Framing Analysis of a Conflict: How Newspapers in Five Asian Countries Covered the Iraq War

This five-country study examined the extent to which the news coverage of the Iraq war by newspapers from India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines and by one news agency from Pakistan is framed according to the principles of war/peace journalism outlined by Johan Galtung. The findings, based on a content analysis of 442 stories from eight newspapers, suggest a slight peace journalism framing. Two important factors shaping the news framing of the conflict and support for the war and for the protagonists in the war (Americans/British vs. Iraqis) are religion and sourcing. Newspapers from the non-Muslim countries, except the Philippines, have a stronger war journalism framing, and are more supportive of the war and of the Americans/British than the newspapers from the Muslim countries, which are more supportive of the Iraqis. Stories produced by foreign wire services have a stronger war journalism framing, and show more support for the war and for the Americans/British than stories written by the newspapers’ own correspondents.     

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.     

How partisan newspapers represented a pandemic: the case of the Middle East respiratory syndrome in South Korea

This study analyzed the coverage by two partisan South Korean newspapers of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) pandemic, examining differences in their use of news frames and cited sources. A content analysis revealed that Hankyoreh, the left-wing newspaper, placed more emphasis on attributing responsibility to the government and society. In contrast, Chosun Ilbo, the right-wing newspaper, placed more emphasis on attributing responsibility to the individual. Severity/uncertainty, economic consequences, and statistical data frame were utilized more in Hankyoreh than the expected frequency. On the other hand, human interest and reassurance frame were utilized more in Chosun Ilbo than the expected frequency. Regarding the sources used in news stories, Hankyoreh used significantly more sources from local governments than did Chosun Ilbo. On the other hand, Chosun Ilbo used significantly more sources from medical agencies and experts than did Hankyoreh. This study advances previous research on the framing of a pandemic in the media by exploring how the partisan leanings of newspapers influence the framing.     

Journalists’ Use of Knowledge in an Online World

There has been little empirical study of the extent to which journalists are drawing on and applying academic research and systematic knowledge, or of their sourcing routines and habits in this regard. This paper examines data from an original online survey conducted in fall 2015 with working journalists (N?=?1,118). Over all, about half reported drawing on research studies frequently in their stories, and journalists expressed strong support for the idea that research can improve story quality. A multivariate analysis finds that knowledge usage is more likely to take place among journalists with some forms of academic and statistical training, with a national audience and with more coverage specialization in science-related topics. Political and television journalists are less likely to use expert knowledge.     

Intermedia Attribute Agenda Setting in the Context of Issue-Focused Media Events

On April 24, 2015, Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner confirmed her transgender identity on the 20/20 Special: Bruce Jenner—The Interview with Diane Sawyer and started her own reality show, I am Cait. This study identifies patterns of second-level intermedia agenda setting in the framing of transgender issues, examining the extent to which Jenner’s high-profile planned media events about her gender transition influence how national print newspapers and television report transgender-related stories and the salience of certain story attributes. More specifically, through a comparative quantitative content analysis, this study found that transgender-related reports appearing after Jenner’s interview were more likely to (1) mention alternative non-binary gender discourses to highlight transgender subjectivity, (2) take the intersectionality perspective to address the complexity of transgender issues from the aspects of race, class, and sexuality differences, (3) differentiate transgender issues from LGB (lesbian, gay, and bisexual) issues, and (4) take in-depth approaches to report the stories.     

Tracing the Sources

This article explores health journalists’ sourcing patterns in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium across a range of different media including newspapers, magazines, radio, television and online health news websites. A cross-sectional quantitative content analysis of health news items collected in February 2015 (N?=?981) was established to examine the number and origin (e.g. industry, citizens, experts) of sources (N?=?1998) mentioned in health news stories with particular attention paid to differences across various media types. Despite recent claims of media convergence, cross-media comparisons are scarce and, for a specialized beat such as health, nonexistent. The key findings of this study indicate that ordinary citizens and academic experts constitute the two largest source categories. The small share of industry-related sources confirms journalists’ skeptical attitude towards content provided by the industry. But on closer inspection, large differences can be observed across various media types. On the one hand, ordinary citizens occur with relatively high frequency on television but hardly make an appearance in online news items. Academic sources, on the other hand, are dominant online but nearly absent in television news items. In sum, this analysis demonstrates that health journalists’ source uses differ across various media platforms.     

Can a non-Muslim Mass Shooter be a “Terrorist”?: A Comparative Content Analysis of the Las Vegas and Orlando Shootings

ABSTRACT

This study used the 2017 Las Vegas and 2016 Orlando mass shootings as case studies to explore alleged double standards in reporting of events featuring Muslim and non-Muslim mass perpetrators of violence. The study used framing theory and content analysis to examine Los Angeles Times and New York Times coverage of the shootings during the one week immediately following each event. Findings are consistent with previous literature and the researchers’ expectations. The Orlando shooting, carried out by a Muslim, was allotted more coverage despite the fact that it produced nine fewer fatalities than the Las Vegas shooting, perpetrated by a white non-Muslim. The analysis also showed that the examined newspapers were more likely to employ a “terrorism” frame in their coverage of the Orlando shooting than in their coverage of the Las Vegas shooting; link the Orlando mass shooting with the global war on terrorism; and to humanize Stephen Paddock, the white perpetrator of the Las Vegas shooting. Framing differences found in this study may contribute to downplaying the threat of white male gun violence, and to reinforcing fears of Islam and Muslims.     

Talking to Ourselves: A Content Analysis of NPR's Use of Journalists as Sources

National Public Radio (NPR) has built its reputation on in-depth analysis and unbiased reporting of information based on questions its reporters ask, the ways reporters tell their stories, and NPR's use of journalists as sources within their stories. This article focuses on understanding how these journalist-sources are used and how this practice contributes to the larger issues of source credibility facing media today. A content analysis of NPR's All Things Considered programming from 1999 to 2009 shows that NPR journalists are used as sources more often in stories about philosophical topics and significantly less often in stories that contain more hard data.     

What Makes “Good” News Newsworthy?

To combat the constant supply of negative news, some online news outlets focus solely on “good” news. But what is the value of “good” news? A content analysis was conducted to determine which traditional news values (timeliness, conflict, impact, etc.) appear in stories on Web sites dedicated to positive news. The researcher compared “good” news sites to the New York Times. Results indicated that the majority of “good” news stories were entertaining and emotional, whereas the majority of New York Times stories involved authority figures and conflict. Good news stories were less committed to journalism’s core functions, such as holding power accountable and providing the public with information necessary for creating an informed electorate.     

Covering urban vice: the New York Times, "white slavery," and the construction of journalistic knowledge

Communication scholars have analyzed how such pivotal historical and political events as war, assassination, and the rise and fall of nations and political regimes have functioned to shape and shore up the legitimacy of particular news institutions. This paper explores the role played by an early twentieth-century sex-related social and moral panic over “white slavery” in transforming news practices. Beginning in 1907, stories proliferated in the U.S. mass media of White women kidnapped and sold into prostitution organized bands of immigrants, often alleged to be conspiring with top city officials. diachronic textual analysis of New York Times coverage of a 1910 white slavery investigation finds that reporters initially drew from a stock of sentimental narratives describe the investigation's findings. However, as the investigation grew increasingly problematic, the Times developed a detached orientation toward its object, similar to that demanded of professional journalists today. I examine how the Times engaged paradigm repair and significant historical revision to account for and defend its earlier articles on this controversial phenomenon.     

“War Through Children’s Eyes” in the Archiwum Wschodnie [Eastern Archive] Collection

In 1981, Hoover Institution Press published a collection of testimonies of Polish citizens and their children deported to the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1941. War Through Children’s Eyes contained English translations of compositions, interviews, and testimonies from the Polish Government Collection at the Hoover Institution Archives. In the 1980s efforts were underway in Poland to collect similar personal stories of survivors of Soviet deportations, including children’s testimonies. The result was the creation of the Archiwum Wschodnie [Eastern Archive] and the KARTA Center in Warsaw. The archive, legalized after the fall of Communism in 1990, is a major primary source collection dealing with the history of former Polish eastern territories. The paper discusses parts of the Archiwum Wschodnie collection focusing on the testimonies of children deported to the Soviet Union. The trauma of war and displacement is examined through personal stories and testimonies of deportees.     

Palin,Saturday Night Live,and Framing: Examining the Dynamics of Political Parody

This work investigates dynamics of political parody through a framing analysis of Saturday Night Live sketches that spoof former Governor Sarah Palin. It is posited that parodies of political figures can be fruitfully understood as reflecting, refracting, and creating political realities, as suggested by the identification of 4 dominant frames in Saturday Night Live sketches. Furthermore, the author argues that the framing approach can serve as a point of convergence for contrasting epistemological approaches to political humor research.     

Classifying Data Journalism

The review of theoretical and empirical studies in data journalism has uncovered different conceptualisations of data journalistic artefacts. This quantitative content analysis of data-driven stories published by European quality news websites Zeit Online, Spiegel Online, The Guardian and Neue Zürcher Zeitung aims to outline universal characteristics of daily data-driven stories and to compare these findings with previous analyses of data stories and acclaimed data journalism projects. Results suggest that daily data journalism stories generally feature two visualisations that are likely to be bar charts. The majority of these visualisations are not interactive whereas maps turn out to be the most interactive type of visualisation. Data journalists rely predominantly on pre-processed data drawn from domestic governmental bodies. For the most part, data-driven stories are reports on political topics paralleling traditional news reporting. The sparsity of collaborative efforts and investigative approaches distinguishes daily data journalism from previous analyses of eclectic and elaborate data-driven projects.     

The audience for television news interview programs

An experiment investigated if graphic censorship disclaimers affect memory or thought elaboration for television news stories of the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Viewer assessment of the credibility of censored news also was considered. Subjects listed their thoughts about each story, and their memory was tested as recognition latency. Subjects who rated the credibility of censored news as moderate scored highest on the memory task, but listed the fewest number of negative mentions about the government named as censor in the stories. Under some conditions, results show that the more viewers thought about the source of the censorship, the lesser they remembered images from the stories.     

Competing News Frames and Hegemonic Discourses in the Construction of Contemporary Immigration and Immigrants in the United States

Using content analysis of the New York Times and USA Today, this study investigates the framing of immigration in two policy debates: on the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R. 4437) in 2006 and on the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act or Arizona Senate Bill (S.B.) 1070 in 2010. The bills crystallized various discourses on immigration in American society. Drawing on literature on media discourses, news frames, and framing processes, the article examines the attempt of mainstream mass media to reduce the complexity of immigration into palatable talking points. The findings demonstrate that through framing, the media create diametrically opposed representations of immigration and contemporary immigrants but at the same time normalize dominant ways of thinking and talking about immigration that sustain and consolidate power relationships.     

Organizational storytelling as a method of tacit-knowledge transfer: Case study from a Sri Lankan university

Sri Lanka has a long history and culture of storytelling but the use of stories for transferring tacit knowledge is absent. This paper is the first to examine the application of orgnisational stories as a method of tacit-knowledge transfer management tool in the library domain.

The study had two objectives; 1) To explore the potential of storytelling to transfer tacit knowledge from the Librarian to the junior executives. 2) To examine whether captured stories serve the pursuit of knowledge by the junior executives. Two research questions were formulated to achieve these objectives. The first research question (RQ1) How can the tacit knowledge of a retiring senior executive be captured through stories? was framed and addressed to achieve objective one and the second research question (RQ2) Can the captured “stories of work” benefit knowledge workers in their pursuit of tacit knowledge? was framed and addressed to achieve objective two. The study was based on primary data collected from the Librarian and executive staff of the Library by means of two Interview Schedules and the entire study was underpinned by an extensive review of research literature related to organizational storytelling. Qualitative as well as quantitative methods were used to analysis and interpretation data.

The findings of the study proved in response to RQ1 that organizational stories can be captured using a six-step process and a story capturing model which could be used by the other researcher emerged from the research. Nevertheless, findings also established that the comprehensiveness of the tacit knowledge that could be captured through stories would depend on the degree of confidentiality of the contents of the stories. Therefore all stories could not be recorded as they are told. Responding to RQ2 the findings proved that, captured “stories of work” can be used for the benefit of knowledge workers in their pursuit of tacit knowledge.

Based on these findings it was recommended that, the library should take initiatives to exploit the already prevailing habit of organizational storytelling in the library as a method of transferring tacit knowledge in a deliberated manner and for this several activities were recommended.

The findings were based only on a single case, in a single organization carried out during a six-month period, within the boundaries of a specific organizational and social culture. Therefore additional case studies would be necessary to test the validity and reliability of the story capturing model.

This research is the first of its kind carried out in the library domain of Sri Lanka. Therefore it provides significant insights on which future researchers can build their studies.     

Putting Our Own People First: The Content and Effects of Online Right-wing Populist Discourse Surrounding the European Refugee Crisis

The 2015 refugee crisis has sparked heated polarized debates throughout the globe. Yet, to date, we know too little about the discursive framing of the refugee crisis by various actors on online media, and the effect of right-wing populist messages on stereotypical images of refugees. The extensive qualitative content analysis reported in this paper (Study 1, N = 1,784) shows that the framing of populist politicians and citizens overlap in the problem definitions. However, citizens attribute more responsibility to refugees themselves and perceive that the native people are relatively deprived. Traditional news media are more divided. Overall, tabloid media define refugees as a problem, and broadsheet media frame them as victim. The second experimental study (N = 277) demonstrates that messages that blame immigrants for increasing crime rates activate negative stereotypical images of migrants among people with stronger perceptions of relative deprivation. These messages have the opposite effect among citizens with weaker perceptions of relative deprivation. These findings provide important insights into the political consequences of anti-immigration framing. Online media discourse is generally one-sided, and exposure to anti-immigration messages may polarize the electorate in opposing camps.     

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.     

All Things Cultured: An Analysis of Popular Culture Coverage on National Public Radio's All Things Considered

National Public Radio's flagship news program All Things Considered has long been known for its sophisticated style of political and cultural news coverage. In past years the program has increased the number and types of popular culture stories covered to reflect the changing interests of listeners. This content analysis found that coverage of popular culture significantly increased in relation to the more traditional “high” culture stories, such as opera and art. The results suggest that All Things Considered is working to bring more popular culture coverage to the program while not losing focus on its traditional style of news coverage.