The press and political continuity in China: The case of the World Economic Herald

This paper, utilizing the method of case study, investigates the role of the Shanghai‐based World Economic Herald in China's political democratization in the 1980s, and analyses its relationship with the social changes of that period.

A prominent theme running through this study is that political democratization must be coupled with economic growth in order for the role of the press to change in China.

Results of the study suggest that the World Economic Herald, throughout its ten‐year existence, became more and more politically oriented and outspoken in its coverage of key political issues. The findings also reveal that in early 1989, the Herald waged an unprecedented struggle against the Party's tight control of the news media and for political democratization including press freedom. However, its role in promoting political change was restricted by the nature of China's reform movement, which was characterized by a separation of political reform from economic reform. The development and demise of the Herald provided a window through which it could be clearly seen how the press affected and was affected by the social changes in China in the historical period of the 1980s.     

First and second-level agenda-setting in the 2014 Indian general election: a time-series analysis of party-media relation

The role of the press as a political watchdog is crucial to the functioning of democracy. Especially in the run-up to elections, voters depend on the media's presentation of parties and candidates to make informed, responsible choices at the ballot box. But who, then, influences the news media? Empirical evidence in the United States and Europe suggests that political party campaigns and election coverage in the news media are interconnected and influence each other. This study tests whether such agenda-setting effects between party campaigns and the media also take place in the general elections in the world's largest democracy, India. India's western-type political system has a distinct media system characterized by high competition, diversification, non-consolidation and formal and informal ties between the media, commercial interests and political actors. Content analysis and Granger's causality test of newspaper coverage (N?=?716) and party campaign messages (N?=?458) found that agenda-setting effects do occur in India, but are largely bi-directional. We also found an overwhelming focus of both newspapers’ election coverage and of all major party campaigns on one single candidate, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Narendra Modi. This, we argue, is a result of the broader trends that have shaped Indian politics in recent years. The significant correlations and non-significant causal effects between party campaign and media coverage also indicate a trade-off situation between political power negotiation and political balance in the press.     

Editing Conservatism: How National Review Magazine Framed and Mobilized a Political Movement

This article examines how National Review magazine helped to spark the 1960s American conservative movement through its particular framing of conservatism and how the magazine has worked to sustain that influence even until today. Using research on frame alignment in social movements, the first issue of National Review is analyzed and placed in context with contemporaneous events and publications. The creation and editing of the magazine is found to parallel the creative and deliberate framing of the early conservative movement. The implications of National Review's success for today's political movements and for creators of political media messages are also discussed.     

Need for Orientation,Selective Exposure,and Attribute Agenda-Setting Effects

This study explores the ability of an interaction between need for orientation (NFO) and selective exposure to explain citizen's motivations to seek information from specific media sources and the consequences of this behavior for attribute agenda-setting effects. It draws important conceptual distinctions between the two moderate NFO categories, distinguishing active involvement NFO (high relevance and low uncertainty) from passive involvement NFO (low relevance and high uncertainty). The results suggest that in a political context, people with active involvement NFO are more likely to seek ideologically congruent media sources and more likely to adopt the media's attribute agenda. This study implies that at the second-level agenda setting, the salience of issue or object attributes on the media agenda is more likely to strengthen preexisting attitudes for people with high political interest and strong partisan identity.     

Does Ownership Matter?

Does media ownership affect the editorial page? Scholars such as Tim Groseclose, Jeffrey Milyo, and Tim Groeling have offered recent empirical tests for media bias in political news coverage. This article focuses on the editorial content of newspapers to examine whether a change in publishers affects a newspaper's editorial page's support for government action on public policy questions, the attention given to the major political parties, and the tone of coverage of the parties. Our content analyses compare the Wall Street Journal's editorial page before and after Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation purchased the paper with two newspapers that did not change ownership structures over the same time period (New York Times and Washington Times). We show that Murdoch's Wall Street Journal is far less supportive of government intervention in the economy, much more negative to Democrats, and much more positive to Republicans than the paper's editorial page was under Bancroft family ownership. We also show that the Wall Street Journal's changes were unique as the New York Times and Washington Times generally did not exhibit similar changes to their own editorial pages.     

Traumatic encounters with Frank Mechau's Dangers of the Mail

This essay examines Frank Mechau's infamous mural Dangers of the Mail as an opportunity to theorize the force of memories contingent upon immediate sensual encounters that operate largely irrespective of actual historical occurrences. Through an analysis of public documents, archival material from the 1930s and early 2000s, and two separate tours of the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building in 2015 and 2016, we argue Mechau's Dangers of the Mail triggers a form of traumatic sense memory that positions audiences within a trauma economy in which sensation functions as epistemological grounding for political struggle.     

Understanding the “Heroes” and “It Getters”: Fandom and the Colbert Nation

The Colbert Report, an innovative American satirical news show, and the show's dedicated viewers, known as “the Colbert Nation,” redefined fan engagement through audience participation, mediated culture jamming, and ironic political spectacle. Yet very little is known about this fan group. This survey of The Colbert Report's devoted followers finds that the fans are distrustful of political and media elites, highly cynical, very politically involved, not apathetic, and moderately efficacious. Further analysis reveals that viewers have different motivations, some seeing the show as primarily entertainment, some mainly as a trusted source of political information, and others as a mix of entertainment and information. The fans are also found to be highly sophisticated consumers of satire and news, and watch the show as an alternative to mainstream media and as a form of comic relief from current events. Several implications are discussed.     

Seriously Entertained: Antecedents and Consequences of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Entertainment Experiences With Political Talk Shows on TV

This study's purpose is twofold: to introduce a new format into existing political entertainment research (“serious” political talk shows) and to establish a more specific definition of entertainment in a political context. To do so, the authors rely on a two-process-model of entertainment experiences. A telephone survey (N = 230) was conducted to analyze the antecedents and consequences of eudaimonic and hedonic entertainment experiences and to look into politically relevant variables and their distribution among viewers and nonviewers of such talk shows. The results highlight the importance of introducing new entertainment concepts and their relations to other relevant political and motivational variables into the research of political entertainment. More specifically, the findings demonstrate how entertainment experiences contribute to viewers' feeling of being informed and point out several differences between viewers and nonviewers concerning their internal political efficacy and political interest. Finally, looking at political talk shows from an audience perspective extends previous content-based taxonomies.     

The Texas professoriate and public political discourse before and after 9/11

Robert Jensen's critique of the participation of academic intellectuals in Texas in public political discourse after the 9/11 terrorist attacks underestimates what professors have done to inform a politically apathetic public about warfare, American foreign policy, civil liberties, and cultural and humanitarian issues. Jensen undervalues non‐confrontational political strategies and broader forms of intellectual political engagement. Confrontational strategies mobilize citizens inclined to activism, but less overtly political strategies invite larger numbers of citizens to think seriously about politics. Jensen's locally famous post‐9/11 Houston Chronicle editorial is analyzed as rhetorically egocentric and alienating, and ultimately counter‐productive in the post‐9/11 political environment.     

THE JOURNALISTIC CONSTRUCTION OF VOTERS IN THE SPANISH GENERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008

This article examines the mediated construction of citizens during an electoral campaign, a political period in which citizens are normatively expected to play a fundamental role. From a social constructionist, discursive approach, this article qualitatively explores the representation of citizens in the press in the coverage of the main Spanish newspapers (El País, El Mundo, and Abc) during the campaign for the Spanish General Election of 2008. It is understood that the media's portrayal of citizens contributes to spreading and legitimising certain discourses about citizens, about citizens' political behaviour, and also about the reasons behind citizens' political attitudes and motivations. On occasions, these discourses are based on pre-electoral polls or previous research, although many rest only on inferences about the public. The newspapers put forward a reductionistic set of ambivalent discourses naturalising uninformed voting and legitimising the vote for major parties, while sympathising, at the same time, with disenchanted voters, justifying citizens' distrust in politicians.     

Voters' Attention,Perceived Effects,and Voting Preferences: Negative Political Advertising in the 2006 Ohio Governor's Election

A statewide survey (N = 564) before Ohio's 2006 gubernatorial election examined political interest, campaign news and advertising attention, and perceived effects of negative political ads. Interest was related to political and negative political advertising attention, which were in turn related to campaign news attention. Candidate preference predicted attention to political and negative political ads; attention to ads significantly predicted perceived effects on self and on others, whereas attention to negative ads significantly predicted third-person differential (other minus self). In addition, individuals polled in this survey admitted that attention to ads and negative ads was having comparable effects on both themselves and others. This finding may be due to the climate surrounding Ohio's gubernatorial race, which instilled a political importance and social desirability that abated the need to disown an effect of negative advertising on oneself.     

“The King Is Dead,Long Live The King!”: Image of the United States as the Primary Enemy on the Pages of Krokodil from Stalin to Khrushchev

The relationship between the Soviet Union and United States during the early Cold War has been analyzed from many different angles, but the research's primary focus has been on the political events that occurred and the statements made by political figures. Many scholars have looked at the Khrushchev period of Soviet history; however, a lack of attention has been paid to the role of the media as a mirror of political processes. Even fewer studies compare media realities across the Stalin and Khrushchev periods. Although a strongly declared attempt to cooperate with the Western world was the key characteristic of Khrushchev's Thaw, this study assumes that the true approach of the Soviet political establishment toward the United States was even more radical than Stalin's approach. A semiotic textual analysis of the cartoons of the Krokodil illustrated satirical magazine has found a trend of negative visual portrayals of the United States as the primary enemy of the citizens of the Soviet Union.

This article alludes to dozens of cartoon images. Figures labelled with an ‘o’ are available for reference on vcquarterly.org.     

The Uneasy Relationship of Self‐Critique in the Public Art Institution

Reacting to the gradual neoliberalization of the European public art institutional landscape, actors within a number of critical art museums and galleries have attempted to reform their institutions from within through a process that is largely commensurate with Chantal Mouffe's radical political strategy of ‘critique as hegemonic engagement‐with’. This article focuses on Manuel J. Borja‐Villel's attempt to implement such a strategy at the Museu D'Art Contemporani, Barcelona (MACBA) in the early 2000s. Through an examination of two key projects – Las Agencias (The Agencies) (2001) and Com Volem ser Governats? (How do we want to be governed) (2003‐2004) – it considers the efficacy of such an approach. In so doing, it calls into question the public art institution's ability to perform a self‐critique when embedded within the hegemony of the neoliberal order and constrained by bureaucratic institutional limitations. It concludes by noting that Mouffe's strategy of engagement does not give sufficient consideration to the dependence critical public art institutions have on local and national political support and its funding channels, making them extremely susceptible to instrumentalization. In response to this constraint, it makes the recommendation that, rather than curbing their experimentation, these critical actors should embrace the potentially temporary status of their institutions, and intentionally push them to and even beyond their bureaucratic limitations.     

The Heroes and the Helpless: Conflicting Media Images of Refugees From Burma

After a protest against Burma's military government exploded into bloody violence on August 8, 1988, some political dissidents applied for refugee status through the United Nations. Since 1990, nearly 6,000 members of Myanmar's ethnic groups settled in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The project's overarching question asks: How have photojournalists covered the lives of the Burmese? An archive of photographs published from 1992 through 2012 by Fort Wayne's The Journal Gazette was used for this qualitative analysis. Three major themes emerged: refugees as “freedom fighters,” Aung San Suu Kyi as “superhero,” and Burmese as helpless victims lacking agency. With mounting tensions concerning refugees arriving into Europe, this examination is important because media images may play a role in welcoming and integrating refugees into new communities.     

Comedy Types and Political Campaigns: The Differential Influence of Other-Directed Hostile Humor and Self-Ridicule on Candidate Evaluations

The current study assesses the effect of exposure to diverse comedy types, measuring the differential impact of other-directed hostile humor and self-ridicule on feelings toward John McCain. Specifically, the analyses use experimental data collected in 2009 to compare the differential impact of viewing a video clip of John McCain's playful self-satire on Saturday Night Live with the effects of exposure to the more aggressive, judgmental, other-directed hostile humor of Stephen Colbert. The results suggest that viewers cool toward McCain after exposure to Stephen Colbert's other-directed hostile humor. Additional analyses show that the effect of exposure to varied types of political humor is direct and relatively impervious to moderation by political partisanship. Implications of the findings and their ability to help researchers understand the differential influence of varied comedy message types on political evaluations and attitudes is discussed.     

At Hospitality's Threshold: From Social Inclusion to Exilic Education

Abstract Describing actual museum‐wide events developed for the culturally charged arena of the Brooklyn Children's Museum, this article explores the philosophical and pedagogical double binds that have brought multiculturalism to a political impasse. Museums have strived to be valued resources in an increasingly diverse society. In aspiring to broaden their audience base, their work has shifted from developing educational policies that are “object‐centered” to those that are “community‐centered” — a change of strategy affecting everything from programs to exhibit design. Children's museums — distinct (if not marginalized) from the serious work of the traditional art or ethnographic or natural history museum — know and indeed say in their very name — “children's museum” — that they are for the sake of someone and not about something. They have always already been attuned to the visitor at the threshold.     

A fantasy theme analysis of political cartoons on the Clinton-Lewinsky-Starr affair

–We used Symbolic Convergence Theory to analyze 2,000 political cartoons on the investigation, impeachment, and trial of the president. The cartoonists' vision incorporates components from Starr's and Clinton's visions: “Our public figures (Clinton, Starr, Congress, the news media) are engaged in a tawdry burlesque drama.” The number of levels in a rhetorical vision depends on the vision's complexity. We show that multiple, independent, rhetors can create a rhetorical vision. These messages, highly visual and generally critical, freely use metaphor and allusions, allowing multiple interpretations and rendering the fantasy themes in these dramas accessible to readers with widely divergent attitudes. Despite their fictionality, these messages concern important issues and make moral judgments on these public figures.     

Meet the candidates

Objective: To consider sex roles in public speaking through the conversational style of modern-day political rhetoric Type of speech: Informative Point value: 15% of course grade Requirements: (a) References: 3; (b) Length: 5–7 minutes, (c) Visual aid: No; (d) Outline: Yes; (e) Prerequisite reading: Any biographical information found on the person that students are portraying, Chapter 11 (Brydon & Scott, 2002); (f) Additional requirements: None This assignment requires students to research the biography of either a political candidate or a candidate's spouse, and structure this information in an informative way. Students then portray the candidate or the candidate's spouse and present the information at a “meet the candidates” forum in class.     

Using Technological Attributes to Study Online Media: The Case of User-Generated Content

This study offers empirical evidence of Mix-of-Attributes (MOA) approach's analytical benefits, and illustrates how the MOA approach can be utilized. The study begins by content analyzing the most popular Web sites containing political user-generated content (UGC) and documenting presence of search efficiency, customizability, manipulability, participation cost reduction, and community orientation technological attributes. A cluster analysis is then used to develop classification of political UGC Web sites based on their attribute scores. The conventional and the attribute-based classifications of UGC are shown to be different, providing evidence of the MOA approach's usefulness. Theory-building implications of the attributes, the attribute-based classification, and the MOA approach are discussed.     

Presidential silence,C. Everett Koop,and the surgeon general's report on AIDS

On October 22, 1986, C. Everett Koop released the Surgeon General's Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. This essay examines that report as a rhetorical watershed in the national dialogue about AIDS. We suggest that this report—and the media attention that attended it—dramatically shifted the socio‐political environment concerning AIDS and contextual‐izfd Reagan's silence concerning the disease as a lack of presidential leadership on the issue.