International Communication 2002 Abstracts
International Communication Division
MARKHAM/OPEN COMPETITION
The Tower of Digital Babble: Excursions in the Discourse of Digital Division • Toby J. Arquette, Purdue University • This study addresses “digital division” across 172 nations. From a meta-analysis of the different discursive frameworks, a synthesized analytic framework, the Information Intelligence Quotient (IIQ2), is proposed to as a tool for assessing the state of a target community’s information and communication system development. Descriptive statistical analyses comparing the effects of the composite and disaggregated indices are reported. The results provide descriptive evidence that regardless of discursive framework, there is a digital divide.
The Image Of International Trade Relations: A Content Analysts Of Japanese, Us, And Dutch Economic Print News • Florann A. Arts, Amsterdam • Content analysis data from the US, Netherlands, and Japan show that Japanese international trade coverage has a stronger tendency to negativity than US and Dutch coverage. The US coverage was found to be most harmony oriented of the three countries. The results also suggest that elite country involvement and ethnocentricity are more important than conflict as predictors of the amount of attention dedicated to a trade relation.
Pop Culture’s Invasion of the Middle East (1999-2002) • Megan Louise Beall, Georgia State University • How does the United States package and export popular culture to the Middle East? What are the lasting effects of this exported “culture” phenomenon? Is pop culture changing the fundamental fabric of everyday life in the Middle East? The impact of popular culture on the Middle East is unfolding changing the way business are run and effecting the economy, but in the end pop culture has not changed the fundamental values of the Islamic society.
Attitudes toward Foreign Leaders, Nations, and Terrorism: As Predicted by Media Use and Perceived Threat • Christopher E. Beaudoin, Indiana University-Bloomington • The current study explores the role that the mass media play in predicting attitudes toward foreign toward foreign nations and leaders and toward more specific attitudes toward the combat of international terrorism. Two models are tested: 1) a direct effects model; and 2) a model based upon the health belief model that posits that perceived threat of terrorism will play a mediating role between mass media use and attitudes toward Middle East nations and leaders and toward the combat of international terrorism.
A Sober New Political Identity In Europe: Media Constructions Of Scotland Though The Prism Of The Scottish Parliament • Dougie Bicket, SUNY Geneseo • This paper analyzes emerging conceptions of Scottish external relations through the mediated prism of the election campaign for the new Scottish parliament in 1999. The study identifies four dominant media packages that frame press coverage. All but one of these packages is heavily linked to the UR Labour Party, which dominated the media campaign and emphasized OR dominance over Scotland.
Remnants Of The Cold War: U. S. Policy Influences On New York Times’ Coverage Of Nicaragua’s Elections In 1990, 1996, And 2001 • Greg Bikowski, Ohio University • This research examined articles in the New York Times that covered Nicaragua’s last three elections to determine if U. S. policy was reflected. A content analysis examined articles for the source of the story, angle, and labeling. Overall, this research found a tendency for the Times to use U. S. officials as the main source of the story, a story angle central to U. S. interests, and labels that linked Ortega to revolution and communism.
Analysis of the Cold War Propaganda Techniques in a Post Cold War Documentary “Red Files: Russian Propaganda Machine” • Ramune Braziunaite, Bowling Green State University • The paper analyzes one post-Cold War documentary video, “Red Files: Soviet Propaganda Machine,” produced and directed by Elizabeth Dobson in 1999 and argues that through various manipulative communication techniques this documentary continues the tradition of dichotomizing the world using the Cold War frames almost ten years after the fall of Communism. The analysis focuses on fallacies, omissions, distortions, and suggestions as the major characteristics of this video as an example of propaganda.
The Role of Journalism in 19th Century National Movements in Estonia and Finland • Janis Cakars, Indiana University • This paper examines the role of the press in the formation of national identity in 19th century Estonia and Finland. It illuminates not only the similarities and differences between these two cases, but addresses the interaction between them. The study employs a comparative approach that is meant to test and inform theories of national identity development. It finds the comparison of these little-known cases useful for enriching such theory, but calls for further research “from below” in order to more fully understand the complex relationship between media and changing identities.
Public Broadcasting Systems Demise Within the Dominant Private System Model: The Netherlands Case • Tony R. DeMars, Sam Houston State • In many countries, the electronic media in the 1990s were being reinvented, not because of a desire within established systems to change or decline, but because of challenges made by new technologies. This paper demonstrates that even a country like The Netherlands with a firmly established public system can have its system challenged and perhaps lost when confronted with broadcasting based on advertising, competition and ratings.
Exploring International Public Communication Strategies: A Cross-Cultural Case Study of Anti-tobacco Efforts in Six Countries • Sameer Deshpande, Michelle R. Nelson, Narayan Devanathan, Ronald Yaros, Hye-Jin Pack, Ratanasuda Punnahitanond, Susan E. Stein and Alexandra M. Vilela, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper reports results of a cross-cultural case study of communication strategies employed by governments and other organizations in 2000-01 to reduce tobacco consumption in six countries. An analysis of the prevalence of tobacco consumption, anti-tobacco regulations and communication campaigns revealed that there are currently more differences than similarities across national cultures. Findings are discussed according to the viability for a standardized or localized strategy to global communications efforts.
Post-Communist Broadcast Media: A Case Study Of Estonia’s 1994 Broadcast Law • Max V. Grubb, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • The collapse of the Soviet Union and the demise of communism in Eastern Europe initiated a third wave of democratization. One challenge confronting these countries was the development and enactment of legislation that would create independent democratic broadcast systems. This study examines the development and enactment of broadcast legislation in post-communist Estonia. The law enacted exacerbated tensions between public and private broadcasters, and inhibited the development and growth of private broadcasting in Estonia.
Newspaper Framing of the “Attacks on America”: An International Comparison • Alexander Halavais, Julia Usu, Kara Kerwin, Diana Pletz, Jennifer Diaz and Shirley Xavier, State University of New York at Buffalo • This study provides an interpretation of how cultural contexts affected news reports of the attacks of September of 2001. Examining articles from six newspapers in four countries during the two weeks following the events, we found four axes along which coverage was framed. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches to content analysis, we are able to both indicate evidence of such differences in content and describe how this affected the character of coverage.
Bridging Latin America’s Digital Divide: Government Policies and Internet Access • Eliza Tanner Hawkins with Kirk A. Hawkins, Brigham Young University • Latin American governments have sought to increase access to information technologies in a variety of ways. This cross-sectional time-series analysis of nineteen countries between 1990 and 2000 examines government policies and Internet usage. It finds that Internet use is strongly associated with a country’s wealth and the telecommunications infrastructure. The government policies with the strongest influence on increasing access are changes to the tariff structure, such as creating flat-price dialing schemes, and full market liberalization.
Patterns of Cultural Orientations and Conflict Resolution in Three Cultural Groups • Zhou He and Jonathon J.H. Zhu, City University of Hong Kong; Shiyong Peng, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman and Xueyi Chen, Syracuse University • This study examined the relationship between cultural orientations and conflict resolution at the individual level through a probability survey of 524 managerial subjects in cross-cultural settings in China, including a group of American and a group of French, in Sino-American, Sino-French and solely Chinese enterprises in China. Based on the assumption that differences in cultural orientations lead to differences in conflict resolution styles, this study explores and compares the patterns in the relationship between cultural orientations and conflict resolution styles in culturally different groups.
Perceptions of Brazilian Journalists About Media Roles and Foreign Influences • Heloiza G. Herscovitz, Florida International University • This paper is based on a self-administered survey with 402 journalists working for 13 leading news organizations and personal interviews with renowned journalists of Sao Paulo- Brazil’s main media hub. Findings indicate that respondents hold a pluralistic view regarding media roles. They also believe they are influenced by the American model of journalism and dismissed the traditional French influence that pervaded Brazilian journalism in the past.
Press Freedom In Hong Kong: A Post- 1997 Perspective • Tianbo Huang, Juyan Zhang and Yi Lu, Missouri • Through a content analysis with an interrupted series design, three newspapers in Hong Kong, Ming Pao, Sing Tao Jih Pao and Hong Kong Economic Journal, were found to have become more favorable to the Chinese government immediately before the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997. However, some newspapers appeared to have resumed their critical stances toward China several years after the hand-over.
From The Inside Out: How Institutional Entrepreneurs Transformed Mexico’s Newsrooms • Sallie Hughes, Miami • This paper examines the transformation of Mexican newsroom culture that drove the transformation of images of subjects and rulers into citizens and politicians. It explains the emergence and dispersion of a new style of journalism in Mexico based on a civic orientation that encouraged citizen knowledge and participation in politics during MexicoÕs gradual transition to an electoral democracy. It argues that oppositional values and alternative ideas about journalism changed the identities of institutional entrepreneurs in the Mexican press.
Individual Perceptions of International Correspondents in the Middle East: An Obstacle to Fair News? • Dina Ibrahim, Texas at Austin • This paper examines the issues foreign correspondents have cited in various surveys and interviews as obstacles to fair reporting in the Middle East over the past 30 years. It is a historical reflective analysis of the individual influences of journalists perceptions on media content, and how these perceptions may affect stories filed from the Middle East. The author also briefly assesses how organizational pressures of the news production process can impact news from the Middle East.
Glocalizing a Dam Conflict: Thai Rath, Matichon and Pak Mun Dam • Suda Ishida, Iowa • This research places Thai media into the center of glocalization process. It examines how two Thai-language daily newspapers reported about a 12-year environmental conflict over a World Bank-sponsored hydropower dam project in northeast Thailand. Through comparative critical discourse analysis of the Pak Mun dam coverage, the research addresses four primary areas: 1) the media attention to the conflict, 2) the source dependency, 3) the dominant news frames, and 4) the press’ role in localizing and globalizing this environmental conflict.
Media Use and Credibility of International News in Kazakhstan: Perceptions of the Attacks in the U.S., the Attacks in Afghanistan and the Raising of the Kursk • Stan Ketterer and Maureen Nemecek, Oklahoma State University • Historically, citizens of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, are highly interested in international news. Journalism students rely most on television news and find it most credible, but it depends on the story and its source. They relied most on Russian TV regarding the attacks in the U.S. and Afghanistan. Conversely, they relied most on radio, likely BBC, for coverage of the Kursk. Cable television, CNN for the attacks and BBC for the Kursk, was second.
Cultural Differences in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Use: A Comparison of Korea and the United States • Heeman Kim, Temple University • This paper investigates the influence of cultural factors on the use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). It first examines whether traditional communication predisposition, such as independent and interdependent self-construal, is extended to online interaction. It then addresses whether different CMC preferences relating to communication predisposition in Korea and the U.S. can be identified. It concludes that while Korean respondents showed a significant interdependent self-construal online, American respondents did not show a significant independent self-construal.
Assessing the Hierarchy of Influences Theory of Content: Coverage of the Cultural Revolution in China by Time and Newsweek, 1966-69 • Guoli Li and Anne Cooper-Chen, Ohio University • This paper examines press performance under atypical conditions to assess the generalizability of the Shoemaker and Reese (1996) Hierarchy of Influences theory of media content. It studied the two leading U.S. weekly news magazines’ reporting of a culturally, politically, geographically, and ideologically distant story. The overarching first level ideology, was assumed to operate, while the influence of the other four levels (extramedia, organizational, media routines and individual) was documented; the model was found to be robust but somewhat culture bound.
Spy or Scapegoat: A News Framing Study of the New York TimesÕ Coverage of the Wen Ho Lee Case • Jia Lin and Junhao Hong, State University of New York at Buffalo • Through both traditional and computer-based content analysis of the New York Times’ coverage of the Wen Ho Lee case, this article explores how the U.S. mainstream media frame their coverage of news events, especially foreign news events. Based on the findings, this study suggests that a dominant ideology is often behind the news coverage. In addition, the research also finds that U.S. media’s biased coverage of the Wen Ho Lee case is more toward China than to Wen Ho Lee.
European vs. U.S. Newspaper Framing of the Middle Eastern Conflict Pre and Post Sept. 11: A Case Study • Mia Moody-Hall, Texas at Austin • This study looked at how European and U.S. newspapers framed the Middle Eastern conflict pre- and post- Sept. 11. Common themes included, “taking sides” and “foreign policy gone wrong. “Negative adjectives were used more frequently to describe Arabs/Palestinians than Israelis; however the adjectives used to describe killings by the groups were similar. Further, Sept. 11 did not appear to influence either county’s coverage, and there were no significant differences in how the countries framed the conflict.
Culture or Ignorance? Communication For HIV/AIDS Prevention in Kenya • Nancy Muturi, Iowa • This study addresses the discrepancy between awareness and behavior change in reproductive health from a communications perspectives, drawing its theoretical framework from Grunig’s model of Excellence in Communication that emphasizes strategic communication through two-way symmetrical communication. The study examines social-cultural factors that influence people’s decision-making in the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in Africa. Data were gathered qualitatively using focus groups and in-depth interviews among rural men and women in Kenya.
A Case for a Paradigm Shift and a New Theory in Development Communication Scholarship • Samuel Chege Mwangi, South Carolina • This paper argues that theories currently driving development communication scholarship do not reflect issues and concerns in developing countries and calls for a paradigm shift and a new theory to guide the field.
A Profile of Ugandan Journalists of Ugandan Journalists in the New Millennium • Peter G. Mwesige, Indiana University • Based on a survey of 101 journalists, this study provides the first comprehensive attitudinal portrait of Ugandan news workers at an exciting time in Uganda’s democratization process. The study examines the demographics, background, job conditions, and education of news people in Uganda; their role perceptions; professional attitudes, beliefs and values; and the major constraints to journalistic freedoms in Uganda.
The Media and Foreign Policy: A Comparative Analysis of The New York Times’ Coverage of Zaire • Peter G. Mwesige, Indiana University • Several studies have concluded that American media coverage of foreign countries and international events is congruent with prevailing U.S. government foreign policy. This study analyzes The New York Times coverage of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in two different periods in order to establish whether trends in the paperÕs coverage were related to shifts in U.S. foreign policy toward this African country.
The End of Ideology and the Redefinition of Public Service Broadcasting in Italy: RAI, 1990-2001 • Cinzia Padovani, Colorado at Boulder • In my paper I analyze the recent history of the Italian public service broadcaster, RAI. Based on a review of primary sources (various documents and interviews), I claim that the end of party affiliation, that has characterized the last ten years of the broadcaster’s history, has coincided with the loss of RAI’s identity as a public service. As a result, programs on RAI have become increasingly similar to the ones on commercial television.
Internet Power and Social Context: A World System Approach to Web Privacy Concerns • Rivka Ribak, University of Haifa, Israel and Joseph Turow, Pennsylvania • This paper argues that contemporary perspectives on the Internet and the family fail to recognize the multi-leveled negotiations about the web’s meaning that take place in many societies and cause the web to be defined simultaneously in terms of local cultures and world markets. It proposes that a “world system” perspective can disentangle these cross-pressures by situating a societyÕs cultural and technological practices within broad political and economic parameters.
Nicaragua 2001: Media Struggles in Partisanship, Polarization and Politics • Rick Rockwell, American University and Noreene Janus, Academy for Educational Development • This paper reviews the evolution of the media in Nicaragua during 2001, an election year. The focus here is on La Prensa, the top circulation newspaper, and Canal 2, the leading television network. Both outlets attempted a change from partisanship in this election. The paper outlines the commonalities between the media outlets as a way of further discussing media systems in transition from post-Communist or authoritarian systems toward a democratic ideal.
International News Flow and the U.S. News Media: A Model Proposed from a Critical Review of the Literature • Takuya Sakurai, Akron • This paper reviews international news flow and coverage studies with two aims: (1) to synthesize various factors influencing international news flow; and (2) to characterize the process of selecting international news in the U.S. news media. Dividing those factors into two patterns, deviance-oriented and relevance-oriented perspectives, this review of the literature proposes a model of international news selection by the U.S. news media.
Covering the Dead: U.S. and Chinese Magazine Reportage of the Crackdown on the Tiananmen Square Movement • Yu Shi, Iowa • Based within the historical context of the Tiananmen Square movement in Beijing 1989, the study first attempts to delineate journalists’ narratives of the crackdown on the movement, and then to explain why they interpreted the event the way they did by putting the narratives into the different discursive contexts of what it means to be a journalist, which are constructed differently by U.S. and Chinese journalists as members of different interpretive communities.
Investigative Reporting and Agenda Building in Political Transition • Jae C. Shim, Missouri, Charles T. Salmon, Michigan State University and Kyung S. Lee, Korea University • This study examines a typical case of investigative reporting in South Korea and analyzes how it is linked with the agenda-building process for the nationÕs democratization. By integrating theoretical frameworks from agenda-building and investigative reporting, we will describe how the coverage of police brutality became a national issue in South Korea and led to the peopleÕs uprising for national democratic reform in 1987, just one year before the Seoul Olympic Games.
The Possibility of Adoption of the Actual Malice Rule in Foreign Countries: From the Fourth Estate Perspective • Taegyu Son, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In Sullivan, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that there is a right to criticize public officials guaranteed by the First Amendment by establishing the actual malice standard. Many in Australia, Canada, and England have argued that the malice standard should be applied to defamation cases in their respective countries. The courts have rejected adoption of it.
Toward a Critical Genealogy of Communication, Development, and Social Change • Sujatha Sosale, Georgia State University • This paper attempts to step outside the frameworks within which “communication and development” has been debated for the better part of the last five decades or so and understand how this concept has been produced and elevated to the status of a “master signifier.” I suggest an alternative framework located at the intersection of critical cultural studies and poststructuralism that will help trace the historical trajectory of communication and development for social change as a discourse.
Democracy or Farce: Discourse about the 2000 US Presidential Election In Chinese Newspaper Commentaries and Internet Forum Comments • Weiqun Su, Minnesota • The purpose of research was to identify media discourses about the US 2000 presidential election in Chinese newspapers and the Internet forum. Three discourses were identified in newspaper commentaries and Internet forum comments: Election as news; Hopelessly flawed democracy; and democracy as a model system. Findings show that while the Chinese print media strictly convey Party ideology, the Internet allows some degree of departures from the Party line and seems to be nourishing dissident views.
Upholding Haitian Democracy or Vying for Public Support: The Framing of U.S. Intervention in Haiti, 1994 • Mustafa Taha, United Arab Emirates • This paper examines the framing of US. intervention in Haiti in 1994. It uses the framing theory to analyze the Clinton administration’s justification for the intervention. To put the White House frames in perspective, the paper juxtaposes of official frames against opposing frames that Republican Congressional leaders and media provided. To achieve this task, the paper relies on the Cable News Network (CNN) and the New York Times as representatives of media organizations.
Globalization and Communication: A Media-centric Framework • Brad Thompson, Pennsylvania State • This paper will explore the historical developments and transformations in communications methods and technologies to understand their role and effects in shaping the basic elements of societies.
Global Internet Diffusion: A Cross-National Study • Arun Vishwanath, Indiana University Bloomington • Extant research linking diffusion and culture is limited. This empirical study builds on propositions presented by Miatland (1998) and examines five hypotheses linking Hofstede’s (1980, 1991) cultural variables to the rate of diffusion of the Internet globally. The study found significant support for three hypotheses linking higher levels of individuality or individualistic behavior, lower power distance or decentralized societal structures and higher tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty to the rate of diffusion of the Internet.
“They Killed the Messenger”- An Analysis of Media and Framing of News in Mozambique • Muriel Visser, Florida State University • This paper examines whether and how media ownership influences news framing. A combined case study approach and content analysis is used to examine the profile of four newspapers in Mozambique and the manner in which the murder of a renowned Mozambican journalist, Carlos Cardoso, is portrayed in the Mozambican press. The discussion on framing is conducted in the light of current thinking about globalization and the role of local media.
Financial Journalism In Market Economies And Globalization: Implications For Journalism Education • Nailene Chou Wiest, University of Hong Kong • Financial Journalism, once practiced in the backwater of the newsrooms, has grown rapidly over the past 20 years, thanks to economic liberalization in many countries and globalization of the international capital. It has played a crucial mediating role in transmitting abstract economic and financial messages to the public. This paper will discuss the “market-enhancing” function of financial journalism in developing countries, the proposed regulation of financial journalists and the education of the practitioners.
U.S. Foreign Correspondents in the 21st Century: Issues and Implications • H. Denis Wu and John Maxwell Hamilton, Louisiana State University • This paper reports the findings yielded from a survey of U.S. foreign correspondents conducted in 2001. More foreign nationals are found to work for U.S. media. Europe remains to be the most common base for foreign correspondents. Most foreign correspondents can speak three languages: French, Spanish, and German. The impact of the Internet has also been observed: reporters have to file and update more often. Issues and implications of the changed demographics and work condition are discussed.
Is the Web a Cross-Cultural Medium? A Cross-Cultural Study of Web Portal Motivation in the United States and South Korea • Doyle Yoon, Fritz Cropp and Glen Cameron, Missouri • Attempts were made in this study to find motivation in using Web portals in the United States and South Korea. The analysis revealed five factors or motivation in using Web portals: familiarity, communicating / socialization, personalization, purchasing, and searching. Differences between five factors were examined in terms of Internet use in two countries. This paper addresses the implications by examining differences between data collected in the United States and South Korea.
Girls versus Women: Body Image Processing Among Korean Females • Tae-II Yoon and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia and Myoung-chun Lee, Chung Ang University, Seoul, Korea • Research on body image has neglected a number of factors that seem likely to influence individuals’ eating disorders. This study simultaneously examines the links among age, cultural factors, individuals’ intrinsic factors, media exposure, body image processing, and indicators of eating orders. Survey results from a sample of Korean middle school girls and college women confirmed the mediating role of body image processing on eating disorder indicators.
Framing Environmental Destruction on U.S. Army Camps in South Korea • Haejin Yun, Michigan State University • This study aims at examining the South Korean news media agenda on the U.S. army-related environmental destruction issue over the last 12 years, and the “us vs. them” meta-frame which the South Korean news media employed in reporting this bilateral conflict. Two U.S. army-related environmental incidents were found to be trigger events that related the U.S. army-related environmental destruction issue to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) revision issue.
Propaganda vs. the Market Economy: A Study of the Conglomeration of China’s Newspaper Industry • Ernest Y. Zhang and Brian S. Brooks, Missouri-Columbia • The conglomeration of China’s newspaper industry started in January 1996 with the establishment of the Guangzbou Daily Press Group (GDPG), China’s first newspaper conglomerate. Before that, almost none of the 2,180 Chinese newspapers were run in the style of Western newspaper conglomerates or chains. Because of when it was published, the famous book Four Theories of the Press by Fred Siebert et al. could not accurately define today’s Chinese press system.
From Human to Technology; From Political Propaganda to Image Management: An Ellulian Perspective on Paradigmatic Transition of China’s Propaganda Since Latter 1990s • Juyan Zhang and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri • In this study, Ellul Jacques’ theories of propaganda an technological society are applied to the ongoing media conglomeratization, booming media technology and the growing sociological propaganda in China. Results show that China’s propaganda is under a paradigmatic shift from depending on human organization to the dominance of media technology. Furthermore, the expanding sociological propaganda has complemented political propaganda to integrate the various propaganda dimensions. The study also demonstrates that international image management by the state has become a new dimension of China’s propaganda.
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