (American Forces Korea Network) as a U.S. Postwar Propaganda Program: A Hypothesis • Jae-Young Rim, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • This study deals with two areas of the blind spot in the field of international communication and the history of Korean-American relationship: U.S. forces’ activities in the cultural domains in Korea during the postwar era and historical implications of AFKN. AFKN, managed by the U.S. Army Broadcasting Service, is a unique foreign medium that have existed in Korea for almost 50 years. By analyzing the relationships between the U.S. postwar international information plan and the establishment of AFKN, this study goes to propose a hypothesis that AFKN is a cultural propaganda medium extended from U.S. international policy after World War II.
The Coup D’etat Model: Public Broadcasting Under Control • Shin Dong Kim, The University of Chicago • The formation of media system in the midst of a radical political change, i.e., coup, can be quite different from that in a normal political situation. The public broadcasting system of Korea in early 1980s, as analyzed here in the framework of the coup model of media formation, shows that the state monopoly public broadcasting paradoxically grew to be a corporate behemoth while faithfully served the coup state with propaganda mission.
Shifting Perspectives in International Communication: Implications for the Study of Communication Practices in Third World Cultures • Jothik Krishnaiah, University Of Minnesota • Much of the current globalization discourse is a response to the new realities of the post-cold war world order ambiguous cores and peripheries, the global spread of information technologies, and the increasing fluidity and uncertainty in the international communication system. Responding to these real world developments, the emerging theoretical discourse of globalization adopts a multi disciplinary approach to offer new definitions of globalization and examine new questions about the interrelationships between economic practices, cultural consumption, and identities. In this context, this paper reviews the shifting theoretical concerns and questions in international communication to address their implications for studying contemporary communication practices in Third World cultures.
The Roles of the Media and Mediated Opinion Leadership in the Public Opinion Process: A Content Analysis of a Political Incident in Korea • Nojin Kwak, University of Wisconsin-Madison • An attempt to explore situational factors of public opinion, this paper content-analyzed newspapers regarding a political incident in Korea, where the government reversed its initial policy position, yielding to the public demand. Proposing the significance of alternative media and societal opinion leaders in helping public opinion affect this policy reversal, this paper compared the coverage of mainstream and alternative newspapers and addressed the potential influence of the societal opinion leaders, as demonstrated in newspaper content. Findings indicated that the coverage of alternative newspaper might have been a better source for quality aspects of pubic opinion (knowledge, over-time consistency, and opinion organization) and for intensity aspects of public opinion (opinion certainty and behavioral likelihood to actualize one’s position); possible influence of societal opinion leaders on activities of public and routinized critical groups (dissidents and oppositional parties) emerged. Findings are discussed in light of shared responsibility among the media and other actors in political controversies.
Development and Disjuncture on Television in India • Divya C. McMillin, Indiana-Bloomington • Using narrative theory and discourse analysis, this study examined ideologies embedded in 18 documentaries, serials, and song-based programs on Indian television, and explored the possibilities of integrating educational issues within entertainment programs. The analysis showed that ideologies of class and gender were embedded within both entertainment and education programs. The author concludes that even the best-researched documentary on minority welfare is futile if it reinforces dominant ideologies that identify the oppressed as the cause of development problems and as recipients of development solutions.
Critical Theory, Cultural Studies and The Press: Paradigms, Procedures, Possibilities • John McNamara and Les Switzer • No Abstract available.
Press Nationalism and The New York Times Coverage of the Bosnian War • W. Matt Meyer, Tennessee, Daniel Riffe, Ohio University • This study uses content analysis to examine the New York Times by looking at how changes in its coverage of the Bosnian War may have been linked to changing American foreign policy. This study also uses extramedia sources to examine links between the press, the policymakers and the public. The study found a marked difference between early and later coverage, with Times coverage focusing more on American centered story topics and actors later in the war.
Democratization and Press Freedom in Africa’s High-Context Cultures • A. N. Mohamed, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania • The process of political liberalization in Africa during the l990s raised hopes for the press to evolve into an effective watchdog that would hold government officials accountable. So far, however, expectations have not been matched by reality. This paper uses the framework of Edward Hall’s analysis of high-vs-low-context cultures to argue that, sociological and cultural factors, like oral tradition and group orientation, affect both the form and content of African expressions of political dissent. Because these expressions are different from Western forms of discourse, some observers have mistakenly concluded that what Africa needs is her own version of the Bill of Rights.
Information Sources, Teen-age Pregnancy, and Contraceptive Use in Kenya: Implications for HIV and AIDS Control and Prevention • Isaac Obeng-Quaidoo, United Nations Fund for Population Assistance, Nairobi, Kenya, Cornelius B. Pratt, Michigan State University, Charles Okigbo, African Council for Communication Education, Nairobi, Kenya, Waithera Gikonyo, United Nations Fund for Population Assistance, Nairobi, Kenya • This study explores information sources and knowledge of contraceptives among Kenyan teen-agers. Respondents rely more on health clinics than on any other source for information on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), their most commonly cited health problems; however, those with high knowledge about contraceptives are significantly more likely than those with low knowledge to report that the mass media are information sources. The implications of these results for preventing and controlling STDs in sub-Saharan Africa are presented.
Re-Assessing America’s Program of Media Assistance in a Fluid Democratic State: The Case of Zambia • Folu Folarin Ogundimu, Michigan State University • This paper examines the US media assistance plan to Zambia under the five-year, $15 million-dollar Democratic Governance Project which the US Agency for International Development is now winding down. Using and interdisciplinary policy analysis framework, the paper shows that whereas AID may have unwittingly micromanaged the project, Zambia nevertheless benefited greatly from institutional transfers by way of technical capacity, and human resource development.
Western Romance Fiction As Urban English Popular Culture In Postcolonial India • Radhika E. Parameswaran, The University of Iowa • No Abstract available.
The Consumption of Korean Television Programs in U.S.A.: Television Viewing, Gender, and Power • Seung Hyun Park, Ho-kyu Lee, Indiana University • Television viewing needs the investigation of both viewing context and of cultural factors which explain why some viewing patterns happen. Dealing with the Korean people who live at a small campus-town in America and enjoy watching their own country’s programs, this study explores the relationship of gender to domestic power revealed in television viewing. Major themes of the study are the reason for watching the Korean program, styles of viewing, control over a remote-control device, and control over the program choice.
Purchasing Involvement in South Asia: Its Relationship with Attitude Toward and Beliefs About Advertising • Jyotika Ramaprasad, Southern Illinois at Carbondale • A survey of 825 university students in five South Asian countries measured the relationship of social, economic, and hedonistic beliefs, media use, and attitudes to advertising with purchasing involvement. All three beliefs, AG, and media use significantly predict purchasing involvement. However economic beliefs and media use have a negative relationship with purchasing involvement. High purchasing involved consumers .may be less critical of advertising for its influence on values, they may even enjoy it and evaluate it positively, but because the they are careful shoppers they do not credit it as a source of information or an economic necessity. Possibly for that reason lower levels of media use are associated with higher levels of purchasing involvement.
Changes in Polish Television as Reflected in Submissions to CNN World Report • Zbigniew Rytell, Texas Tech and Naiyu Zhang, Timothy N. Walters and Lynne Masel Walters, Texas A&M; • The authors investigate changes in Polish TV journalism as reflected in submissions to CNN’s World Report. The author reviews reports from two years before and two years after the collapse of Eastern European communism (1988,1989, 1994, 1995). The authors discover the latter reports dealt with more hard news/issues, and came closer to Western standards of objectivity. Each set used many government sources; the latter had greater source variety and usually was more critical.
Changes and Challenges: History and Development of Broadcasting in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, 1930-1993 • Juliette Storr, Ohio University • The history and development of broadcasting in the Bahamas parallels the history and development of the country. The British implemented broadcasting in the Bahamas in the 1930s. From its inception broadcasting was state-owned, a condition that remained in effect until 1993. Throughout its existence the system, which comes under the governance of the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas (BCB), faced many economic, political and social changes changes and challenges in its operations. This study examines the growth of broadcasting in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas from its inception in 1930 to the beginning of private commercial radio broadcasting in 1993. The study identifies four significant periods in the growth of broadcasting in the Bahamas.
Culture Language and Social Class in the Globalization of Television • Joseph Straubhaar, Brigham Young University, Luiz Duarte, Michigan State University, Stephanie Kahl, Michigan State University, Vetumbuavi Veii, Government of Namibia, Robyn Goodman, Alfred University • This study briefly reviews the literatures on media imperialism and globalization of television. It finds that much current discussion of globalization and international flows of television misses the growth of new layers of television production, distribution and consumption that are neither global nor national. The main focus of this paper is to examine the nature of emerging markets for television that seem to be defined by culture and language. Both national and regional or cultural-linguistic markets for television have grown, aided or protected by what seems to be a desire by most of the audience for cultural proximity, culture production such as television that is close or similar to them, their cultural references and their tastes. However, this argues that people in national television audiences are not homogenous and that cultural proximity does not uniformly seem to apply. Audiences are divided by both cultural capital (education, language ability, travel, knowledge of ways of life, etc.) and by economic capital (income which buys access to newer media).
PR Goes to War The Effects of Public Relations Campaigns on Media Framing of the Kuwaiti and Bosnian Crises • James W. Tankard, Bill Israel, University of Texas-Austin • Foreign governments hired American public relations firms to present their cases to the world in two recent international crises the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the Bosnia war. This study investigated the effects of the campaigns of the public relations firms on media framing of the two crises. Results showed little evidence for an effect on media framing for the Kuwait case, but some support for an effect in the Bosnia case.
A Pernicious New Strain of the Old Nazi Virus and an Orgy of Tribal Slaughter: A Comparison of U.S. News Magazine Coverage of the Crises in Bosnia and Rwanda • Melissa Wall, Washington • This study compares U.S. news magazine coverage of conflict occurring in Bosnia and Rwanda. Bosnia’s violence was characterized as an aberration for Europeans, while Rwanda’s violence was presented as typical of Africans. Coverage suggests that in Bosnia, participants made a logical, albeit evil, decision to commit violence in an attempt to seek revenge for past grievances. In contrast, Rwanda’s violence is depicted as having no logical explanation and is portrayed as irrational and so alien from Western understanding as to defy explanation.
Inside the Shop: A Case Study of a Global Advertising Affiliate in Beijing • Jian Wang, Iowa • The concept of globalization is marked by the interlocking duality of globalization and localization in cultural change and formation. It takes into account both the global in the local and the local in the global. This case study of a global advertising affiliate in Beijing suggests the co-existence of both the globalization and localization tendencies in the production and circulation of foreign ads in China. The institutional design of the ad agency embodies both global standardization and local adaptation. Its media planning, buying and monitoring are highly localized activities. The plurality of the workforce and in its work process also illustrates the co-operative nature of advertising production.
The New York Times Covers Africa: What Has Changed Since the Cold War? • Janice Windborne, Ohio University • Building on a previous study, this research looks at the New York Times from 1989 through the beginning of 1997 to see how the countries in Africa are being covered post-Cold War. Violent conflict remains the primary focus. Environment, science, and business are mostly ignored. Human interest stories focus on the negative. South Africa is consistently covered. Countries which are stable are unlikely to be covered. Some have been invisible for over twenty years.
Geographic Distance and U.S. Newspapers’ Coverage of Canada and Mexico • Denis Wu, University of North Carolina • No Abstract available.
Systemic Determinants of International News Coverage in Four Developed Nations: Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and the U.S. • Denis Wu, University of North Carolina • No Abstract available.
Creating A New Man, Creating A New Nation? The Media and the Making of Role Models in China’s Market Economy Era • Chen Yanru, Nanyang Technological University • No Abstract available.
The Long March: Coverage of AIDS in Newspapers from the People’s Republic of China as the Product of the Nexus of Cultural Values • Naiyu Zhang, Lynne Masel Walters, Texas A&M University, Timothy N. Walters, Northeast Louisiana University • This study examined the coverage of AlDS-related topics in three newspapers from the People’s Republic of China during 1987. The newspapers largely viewed the disease as something accompanying Western lifestyles and through the prism of Chinese morals and Chinese traditions of communication. This viewpoint is important. For scholars and observers must remember that ideological influences on media in the People’s Republic of China consists of the nexus of Chinese traditional values, Marx’s communism, and Western concepts. China has never forgotten Confucian ideology. The effects of this belief system can be seen in the coverage of AIDS through: 1) praise of the achievements of China and of things Chinese; 2) approval of Chinese traditional lifestyles and disapproval of Western lifestyles; 3) lack of coverage of subjects regarded as violating traditional values, such as homosexuality; and 4) sympathetic treatment of the innocent victims AIDS.
Campaign Chinese Style: A Case Study of China’s Family Planning Communication • Shuhua Zhou, Indiana University • Abstract not available.
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