The International Journal of Press/Politics recent issues

Editorial

Waisbord, S. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:33:53 PDT

Videomalaise or Virtuous Circle?: The Influence of the News Media on Political Trust

Avery, J. M. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:33:53 PDT

Some scholars argue that exposure to news media has a negative effect on public trust in government, while others maintain that the relationship between media exposure and political trust is positive and reciprocal. The current study departs from most research in this area by focusing on how both news source and individual characteristics of news consumers moderate the influence of news exposure on political trust. Employing several panel studies from a survey specifically designed to investigate media use and campaign dynamics during the 2000 presidential election, the current study makes several novel contributions to the literature. Specifically, the author finds that the influence of news media on political trust—positive or negative—is dependent on both the news source (i.e., newspaper or television) and individuals’ existing level of political trust. Those with low levels of political trust do not become more or less trusting following news exposure regardless of the news source. However, those with higher levels of political trust become more trusting following exposure to newspapers and less trusting following exposure to television news.

Black and White and Shades of Gray: Palestinians in the Israeli Media During the 2nd Intifada

Liebes, T., Kampf, Z. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:33:53 PDT

An examination of the Israeli media coverage of Palestinians during the 2nd Intifada demonstrates a new openness, not compatible with the "crisis routine" of rallying around the flag. Fifteen years earlier, in the 1st Intifada, Palestinians were altogether excluded from the screen. This time round, in spite of the higher level of violence, the Israeli public was exposed to their human side—as political leaders, victims, witnesses, and even terrorists. The authors’ analysis of news photos and television representations (2000—2005) reveals that during the 2nd Intifada coverage was expanded to include a broad range of Palestinian figures. Alongside traditional framing, Palestinians are also seen as ordinary people living under occupation, often as direct victims of the Israeli military. Analysis of the relationship among these images (including their textual framing), with their implied readers and with "real" readers with ideological preconceptions, leads to arguing that the emotional appeal of the varied representation calls into question the understanding of the conflict as a fixated black-and-white dichotomy. The authors suggest reasons for this new media openness. In conclusion, the authors point to the ways in which their model can facilitate an understanding of images of the "other" side in armed conflicts.

Local Media, Public Opinion, and State Legislative Policies: Agenda Setting at the State Level

Tan, Y., Weaver, D. H. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:33:53 PDT

This study aims to explore first-level agenda setting at the state level. In particular, it examines the relationships among media coverage of local newspapers, state-level public opinion, and state legislative policies. In addition, it tests two state-level intervening factors: state legislative professionalism and state political culture. This study includes a geographic scope of eighteen U.S. states and a time period of twenty-two years from 1984 to 2006. The media agenda is represented by the news coverage of a state’s most popular newspaper. The public agenda employs a survey question asking, "What is the most important issue facing the state?" The policy agenda is defined by the number of bills that are introduced in the state house. This study finds a moderate and positive relationship between the newspaper agenda and the public agenda in five U.S. states from 1984 to 1997, a strong positive relationship between the newspaper agenda and the policy agenda in fifteen U.S. states from 1989 to 2006, and a weak positive relationship between the public agenda and the policy agenda in South Carolina in 1989 and 1990. State political culture moderates the degree of agenda-setting effects between the newspaper coverage and the legislative policies.

Separate Spaces: Discourse About the 2007 Scottish Elections on a National Newspaper Web Site

Singer, J. B. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:33:53 PDT

In May 2007, Scots voted into office a party and a political leader publicly committed to holding a referendum on independence from Great Britain within four years. This study analyzes nearly forty-eight hundred comments appended to stories on the scotsman.com Web site, offering one of the first detailed looks at user-generated content on a newspaper-affiliated Web site in the context of a national election. It explores the evolving nature of online political community and the ways in which newspapers are accommodating a networked environment in their political coverage, addressing issues of citizen and journalistic engagement within a communal space.

Transatlantic Foreign Reporting and Foreign Correspondents After 9/11: Trends in Reporting Europe in the United States

Hahn, O., Lonnendonker, J. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:33:53 PDT

Since the attacks of 9/11, U.S. media coverage of foreign news has changed significantly. As part of a wider study, this research identifies trends in reporting Europe in the United States after 9/11. Following a summary of the current state of research, the study’s methodological design is discussed. It is based on a sample of 27 qualitative semistructured in-depth interviews with foreign correspondents working for different U.S. media outlets in Europe. The interviewed correspondents describe that since 9/11, U.S. public interest in 9/11-related foreign affairs has increased while general U.S. foreign news coverage has decreased further. With the geographic news focus shifted toward the Middle East, Europe-based U.S. foreign correspondents increasingly report about Muslim communities in Europe. The article also discusses perspectives pertaining to the future development of transatlantic foreign reporting and foreign correspondents in the post-9/11 era.

Book Notes

Venturelli, S., Klotz, R., Van Belle, D. A., Siochru, S. O, Benson, R. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:33:53 PDT

Media and Democratization in Latin America

Porto, M. P., Hallin, D. C. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:41:54 PDT

Media as Social Accountability: The Case of Police Violence in Argentina

Bonner, M. D. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:41:54 PDT

This article examines the role of the media as a mechanism of social accountability. Adding to the work of Enrique Peruzzotti and Catalina Smulovitz, the article argues that the media act as a mechanism of social accountability by providing a forum for debate for a plurality of actors to establish who should be held accountable, what they should be held accountable for, and how they should be held accountable. An analysis of this role of the media is applied to the newspaper coverage of an incident of police violence against social protest in Argentina. The debate in this case contributes to the reframing of excessive police violence against social protest in Argentina as unacceptable, thus acting as a form of preventive accountability.

Mediated Deliberation: The 2005 Referendum for Banning Firearm Sales in Brazil

Maia, R. C. M. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:41:54 PDT

This article investigates the role of the news media in constructing mediated deliberation, focusing on how instrumental politics intertwines with critical argument exchanges in public debates. In the context of Brazil's recent democratization process, the author analyzes mediated deliberation in the national referendum for banning firearm and ammunition sales in 2005. The following indicators are explored: (1) participant accessibility and characterization, (2) use of arguments, (3) reciprocity and responsiveness, and (4) reflexivity and reversibility of opinions. The article argues that normative deliberation principles add to controversy frame studies by helping understand how contending interlocutors increase the quality and the complexity of reasons in dispute in situations where no consensus or general agreement is expected.

The Hybrid Campaign: Tradition and Modernity in Ecuador's 2006 Presidential Election

de la Torre, C., Conaghan, C. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:41:54 PDT

The 2006 presidential election in Ecuador offers an important example of how traditional, modern, and even postmodern modes of electioneering are combined in contemporary campaigns in Latin America. In his successful race against billionaire candidate Alvaro Noboa, Rafael Correa crafted a hybrid campaign in a double sense. First, he blended the country's classic populist discourse with forward-looking appeals for change. Second, Correa's organization deftly combined state-of-the-art publicity and the application of new information technology with traditional grassroots organizing and the spectacle of rallies. Ecuador's presidential election illustrates the extent to which Latin America has advanced along Pippa Norris's historical continuum of campaign practices. It also provides further evidence of the tenacious appeal of populism in Latin America and how modern and postmodern forms of campaigning can be brought to bear in reproducing populist-style politicking and a hybrid political culture.

The Disenchanted Voter: Emotional Attachment, Social Stratification, and Mediated Politics in Mexico's 2006 Presidential Election

Hughes, S., Guerrero, M. A. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:41:54 PDT

This study of micro-level political decision making responds to an initially perplexing phenomenon that appeared in the 2006 Mexican presidential election, what the authors call the disenchanted voter. The authors found that participants in their longitudinal, qualitative study expressed extreme dissatisfaction with politics, politicians, and the outcomes of a young democracy yet voiced enthusiasm for voting. Checks after the ballot revealed they actually did vote. In this article, the authors argue that this unlikely constellation is explained by participants' emotional appraisals of mediated campaign messages about a polarizing presidential candidate. Grounded in an individual's class position, emotional appraisal of this candidate generated fear in wealthy participants and hope in poorer participants. The coping mechanism, or "secondary assessment" of the candidate, was the firm decision to vote. Based on these findings, the authors propose a model of disenchanted voting that integrates research on emotional appraisal and the social construction of emotions with election salience and personal political efficacy. These findings may be of use in economically polarized democracies beyond Mexico. However, the authors question whether long-term polarizing political discourse is a viable antidote to disenchantment with the uneven economic and social justice outcomes of Latin American democracy.

Skilled, Loyal, and Disciplined: Communist Journalists and the Adaptation of the Model of the American Model of "Independent Journalism" in Brazil

de Albuquerque, A., Roxo da Silva, M. A. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:41:54 PDT

From the 1950s to the 1970s, during the peak of the cold war, communist journalists had a significant presence in Brazilian conservative papers. They even held high-ranking positions. Newspaper owners were aware of their political orientations, but they did not seem concerned. In fact, some of those communist journalists enjoyed high professional prestige. An unusual symbiotic relationship has developed between conservative publishers and their communist employees. This article discusses such relationship in light of the modernization of Brazilian newspapers that started in the 1950s. To modernize their newspapers, publishers needed to rely on journalists' ability to deal with the news as a technical, industrial product. Journalists with communist sympathies provided skilled work and were willing to be loyal and disciplined in the newsrooms. They had their own reasons for working in the "big press." The American rhetoric of professional journalism provided a common language for communist journalists and conservative publishers to work together. The Brazilian case has important lessons for analyzing the adaptation of the American model of professional journalism in different national settings.

Book Notes

Moy, P., Murphy, P. D., Forde, K. R., Herscovitz, H. G. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:41:54 PDT

Editorial

Waisbord, S. — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:02:07 PDT

Party Systems and Oppositional Voices in the News Media: A Study of the Contest over Political Waves in the United States and Israel

Sheafer, T., Wolfsfeld, G. — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:02:07 PDT

This study explores those factors that raise the level of access for oppositional voices in the news media. The Politics—Media—Politics principle argues that cross-national differences in the role of the news media in most political processes can be best understood by examining how variations in political environments affect media performance, which in turn leads to different types of effects on politics. Based on this principle, it is argued that the news media operating in polarized multiparty democracies will allow greater access to oppositional voices than those in two-party democracies. This thesis is examined by comparing the news coverage of major news stories in the United States and Israel in 1984, 1990, and 2000. These two countries provide a useful comparison because they have similar media systems but polar opposite political systems. The results provide strong support for the thesis.

Policy or Processes in Focus?

Skorkjaer Binderkrantz, A., Green-Pedersen, C. — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:02:07 PDT

The news media are frequently accused of portraying politics as a strategic game rather than focusing on political issues. However, the understanding of the prevalence of different news frames in the media coverage of politics is limited in several respects. This article seeks to contribute to remedying this by (1) conducting a longitudinal analysis of the use of different news frames during election periods as well as in everyday politics, (2) adopting an analytical framework including several different types of process focus, and (3) pointing to the importance of including political developments alongside changes in the media system when explaining developments in the news coverage of politics. The empirical analysis of twenty years of public radio news in Denmark confirms a long-term trend toward greater focus on electoral consequences in news stories in election periods; however, the trend is not mirrored in news stories when an election is not imminent. In explaining these findings, situational factors related to the political system and party politics must be included alongside explanations pointing toward an increasing professionalization of political parties as well as long-term changes in the media system and in party competition.

Moral Politicking: Public Attitudes toward Gay Marriage in an Election Context

Becker, A. B., Scheufele, D. A. — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:02:07 PDT

Using data from a nationally representative random-digit-dial survey collected before the 2004 presidential election (N = 781), this study examines the ways in which predispositions, media use, and political inputs (political knowledge; political tolerance) influence public support for gay marriage. Our analyses suggest that attitudes toward gay marriage were largely shaped by ideological orientations and religious predispositions during the course of the 2004 election cycle. We show that ideological predispositions acted as perceptual filters by moderating the influence that attention to television campaign coverage has on shaping support for gay marriage. Our findings also suggest that ideological and religious predispositions attenuated the effects of political knowledge and judgments of political tolerance on influencing support for gay marriage. Implications of these findings are discussed.

The Irony of Satire: Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in The Colbert Report

LaMarre, H. L., Landreville, K. D., Beam, M. A. — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:02:07 PDT

This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert's political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.

Spanish- and English-language Local Television Coverage of Politics and the Tendency to Cater to Latino Audiences

Fowler, E. F., Hale, M., Olsen, T. D. — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:02:07 PDT

Congressional mandates, federal regulatory policy, local broadcasters, and democratic ideals agree that local media should present local news in a way that adequately represents (and ideally unifies) local communities. But how do local broadcasters determine the composition of their local community? And is their portrayal of the community consistent with the ideals of representative democracy? Through one of the first systematic examinations of Spanish- and English-language local television newscasts, the authors find that general market media attention to Latino audiences is a function of the characteristics of the target audience, the size of the media market, the interaction of market size and market characteristics, and the degree of competition between local stations. The results, however, also indicate that even under the most optimal circumstances, general market outlets provide minimal coverage of minority interests. The implications for localism in broadcasting, democratic representation, and the nature and quality of political information reaching citizens and noncitizens alike are also discussed.

Who's Minding the Gate?: Pool Feeds, Video Subsidies, and Political Images

Bock, M. A. — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:02:07 PDT

Camera pools and video feed systems allow news institutions to receive video imagery with greater efficiency and lower costs. Such arrangements are frequently managed and negotiated through politically engaged institutions. The resulting video is transmitted and traded with the underlying assumption that images are discrete, objective representations of real events, an assumption that is called into question when the practice is carefully examined. Unlike facts or ideas, which are intangible and constructed entirely in language, video images are constructed both discursively and materially. Consequently the power to grant physical access to events for photographic coverage grants political actors an advantage as they negotiate their image, literally and metaphorically.

This qualitative study describes several such feeds and politically regulated video subsidies, their use by news organizations, and the means by which political agents influence their own image through such feeds. Data in the form of extended interviews and field observations were collected between 2005 and 2007 in the United States and Britain. Site visits include Congress, a U.S. statehouse, a state cable operation, and British Parliament. The findings indicate that journalism's relay of video images as objective, factual material, rather than constructions negotiated with political actors, fosters an illusion of transparency.

Book Notes

Stewart, D., Belt, T. L., White, S., Negrine, R. — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:02:07 PDT

Acknowledgment

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:02:07 PDT

Creativity and the Experts: New Labour, Think Tanks, and the Policy Process

Schlesinger, P. — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:54:20 PST

This article explores the role of expertise in public debate on creative industries policy in the United Kingdom. The first section gives an overview of the emergence of expertise in government and the rise of think tanks, locating this within a wider sociology of the intellectuals. It discusses the development of New Labour expertise in response to that of Thatcherite Conservatism in the battle to dominate public policy agendas. The second section illustrates the growth of the New Labour "policy generation" and the emergence of a cohort of experts in the fields of media, communications, and culture and discusses routes taken by them into government. The final section, based on interviews, discusses the power plays behind New Labour policy making in the creative industries field. It considers the impact of ministerial changes on the policy process, illustrates how interdepartmental rivalries introduce complexity and demonstrates how civil service expertise may be mobilised to neutralise that of outside experts. The conclusion addresses the implications of this analysis.

Access and Allies: European Center-Right Parties and the Collective Development of Campaign Management in the 1980s

Notaker, H. — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:54:20 PST

The article provides a detailed analysis of previously unresearched campaign management seminars for European Center-Right political parties within the European Democrat Union (EDU) in the 1980s. Original archival material shows how these seminars in several ways facilitated the spread of campaign techniques originating in the United States: (1) through the collective discussion and adaptation of U.S. innovations to a European context and (2) as a catalyst for bilateral relationships between otherwise unlikely partners. Members from small countries gained access to global leaders of campaign development in the shape of operatives from the U.K. Conservative Party, the German CDU, and the U.S. Republican Party. The campaign seminar group depended on the will of EDU members from these powerful countries to build and maintain a transnational organization within the frameworks of the cold war and European integration. In conclusion, the article argues that mediating instances such as the campaign seminars should be integrated in explanatory concepts such as "modernization" and "Americanization," as should historical context.

Reversed Mobilization in Referendum Campaigns: How Positive News Framing Can Mobilize the Skeptics

Schuck, A. R.T., de Vreese, C. H. — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:54:20 PST

This multimethodological study focuses on risk-induced electoral mobilization in referendum campaigns. Positive news framing in a referendum campaign can generate a perception of risk among those voters opposing the proposal and stimulate electoral participation to prevent an undesired outcome that would alter a status quo situation. To test this claim, the authors analyze the effect of news framing on turnout in the context of the 2005 Dutch EU Constitution referendum campaign and combine a media content analysis of national newspapers and television news (n = 6,370) with panel survey data (n = 642) and an experiment (n = 687). Experimental findings show that individuals who are skeptical toward the EU and are subsequently exposed to positive news framing about the EU Constitution are mobilized to turn out and vote against it. The results of the content analysis show that during the Dutch referendum campaign, news media framed the EU Constitution in positive terms. Building these findings into a measure of news exposure in our panel survey, the authors find that higher exposure to referendum news had a mobilizing effect on those opposing the proposal. The experimental and panel data thus show corroborating evidence supporting the central hypothesis about how positive news can mobilize the skeptics to turn out and vote in a referendum.

Politicians in the Media: Determinants of Legislators' Presence and Prominence in Swiss Newspapers

Tresch, A. — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:54:20 PST

In times of increasing "mediatization" of politics, when voters and their elected representatives primarily communicate through the media, the question of who gets into the news and why becomes of the utmost importance. This article examines the determinants of Swiss legislators' presence and prominence in the print media by focusing on three competing approaches drawn from communication studies. The first approach regards the media as a "mirror" of political reality and argues that the media focus on the most active deputies in parliament. Second, news values theory predicts that "authoritative" politicians in leadership positions get the most media coverage. Third, theories of "news bias" hold that the media privilege legislators who are in line with their own editorial interests. Overall, the statistical analyses show an important leadership effect and provide strong support for the second explanation. While deputies in official functions get the most extensive news coverage, media access can also be won by parliamentary activity. The least support is shown for the news bias theory, although some newspapers try to localize parliamentary news coverage by focusing on deputies from their own media market.

Professionalism Online: How Malaysiakini Challenges Authoritarianism

Steele, J. — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:54:20 PST

This article focuses on the online news service Malaysiakini and describes the specific mechanisms by which it uses the ideology of independent journalism to challenge authoritarianism. It takes an ethnographic approach and analyzes how journalists at Malaysiakini conceive of "independent journalism" and how this understanding is related to broader questions of democracy and social change. Malaysian journalists are not only restricted by the law but also by structures of ownership in which mainstream news organizations are linked to the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. Like Malaysia's proliferating blogging community, Malaysiakini has taken advantage of an unlikely loophole in the law that promises a "no-censorship" policy for the Internet. Yet unlike Malaysia's bloggers, Malaysiakini functions as a traditional news provider, and it is the norms and values of journalistic professionalism rather than the medium of the Internet that make Malaysiakini so threatening to government authorities. The author argues that Malaysiakini uses the norms of good journalism to legitimize alternative views of events, thus challenging the authoritarianism of the Barisan Nasional. She concludes by suggesting that in creating a space where citizens are free to express their opinions, Malaysiakini deliberately promotes a blueprint for democratic civic discourse in Malaysia.

Organizational Production of Self-Censorship in the Hong Kong Media

Lee, F. L.F., Chan, J. — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:54:20 PST

Media self-censorship refers to nonexternally compelled acts committed by media organizations aiming to avoid offending power holders such as the government, advertisers, and major business corporations. While self-censorship constitutes a major threat to press freedom in Hong Kong under China, recent studies have shown that Hong Kong journalists have maintained a strong sense of professionalism. The coexistence of professionalism and self-censorship poses important challenges to news organizations: How is self-censorship effected as professionalism does not favor its practice? How can news organizations minimize the conflicts between self-censorship and professionalism so that news operations will remain stable, smooth, and efficient? Drawing on the literature on newsroom social control, we tackle the above questions by focusing on the internal structure of and the interactive dynamics within newsrooms. Methodologically, this study draws on both representative survey and in-depth interview data. It is found that self-censorship is effected through selective positioning and assignment, observational learning of tacit rules, the giving of ambiguous orders, and the use of professional or technical reasons to justify questionable news decisions. Meanwhile, some journalists also developed their own operational tactics to resist what they perceived as self-censorship attempts. The theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Book Notes

Druckman, J. N., Kishan Thussu, D., Witt, L., Lowrey, W., Kodrich, K. — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:54:20 PST