Analyzing the Spell of War: A War/Peace Framing Analysis of the 2009 Visual Coverage of the Sri Lankan Civil War in Western Newswires

The goal of this study was to analyze the extent to which the visual coverage of the final stages (April/May 2009) of the long-lasting Sri Lankan Civil War relied on war and peace frames. Based on the revolutionary conceptual work of Norwegian scholar Johan Galtung, who viewed war and peace journalism as two competing frames in covering conflicts and wars, we examined news photographs available from Associated Press (AP), Reuters, and Getty/Agence France-Press (AFP). To date, this topic has been discussed from mostly normative viewpoints, and only little research combined the peace journalism concept with visual framing and/or the role of newswires as gatekeeper of information. We tested this concept empirically by using content analysis of editorial news photographs of the conflict in the three leading Western newswires. By and large, our results suggest that overall visual coverage of the conflict waxed and waned over time, but was primarily driven by visuals originated in the Sinhalese-dominated regions of Sri Lanka. Further, newswires are serving very different purposes and news markets: the AP–and to a lesser extent also Getty/AFP–with their focus on external events (therefore qualifying for peace journalism) and Reuters with a stronger focus on the conflict itself (thus qualifying for war journalism). Overall, the stock photo agency Getty/AFP was found to be the newswire that is most likely to provide media outlets with photographs highlighting peace frames, with the most balanced coverage between the two conflict parties and a particular emphasis on peace demonstrations worldwide, negotiations and summit meetings.     

How Young,Uninsured Americans Respond to News Coverage of Obamacare: An Experimental Test of an Affective Mediation Model

This experiment integrated theory from multiple domains to examine how aspects of news coverage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and differences in participants’ cognitive and emotional contingent conditions interact to shape attitudes and behavioral intentions toward health care legislation. Using a sample of uninsured young adults (N = 1,056), we tested an affective mediation model, which assessed the mechanisms through which media frames, exemplar case studies, and individual predispositions affect this type of news consumer. Results demonstrate the complicated pathways through which emotions mediate the effects of news coverage of ACA based on political predispositions, the need for orientation toward the health care issue, and the influence of equivalency framing in the form of example cases. These findings contribute to a more nuanced explanation of the causal mechanisms underpinning framing effects of public policy news coverage on an understudied population. The need for further examination of emotion along with cognition when investigating framing effects of public policy news is discussed, and the importance of exemplar cases as a significant manifestation of the effects equivalence framing is highlighted.     

Global risk,domestic framing: coverage of the North Korean nuclear test by US,Chinese, and South Korean news agencies

Comparative framing analysis on coverage of the North Korean nuclear test in the US Associated Press, Chinese Xinhua, and South Korean Yonhap news agencies identified four major media packages. First, a common ‘threat’ frame dominated coverage by all news agencies, represented by reconfiguration of geopolitics and an emphasis on global cooperation in both perception and resolution of the nuclear test. Second, with each nation positioning itself differently in the world power system, the issue was notably domesticated in the news, with Associated Press connecting the nuclear test to the broader ‘War on Terror’ framework found frequently in US media, Xinhua promoting a negotiation principle in handling the issue, and Yonhap framing the test with a ‘Cold War’ perspective. In all three cases, national political interests exerted important impacts on the construction of frames. The compatibility of the seemingly opposite packages (globalizing vs. domesticating) signifies both intensification of worldwide social relations and reassertion of national stands. This finding lends support to the transformationalist view of globalization, which suggests that the nation state still matters in a globalized world, but is being recontextualized in a more complex world of politics and culture.     

Peace Journalism: Principles and Structural Limitations in the News Coverage of Three Conflicts

This study expands on the work in operationalizing Johan Galtung's classification of peace journalism and war journalism by describing and comparing the news coverage of three Asian conflicts—India and Pakistan's dispute over Kashmir, the Tamil Tigers movement in Sri Lanka, and the Indonesian civil wars in Aceh and Maluku. By including vernacular newspapers in the analysis, this study adds to a research locus that has largely been ignored. A content analysis of 1,973 stories from 16 English-language and vernacular newspapers suggests that, overall, peace journalism as an alternative to traditional war reporting is subject to a body of structural limitations that have not been previously addressed. Media and institutional constraints in the form of story characteristics such as language, story type, and production source as well as contextual variables such as a conflict's length and intensity shape the patterns of war/peace journalism framing. The findings suggest that structural changes are needed for peace journalism to evolve into a viable, mainstream approach to news coverage of war and conflict.     

The gods are drinking milk! Word‐of‐mouth diffusion of a major news event in India

The objective of this study is to explore whether the US media overemphasized recalled Chinese products in 2007 and, if so, how news coverage in the US media differed from that of the Chinese media. By using a framing analysis of the coverage in two US media and two Chinese media, this study pursues answers to these questions. After comparing the news coverage of the recalled Chinese products and a real world indictor, this study found that neither US nor Chinese media mirrored the real world phenomenon as it was. By comparing news coverage of the issue in The New York Times and The Associated Press with China Daily, and The Xinhua News Agency, the study found that news coverage of the recalled issues differed significantly in terms of the sources used, the nationality of the source, the dominant frames employed, and the attribution of responsibility for the problems. In particular, Chinese media more frequently employed government officials as their main sources, which inherently increased the use of thematic frames. By contrast, US media often used episodic frames. Likewise, American media approached the issues using ‘Customers' Worries’ and ‘Broken System’ frames, whereas Chinese media often attempted to defend the quality of Chinese products and criticized Western media for exaggerating the issues. Owing to the news framing process, US audiences might have acquired more negative images of Chinese products and China in general. By contrast, their Chinese counterparts might have experienced increased antipathy and distrust concerning the American media.     

Attention cycles and the H1N1 pandemic: a cross-national study of US and Korean newspaper coverage

This study analyzes US and South Korean news coverage of the H1N1 pandemic to examine cross-cultural variations in attention cycle patterns, cited sources, and news frames. A content analysis was conducted on 630 articles from US and Korean newspapers during the period of April to October 2009. It found that attention cycle patterns, news frames, and sources varied across the two countries according to professional norms, cultural values, social ideologies, and occurrences of relevant events. While US news coverage showed two phases of waxing and waning attention, Korean news coverage showed five phases. The frames used in US news stories placed more emphasis on attribution of responsibility, action, and reassurance. Other framing variations were found as news attention in each country rose and fell. Regarding sources used, Korean news stories relied more on governmental sources, while US news stories used a greater diversity of sources. This study advances research on variations in the attention cycle for transnational issues by specifying how journalists’ framing of social problems can differ according to the following: cultural factors, the shape of the news attention cycle, and the occurrence of events related to the issue at hand.     

Politics of representation in the digital media environment: presentation of the female candidate between news coverage and the website in the 2007 Korean presidential primary

This study analyzes how a female candidate was presented in the news media and on her campaign website, in order to compare the politics of gender representation in news coverage and campaign communication. Content analysis of news coverage of a Korean female candidate and the candidate's website shows that the female candidate was differently portrayed in the two media in presentations of personal trait frames, the linkage between issues and personal traits, and other gender-related characteristics, although the quantity of issue frames did not differ significantly. The findings suggest that although the news coverage still tends to reinforce gender stereotypes regarding a female candidate, the candidate used or articulated gender identities in her campaign website to oppose framing stereotypes in the traditional news media.     

All About Whom? Stock Photos,Interactive Narratives and How News About Governmental Surveillance Is Visualized

A two-stage analysis examined visuals in news related to governmental surveillance, finding that just as surveillance has shifted from visual evidence to dataveillance, journalism is shifting its notion of visual evidence from photojournalism to journalistic data representations. First, a card sort analysis of news visuals was conducted on two news sites before and after Edward Snowden's document leak in June 2013. The news images remained relatively consistent, relying heavily on accessible official and stock photography sources. Second, a review of The Guardian's contemporaneous “NSA Files: Decoded” multimedia package found personalized, data-rich visual storytelling techniques. Between the two approaches is a vast difference in how surveillance is represented and made accessible, with implications for the visual coverage of other challenging news topics.     

Framing the Flotilla: Newsmaking,Image Crises and the Kishon Dives Investigative Report

The article explores the journalistic coverage of the public crisis that developed following the publication of Yediot Aharonot's investigative report about the diving practices of Israel's sea commandos in the polluted Kishon River. The coverage of the Kishon diving crisis is probed via two complementing research trajectories. The first trajectory looks at the construction of the newsworthiness of the Kishon diving crisis in comparison to two similar crises while addressing the interpretations provided by various involved factors. The second trajectory explores the various frames through which the Kishon diving crises were narrated. The article's concluding section discusses the complex interrelations between newsworthiness and framing.     

Visual Framing of the Early Weeks of the U.S.-Led Invasion of Iraq: Applying the Master War Narrative to Electronic and Print Images

A content analysis of 1,822 images from U.S. mainstream media—network and cable television news outlets, news Web sites, newspapers, and news magazines—revealed that the visual framing of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 shifted from conflict to human interest. During the campaign's first 5 weeks, 5 distinct scenarios—shock and awe, conquering troops, hero, victory, and control—often coalesced around iconic images and supported a “master war narrative” identified by other scholars. These visual frames reflected a government-promoted patriotic perspective seen in media content at the outset of previous U.S. wars, from the Civil War through the Gulf War.     

Presidential framing in the Christine Blasey Ford and Anita Hill cases

ABSTRACT

Anita Hill’s testimony against Clarence Thomas in 1991 called attention to widespread sexual abuse in the US. Testimony from Christine Blasey Ford against Thomas Kavanaugh 27 years later underscored the lack of progress in its eradication. Using the cascading network activation model, this study identifies the episodic and thematic framing of both cases in relation to top-down influencers. A content analysis (N = 901) of US newspapers and TV networks showed episodic framing dominated coverage in both cases. Both Bush and Trump successfully emphasized their nominee as deserving of SCOTUS. Trump also significantly contributed to the negative framing of Blasey Ford. Thematically, Republican-led framing focused on American values and maintaining the rule of law, whereas Democratic-led framing concentrated on raising awareness to the systemic problem of sexual abuse and threat the nominee posed to progressive rights. News coverage included challenging both presidents, but only for a total of 15.9% for Trump and 10.7% for Bush. On the other hand, Hill was challenged in 40.5% and Blasey Ford in 73% of news coverage. In sum, even with strong opposition, the cascade model’s success indicates that White House messaging continues to usurp social justice issues.     

Gatecheckers at the Visual News Stream

Over the past 65 years, scholars have reframed the original model of gatekeeping to reflect the changing dynamics of news creation, distribution, and curation. In recent years, communication technologies have opened digital news gates to a proliferation of images captured by professionals and amateurs alike. Anyone with a camera or cell phone can shoot and distribute photographs and videos on the internet. Social media facilitates audience-to-audience sharing through tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, and Snapchat. This stream of visuals, along with the ease with which citizen journalists, bloggers, and tweeters can create and publish content, has changed the gatekeeping process. Few scholars, however, have addressed the impact that visuals have on the gatekeeping model, which was developed using text and broadcast stories. To address the changing role of the visual journalist and the audience, the authors conducted two studies. First, qualitative elite interviews with key visual decision-makers in Europe and the US provided questions for further exploration in the second study—an online cross-sectional survey of visual journalists who belong to three leading US organizations. The questions in this quantitative survey were also influenced by Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchy of influences and Bennett's multigated model. Findings indicate changes in the way visual journalists conceptualize their role and that of the audience. Based on these changes, this article proposes a new model of visual gatekeeping—the twenty-first-century visual news stream where “gatecheckers” select, verify, and curate visuals but no longer solely control their distribution the way traditional gatekeepers did.     

Visual materials on local television news programs

When sight was added to sound, the problems of presenting the news of the day multiplied, as did the cost of such coverage. Nevertheless, few news directors are satisfied with the strict “man‐on‐camera” approach; they prefer to use the additional information channel for a certain amount of visual augmentation of the audio channel's content. Beacuse television stations in a given market rarely have a chance to examine the output of stations in other markets, the survey reported in the following article was made'. Both the sources of visual news materials and their uses are studied in a sample of midwestern stations. It is interesting to examine this report after a review of William Hazard's study for the Radio‐Television News Directors Association, “Adequacy of Coverage by Still Picture and Film Services” published in the Journal of Broadcasting, Vol. IV, No. 1, pp. 64–76, Winter, 1959–60.     

It's All About Trade: United States Press Coverage of Cigarette Export Talks and Policy

This study focuses on United States press coverage of U.S. cigarette exports to Taiwan and Korea and examines whether there was congruence between U.S. foreign policy objectives and the direction of the news coverage. This study reveals that most mainstream U.S. newspapers followed the government's foreign policy objectives in reporting the issue of U.S. cigarette exports to Asia. Mainstream U.S. newspapers packaged cigarette export policy and talks into a trade issue characterized by fair trade and ethnocentric framing; this framing highlighted economic themes while suppressing or omitting health-oriented events or opinions. The United States press low-toned its critical voice when the United States vigorously pursued cigarette trade talks with Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, and raised its critical voice against already implemented policy once all trade agreements were finalized. Based on qualitative analysis, this study examines several key aspects of U.S. newspapers' coverage of these trade talks.     

News Media Framing of Negative Campaigning

News media coverage of election campaigns is often characterized by use of the strategic game frame and a focus on politicians' use of negative campaigning. However, the exact relationship between these two characteristics of news coverage is largely unexplored. This article theorizes that consumer demand and norms of journalistic independence might induce the news media outlets to cover negative campaigning with a strategic game frame. A comprehensive content analysis based on several newspaper types, several election campaigns, and several different measurements of media framing confirms that news coverage of negative campaigning does apply the strategic game frame to a significantly larger degree than articles covering positive campaigning. This finding has significant implications for campaigning politicians and for scholars studying campaign and media effects.     

The News Framing of the 2004 Olympic Games

An examination of the framing of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in the online version of The New York Times finds that news coverage tended to follow usual news practices, which are usually connected with daily news coverage but not with mega events such as the Olympic Games. Ordinary news practices, which dominate this coverage, tend to lead to conflict-oriented news and snapshots of reality with usually little context. In this case, the coverage of the Athens Olympics primarily focused on the issues security and readiness related to Olympic venues.     

Political bias in the news coverage of Taiwan's first presidential election: A comparative analysis of broadcast TV and cable TV news

This research examines how TV reported the campaign and the candidates during Taiwan's first‐ever presidential election in 1996.

A content analysis of evening news coverage of six TV stations indicated that the state‐owned broadcast TV stations were far more likely than the privately owned cable TV stations to give a greater amount of coverage and soundbites to the ruling party presidential and vice presidential candidates, using the ruling party officials as principal news sources. The TV Stations’ coverage also contained more news favourable to the ruling party candidates than to other candidates.

The future may well see a turning point in TV election coverage as well as in general news coverage in Taiwan. The three state‐owned broadcast TV stations face competition from privately owned cable TV stations and may soon be confronted with the loss of public trust and audience, unless they can provide fair and balanced news free from government control.     

Assessing Global Inequality of Bribery for News Coverage: A Cross-National Study

Bribery for news coverage has a negative impact on the credibility of media; it also restricts the free flow of information and violates the public's right to know. Further, research showed that there exists considerable inequality among countries in terms of the extent to which bribery for news coverage exists in media system. This study provides the first quantitative cross-national assessment of a set of predictors of the likelihood that bribery for news coverage exists in a country's media system and tested competing arguments derived from the literature. Data of this study are drawn from 66 nation states. The analysis shows that 5 groups of political, economic, cultural, educational, and technological variables have direct or indirect impacts on a country's media bribery level. The interactions between these variables are also analyzed. The study concludes by discussing how analyses of the nature of the international media bribery problem contribute to finding multiple approaches to solutions to this problem.     

Deep Participation in Underserved Communities: A Quantitative Analysis of Hearken’s Model for Engagement Journalism

ABSTRACT

Hearken is a proprietary news engagement platform growing in popularity. Under the Hearken approach, audience members are invited to participate in the newsmaking process. Hearken strives to assist news organizations in providing local and hyperlocal content that meets audience needs and demands while preserving elements of the journalist’s role as gatekeeper. Hearken has also worked to help news organizations reach underrepresented populations with mixed results per its own anecdotal analyses. This study employs a quantitative content analysis comparing one year’s worth of coverage at four different local NPR affiliates in the United States to provide a breakdown of Hearken content versus traditional reporter-driven content in the following four categories: emphasis on hyperlocal coverage, story topic prevalence within local and hyperlocal coverage, emphasis on coverage of underrepresented communities, and story topic prevalence within coverage of underrepresented communities. Findings reveal listener-driven Hearken content favors hyperlocal news on lifestyle issues while reporter-driven stories emphasize state-level governance and politics as well as local crime. These indicate a stark contrast between the content audiences want and that which journalists tend to report. The nuanced normative implications, possibilities and limitations of Hearken’s model of “deep participation” are addressed in some detail.