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Social-political environment, journalism practice and coverage of minorities: The case of the marginal cities in Israel
Abstract
This research demonstrates how the social-political environment affects news media organizations’ well-researched tendency to focus on subjects like crime, disasters and disorder when covering minorities. The analysis showed that the social-political environment affects many key internal decisions, routines and journalistic practices of media organizations that shape the coverage of marginal groups. The aspects covered include the social and professional backgrounds of the newspeople who cover and edit news about minority groups; the news organizations’ definition of news that focuses on crisis reporting; the selection of information sources that reinforce this news definition; and the decision regarding the target audience. The case study looks at the image of marginal cities in the Israeli national press. To do so, we employed two research methods to analyse the research questions: content analysis of news articles published and in-depth interviews with editors and journalists.
... Yet in spite of these changes, national mainstream media remained as they were until the 1990s and reflected the central national value system and worldview. National media reflected the political elite and its hegemonic ethos, with overrepresentation of the Ashkenazi (European ethnic origin) upper-level social groups (Avraham, 2002). ...
... The fact that members of these social groups seek and consume nonmainstream political information is hardly surprising. Mainstream Israeli media often ignore the point of view of these groups (in the case of former Soviet Union immigrants and Arabs, mainstream media also do not typically use their languages), and their portrayal in mainstream Israeli media is often stereotyped and biased (e.g., Avraham, 2002). Media research in Israel argues that mainstream Israeli media speak mostly to mainstream Israelis (Avraham, 2002). ...
... Mainstream Israeli media often ignore the point of view of these groups (in the case of former Soviet Union immigrants and Arabs, mainstream media also do not typically use their languages), and their portrayal in mainstream Israeli media is often stereotyped and biased (e.g., Avraham, 2002). Media research in Israel argues that mainstream Israeli media speak mostly to mainstream Israelis (Avraham, 2002). In this context, the fact that Arabs consume Arab media and ultra-Orthodox Jews consume ultra-Orthodox newspapers and radio should come as no surprise. ...
In recent decades, audience options for current affairs information have been multiplying. Globalization and media segmentation present citizens with a variety of news outlets for political information in addition to those offered by the mainstream communication channels, which once dominated every nation state. In this article, survey data gathered in Israel (N ??1,122) are analyzed to examine the association between mainstream media skepticism and exposure to sectorial and extranational news media. Findings show that skepticism toward the mainstream news media is indeed related to sectorial and extranational news consumption; however, it is not related to consumption of such nonmainstream media exclusively. Results are discussed in light of theories of the public sphere.
... This provides a means to comprehend the social construction of health in the news and the ideological meanings of health infl ected throughout society through processes of mass mediation (cf. Avraham, 2002). ...
... Such deliberations have important implications in terms of reproducing or challenging economic and social systems that impact on health (cf. Avraham, 2002). And, as we will show, the concerns of a civic orientation do inform journalists' reporting of health, although this is rarely predominant and is often in tension with the more traditional demands of 'a good story'. ...
... The Government puts out a lot of stuff that we need to be aware of. Medical journals are a good source of stuff like studies and that sort of thing … (Ron) As with general news (Avraham, 2002), when primary sources are from offi cial bodies such as the Ministry of Health, the Medical Association, or are experts such as doctors, sources from the community are less likely to be invited to provide comment. Consequently, reliance on 'offi cial' primary sources shapes the framing and patterning of coverage. ...
... This provides a means to comprehend the social construction of health in the news and the ideological meanings of health infl ected throughout society through processes of mass mediation (cf. Avraham, 2002). ...
... Such deliberations have important implications in terms of reproducing or challenging economic and social systems that impact on health (cf. Avraham, 2002). And, as we will show, the concerns of a civic orientation do inform journalists' reporting of health, although this is rarely predominant and is often in tension with the more traditional demands of 'a good story'. ...
... The Government puts out a lot of stuff that we need to be aware of. Medical journals are a good source of stuff like studies and that sort of thing … (Ron) As with general news (Avraham, 2002), when primary sources are from offi cial bodies such as the Ministry of Health, the Medical Association, or are experts such as doctors, sources from the community are less likely to be invited to provide comment. Consequently, reliance on 'offi cial' primary sources shapes the framing and patterning of coverage. ...
Health is a very prominent news category. However, we know little about the production processes of journalists leading to the health stories we encounter on a daily basis. Such knowledge is crucial for ensuring a vibrant public sphere for health. This article draws on interviews with eight health journalists in New Zealand to document what they consider to constitute a health story, their professional norms and practices, their perceptions of audiences, and the need for increased civic deliberations regarding health. Journalists privilege biomedical stories involving lifestyle and individual responsibility, and have limited frames for presenting stories that involve socio-political concerns. Stories are strongly shaped by journalists' considerations of their target audience, the sources they draw on, their professional norms, and institutional practices. This results in the omission of stories that have relevance for minority and disadvantaged groups and limits the nature of the stories told to ones that reflect the views of the majority. However, journalists are also reflective about these issues and receptive to ways to overcome them. This raises possibilities for health researchers to engage with journalists in order to repoliticise health and promote a more civic-oriented form of health journalism.
... Media schedules allude to those journalistic routines that direct how columnists develop news on continuous episodes and occasions. Article choices around there have a noteworthy impact on the gathering of data and the development of the news stories (Avraham, 2002).Studies have demonstrated that the "allocation of permanent reporters to cover a group, place, or particular subject have a significant effect on the extent of the coverage" (Avraham 2002). ...
... Media schedules allude to those journalistic routines that direct how columnists develop news on continuous episodes and occasions. Article choices around there have a noteworthy impact on the gathering of data and the development of the news stories (Avraham, 2002).Studies have demonstrated that the "allocation of permanent reporters to cover a group, place, or particular subject have a significant effect on the extent of the coverage" (Avraham 2002). ...
This study is an effort to analyze the dependence of Pakistani English newspapers on international press and news agencies. Focus of the study is three different but related and consecutive events which changed the world scenario e.g., Iraq war, Afghan war and Iran's nuclear program. For analysis three Pakistani English newspapers, Dawn, the News and the Nation were selected. The results show high dependence on foreign content and there was not a significant difference among all three newspapers in terms of dependence.
... The civil aspects of Palestinians' lives are rarely shown in the Hebrew-speaking media. Quantitatively speaking, though Palestinians comprise some 20 per cent of Israel's citizens 1 only 0.2 per cent of Israel's TV commentators and pundits are Palestinian (Avraham 2002, Avraham andFirst 2010). There is no Arabic television channel in Israel. ...
... This representational bias has been attributed to the impact of hegemonic perceptions (Avraham 2002), to journalists' reliance on military sources (Korn 2004, Liebes and Kampf 2007, Wolfsfeld et al. 2000 and possibly, to the influence of military censorship, which is currently moderate but can be imposed at will (Nossek and Yehiel 2001). ...
The power of health news as a vehicle in the production of meaning in the service of power is the core of this article. Tracking the media coverage of a medical service, it shows how a routine practice can be invoked at a time of armed conflict so as to enhance a benevolent state image. The case at hand is the medical treatment of Gaza children in Israeli hospitals. A series of Internet searches revealed a group of publications on the subject in the Hebrew media, during and shortly after Israel's assault on Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009. In the press articles the treatments were invariably constituted as the epitome of Israel's compassion towards the enemy's children. This image relied, however, on a simultaneous silencing of other aspects of these treatments, which would have challenged this image. The monolithic depictions give rise to the notion of reversed moral panic or 'moral complacency', wherein the media amplifies a little-known social phenomenon into an epitome of societal values and charges it with significance on a national scale. The article ends with considering some features that possibly render health news an especially convenient domain for state-supportive media presentations.
... Media organizations are constantly involved within a changing social-political environment, making representation a dynamic process. In this environment, cultural suppositions regarding society's central values influence news people's work patterns, news production processes, and the end result (Avraham, 2002;Gitlin, 1980;Herzog and Shamir, 1994;Wolfsfeld et al., 2000). News people thus prefer stories that are recognized as efficient and receive professional approval, as well as stories that are culturally acceptable. ...
... News people thus prefer stories that are recognized as efficient and receive professional approval, as well as stories that are culturally acceptable. Editors are influenced by the perceptions they hold of their target audience, and they tend to believe that the majority group has little interest in minorities unless their actions might interfere with the majority's day-to-day life (Avraham, 2002). ...
This article examines the portrayal of Israel’s Arab population in the Hebrew media, with particular attention to coverage by the national television channels of two violent incidents: events surrounding the first Land Day (30 March 1976) and events of the protests in October 2000, at the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Our purpose is twofold: first, to explore how Israeli Arabs are portrayed during violent conflict, and, second, to examine the means of presentation in terms of a time frame, in accordance with the view that the presentation process is dynamic. The research relied primarily on qualitative analysis of media content, but attention was also paid to the quantitative aspects of the coverage. Here we used two complementary theories — the representation approach and the framing concept. At the core of both these theories lies the constructionist approach, which serves as their point of origin.
... Platon y Deuze (2003) integran a esta clasificación el trabajo realizado por la organización internacional Independent Media Centres (Indymedia), pues consideran que se trata de un periodismo público y civil, por lo que se interesan por sus maneras de producir, seleccionar y compartir información. Avraham (2002) le otorga otro enfoque, no habla propiamente de un periodismo popular, sino de la cobertura de grupos minoritarios y marginados en Israel, y analiza el contexto político por el cual esta práctica alternativa es posible. Finalmente, Adebanwi (2004) confronta a la prensa nigeriana con las que denomina voces marginales; se orienta específicamente por la experiencia del grupo étnico Ogoni situado en una región rica en petróleo que pugna por su restitución económica, la rehabilitación ecológica de la zona y su autodeterminación. ...
... Algunos estudios en el plano nacional como los de Romero (1998,2003), Reguillo (1999), Aguilar (1998), Aceves (1999), y en el plano internacional como los de Atton (2003), Avraham (2002) o Kieran, Morrison y Svennevig (2000), entre otros, se acercan a estas formulaciones al asumir que existe entre el periodismo y el espacio público algo que se está trasformando y que tiene que ver con los acontecimientos, personajes e instituciones a los que otorga cobertura, y que mantiene una relación directa con nuevos fenómenos sociales como la globalización, la pérdida de capacidad de gestión de las instituciones y el empoderamiento de nuevos sujetos sociales institucionales o alternativos. ...
Guadalajara Este texto presenta una revisión de los estudios sobre periodismo realizados en México y en el mundo, que busca conocer de qué manera la preocupación acerca de “lo público” se ha integrado al ámbito de las prácticas periodísticas. El trabajo forma parte de una investigación más amplia en donde la identificación de las prácticas realizadas por actores sociopolíticos vinculados al periodismo en una ciudad mexicana, y su incidencia sobre la configuración de “lo público” son el eje central.
... Platon y Deuze (2003) integran a esta clasificación el trabajo realizado por la organización internacional Independent Media Centres (Indymedia), pues consideran que se trata de un periodismo público y civil, por lo que se interesan por sus maneras de producir, seleccionar y compartir información. Avraham (2002) le otorga otro enfoque, no habla propiamente de un periodismo popular, sino de la cobertura de grupos minoritarios y marginados en Israel, y analiza el contexto político por el cual esta práctica alternativa es posible. Finalmente, Adebanwi (2004) confronta a la prensa nigeriana con las que denomina voces marginales; se orienta específicamente por la experiencia del grupo étnico Ogoni situado en una región rica en petróleo que pugna por su restitución económica, la rehabilitación ecológica de la zona y su autodeterminación. ...
... Algunos estudios en el plano nacional como los de Romero (1998,2003), Reguillo (1999), Aguilar (1998), Aceves (1999), y en el plano internacional como los de Atton (2003), Avraham (2002) o Kieran, Morrison y Svennevig (2000), entre otros, se acercan a estas formulaciones al asumir que existe entre el periodismo y el espacio público algo que se está trasformando y que tiene que ver con los acontecimientos, personajes e instituciones a los que otorga cobertura, y que mantiene una relación directa con nuevos fenómenos sociales como la globalización, la pérdida de capacidad de gestión de las instituciones y el empoderamiento de nuevos sujetos sociales institucionales o alternativos. ...
Guadalajara En la búsqueda de fórmulas de crecimiento y adecuación al nuevo entorno tecnológico y financiero del mundo globalizado, los grupos periodísticos mexicanos más sólidos reorganizan sus procesos de producción bajo el sistema de “sinergias” y ponen a prueba un modelo de negocio exitoso en el comercio de servicios y alimentos elaborados: “las franquicias”. Se trata de una estrategia de expansión “sui generis” para las empresas periodísticas, por las implicaciones que puede tener en el producto final. Este trabajo intenta registrar y comenzar a analizar el fenómeno, advirtiendo que el énfasis del modelo está en la reducción de costos, y que esto termina afectando la calidad del periodismo resultante.
... All the comments were manually extracted from their original sources and added into a spreadsheet noting the text of each comment and its posting date. To protect the users' privacy, none of the information contained user's identity such as their username (Asokan et al., 2013). After all the comments were collected, the authors cleaned the dataset by deleting simple responses such as "yeah" or "good," and other text fragments that either didn't make semantic sense or couldn't be used to generalize a clear theme related to the research questions. ...
Drawing from the literature of the internet as a public sphere, the present study investigates online news comments related to sexual reproductive health of people with disabilities (PWDs) published in The New York Times and The Guardian. We analyzed 3,633 online comments published between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2019, using thematic analysis. The findings revealed eight major themes: economic consequences; gender; stereotypes; awareness and education; independence and autonomy; medical standpoint; media portrayal; and social justice and accommodation. Further, our study found that 47% of online commenters from The NYT and 49.3% from The Guardian had a positive perception that PWDs should have equal access to sexual reproductive health, compared with non disabled people. Our study also revealed that comments in The NYT were more focused on the legal issues in the United States, while comments in The Guardian emphasized positive media representation and human aspects of the issue.
... It provides updates on what is going on in American newsrooms when their members are under pressure to respond to some of what has happened in the mediascape. Since the beginning of the digital age, journalism practices have been continually changed, modified to adapt to challenges brought about by latest technologies (Vu, 2014) and shifts in the political environment (Avraham, 2002). Recent events related to misinformation and "real" fake news have threatened the very institutionality of the profession. ...
This study examines how newsroom work in the United States has changed in response to some of the latest developments in the news media environment. Using nationally representative survey data, we explore what professional routines American journalists have adopted to avoid spreading or being accused of publishing misinformation. Findings suggest that journalists have added new or intensified practices to increase accountability and transparency. In addition, role conceptions, perception of fake news, and responsibility for social media audiences impact the adoption of such practices. Journalists are more likely to embrace transparency than accountability, suggesting the emergence of new journalistic norms in today’s newsrooms.
... The political environment can also affect individuals' attitudes and preferences through two important socializing tools: mass media and the education system. Scholars from various disciplines have pointed to the interactions between the political environment and media (Avraham, 2002;Kensicki, 2001;Skoric, Zhu, & Pang, 2016) and, more relevant for present purposes, between political context and educational systems. As education is consistently found to be positively associated with liberal attitudes (Campbell & Horowitz, 2016;Easterbrook et al., 2016;Nir & McClurg, 2015;Ohlander et al., 2005;Treas, 2002;Weil, 1985), this suggests the possibility of an interaction between the level of political freedom and individual educational attainment. ...
Since World War II, value liberalization has been a worldwide trend, but more recently, there has been a resurgence of conservativism. Modernization and cultural theories have difficulty explaining the shift to liberal or illiberal values, but the political environment, an underestimated contextual factor, could shed light on the mechanisms driving it. This study used hierarchical linear modeling on all six waves of the World Values Survey data (1981–2014) to demonstrate that political freedom helps to explain the rise and fall of liberal attitudes when controlling for societal affluence, inequality, and cultural backgrounds. It finds that political freedom conditions the effects of education: although education is usually considered a liberalizing force, its effect is much weaker in non-free than free societies. The findings remind us of the importance of a free political environment for a robust democracy and point to the complex nature of educational effects, namely the ability of education to socialize people in liberal or illiberal directions depending on the political context and the regime’s agenda.
... The second one includes rural, cooperative communities, which were established as part of the agricultural settlement movement of these regions (Palgi & Getz, 2014). The third group includes minority groups, which have existed in the peripheral regions before the State of Israel was established, and for which economic development occurs alongside the Israeli economy (Schnell & Sofer, 2002;Avraham, 2002). This phenomenon, it must be mentioned here, is familiar from many peripheral regions worldwide (Kulcsar & Curtis, 2012). ...
This research explores the influence of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on SMEs located at core and peripheral regions, by focusing on a single dimension of EO: proactiveness. We conducted a quantitative study of 626 Israeli SMEs. Business growth, as measured by the rate of change in number of employees, was found to be significantly higher in the core region. As expected, proactiveness was found to strongly affect SME growth as well as firm expansion to international markets. Our analysis shows that the difference in business growth between regions can be attributed also to a lower level of ownersʼ proactiveness in peripheral regions since it was found to mediate the effect of peripheral location on firm growth. Differences in proactiveness levels may be explained by the historical development of peripheral regions. Our results have useful implications for policies that aim to promote growth and development in peripheral regions.
... In a civic-oriented approach, emphasis is placed on public deliberation and the role of news in fostering an active public sphere, communal space or mediapolis for developing and revising public narratives of health through ongoing dialogue among citizen groups (Berkowitz & Terkeurst, 1999). Such deliberations have important implications in terms of reproducing or challenging economic and social systems that impact on health (cf., Avraham, 2002). ...
Many of the intricacies of health feature regularly in news reports depicting, medical practices, specific diseases, breakthroughs in treatment, and lifestyle-orientated interventions. Despite social scientists also demonstrating the importance of economic prosperity, community cohesion, stress, material hardship and stigma for health, such social determinants are often absent from health news. The inclusion of social determinants of health in coverage is crucial for ensuring a vibrant public sphere for health. This article draws on the example of street homelessness as a pressing societal health concern in order to explore the potential of collaborations between civic-orientated journalists, social scientists and marginalized groups. Such collaborations are central to the production of a civic-oriented form of health journalism that extends and repoliticizes the present scope of news coverage.
... Σκοπός των δημοσιογράφων γίνεται το να παρουσιάσουν τα γεγονότα με τρόπο που να είναι αρεστός στο κοινό. Γι' αυτό μερικές φορές, οι δημοσιογράφοι προβάλλουν τους μετανάστες και τις μειονότητες σε συνδυασμό με βίαια και εγκληματικά περιεχόμενα, έτσι ώστε να προσελκύσουν το ενδιαφέρον του κοινού (Avraham, 2002• Romer, 1998. Σε γενικές γραμμές, υπάρχουν τρεις βασικοί παράγοντες που επηρεάζουν τις πληροφορίες που παίρνουμε: 1. ποιοί είναι οι δημοσιογράφοι που καλύπτουν θέματα μειονοτήτων. ...
2006 και των Εθνικών Εκλογών του 2007 Βενετή Αναστασία-Πουλακιδάκος Σταμάτης* Περίληψη Με κεντρικό άξονα τα θέματα των μειονοτήτων στον ευρύτερο τομέα της πολιτικής επι-κοινωνίας, η παρούσα έρευνα στοχεύει να διερευνήσει την κάλυψη των μειονοτικών πολι-τικών υποψηφίων από τα ΜΜΕ κατά τις προεκλογικές περιόδους ανάδειξης εκπροσώπων της Τοπικής Αυτοδιοίκησης του 2006 και των κοινοβουλευτικών εκπροσώπων στις Εθνικές εκλογές του 2007. Οι συγγραφείς διεξάγουν μιαν έρευνα που βασίζεται στη μέθοδο της ανάλυσης περιεχομένου και προσπαθούν να εξετάσουν τόσο ποσοτικά, με κριτήριο την κάλυψη από τα τηλεοπτικά δελτία ειδήσεων και τις εφημερίδες, όσο και ποιοτικά, με ανα-φορά στους τρόπους με τους οποίους πραγματοποιήθηκε η παραπάνω κάλυψη από τα Μέσα των μειονοτικών υποψηφίων και της επιχειρηματολογίας τους κατά τη διάρκεια των συγκεκριμένων προεκλογικών περιόδων. Εισαγωγή Δύσκολα θα αμφισβητούσε κανείς το γεγονός ότι τα ΜΜΕ παίζουν πολύ σημαντικό ρόλο στη σύγχρονη πολιτική πραγματικότητα. Σημαντική είναι η επιρροή που ασκούν τα Μέσα τόσο στη κοινή γνώμη όσο και στη διαμόρφωση της πολιτικής ατζέντας. Τα ΜΜΕ συμμε-τέχουν στη διαμόρφωση στερεοτύπων και στάσεων για πολλά θέματα όπως φυσικά και για ζητήματα που αφορούν στις μειονότητες. Το σημαντικότερο όλων είναι ότι τα ΜΜΕ, κατά κύριο λόγο, θέτουν το ιδεολογικό πλαίσιο για την ερμηνεία των γεγονότων. Στην παρούσα μελέτη εξετάζεται κατά πόσο οι μουσουλμάνοι υποψήφιοι έχουν τις ίδιες ευκαιρίες με τους υπόλοιπους υποψήφιους για να παρουσιάσουν τις ιδέες και τις θέσεις τους στα κεντρικά ΜΜΕ. Επίσης, παρουσιάζονται κάποια από τα βασικά θέματα που αντι-μετωπίζουν οι μειονότητες αναφορικά με τα ΜΜΕ, επιλέγοντας ως περίπτωση μελέτης τη μουσουλμανική μειονότητα της Θράκης. Η εξερεύνηση του σύγχρονου ελληνικού περιβάλλοντος των ΜΜΕ εγείρει σωρεία ερω-τημάτων αναφορικά με την πρακτική των Μέσων καθώς και των κινήτρων που τη συνο-δεύουν. Πρόθεση των συγγραφέων είναι να ενισχύσουν το ενδιαφέρον ως προς τα ζητήματα που αφορούν στην κάλυψη των μειονοτικών πολιτικών υποψηφίων, δεδομένου ότι σε αρκετές περιπτώσεις η άνιση προβολή ή ακόμα και η ρατσιστική στάση δεν εντάσ-σονται στην ολκό ενός κακού παρελθόντος, αλλά αποτελούν ενδεχομένως χαρακτηριστικά γνωρίσματα μιας σύγχρονης δημοσιογραφικής πρακτικής.
... Such footage emphasizes that their victory would not be just a personal one but the victory of a whole town. Thus, producers develop characters in a manner that matches the image of the peripheral cities in Israel (Avraham 2002): small towns mean large families that immigrated to Israel from Arab countries, are orthodox or Neiger 543 conservative, hang portraits of venerated rabbis on the wall, and cook ethnic-traditional food. On one hand, this story can be read as a caricature of the "other," the opposite of the liberal/secular/sophisticated socio-economic-cultural center. ...
This article provides a close reading of the Israeli version of the Idol format. Using the concept cultural oxymora, contradictions that serve to negotiate meanings, the analysis examines the case through six lenses: pluralism (stressing the institutionalized pluralism by auditioning in Israeli and Jewish communities outside the country), performance (songs that are associated with the Jewish State's bereavement rituals while adding a counterhegemonic vocal presentation), patriotism (nationalism and the military in the transnational format), periphery (exposing its ethnic richness while using stereotypes), participation (manufacturing consumers' democratic election), and promotion (national media event of coronation with ordinary characteristics). The conclusions suggest that cultural oxymora may explain the appeal of reality TV since they support a complex inclusive interpretation of the shows that maintain a dialogue between neo-Marxist readings, emphasizing a critical view on the show's commercial-hegemonic structure, on one hand, and reception-centered readings, stressing audiences' gratifications and pleasures, on the other.
... The Mizrahim's shared fate, daily life, common origin, and similar economic class have created a clear sense of belonging to the development town. To some extent, this is a counter-move to negative images commonly produced about the towns in the general Israeli public, which have frequently served as an impediment to mobility and development (Avraham 2002). ...
... The actors involved are also analyzed. The position of the newspapers' editorial line and the way they recognize power authority in public issues is reflected in the way they choose and present the actors involved (Avraham 2002 To correct for inter-observer reliability, a random sample of newspaper articles is reviewed more than once. To correct for intra-observer reliability, per topic a table is set up containing the requirements of coding. ...
Multiformity is a concept which should be guaranteed in the newspaper industry to ensure that newspapers publish various visions. In the Netherlands, there is a discussion on multiformity of the daily newspapers, since the newspaper market is dominated by three publishers. In this study, articles of five Dutch national newspapers are analyzed concerning the environmental incident 'Probo Koala' in order to test whether multiformity is at risk in the Dutch newspaper industry. When comparing four newspapers of one Dutch publisher, it is concluded that multiformity is at risk in the Dutch newspaper industry. However this is not the case when newspapers of two Dutch publishers are compared. When checking for multiformity on a European scale, it is concluded that multiformity is guaranteed. To confirm the results of this study regarding multiformity in the environmental media coverage in the Dutch newspaper industry, more comparative studies are needed.
Current literature on diasporic media often focuses on its role in serving and representing diasporas, highlighting their characteristics while paying less attention to pattern of coverage. This paper tries to fill in the gap by examining how diasporic media differ from each other and from the media in their respective home countries when reporting a debatable issue. The article argues that journalistic operation of diasporic media is subjected to two forces of influence: the media system of the host country in which they operate and preferences of the diasporic community they address. Through content analysis (N = 395) of news coverage of Trinh Xuan Thanh issue by Vietnamese news outlets in Vietnam, Germany and the US, the author finds that public service mentality towards diasporic community is a powerful force guiding diasporic media’s journalistic choices. It is also suggestive that the connection diasporic media maintain with their homeland can be critical rather than complimentary.
Numerous studies have examined the manner in which minority groups, including refugees, are depicted in the media discourse of the host countries or the dominant majority groups. The results of such studies indicate that media systematically discriminate these minority groups and deem them as a security, economic and hygiene threat to the majority groups. Through the use of Lakoff and Jonson’s conceptual metaphor theory, this study compares and contrasts the representation of Syrian refugees in the online media discourse of not only host countries but also non-host countries, which, in this study, refers to nations that do not host Syrian refugees. The results show that statistical differences between the metaphors used by host and non-host countries only occur when using the metaphors that describe the entry of refugees and the burden they are inflicting on the host countries. This is clearly indicated by the p-values of the log-likelihood test.
Research on mainstream media coverage of immigration and immigrants in both Western and non-Western societies has, within the last four decades in particular, concluded that the dominant tendencies in the coverage of immigration by these media have been to sideline immigrants as sources and to frame immigration and immigrants as ‘economic; social; cultural and political problems’ with risks for national security and the sustainability of the welfare state (Gemi et al., 2013, p. 270). These conclusions have also been echoed in several research projects on Danish mainstream media coverage of immigration and immigrants (Horsti, 2008).
What's news? A front-page news story in the United States might not appear in a newspaper in China. Or a minor story on German television may be all over the airwaves in India. But News Around the World shows that the underlying nature of news is much the same the world over and that people--no matter what their jobs or their status in society--tend to hold similar notions of newsworthiness. In this richly detailed study of international news, news makers and the audience, the authors have undertaken exhaustive original research within two cities--one major and one peripheral--in each of ten countries: Australia, Chile, China, Germany, India, Israel, Jordan, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. The nations were selected for study based on a central principle of maximizing variation in geographic locations, economic and political systems, languages, sizes, and cultures. The remarkable scope of the research makes this the most comprehensive analysis of newsworthiness around the globe: 10 countries studied, each with a university country director; 2 cities in each country examined, one major and one peripheral; 60 news media studied (newspapers, television, and radio news programs), resulting in 32,000+ news items analyzed; 80 focus groups with journalists, public relations practitioners, and audience members; 2,400 newspaper stories ranked according to newsworthiness and compared with how prominently they were published. News Around the World provides remarkable insight into how and why news stories are reported, testing and improving a theory of cross-cultural newsworthiness and is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand international media and journalism.
This study demonstrates that third-person perceptions regarding the influence of media coverage of peripheral towns indirectly affect the desire to consider moving. It is argued that regardless of whether people's perceptions of where they live are really shaped by media coverage, if people believe others are affected by this coverage more than they are, they are more likely to consider relocation. We investigated whether the perceived stigmatization of peripheral development towns in Israel has an impact on the desire of their residents to stay or leave, over and above the disaffection with actual living conditions in these communities. Using structural equation modeling (N = 472), we show that third-person estimations indeed influence both perceptions and behavioral intentions.
For many years the Israeli society has been engulfed in an intractable conflict—a total conflict that was perceived as irreconcilable—over existential goals and marked by brutal violence and unwillingness to compromise. Such a conflict consumes prodigious resources and involves all the members of the society (Bar-Tal, 1998, 2000a; Kriesberg, 1993). It demands that the society adjust to the situation in order to cope successfully with the enemy while simultaneously making efforts to meet its basic needs. To deal with the challenge, societies that are caught up in an intractable conflict develop a distinct psychological repertoire, of which a key element is the “ethos of conflict.”
This study explores how the social dimensions of a reporter’s world shape ethical decisions through parallel surveys of daily newspaper reporters in Israel and one Midwestern US state. Through regression analysis, we found that personal factors (gender, years of education) were not related to ethical decisions nor were professional factors (professional experience, professional membership, having studied journalism). In contrast, the social context element (country of practice) was relevant for two of three ethical situations. We also found that personal, professional and social dimensions varied in their utility to ethical decision-making from situation to situation. Considering a reporter’s ethical predisposition, this study found that personal value systems may be more important for ethical decision-making than formal written codes. This study suggests that ethical foundations shared across nations can create cultural bridges – but that diverging ethical perspectives also may create journalistic barriers.
/ European audiovisual legislation focuses exclusively on a concept of external pluralism. It therefore seems necessary to adopt other policies and develop new measures to guarantee diversity. In order to implement this reform, a new, richer concept of pluralism must be sought that reflects the reality of the market. This would enable us to devise instruments to measure the real presence of pluralism in the media, and perform effective regulation to defend this right at every level. The aim of this study is to examine the scope of this problem in the content of public and private broadcasting in different European countries, and then suggest a redefinition of pluralism and cultural diversity, together with new forms of evaluation that could guarantee that both values are present in sufficient measure.
Texas is one of the most popular states for tourists. Using quantitative and primarily qualitative methods, we analyzed how marketers of small cities and towns associate their place to four central components of the Texas state narrative – the flag, official and unofficial symbols, territory, and social–historical mythology – in advertising and tourism brochures in the years 2008–2010. We discovered that in parallel to the overuse of the “associating to well-known brand/narrative” strategy, marketers also invest efforts toward claiming the narrative. Thus our second goal was to discover which techniques were used in order to claim the state narrative. Using the state of Texas as an example may provide a test case for typology, associating and claiming state narratives in promotional materials.
This article demonstrates how politics enters every level of news coverage and how the social-political environment affects the way in which the news media organizations cover minorities in a divided society. The case study looks at the image of two peripheral groups, Israeli Arabs and the inhabitants of development cities, in the Israeli national press. These groups have similar characteristics (including location, social-economical indicators, population size, and the types of reporters who cover them), but their media coverage is vastly different. The difference stems from the groups' ethnic origins:Jewish versus Arab. The analysis shows how this difference affects many key internal decisions, routines, and journalistic practices of media organizations that shape the coverage of these groups. The author employed two research methods to analyze the research questions: content analysis of news articles published and in depth interviews with editors and journalists.
Studies of the construction of social problems suggest that claims makers only relate to the issue that they are trying to place on the national agenda. However, an analysis of the Israeli public discourse about a number of social problems during the Intifada Al Aqsa indicates that this is not the case. The external threat served as an inferential structure for understanding and explaining the country's internal ones. Because of the centrality of the Intifada in the public imagination, claimants made a wide variety of analogies to the problem of Palestinian terror. All four areas of the discourse—about the severity of the problems, their causes, the rationales given for taking preventive and/or ameliorative action, and the solutions offered—were replete with references and analogies to the uprising. Clearly, the claimants believed that this was a particularly effective way of competing in the social problems marketplace, but the analogies may, in fact, have reinforced the existing hierarchy of priorities rather than lead to a significant shift in the public agenda.
Two studies demonstrate that third person perceptions are less dependent on ego-defensive mechanisms than previously thought. It is argued that people use intuitive notions of media dependency when they estimate the influence of media on different groups of others. Our results show that when the "others" that are the object of media influence are close to the subject of communication, people perceive less influence. This finding joins new research contrasting with the idea of the "social distance corollary."
The article examines the representation patterns of the Israeli geographic periphery in the national media over a period of four decades. Its main goal is to analyse the role that the national press plays in constructing the periphery as the 'other' in public consciousness. Our analysis demonstrates bow the press makes use of diverse strategies, all leading to the construction of peripheral locations as 'unimportant, 'marginal' or 'negligible', and all characterized by events, customs, culture, norms and behaviour patterns different from those characteristic of the 'centre'. We will show how the national press glorifies the Israeli 'centre', defines who is included within its boundaries and who is not, and delineates between it and the periphery.
This study demonstrates that third-person perceptions regarding the influence of media coverage of peripheral towns indirectly affect the desire to consider moving. It is argued that regardless of whether people's perceptions of where they live are really shaped by media coverage, if people believe others are affected by this coverage more than they are, they are more likely to consider relocation. We investigated whether the perceived stigmatization of peripheral development towns in Israel has an impact on the desire of their residents to stay or leave, over and above the disaffection with actual living conditions in these communities. Using structural equation modeling (N= 472), we show that third-person estimations indeed influence both perceptions and behavioral intentions.
New Zealand has one of the worst rates of child poverty in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Research has shown that modern mass media provide a mediated cultural forum through which policy responses to child poverty are socially negotiated and from which public support for children in need is either cultivated or undermined. This thesis focuses on the role of media advocacy by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) who attempt to widen public debate and legitimate options for addressing child poverty. I investigate the case of the Government's Working for Families package and the controversy surrounding the media release of CPAG's negative evaluation of the package in the form of a research report Cut Price Kids. Attention is given to competing ideological frames underlying the Government's package, in the form of neo-liberal emphases on distinctions between God's and the Devil's poor. Attention is also given to CPAG's response, in the form of communitarian notions of collective responsibility for all families in need. Specifically, I analyse the role of the mass media in framing child poverty as a social issue across three levels of mass communication - production, representation, and reception. At the production level interviews were held with six journalists involved with reporting on Cut Price Kids and two members of CPAG. Fifteen Government and 5 CPAG press releases were also explored to document media production processes and restraints on public deliberations. In addition, the ideological stances influencing the framing of coverage were investigated. At the media representation level 21 press, seven radio, and five television items were analysed to establish the scope of public debate, whose perspectives were included, and the ways in which differing perspectives are combined. At the reception level four focus group discussions with lower socio-economic status (SES) parent groups, as well as follow-up photo-based interviews with eight participants were explored in order to document the role of media coverage in the lives of families with children living in poverty. Across levels, findings suggest that journalists are restrained by professional practices which maintain the importance of balance and detached objectivity, rather than interpretations of appropriate responses to child poverty. Tensions between the Government's emphasis on restricting support to families with parents in paid employment and CPAG's emphasis on the need to not discriminate against the children of out of work families framed coverage. The lower SES parents participating at the reception level challenged the restrained nature of coverage, which excluded people such as themselves, and openly questioned media characterisations of them as bludgers who are irresponsible parents. Overall, findings support the view that media are a key component of ongoing social dialogues through which public understandings of, and policy responses to, child poverty are constructed. Specifically, psychologists need to engage more with processes of symbolic power which shape the public construction of child poverty in a conservative manner that can lead to victim blaming, and restrains opportunities for addressing this pressing social concern.
Most previous research in communication has looked at media coverage of minorities as a mostly static process in which journalists continually produce the same news stories. This article proposes a more dynamic approach that explains how such coverage can change over time and circumstance, and examines two factors that can alter the ways in which the news media cover minorities: short-term changes in the sociopolitical environment and changes in editorial policies. The case study looks at the Arab citizens of Israel. The findings demonstrate two changes that had an influence on the extremely negative portrayal of this minority in the Israeli media. The first was rooted in political changes during the election year 1992, when the Rabin government depended on the Arab parties to stay in power. The second variation was linked to the editorial policies of an elitist newspaper that set up alternative structures and routines for ongoing coverage of the Arab minority.
In this article, some organizing principles and hypotheses are offered concerning the ways in which social movements interact with the news media and the outcomes for both parties. The structural part of the analysis focuses attention on the power and dependency aspects of the relationship and the consequences of the asymmetries. The cultural part focuses attention on the more subtle contest over meaning. Hypotheses on how social movement characteristics affect media coverage focus on movement standing, preferred framing, and sympathy. The authors argue for the importance of organization, professionalism, and strategic planning and for the benefits of a division of labor among movement actors. Hypotheses on how media characteristics affect movement outcomes focus on leadership, action strategy, and framing strategy. The authors argue for audience size, emphasis on the visual, and emphasis on entertainment values as influencing movements.
This study examines how the Hebrew press in Israel covers the annual Land Day protest carried out by the Arab minority in that country. The protest is rooted in a 1976 incident in which six Arab citizens were killed in a clash over government confiscation of land. Across 21 years of coverage, the Hebrew press consistently has used the days leading up to the protest to exaggerate the threat posed by the protest despite the fact that little violence has ever taken place. Land Day has become an annual ritual of vilification. The struggle over media frames of collective action, it is argued, often entails a contest between challengers attempting to promote an injus- tice frame and the authorities who want to promote a law and order frame. News routines for covering minorities— especially ones with low levels of social legitimacy— ensure that such protests almost always will be seen as a threat to law and order. Based on in-depth interviews with both Arab and Jewish informants and a content analysis of news coverage, the research demonstrates how such routines make it almost impossible for Arab citizens to promote their own frames about Land Day. Keyword s Arabs in Israel, Land Day, media and protest, media frames
Using a simplified psychology of perception and some additional assumptions, a system of twelve factors describing events is presented that together are used as a definition of 'newsworthiness'. Three basic hypotheses are presented: the additivity hypothesis that the more factors an event satisfies, the higher the probability that it becomes news; the complementarity hypothesis that the factors will tend to exclude each other since if one factor is present it is less necessary for the other factors to be present for the event to become news; and the exclusion hypothesis that events that satisfy none or very few factors will not become news. This theory is then tested on the news presented in four different Norwegian newspapers from the Congo and Cuba crises of July 1960 and the Cyprus crisis of March-April 1964, and the data are in the majority of cases found to be consistent with the theory. A dozen additional hypotheses are then deduced from the theory and their social implications are discussed. Finally, some tentative policy impli cations are formulated.
Assessing the role of television in mediating cultural change, this paper hypothesizes that local television news simultaneously depresses the legitimacy of old‐fashioned racism (beliefs that blacks are inferior and should be segregated) and stimulates the production of modern racism (anti‐black affect combined with resentment at the continuing claims of blacks on white resources and sympathies). The effects are not intentional; rather, the paper suggests, it is partly because they seek to overcome old‐fashioned racism and respond to the viewing tastes of black audiences that local TV news programs reinforce modern racism.
A sample of US television network newscasts is used to examine the role of geographic factors in domestic news selection. Journalistic norms of objectivity, national coverage and national interest combine with geographic stereotypes and accessibility to create spatial patterns of news. Washington, D.C., news predominates, and is almost entirely composed of national government affairs. Use of government sources and events as credible, accessible information does not extend beyond the capital, however, either to regional Federal offices or to state capitals. Neither does the accessibility of the capital lead to selection of other, non-government news. National interest is also interpreted by journalists as the number of people affected by an event. This journalistic norm results in news coverage of larger, rather than smaller, cities. Only disaster news is unusual in its distribution across size of place. Geographic stereotypes and place accessibility to the network news system reinforce and are reinforced by the resulting news product.
Research within the agenda-setting framework has generally ignored the potential influence of purposive efforts by external actors (those outside the political system) to manipulate media coverage related to their interests. The present study uses interrupted time-series analysis to examine one such set of manipulative efforts, those undertaken by professional public relations consultants to influence the images of foreign nations as portrayed in the United States press. Data represent New York Times coverage of six nations that signed public relations contracts with American firms during the period from 1974 to 1978, and one nation that expressly rejected such a contract. The analysis identifies consistent patterns of improvement along two primary dimensions of national image, visibility and valence, which are associated in time with the public relations contracts.
A sample of US television network newscasts is used to examine the role of geographic factors in domestic news selection. Journalistic norms of objectivity, national coverage and national interest combine with geographic stereotypes and accessibility to create spatial patterns of news. Washington, D.C., news predominates, and is almost entirely composed of national government affairs. Use of government sources and events as credible, accessible information does not extend beyond the capital, however, either to regional Federal offices or to state capitals. Neither does the accessibility of the capital lead to selection of other, non-government news. National interest is also interpreted by journalists as the number of people affected by an event. This journalistic norm results in news coverage of larger, rather than smaller, cities. Only disaster news is unusual in its distribution across size of place. Geographic stereotypes and place accessibility to the network news system reinforce and are reinforced by the resulting news product.
This paper brings together an interest in two hitherto separate areas of geographical research, first how news is reported in ways generating spatial and non-spatial bias, and secondly the takeover of local companies by externally-controlled corporations. A review of the geography of news coverage leads to some suggested extensions which are then explored empirically through the reporting by the British quality daily press of parliamentary debates on the takeover bid for Rowntree-Mackintosh by Nestle and Suchard. A number of differences among the four papers examined are found, and each also differs from the official Hansard record, though not always in ways easy to explain. Some methodological and practical conclusions can be drawn.
Content analysis of the early evening national newscasts on ABC, CBS, and NBC from July 1985 to June 1987 reveals that the New Federalism has failed to focus national media attention on state issues. State news was extremely sparse, spotlighted a small number of states, and lacked political substance. Disaster, crime, and trivia stories prevailed. A parallel content analysis of state news covered by the New York Times indicates that newsworthy political stories were plentiful so that much better coverage of this important aspect of American politics was possible. When population is used as a yardstick of political significance, the concerns of midwesterners received the least attention while the Pacific region dominated in television as well as in print news. Compared to news broadcasts in the seventies, media attention has shifted from the Northeastern and New England regions to the West and Southwest, possibly contributing to the economic decline of Rust Belt states. State news coverage during presidential campaigns suggests ways for increasing coverage at other times.
Discusses 5 cognitive frames that organize the discourse on Palestinians in Israel, based on analysis of 161 Hebrew newspaper articles from 1949 to 1986: hard-core nationalism, liberal nationalism, Jewish democracy, equal rights, and no-problem. These interpretative packages contain cultural and cognitive core assumptions and images through which a particular event is evaluated and through which the culture of Arab/Jewish relations in Israel is reproduced. At first glance, the persistence of such infrastructural debates seems to confirm the politically pluralistic character of Jewish society in Israel. At a deeper level of analysis, however, these debates are contained within clear boundaries of a discourse which is organized around a number of taken-for-granted and shared assumptions. This finding suggests alternatives to the pluralistic model of analyzing Israel's political culture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Abstract Most studies of spatial disparities deal with conventional measurable socioeconomic variables. Political aspects have been neglected in explaining regional inequalities. The purpose of the present Israeli case study is to demonstrate empirically that a prerequisite for effective studies of regional inequality is a clear understanding of the political structure. Israel, with its highly centralized unitary political system, tried to execute a national policy of balanced regional development but failed to realize that spatial integration is a process of diffusing political powers as well as allocating socioeconomic resources. It is argued that if tensions caused by spatial disparities are to be reduced, a new political organization must develop out of a synthesis between the old nonspatial, functional organization of politics and the new desire of a poststatehood generation for more participation on a territorial basis.
In research on regional development little attention is devoted to socioeconomic distinctions within peripheral and core regions, rather than disparities between regions. This approach is evidently shared by policymakers, who tend to formulate regional development policies without taking account of existing socioeconomic differences within the regions. Development policy for Israel's national peripheries is a salient example of a homogeneous development policy. The findings of the present study point to the need to reconsider regional development by placing the main emphasis on the fashioning of a differential regional development policy, together with or in preference to a homogeneous or uniform policy. The findings are obtained through application of a relatively new method of multivariate analysis: 'multicriteria decision aid' (MCDA). The study suggests theoretical and methodological considerations in the larger context of regional development.