Sourcing and Framing Analysis of Source Messages in the Coverage of Armed Conflicts by American and British Foreign Reporters

Abstract

This dissertation contributes to closing several gaps in mass communication scholarship as well as indicates new avenues for further research in the area of sourcing and framing. This study explored whether reliance on official sources in foreign reporting of international crises is as heavy as the hypothesis predicts, and, by studying messages delivered by official sources in this coverage, revealed how those messages were framed. The results showed that officials were dominant sources of information in all the three media outlets studied. The results also supported the argument that the same indexing mechanisms are at force in foreign reporting and apply not only to American officials or American media but foreign officials and other media markets as well. In all the media outlets under scrutiny messages delivered by American officials appeared most frequently. The analysis of the message frames revealed a sharp division based on which official source delivered them. Russian and Crimean officials named the same causes, provided same evaluations and suggested same remedies. On the other side were Western and Ukrainian official sources who named opposite causes, provided opposite evaluations and suggested different remedies to those voiced out by Russian and Crimean officials.