How do the news media frame crises? A content analysis of crisis news coverage

The present study is a content analysis of crisis news frames found in 2006 crisis news coverage. A total of 247 news stories were analyzed to examine which of five news frames (attribution of responsibility, human interest, conflict, morality, and economic) and level of responsibility (individual and organizational level) were used by the media according to crisis type. While the attribution of responsibility frame was the most predominantly used in crisis news coverage, the use of each of the five frames depended on crisis type. The use of level of responsibility also varied by crisis type and was related to the five frames; individual level of responsibility was used more with morality, human interest, and attribution of responsibility frames. Implications and suggestions based on the results were discussed.     

Breast cancer coverage in China and the United States: a comparative analysis of wire service news stories

The incidence rate of breast cancer is relatively high but declining in the United States whereas it is relatively low but increasing in China. This study analyzes coverage from the Associated Press (AP) and the Xinhua News Agency (Xinhua) to compare how news media in each nation have covered breast cancer. The results indicate that the AP was more likely to cover treatment and personal stories whereas Xinhua was more likely to cover risk reduction and prevention and to cover early detection and diagnosis. Subtler differences also emerged in coverage of breast cancer. The patterns observed may reflect not only differences between the two nations in incidence rates and efforts to address the disease but also broader differences in their news and medical values, practices, and institutions. News coverage of breast cancer, in turn, may influence how citizens of each nation will form perceptions regarding the disease.     

Newspapers, Television and Political Reasoning

Adults' use of newspapers is found to correlate positively withhaving reasons for preferring one U.S. senatorial candidateover another. Television exposure is negatively related to politicalreasoning to a nearly significant degree. Data were providedby a 1974 nationwide, postelection survey. Analysis was conductedat the aggregate level, examining media behavior and politicalknowledge in 67 news markets. News markets with competitionamong daily newspapers show greater levels of information thanmonopoly areas, controlling for education and interest in politics.Results suggest that a decline in newspaper penetration, lessenedcompetition, or shift toward use of television for news wouldweaken peoples' understanding about partisan candidates.     

Corporate actors in Western European television news

News about corporations can be understood as an interdependent relationship among the public relations function, organizational logic and the logic of the media. This research addresses the visibility and role of corporate actors in Western European public television news. A quantitative content analysis was conducted of a representative sample of six primetime news programs (N = 139) in 2006. The results show that corporate actors do not appear very often in the news, that they are part of a civil-economic coalition and join the public debate about issues. Promotion of products, brands and organizations is hardly visible.     

Restoring sanity through comic relief: Parody television viewers and political outlook

Parody news programs regale viewers with satirical, witty, and humorous exposés of the political world and news coverage, but they have also been criticized for creating cynicism and political disengagement. This study found that parody news viewers are self-efficacious and more politically active than viewers of CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, or broadcast television news. Moreover, reliance on parody news shows does not lead to political polarization or government distrust.     

Time and Television News Work*

Combining theoretical and ethnographic material, this paper outlines why time is an important vehicle for analyzing the social organization of television news work and the social construction of television news. The paper investigates major events with problematic features—unscheduled “hard news”—as a means of understanding basic beliefs and organizational practices of news assemblers in a local television news station. Based on participant observation and interviews with photographers and reporters, the evidence shows that time is a key independent variable in the selection and assembly of hard news. Time is often more than a variable, it is a constituent feature of television news work—a contingency which must be attended to if the work is to produce what news workers consider to be “good television news.” The problematic elements of news work are magnified under the pressures of perishable hard news stories where adjustments to unfolding work demands cannot be predetermined or programmed. Some implications of the analysis are discussed in terms of the content of local news, the biases of news coverage, and the importance of considering time as a dynamic process in the study of work.     

Preferring negative or positive news? A closer examination of journalistic negativity in a health crisis

Negativity of news coverage is widely documented. We examined whether the news media’s preference for reporting negative events was salient in news coverage of the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in South Korea, which was characterized by intensification or mitigation of viral spread. The daily number of news stories on the outbreak was compared with several viral spread indices to determine if the media responded to negative changes more than positive changes. At the aggregate level, the amount of MERS news coverage was associated with positive changes. When the number of newly confirmed patients decreased, the MERS news increased. However, a separate investigation of breakout and abatement stages showed that the media covered more negative changes during the breakout stage and shifted to more positive occurrences during abatement. These findings are discussed in light of the dynamics of journalistic attention to health crisis.     

The Electoral Glass Ceiling

Abstract

Scholars such as Kahn and others have shown that the print news media have covered women candidates in ways likely to diminish their electoral viability. Those effects have yet to be verified in a non-experimentalsetting or extended to television. We offer non-experimental evidence of news-based effects for print news and television. We examine the effects of media coverage patterns by analyzing Senate races using the 1988-92 ANES Senate Election Study. Our results provide consistent support for the contention that news media coverage has disadvantaged women candidates in the eyes of voters. This work suggests a need for greater attention to research on broadcast news coverage of women candidates.     

News coverage of child sexual abuse and prevention, 2007-2009

News media coverage of child sexual abuse can help policymakers and the public understand what must be done to prevent future abuse, but coverage tends to focus on extreme cases. This article presents an analysis of newspaper coverage from 2007 to 2009 to describe how the daily news presents and frames day-to-day stories about child sexual abuse. When child sexual abuse receives news attention, the stories focus primarily on the criminal justice details of a specific incident rather than contextual information about causes of and solutions to child sexual abuse, and prevention is rarely addressed. We offer suggestions for strategies that advocates can use to help reporters improve news coverage so that it better contextualizes child sexual abuse and links it to prevention policies.     

Marginality and migration: cultural dimensions of the Afghan refugee problem

Given the duration of time that has passed since the Afghan refugee influx into Pakistan began and the absence of any immediate prospect for a political settlement which would allow the refugees to return home, it is necessary to consider what the long-term requirements of this population might be and the implications of permanent resettlement on both the refugees and the host country. For policy makers, these are urgent questions that must be confronted not only to help ensure the health, safety, and productive future of the refugees, but also to minimize the risks of even greater political instability in this troubled region. This article attempts to provide some basic insights into the society and culture of the Afghan refugees and will consider what impact dislocation and settlement have had specifically on tribally-organized Pakhtuns, who comprise approximately 50% of the Afghan population generally and perhaps 80-90% of the refugee population (author's).     

Telling your own bad news: Eliot Spitzer and a test of the stealing thunder strategy

This study explored the concept of stealing thunder, or telling your own bad news. Unlike previous research which used surveys and experiments, this study examined actual news coverage following crises that involved individuals. One case study compared media coverage of two New York governors while the second case study compared media coverage of a high profile athlete and a late night talk show host. In each of the two studies, one of the individuals in crisis stole thunder from reporters by revealing negative information before the media did; while the other person in crisis engaged in silence and allowed the media to break the story. Results indicate there may be an association between stealing thunder and the amount of news coverage one receives. Both studies found that the source who stole thunder received considerably less news coverage than the source who did not. Additionally, results from both studies showed that stealing thunder was associated with more positively framed stories and headlines and fewer negative media frames.     

Television News, Real-World Cues, and Changes in the Public Agenda

This paper examines the interrelationships between real-worldcues, television news coverage, and public concern for the issuesof energy, inflation, and unemployment. On the basis of longitudinaldata, the authors show that media agenda setting is indeed unidirectional—televisionnews influences public concern and not vice versa. Lead storiesare significantly more powerful than ordinary stories in shapingthe public's agenda. Prevailing conditions and events affectpublic opinion both directly and indirectly, by determiningthe degree of news coverage accorded issues.     

Contested news values and media performance during the Umbrella Movement

Social crises are a huge challenge to the performance of the media. The norms and routines of news making with which journalists comply can become problematic in the context of intensive public sentiment and empathy. News values, including the sacred belief in objective reporting, are questioned in the light of controversies over editorial judgment within and outside the newsroom. I examine the contested news values that manifested in the Umbrella Movement of Hong Kong in 2014. In particular, I focus on the arguments and deliberations regarding news objectivity, which involved several parameters of the performance of the media during this social crisis.     

REGULATION VIA THREATS: POLITICS, MEDIA COVERAGE, AND OIL PRICING DECISIONS

Using the oil crisis of the late 1970s as a case study, we examine,the intertwined influences of public opinion and media attentionon the credibility of regulatory threats. We focus on threefactors: the intensity of public demands for regulatory intervention,the extent to which there are other competing demands on legislativeattention, and the availability of scapegoats external to theindustry. We use television news coverage of various topicsto measure these three factors. We hypothesize that firms threatenedwith potential regulation restrained price increases, with thelargest and most publicly visible firms exercising the greatestrestraint. We find that large, visible oil firms restrainedprice increases for the most important decontrolled prodicts(diesel fuel oil) when media coverage of the oil industry wasextensive. These firms exercised less restraint when the governmentwas busy with other issues or when political instability inthe Middle East offered an external rationale for oil priceincreases.     

Arab Television in Academic Scholarship

Over the past 10 years, there has been an exponential increase in satellite television in the Arab world, with programming ranging from music videos to news, from reality TV programs to Islamic talk shows. Concurrent with this development has been the growth of academic scholarship on understanding the relationship between Arab television and social and political transformations in the Middle East. This article provides an overview of Arab television growth, especially that of pan‐Arab satellite channels such as Al‐Jazeera, and of scholarship about it. Academic work that focuses on theories of media globalization and the public sphere, and that is in conversation with Western journalism and global media studies, is highlighted.     

Emergence of a ‘new public sphere’ in Bangladesh: the interactive dynamics between news television,citizens and the state

The consideration of media as the watchdog of democracy is prolific in the context of Bangladesh. The emergence of private satellite television with its potential to broadcast news enables discursive space within the contested politico-social setup. The visibility aspect, variations and liveliness of news bulletins brought by the private television channels created an appeal among the viewers signifying the mediated culture. An attempt to examine the interactive dynamic between the media, public and politics offers new ground for exploring the communication and culture. This paper examines the control and contestation of domestic private televisions by unravelling the interface with audiences and the state. It shows an enmeshed trajectory of politics and rise of television news-making culture that provides new aspects to understand the relation between media and democracy. Further, it argues for an emergence of localised public sphere by underscoring the engagement of audiences with television news. It locates the new, mediated public sphere beyond the television set, in the locations where multiple actions of viewing, interacting and interpreting enable a discursive space which is politically active and meaningful.     

The effects of traditional news,partisan talk,and political satire programs on perceptions of presidential candidate viability and electability

This study examines how exposure to network news, partisan opinion talk, and political satire programs during the 2012 Iowa presidential caucuses affected viewers’ perceptions of candidate viability (likelihood of capturing the party nomination) and electability (likelihood of winning the general election). Programs representing these genres—ABC World News, Fox News’s Hannity, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart—all framed the same candidate as the front-runner for the nomination, though each framed this candidate’s general election prospects in distinctive ways. A randomized field experiment assigned respondents to view one (or none) of the three programs as they aired. Assessments of the front-runner were significantly shaped by assignment to view television coverage, hence demonstrating the potential importance of all three media genres for the presidential nomination process.     

Journalists–sources relationship in violent conflicts coverage: Shifting dynamics

News sources are a major part of news production in times of violent crisis and conflict. They can shape the context in which journalists see and frame the events. The relationship between journalists and their sources during conflicts has received extensive scholarly analysis over the last three decades. This paper addresses the characteristics of this relationship by discussing the power balance between the two sides and presenting a typology of traditional and new news sources used during conflict coverage. Two major trends are concluded: (1) The power dynamics between journalists and news sources during conflict and crisis times are changing and becoming more complex, as sources are more able to influence the news and the boundary between them and journalists are becoming more blurred in today's global digital media environment. (2) New faces and sources are included in news stories, such as terrorists, enemy leaders, and ordinary citizens, enriching the audience with alternative views on the conflict. Although both trends suggest a decrease of dependence on official sources, journalists still rely most on such sources, which maintain some of their control over news flow during conflict.     

“A Statistically Representative Climate Change Debate”: Satirical Television News,Scientific Consensus,and Public Perceptions of Global Warming

Satirical television news programs provide the public with potential sources of information about climate change. This study uses a segment from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver as a test case for exploring how coverage from such programs that features consensus messaging may influence viewers’ perceptions of global warming. The segment presents a “statistically representative climate change debate” to affirm the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change and satirize television news coverage “balancing” this consensus with skeptics’ arguments. Results from a randomized experiment demonstrate that watching the segment increased viewers’ own belief in global warming, as well as viewers’ perceptions that most scientists believe in global warming. The latter effect was stronger among participants with low interest in the environment and global warming than among those with high interest. The segment’s impact on perceptions of scientists’ views may have mediated its effects on viewers’ own beliefs about global warming.