Press and TV as Opinion Resources in Presidential Campaigns

A comparison of campaign news in two successive presidentialelections reveals major deficiencies in information supply.Newspaper audiences, even more than television viewers, receiveconfusing, heavily negative information which makes candidateappraisal difficult. Incumbency of one candidate does not leadto substantially greater emphasis on public policy issues andprofessional qualifications. A pattern of heavy stress on personalcharacteristics and daily campaign events prevails in all sources.Data come from content analysis of nearly 10,000 campaign storiesfrom network television news and 20 U.S. daily newspapers.     

NEWSPAPER EFFECTS ON POLICY PREFERENCES

This research offers clear evidence that what is presented inthe media influences the policy preferences of the Americanpublic. More important, it reconciles some earlier problemsthat led to an inability to determine the approximate relationshipsbetween television and newspaper information concerning policy.By correcting some methodological problems in earlier attemptsto examine the impact of New York Times policy news, I am ableto conclude that different actors or news sources do indeedhave differential impacts on public opinion and that in bothnewspaper items and television broadcasts experts and commentatorswield heavy influence.     

CAMPAIGN ADVERTISEMENTS VERSUS TELEVISION NEWS AS SOURCES OF POLITICAL ISSUE INFORMATION

Relative contributions of television news and campaign advertisingto U.S. voters' knowledge about candidate issue differencesare compared. Empirical comparisons are based on interview datafrom six campaign surveys of voters, in various election settingsfrom 1984 to 1992. In hierarchical regression analyses, aftercontrols for demographic and political interest variables, measuresof attention to television news consistently account for a significantincrement of slightly more than 2 percent of variance in issueknowledge. Parallel measures representing attention to candidates'televised advertisements produce a much more variable patternin terms of variance explained in knowledge. Usually the effectsof advertisements are less than those of news, and sometimesthey are nonsignificant; but in one hotly contested ideologicalrace the informative effect attributable to advertisements exceedsthat of TV news. These patterns hold up after further controlsfor other media use variables, including newspaper reading.     

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.     

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 Public's Use and Perception of Newspapers

Although a widely held viewpoint is that "the majority of thepeople get their news from television", a national survey showsequal proportions of the population reading newspapers and watchingtelevision news on a typical weekday. The study examines thepublic's attitudes toward the press in general and toward thespecific papers most often read. It also reports on the mostcommonly read elements of newspaper content and notes the changingcharacter of local news.     

How television news programs use video news releases

Video news releases are an important public relations tactic, but use by television stations is difficult to evaluate. While electronic tracking exists, data are rarely shared or published. This study analyzed proprietary data regarding the use of 14 VNRs, which resulted in 4,245 airings across the U.S.Findings indicate all sizes of markets are likely to use VNRs, but smaller markets are more likely to use longer video segments, and to use them later in the day or days after the initial satellite feed. The most common use was as a voice-over story in an early evening newscast. VNRs associated with children and their safety or health got the greatest number of uses. The results have implications for public relations practitioners who need to make cost-effective decisions regarding tactics to target specific audiences.     

Television and Political Alienation: Does Television News Induce Political Cynicism and Inefficacy in Japan?

Abstract: In many democratic societies, including Japan, political alienation such as political cynicism or inefficacy is widespread among the general public. Some researchers argue that along with various other factors embedded in political systems, the mass media, particularly television, plays a crucial role in promoting or intensifying political alienation. Focusing on the influence of the media, this study examines whether television news induces political cynicism and inefficacy in Japan. Previous research has indicated that public and commercial broadcasts may have different impacts on the political attitude of the audience. Thus, this study predicts that the relationship between television news exposure and political alienation would be stronger among those who exclusively watch commercial news programs. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicate that among non-Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) news viewers, those who view television news more frequently are more likely to feel politically inefficacious, and that those who rely exclusively on television for political information are more likely to be politically cynical. However, negative influences associated with television reliance or television news viewing are not observed among the NHK news viewers, although positive influences are also not observed. Thus, according to the results, the "videomalaise" effect would be limited to certain viewers. This article discusses the implications of the findings and also suggests that more exclusive psychological explanations be examined for the videomalaise effect.     

Too Hard to Shout Over the Loudest Frame: Effects of Competing Frames in the Context of the Crystallized Media Coverage on Offshore Outsourcing

This study investigates the effects of competing frames in newspaper coverage of offshore outsourcing, an issue that is characterized by a predominantly negative, unemployment-focused media framing. The findings of a randomized, controlled experiment (N = 152) demonstrate that conventional framing effects do hold for this issue and for this media context by moving recipients’ attitudes in the direction consistent with the valence of the frame. However, they also show the backfire effect of the positively valenced frame among recipients with greater interest in political and economic news, who become less supportive of outsourcing if they read a story framing outsourcing from a consumer-oriented perspective. Our results contribute to the ongoing debate about the limits of framing effects on forming opinion about contentious policy issues and demonstrate the challenges for nondominant perspectives to make their way to news-savvy audiences even when the nature of the issue in question necessitates considering them.     

Assessment of motion media on believability and credibility: An exploratory study

The radical shift by news audiences away from newspaper to motion media (video stories on TV, web, cell phones, handhelds) prompted the assessment of media modality (text, text + picture, video) and source (public relations, news, user-generated content [UGC]) effects on credibility and more importantly perceived veridicality, a perception of an object as being accurate and believable regardless of the source, as well as impact of messages. The findings revealed that motion media modality significantly enhances believability judgments and perceived veridicality, which is independent of source cue, in which news source garnered no greater credibility than PR or UGC source.     

NEWS ABOUT MURDER IN AN AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSPAPER: Effects of Relative Frequency and Race and Gender Typifications

Previous scholarly research on selection bias in news about murder indicates that race and gender stereotypes and, to a much lesser extent, the relative frequency of particular murders explain why some homicides are made into news and others are not. However, previous research has directed nearly exclusive attention to white newspapers. The present research remedies this omission by directing attention to the factors that shape selection bias in news about murder in a big-city African American newspaper. The results indicate that the relative frequency dimension of newsworthiness is a weak and inconsistent explanation of selection bias in news about murder in the black newspaper examined. Race, however, has profoundly different effects in white and African American newspapers. Whereas white newspapers use long-standing race stereotypes to filter news about murder, the data from the African American newspaper signal a firm rejection of the black image in the white mind (Entman and Rojecki 2000). Newspaper images of women and men are another matter. In both black and white newspapers, gender stereotypes uniformly filter news about murder and fundamentally distort gender effects. The implications of these findings are discussed including the clear need and ample scholarly room for replicative analyses of news about murder in other African American newspapers, with a keen eye on both "raced ways of seeing" (Hunt 1999, pp. 181–215) and gendered ways of seeing.     

International public relations as a predictor of prominence of US news coverage

This study aims to test the public relations efforts of other countries as a predictor of their newsworthiness in the US news media, after controlling for national traits and social significance. Based on a content analysis of US newspaper and television news coverage (New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN) of 97 countries, this study found that the public relations of other countries’ governments is a significant predictor of these countries’ prominence in the US news coverage.     

Crime, Crime News, and Crime Views

This paper compares police, newspaper, television, and publicimages of crime trends for the seven FBI index crimes over time,the relative frequency of occurrence of these offenses, andthe characteristics of persons committing them. Media presentationsof crime trends over time are found generally unrelated to trendsin police statistics. Newspaper presentation of the relativedistribution of crimes approximates police figures more closelythan does the television presentation. Public views of the relativedistribution of crimes but not of crime trends more closelyapproximate media presentations than police presentations. Television'simpact on public views of crime is apparently minor. Reasonsfor these findings and their implications for crime news reportingare discussed.     

Personalization and the Determination of News

This article addresses the relationship between the construction of news and personal experiences. Ethnography and narrative approaches are used to study a metropolitan newspaper where it is discovered that personalization contributes in large part to the decisions made by editors regarding whether or not an event is considered newsworthy. This discovery adds another dimension to the perspective that news is a social construction because it presents news as a decision-making process and highlights the human elements which contribute to the determination of news.     

Death makes news: the social impact of disease on newspaper coverage

This paper is an integrated analysis of newspaper coverage, epidemiological rates, and recent social history of six prominent diseases. HYPOTHESES: Newspaper coverage of a disease has three developmental stages (emergence, maturation, and decline & death). Trends in newspaper coverage of a disease reflect trends in its mortality, prevalence, and incidence. Magnitudes of newspaper coverage of diseases reflect their differential mortality rates. DATA: Using the LEXIS-NEXIS news archive for major U.S. newspapers, we retrieve articles about cancer, heart disease, AIDS, diabetes, Alzheimer disease, and arthritis for the period 1977-1997. We also obtain mortality, prevalence, and incidence trends for the six diseases. RESULTS: During the two decades, newspaper coverage emerges for AIDS and Alzheimer disease and is in the mature stage for the other diseases; declines begin for heart disease and AIDS. Trends in news coverage closely parallel mortality trends, and less consistently prevalence and incidence trends. Sharp downturns and upturns in mortality are mirrored in news volume. High-mortality diseases prompt both the most news coverage and the largest proportions of articles with death topics. CONCLUSION: Newspaper coverage of diseases is responsive to their mortality levels and trends.     

'Land of the free'? Circulating human rights and narrated lives in the United States

Abstract

In the 50 years during which human rights has gained an international currency, personal narratives have become one of the most potent vehicles for advancing human rights claims. This is particularly true in the United States where personal narratives attesting to human rights violations frequently gain wide exposure through mass publication and publicity, media circulation, and global information flows. This article explores the circulation of human rights narratives in the United States, examining some of the ways that stories enter into public discourse through published life narratives, television talk shows, news reports, campus lectures and publicity tours, websites, and the like, and are taken up by popular and academic audiences, spurring debates within the fields of legal and political theory, international relations, religion, morality and ethics, often far removed from the originating event or site of human rights violation. The article considers the many intended and unintended effects of this circulation on storytellers, their audiences, and the campaigns they represent.     

Agricultural Journalists' Assessments of Print Coverage of Agricultural News1

Abstract Critics of agricultural news claim farm media and mass media coverage of agriculture is systematically distorted, a condition that could seriously affect the agricultural information system. A national survey used agricultural journalists as expert judges to assess how well three types of print journalists cover agricultural news. Their assessments indicated that mass media reporters who do not regularly cover agricultural news tend to write agriculture stories that are superficial and stereotyped but not biased toward agricultural interests. Farm magazine writers' stories are not superficial or stereotyped, but writers are uncritical of agriculture, biased toward agroindustry, and overlook important social and environmental issues. Newspaper farm beat reporters are closer to farm magazine writers in not trivializing agriculture and closer to general newspaper reporters in avoiding close ties with industry. Both farmers and public thus receive biased and fragmented reporting that may polarize their views on current agricultural issues. Even if reporters are aware of critical shortcomings in their coverage, improvement may require reduction in structural constraints on story choice.     

Mass Communication and Voter Volatility

This study attempts to explicate empirically the concept ofvoter volatility and to test the assertion that the use of televisionfor political news contributes to this electoral instability.Voter volatility is defined as the level of unpredictabilityof election outcomes from traditional demographic and politicalparty variables. The effects of television and newspaper exposureon each of seven volatility dimensions were examined beforeand after the introduction of two control variables: educationand political interest. Neither the media exposure measuresnor the control variables predicted to all volatility dimensionsin a uniform way. Contrary to expectations, the dominant directionof television exposure's relationships was toward lower levelsof volatility. While newspaper use effects were largely in theexpected direction of lower volatility, reversals were shownhere as well. Education and political interest, traditionallythought to be stabilizing electoral forces, also revealed positiveas well as negative relationships to various volatility factors.     

Social theory and current affairs: a framework for intellectual engagement

The paper aims to facilitate more adequate critical engagement with current affairs events by journalists, and with current affairs texts by audiences. It draws on social theory to provide the intellectual resources to enable this. The academic ambition is for the framework to be adopted and developed by social thinkers in producing exemplary critical readings of news and current affairs texts. To this end it is offered as a research paradigm. The paper situates its argument in relation to the wider literature in media and cultural studies, acknowledging the subtle skills required to appreciate the relative autonomy of texts. However, it draws attention to the lack of an adequate perspective with which to assess the frames, representations, and judgments within news and current affairs texts. To address this lacuna it proposes the conception of a social‐theoretical frame, based on a number of meta‐theoretical approaches, designed to provide audiences with a systematic means of addressing the status and adequacy of individual texts. Social theoretical frames can reveal the shortcomings of media framing of the contextual fields within which news and current affairs events take place. Two illustrative case studies are used to indicate the value and potential of the approach: the analysis of a short newspaper report of the return of protesters to Cairo's Tahrir Square in 2011, and a critique of four current affairs reports from various genres on the political turmoil in Thailand leading up to the clashes of May 2010.