Search

The article argues that Southern advocacy for media sovereignty pushed the U.S. government to redouble its international efforts to define liberal democracy as inextricable from privately-owned media. Topics discussed include reason the U.S. announced its intention to leave the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in December 1983, contradictory U.S. stance on press freedom exposed by Southern advocacy for information sovereignty, and U.S. proxy organizations that campaigned against the New International Information Order (NIIO).

What drives gradual change in authoritarian regimes? This paper argues the institutional turn in comparative authoritarianism benefits from more robust engagement with theories of endogenous change that give greater weight to the role of cognition, ideas, and agency. While structural accounts of elite bargaining at critical junctures are key to understanding authoritarian change they are indeterminate with respect to long-term outcomes. Empirically, this article addresses unexplained puzzles, such as the emergence of a relatively professional print media in the otherwise controlled environment of the Chinese press. This analysis thus highlights political factionalism, principle-agent problems, and horizontal selection of policy ideas as important additional mechanisms of institutional change in authoritarian systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the suppression of the democratic newspapers in Indiana by Brigadier General Milo S. Hascall in 1863. Hascall's attempt to restrict the press was an assault on opposition voices and to control antigovernment speeches in the state. His efforts reflects the relationship of the federal government and state governments. It also indicates the dominance of President Abraham Lincoln over Governor Oliver P. Morton, who shared Republican Party leadership with the president. Hascall's effort also showed that not a single leading legislator opposed the systematic efforts to control press speech.

Conventional wisdom says that autocrats manipulate news through censorship. But when it comes to economic affairs—a highly sensitive topic for modern autocrats—the government's ability to censor information effectively is limited, because citizens can benchmark the official news against their incomes, market prices, and other observables. We propose that instead of censoring economic facts, the media tactically frames those facts to make the government appear as a competent manager. Using a corpus of daily news reports from Russia's largest state-owned television network, we document extensive evidence supporting this prediction. Bad news is not censored, but it is systematically blamed on external factors, whereas good news is systematically attributed to domestic politicians. Such selective attribution is used more intensely in politically sensitive times (elections and protests) and when the leadership is already enjoying high popular support—consistent with the existing theories of information manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the process and conditions under which U.S. news coverage aligns with--or challenges--the communications of government officials, focusing on the issue of U.S. drone warfare. White House, military, congressional, and press communications during President Obama's first 5 years in office are analyzed to assess how the policy has been framed among officials and covered within the press. Evidence indicates that news coverage was significantly more critical of the policy than what was expressed among officials. In particular, despite near consensus at home, journalists exercised considerable discretion, consistently locating and amplifying oppositional voices from abroad in news coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents several meetings between staff of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and the press to discuss how the parties negotiate on news content and the rules of president-press engagement. Also cited are the literature in political science, negotiation and journalism, the key role played by the press in communicating a politician's message to the public, as well as transcripts of White House press briefings, editorials, and news stories.

Still photography is an important medium for visually communicating — and scrutinising — the power of elected representatives. However, it has been severely restricted by parliaments. Surprisingly, the photographs taken by press photographers have been viewed as a larger threat to parliamentary dignity than other seemingly more powerful media, such as television. This article analyses parliaments’ “extraordinary sensitivity to photography” 1 by conducting a comparative, historical examination of press photography in five national parliaments — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The article discusses historical milestones in media access for each of these parliaments, but focuses particularly upon the unusual case of the Australian Parliament and its rules on still photography. The author draws upon interviews conducted with Australian press photographers, as well as an analysis of primary material — including parliamentary guidelines on media access, photographs, newspaper reports, parliamentary debates, inquiry reports and submissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the President of the United States declared recently that the press is “the enemy,” it set off a firestorm of criticism from defenders of the institutional media and champions of the press’s role in the democracy. But even these Trump critics have mostly failed to appreciate the wider ramifications of the President’s narrative choice. Our earlier work describes the process of governmental “enemy construction,” by which officials use war rhetoric and other signaling behaviors to convey that a person or institution is not merely an institution that, although wholly legitimate, has engaged in behaviors that are disappointing or disapproved, but instead an illegitimate “enemy” triggering a state of Schmittian exceptionalism and justifying the compromise of ordinarily recognized liberties. The Trump administration, with a rhetoric that began during the campaign and burgeoned in the earliest days of Donald Trump’s presidency, has engaged in enemy construction of the press, and the risks that accompany that categorization are grave. This article examines the fuller components of that enemy construction, beyond the overt use of the label. It offers insights into the social, technological, legal, and political realities that make the press ripe for enemy construction in a way that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. It then explores the potential motivations for and consequences of enemy construction. We argue that enemy construction is particularly alarming when the press, rather than some other entity, is the constructed enemy. Undercutting the watchdog, educator, and proxy functions of the press through enemy construction leaves the administration more capable of delegitimizing other institutions and constructing other enemies—including the judiciary, the intelligence community, immigrants, and members of certain races or religions—because the viability and traction of counter-narrative is so greatly diminished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluate the role of Salvadorians Television News, in building the culture of peace, is the appropriate institutional research 2015 from Faculty of Business Administration of the Salvadorian University Alberto Masferrer. It is important to reflect on the quality of the information received from the audience and to know their preferences, identify what issues you care about and how they react to coverage of violent events. It is evident that neither journalists nor the media are responsible for the violence, because it is part of reality, only portray and convey to the public. Journalism seeks and works innovative, interesting and attractive content; but it's not a green light to denigrate the players, especially those who are involved in violence and criminal even, as victims itself. Peace journalism is to inform the resignation or not talk about violence, because they do not disappear. On the contrary, what expected of journalism in a society that boasts of democracy it is a serious journalism, which provides data based on reliable sources and report things as they have been occurred. The job then is to talk about the violent events and to approach such problem in a holistic manner aimed at building sustainable peace in our country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the interaction between society, government and news media during the 1730s shipworm disaster in the Netherlands. It focuses on the quality of the information news media provided and the effects the governmental use of news media while addressing the population had in activating them to fight against the shipworm. The article demonstrates that newspapers did not neglect the topic for at least two years following the discovery of the shipworm, nor did they include much information about governmental policies against the disaster. However, more news circulated in pamphlets and news digests, many of which were advertised in the newspapers. The article concludes that the news media reacted soberly to the shipworm disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As cities grow and expand, governance networks advocated by the “new regionalism” have become increasingly important for policy making in metropolitan areas. This article examines media reporting about governance networks and the effect this reporting has on democratic accountability and legitimacy. We use data from a standardized content analysis of newspaper coverage about metropolitan policy making in four European metropolitan areas (Zurich, Berlin, Paris, and London), as well as survey data on citizens’ attitudes. We find that the leading newspapers adequately cover governance processes and pay attention to both governmental and nongovernmental actors. Media content is correlated with citizen perceptions of democratic legitimacy, meaning both trust in government as well as satisfaction with democracy. We argue that there is a communicational dimension of public accountability that is important in upholding the democratic quality of “new regionalism” and of governance networks more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of the Second World War, Reuters’ status as a leading independent world news agency was under threat. While seeking to be a ‘world agency’, Reuters’ ownership was vested entirely in the British press. Decolonisation threatened traditional sources of revenue. American agencies were rapidly extending their global reach. In response, Reuters sought to re-constitute itself as a ‘British Commonwealth’ agency by offering a stake in the company to the national press organisations of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and India. In the event, the plan largely failed. South Africa and Canada declined to join; India maintained its shareholding for just four years. Only the press associations of Australia and New Zealand remained enthusiastic supporters. This article examines the failed 1947 negotiations between Reuters and the South African Press Association (SAPA), which were aimed at securing a partnership between the two organisations. It critiques Reuters’ idea of a ‘commonwealth of interest’ in matters of international news, conceived at a time of decolonisation and emerging nationalisms. It examines SAPA's stance towards Reuters in the light of South Africa's political situation, including the growing influence of the Afrikaans press. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the extent to which newspapers existed and developed in the British Empire. It looks at the relative size of the imperial press in relation to other European empires. It discusses the different forms the colonial press took: the settler press, the vernacular press and the missionary press. The article also looks at the developments which assisted the growth of colonial newspapers, such as the expansion of the telegraph system. The problems facing colonial newspapers are discussed as well as the issue of colonial press freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social actors see exposure in the news media as attractive for publicity purposes and are under pressure to adapt their press work to a “media logic” to be attractive sources for journalists and editors. This article investigates the European Parliament’s press officers’ professional practices in the light of mediatization and government communication theories. Without one pan-European public sphere, the European Parliament, like the other European Union (EU) institutions, competes with national actors for the news media’s attention in the EU’s twenty-eight national public spheres, where EU affairs do not tend to get a media coverage that matches the EU’s considerable influence on European citizens’ daily lives. This study, which is based on in-depth interviews with European Parliament press officers, concludes that these professionals are indeed attuned to a “media logic” in their communication efforts, and that they face a daily professional challenge as they attempt to promote the European Parliament and its activities to the news media in a way that will not compromise their credibility as government sources. The study provides new insights into communicative aspects of EU governance, and particularly into the thinking that guides the efforts of these European Parliament officials to increase European citizens’ awareness of, and support for, the European Parliament that is meant to voice the citizens’ concerns in political processes at the EU level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the science and technology coverage of two Brazilian TV news: Jornal Nacional, broadcast of the country's leading private broadcaster, and Repórter Brasil, broadcast of a public channel. In the analyzed period-from April 2009 to March 2010- it was found that the private television news aired more S&T news and gave greater emphasis to those matters. The TV news programs coverage followed different agendas, although medicine and health issues have been the most common in both. In both newscasts, the main narrative frame was “new research", national science was prioritized and women were minority among the interviewed scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As American newspapers came under various forms of financial strain in the 1940s, arguably the most significant threat facing the industry during this period was an onslaught of media criticism in conjunction with a series of attempted state interventions. This paper fleshes out recurring themes of 1940s media criticism and shows how they coincided with moves toward regulating the press, which had begun in the late 1930s. Using historical methods, including close readings of newspaper, trade press, and activist literature and other materials that shed light on debates around press reform, this critical revisionist history brings into focus a formative period in the American press system's development. The history that emerges from this archival evidence does not simply bring previously under-researched areas into focus; it also questions the presumed natural laissez-faire arrangement between the American government and the press—an assumption that largely remains intact to this day. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]