Independent Media Commission: Report on Audience Research – Election 1994

SUMMARY

In the era of postcolonialism the idea of an ‘African mind’ is tempting. However, constructing a notion such as the decolonised mind is theoretically problematic, as ‘African’ thought is located within the Western discourses of modernity. In order to theorise ‘African’ thought in its positivity, it is necessary to move beyond the binary oppositions of coloniser: colonised and West:Africa, and thus outside the Western teleological discourses of modernity that provided the conditions for colonial expansion in the first place. This article argues that an approach which takes local culture seriously is possible in a theory of articulation. It is necessary to realise that ‘Africa’ itself is a political, economic and cultural construct, and that this construction is the effect of complex articulations of political, economic, cultural and other discourses and practices. This entails that the very enabling conditions of postcoloniality, and the application of the term, have to be examined. A cultural studies using a theory of articulation would look at the way in which ‘Africa’ and ‘African thought’ are mobilised within the conditions of global capitalism.     

Media Closely Followed the Dialogue

<正>The Dialogue has received great attention from the media.China Central Television,Xinhua News Agency,Xinhuanet,People’s Daily,People’s Daily Online,the website of China News Service,China Daily Website,China Radio International,Jiangxi Daily,Information Daily and many other news     

Ten Years After Comparing Media Systems: What Have We Learned?

In this article we review research published since the publication of Comparing Media Systems which seeks to operationalize concepts discussed in that work and to test the framework proposed there or to put forward alternatives or revisions. We focus on works that deal with the original 18 countries covered in Comparing Media Systems, and consider the progress made in developing quantitative measures across these cases for key variables, research testing the grouping of cases in Comparing Media Systems, research extending the comparative analysis of Western media systems to new media, and research on convergence toward the Liberal Model. In the final section, we focus on limitations of the research produced during the 10 years following the publication of Comparing Media Systems, particularly the heavy emphasis on quantitative operationalization, and some of the difficulties in using quantitative analysis to investigate complex, dynamic systems.     

Media–state relations in Burundi: Overview of a post-traumatic media ecology

Through an analysis of the relations between the state and the media in Burundi, this article aims to problematise these actors’ interactions within a context characterised by an asymmetry of power in favour of political authorities and some leeway enjoyed by the media. Through a review of a corpus constituted of scientific literature, reports documenting the situation of press freedom in the country, and newspaper articles, the present article shows that the legal framework governing media activity is rather protective of press freedom, despite some recent setbacks. Under this protective media context, the state uses a variety of devious means to strengthen its grip on the media sector and on journalists. The media, for their part, are obliged to manoeuvre in a post-traumatic context where issues of security have a strong public legitimacy. The article shows that in order to understand relations between the Burundian state and the media, it is necessary to place them in an asymmetrical power context where both face constraints and enjoy spaces of tactical intervention.     

Do National and International Media Cover the Same Event Differently? The Online Media Framing of Irreecha Festival Tragedy

This article examines how media framed the deadly stampede that killed several dozen people gathered to celebrate a festival in Ethiopia. News articles published by 14 national media (N=21) and 116 international media (N=117) on October 2 and 3, 2016 were collected and comparative content analysis was carried out between April and May 2017. Conflict, attribution of responsibility and political consequences frames dominated the coverage. The differences observed in the use of conflict, responsibility and morality frames by national and international media were statistically significant. The differences in the appearance of political consequences and human-interest frames in national and international media were not statistically significant. In terms of coverage pattern, the themes of headlines of almost all the news articles published on the first day after the incident focused on deaths of people whereas the second day headlines diverged to deaths, mourning, unrest that followed, and other issues as the media found additional facts to organise strong and compelling frames to influence the audience. Based on the findings, this article generalises that national and international media cover the same disaster from different perspectives—national media promote national interest whereas international media emphasise conflict.     

Role of Media and NGOs in Public Diplomacy

Ⅰ. Background of the Engagement of Media and NGOs in China’s Public Diplomacy i. The engagement of media and NGOs in China’s public diplomacy emerged against the backdrop of the profound changes taken place in China over the past three decades. More than three decades ago, China initiated     

Media consumption: Using social attitudes to segment society – a typology of a South African sample

Abstract

In this, the first of a two-article series, an attitudinal typology was developed for use in a subsequent study of media consumption and psychographic variables. The current study used multivariate statistics to identify types of individuals who are similar to one another, across multiple measures of attitudes towards social issues. Agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis of data from 11 533 South Africans, aged 16 years and older, revealed six distinct types based on the component ‘attitudinal variables’. The types were labelled Contemporaries, Conventionals, Unconcerneds, Self-involveds, Old-schoolers and Confidents. Preliminary analysis of available demographic variables revealed significant differences for age, population group, gender, work status, home language, SAARF Lifestages and SAARF Universal Living Standard Measure (SU-LSM®) for the six types. The typology illustrates the possibility of empirical identification of distinct attitudinal types of a South African sample. Methodological limitations and recommendations for further research are discussed.     

Western Media Exposure and Chinese Immigrants’ Political Perceptions

Using evidence from an original survey experiment among 3,032 Chinese student immigrants in the United States, I examine how exposure to Western media changes their evaluations of the Chinese government’s performance and their trust in official discourse. My findings suggest that reading Western reports on China shifts immigrants’ perceptions of government performance in different directions, depending on how similar reports are censored in Chinese media. On issues that are strictly censored, immigrants exposed to Western reports became more critical of their home government’s performance and decreased their trust in official discourse. Conversely, on issues that are relatively open to independent reporting, immigrants did not become more critical of government performance, and their trust in official discourse maintained after being exposed to Western information.     

A Review of: “Media and Conflict: Framing Issues,Making Policy,Shaping Opinions,edited by Eytan Gilboa”

Using survey data from statewide political party convention delegates in four states, I investigate whether and how gender stereotypes influence nomination choice. I examine whether gaining candidate information from different sources differentially influences gender stereotypes and the likelihood of supporting both a female and a male nominee. I argue that information sources outside a candidate's control—delegates' discussions with other delegates—versus sources candidates can control (e.g., campaign contacts and personal contact with the candidate) work against female candidates' nomination. Specifically, when delegates learn about candidates via the most controlled sources, they will be more likely to view the candidates as possessing both masculine and feminine traits and issue competencies. As a result, they should be more likely to support the candidate. In contrast, information from sources outside candidate control functions differently for male and female candidates: These sources confirm delegates' stereotype expectations, negatively affecting perceptions of a female candidate's masculine strengths, which then negatively relate to supporting her nomination. The results generally support these ideas: Delegates receiving information from the most controlled sources form balanced views of the female candidate, but the positive effects of information from these sources on nomination choice are not mediated by stereotypes. In contrast, delegates gaining information from other delegates confirm their stereotypes of the candidate and are then less likely to support her. More broadly, gender stereotypes, particularly those regarding female candidates' masculine traits and feminine issue competencies relative to the candidate's male opponent, directly and positively relate to delegates' likelihood of supporting her.     

Film and Media Scholarship on Contemporary India: The Assemblage,the Narrative,and “Bollywood”

Reading the work of film scholars Anustup Basu, Amit Rai and Ravi Vasudevan together, this essay discusses contemporary film and media scholarship in India. It highlights the central differences between these works as pivoting on their research methodologies as well as the way each conceptualizes significant terms, namely, identity, ideology, hegemony, and assemblage. The essay shows that this scholarship proceeds along two routes: one eschews the primacy of the narrative and the concept of identity, focusing instead on the “assembling impulse” of the Hindi film, and the second is attentive to the axes that give form and consistency to the loose assemblages that define the Hindi film in India. As such, film scholarship also makes an argument about the shape of the social formation in contemporary India. While one mode assumes the newness of the contemporary period and argues for a looseness to its political assemblages, the other is invested in delineating what is new about the period and in tracing the hegemonic thrust that gives it shape.     

Does Media Coverage of Partisan Polarization Affect Political Attitudes?

The past decade has witnessed an explosion of interest in the partisan polarization of the American electorate. Scholarly investigation of this topic has coincided with the media’s portrayal of a polity deeply divided along partisan lines. Yet little research so far has considered the consequences of the media’s coverage of political polarization. We show that media coverage of polarization increases citizens’ beliefs that the electorate is polarized. Furthermore, the media’s depiction of a polarized electorate causes voters to moderate their own issue positions but increases their dislike of the opposing party. These empirical patterns are consistent with our theoretical argument that polarized exemplars in journalistic coverage serve as anti-cues to media consumers. Our findings have important implications for understanding current and future trends in political polarization.     

Analyzing the Multidirectional Relationships Between the President,News Media,and the Public: Who Affects Whom?

In order to study presidential leadership and responsiveness, this research focuses on the role of the news media and examines the multidirectional relationships between the president, the news media, and the public. One of the purposes of this study is to examine competing theoretical expectations about the causal direction between the three actors by focusing on their issue stances. The potentially reciprocal influences between the three actors are estimated by using vector autoregression and moving average representation simulations. According to the statistical results, the news media significantly interact with the public and the president. In contrast, the direct relationship between the president and the public is weak or insignificant.