Comparative Media Analysis Research Articles

Media Influence on Adolescents Sex Education: A Comparative Analysis of Sex Education in China and Western Countries

The development of society leads to increased awareness of health issues, especially sex. Since sex-related issues are primarily emphasized during adolescence, adolescents become the major targeted audience of sex education, and sex education has obtained much attention in recent decades. There are several research discussing prominent discrepancies between sex education in different nations, however, few research steps into this domain from the perspective of media. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of media influence on adolescents sex education in China and western countries, which not only briefly introduces certain types of traditional media and new media but also discusses the status quo of media application respectively. The results of the comparison demonstrate that the media influence on adolescents sex education in China and the West mainly differs in the content and the approaches being used, while the perceptions of sex education and the negative impacts brought about by the application of media share some similarities. Furthermore, these results may attribute to two aspects, cultural background and the development of sex education.

Differentiation and unity: A Cross-platform Comparison Analysis of Online Posts’ Semantics of the Russian–Ukrainian War Based on Weibo and Twitter

The current Russian–Ukrainian War sparked a new wave of misinformation across social media. However, there is a lack of cross-platform research approaches around war events. This article followed the path of comparative media analysis. We used a three-step method from Triangulation theory and gathered 309,260 relevant posts from both the Twitter and Weibo platforms. We found that (1) Weibo posts are synchronized with Chinese mainstream media, and there is an “Amplification” phenomenon; Twitter posts are delicate and provocative from the perspective of individual encounters; (2) the topics of Weibo are “wide and scattered,” together to form a panoramic broadcast of the conflict. While topics of Twitter formed a condemnation around the invasion war; (3) the positive and negative emotion volume has gone through three stages: “Confrontation,” “Polarization,” and “Extension” with the development of the war. Finally, though the two social media fields present different characteristics, the call for humanitarianism and peace constitutes the unity of public opinion.

Looking in the Mirror: US and French Coverage of Black Lives Matter in France

We demonstrate how sociological theories of discursive opportunity structures illuminate key elements of US and French media coverage of Black Lives Matter (BLM) in France. Fundamental discursive differences between the two countries shape the visibility, resonance, and legitimacy of claims made on behalf of racially identified groups. A textual analysis of thirty-five articles from each country that discuss BLM and France published between 2015 and 2020 reveals that the US journalists commonly identify BLM activists as members of marginalized communities, interpret French circumstances as similar to the racial dynamics found in the United States, critique France's “republican” model of citizenship, and are relatively positively disposed toward BLM activity in France. By comparison, French coverage largely eschews identifying actors by racial identities, avoids or rejects comparisons with the United States, and at times contains implicit or explicit valorization of the French color-blind republican model, with some authors casting BLM as a product of the excesses of the American system. Our findings demonstrate the relevance of discursive opportunity structure theories to comparative media analysis, suggesting that coverage of race-based movements abroad may respond to different dynamics than coverage within the United States.

Laurie Anderson’s Transmedia Storytelling

Laurie Anderson’s Transmedia Storytelling

Colin Kaepernick, Tim Tebow, and the magic of comparison: muscular Christianity as white racial frame

ABSTRACT This article explores how muscular Christianity operates as a media frame for athlete religiosity and how the muscular Christian frame contributes to essentialist and racialised stereotypes about Black and white athletes, which in turn reinforce ‘common-sense’ assumptions around black and white religion that perpetuate and transmit white supremacist values. We present these findings starting from a critical comparative media analysis of athlete religiosity, articulated with respect to Colin Kaepernick and Tim Tebow. Our analysis produced two primary findings. First, while both Kaepernick and Tebow were framed as ‘muscular Christians’ by news media, this framing was racialised, constituting both athletes within what Feagin termed a ‘White racial frame’ (2013, 14). Second, the comparative media sub-discourse of a Kaepernick/Tebow comparison itself functioned to extend the white racial frame by essentializing Kaepernick’s protest as ‘Black Christian progressive’ action and dichotomising this as necessary and compatible with conservative white evangelicalism. The underlying ideas about muscular Christianity in these media representations are not neutral. Presupposing whiteness, they obscure the active construction of a white, masculine, (evangelical) Protestant religiosity against which other representations are measured, sometimes explicitly, but more often implicitly. The article concludes with implications for understanding the cultural politics of Kaepernick and Tebow, adding to extant ‘cultural backlash’ explanations.

Impacts of Political Discourse on Vulnerable Migrant and Refugee Communities: Comparative Media Analysis in Brazil, Mexico and Japan

Impacts of Political Discourse on Vulnerable Migrant and Refugee Communities: Comparative Media Analysis in Brazil, Mexico and Japan

Journalism Models in Western Democracies and the International Arena: The Case of the 2016 Failed Coup Attempt in Turkey

This paper explores the complex relationship between media and political systems in the context of the International News Flow, regarding the interdisciplinary research area between media study and International Relations. The focus is on International News Flow interactions and effects upon democratic political systems. The aim is to fill the gap concerning international relations in comparative media analysis literature. Despite using Hallin and Mancini's framework (2004, 2012), the present research does not only apply their typology to test its validity, but it also applies the main International Relations theoretical frameworks that deepen the relationship between media and political systems to shed light on the degree of superimposition between structure-based and content-based frameworks of media systems. The case study is the 2016 failed military coup in Turkey. In particular, in terms of coverage and analysis, the study considers how the newspapers of four countries (Italy, France, Germany and England), which represent the three democracy models of Hallini and Mancini – Mediterranean, Liberal, Corporative plus one that cuts across different models – framed the failed coup attempt in the days following the beginning of the crisis.

Fuelling the controversy on Uber's arrival: A comparative media analysis of Paris and Montreal

In the last decade, ride-hailing services and especially Uber – the most famous of them – have created a stir in urban mobility and its governance. Much has been written in the media, but not much of this media coverage has been analysed in the academic literature. The purpose of this paper is to understand the representations tied to Uber's arrival and how public opinion has been shaped. To do this, we analysed the media discourses generated by Uber's arrival in two cities: Paris and Montreal. We explored the role of media coverage in fuelling controversy on Uber and in influencing policy debate. The material consisted of 354 articles published in local newspapers between 2014 and 2016. We found extensive media coverage of street protests. The scale of the coverage reflected the intensity of the protests, which were more frequent and violent in Paris than in Montreal. The media functioned as an echo chamber for the taxi industry and also for Uber. Public opinion about Uber as shaped by the media was ambivalent. The media dramatised the controversy, pressuring policymakers to take a position. Policy responses have shown more flexibility towards ride-hailing in Quebec than in France.

News Reporting on Sun Yang and Horton: Framing Differences of Xinhua and Abc, Comparative Media Analysis and Nationalism

This study investigates different framing of Sun Yang and Mack Horton, and “drug cheat” based on media coverage in Xinhua News Agency and ABC. By analyzing 66 news articles from ABC and Xinhua News Agency, identifying five generic framing in reporting of Sun Yang and Mack Horton: conflict, human interest, economic consequence, morality and responsibility.

Hot off the press! A comparative media analysis of energy storage framing in Canadian newspapers

Energy storage (ES) is a keystone technology for advancing low-carbon energy transitions, yet energy system change continues to be influenced by socio-political acceptance of emerging innovations such as storage. An initial Canadian contribution to the social-scientific study of ES, we conduct a comparative media analysis of news coverage on storage technologies in the provinces of Alberta and Ontario. Applying the Socio-Political Evaluation of Energy Deployment (SPEED) framework, we analyse representations of ES risks and benefits in 143 articles drawn from top-circulating Canadian newspapers between 2007–2017. We then evaluate frame and narrative trends describing ES in these provinces. In doing so, we identify: (1) a generally optimistic national perspective on ES, despite regional variance in risk and benefit framing; (2) greater attention paid to high-profile, smaller-scale ES technologies; (3) a prominence of sustainability and transition narratives around ES; and (4) a positive temporal shift in ES discourse, reflecting changing regional energy priorities and Canada’s increasing commitment to clean energy development. Our findings provide insight on interprovincial differences in social perception on ES and identify possible drivers for these variations to help inform future ES research, deployment and policy strategies in Canada and other evolving national energy markets.

Are transportation network companies revolutionizing urban mobility? A comparative media analysis on Uber in Paris and Montreal

Les TIC, en particulier le smartphone, permettent d’acceder a de nouvelles opportunites de deplacement permises par des plateformes numeriques qui mettent en relation des passagers avec des chauffeurs occasionnels. Uber, une des plateformes numeriques les plus connues, est aujourd’hui presente dans plus de 700 villes a travers le monde. L’implantation de son service est controversee a l’echelle locale, notamment en raison de la concurrence jugee deloyale avec l’industrie des taxis. S’appuyant sur un corpus de plus 350 articles de presse, cet article analyse le discours local de l’arrivee d’Uber a Paris et a Montreal. Malgre des contextes locaux differents, les resultats soulignent de fortes similitudes dans les discours : Uber est une nouvelle offre de mobilite qui satisfait une demande tout en incitant la puissance publique a se positionner, notamment face a l’industrie du taxi.

Marxist Materialism and Critical Race Theory: A Comparative Analysis of Media and Cultural Influence on the Formation of Stereotypes and Proliferation of Police Brutality against Black Men

Using Marxist and Critical Race Theory frameworks to call codified culture into question, this essay explores how diverse modes of expression are crushed by the restraint of the individual and through a lack of variance that prohibits progress for Black males in American society. This essay critiques the capitalist structure that insists on the illusion of uniformity when it clearly benefits and operates from emphasizing difference. The article compares the impact of a consumerist frame of reference on career, residence, and material possessions; media technologies’ published messages and images that contribute to negative stereotypes; and the formation of style as an act of naming or resisting with regard to the proliferation of questionable and brutal treatment of Black males by law enforcement agents, in particular, and society, in general.

Comparative Analysis of Media. The Transformation of Relations between Script and Image - from Analogue Media to Interactive Environment

A digital communiqué operates with GUI not to depict, describe or structure the meanings but, above all, to transfer them. At the moment of clicking, that is, when a specific question is being asked by the user (customer), specific semiotically varied content is downloaded and displayed on the screen in accordance with the pre-designed, graphic template. Thus, graphical interface treats writing and image on the one hand as heterogeneous units – stored in databases, in a way that makes them quick and easy to find; on the other hand – heteronomous, that is, affecting each other at the level of presentation and manipulation of the message. Graphical edition skillfully combines the expectations of recipients concerning the access to the message: on the one hand – precise (along the lines of the language), on the other – economic, reducing (iconic), and it merges in this way two structures of reception, considered in our culture to be different. Pragmatic functionality of digital message is understood as accurate and synthetic mediation, which results in further analogous features from the level of semiotics and semantics, where the highlighted three planes of the communiqué circulate in the feedback loop.

The two-way flow of news: A comparative study of American and Chinese newspaper coverage of Beijing’s air pollution

This study compares newspaper coverage of Beijing’s air pollution in China and the United States (2008–2013). There are two aims: (a) to systematically compare how such a local environmental crisis has been reported across the two countries, and (b) to explore how the news coverage were produced under the influences of social systems and news flows between the two countries. Based on the hierarchy of influence theory, the content analysis reveals that US media covered the issue earlier, having more topics ‘politicizing’ the pollution, using more negative complaints as overall themes of the news articles, more US sources, and a noticeable number of Chinese NGO sources. By comparison, Chinese media reported pollution with more Chinese sources, more self-legitimizing overall themes in which topics regarding strategies and solutions of the pollution were emphasized; it also covered the issue with mild self-criticism. The results contribute to the literature of comparative media analysis between China and the US as well as the hierarchy of influence model by suggesting a two-way flow of news between the two countries.

Comparative Analysis of Media and Supplements on Initiation and Expansion of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells.

Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are being tested in clinical trials related to cell-based regenerative therapies. Although most of the current expansion protocols for ASCs use fetal calf serum (FCS), xenogeneic-free medium supplements are greatly desired. This study aims to compare the effect of FCS, human platelet lysate (hPL), and a fully defined medium on the initiation and maintenance of ASC cultures. ASCs obtained from five donors were cultured in five different media: StemPro, Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) supplemented with 10% hPL, or α-minimum essential medium (A-MEM) supplemented with 5% hPL, 10% hPL, or 10% FCS. The effect of media on proliferation, colony-forming units (CFUs), attachment, and morphology was assessed along with cell size, granularity, and immunophenotype. StemPro greatly compromised the initiation of ASC cultures, which could not survive more than a few passages. Cells cultured in A-MEM proliferated at a faster rate than in DMEM, and hPL significantly enhanced cell size, granularity, and proliferation compared with FCS. All media except StemPro supported CFUs equally well. Analysis of surface markers revealed higher levels of CD73 and CD105 in FCS-cultured ASCs, whereas increased levels of CD146 were found in hPL-cultured cells. Multiparametric flow cytometric analysis performed after seven passages revealed the existence of four distinct ASC subpopulations, all positive for CD73, CD90, and CD105, which mainly differed by their expression of CD146 and CD271. Analysis of the different subpopulations might represent an important biological measure when assessing different medium formulations for a particular clinical application.

Swim-up of tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) spermatozoa in Biggers, Whitter and Whittingham (BWW) medium: maximisation of sperm motility, minimisation of impairment of sperm metabolism and induction of sperm hyperactivation.

A variety of media were compared for their ability to sustain the motility of tammar wallaby spermatozoa over an 8-h period following swim-up from coagulated semen. The study demonstrated that a modified Tyrode's solution, Biggers, Whitter and Whittingham medium (BWW) was significantly better than any of the other assessed media in supporting wallaby sperm motility. After 8h of incubation in BWW, motility was maintained at 79.3±9.3%, with 77.0±10.4% rapid and 65.7±8.7% progressively motile spermatozoa. By contrast, motility was <10% at the same 8-h time point in all of the other media assessed. After 2h of incubation in BWW, tammar spermatozoa consumed more oxygen than their counterparts in PBS (52.0±2.7 vs 75.0±6.6μL per 108 spermatozoa per 2h; P<0.001). Motility was not enhanced in any of these media by the addition of 5mM N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, the major energy substrate in wallaby semen. However, addition of dibutyryl cAMP and pentoxifylline in BWW resulted in the extremely rapid induction of hyperactivated motility in the entire sperm population. This burst of hyperactivated motility was entirely dependent on calcium in BWW and significantly inhibited by calmidazolium, a calmodulin inhibitor. A set of computer-assisted sperm analysis parameters were identified that permitted the accurate quantification of hyperactivation rates in this species. This is the first comparative analysis of media for harvesting and incubating marsupial spermatozoa and the first record of hyperactivated motility in any marsupial species.

A comparative analysis of media reporting of perceived risks and benefits of genetically modified crops and foods in Kenyan and international newspapers.

We empirically examine the reporting on biotechnology in Kenyan and international newspapers between 2010 and early 2014. We identify news articles that reported on biotechnology and analyze their use of words to determine whether there is a balance in the reporting of perceived risks and benefits. We also consider how the sources used in news articles and how the publication of the Séralini study of rats fed genetically modified maize affect the balance of reporting of perceived risks and benefits. We find that in Kenyan news reporting, more articles mention perceived benefits than risks, but when risks are mentioned, new articles contain more references to risks than to benefits. We also find that sources affect the reporting of perceived risks and benefits and that the Séralini study increased the likelihood that perceived risks are reported in Kenyan news reporting, but not in international newspapers.

Comparative Analysis of Media Reach in Rural Area of Punjab

The study was undertaken to evaluate comparative analysis of media reach and its effectiveness in rural area of Punjab. One hundred respondents were interviewed randomly with a pre-tested questionnaire. The data were analyzed by one way ANOVA and differences in mean were assessed by using Turkey-b. The study revealed that television, radio and newspaper were accessible to 99%, 73% and 66%, respectively of the respondents with significantly (p<0.05) higher availability of television. The use of television for watching news, serials and agricultural programmes were significantly (P<0.05) higher where as radio has upper edge (p<0.05) in case of music listening. The 56% respondents thought mass media impacted both negative and positive on social and cultural values. About 60% (P<0.05) rural respondents considered television was most satisfying media while 15% felt it was radio, 19% voted for newspaper while 6% opted for internet. Therefore, from the present study it may be concluded that television is quite popular, effective and most satisfying mass media in rural area of Punjab.

Equity and REDD+ in the Media: a Comparative Analysis of Policy Discourses

Di Gregorio, M., M. Brockhaus, T. Cronin, E. Muharrom, L. Santoso, S. Mardiah, and M. Büdenbender. 2013. Equity and REDD+ in the media: a comparative analysis of policy discourses. Ecology and Society 18(2): 39. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05694-180239

Comparing public spheres: Normative models and empirical measurements

Most contemporary work on public spheres tends to adopt, either explicitly or implicitly, Habermas’s idea of a deliberative public sphere as a normative model. There are, however, a number of other normative models available that are rarely the subject of empirical scrutiny: republican, liberal and multicultural. This article poses the empirical question of whether actually existing public spheres more closely resemble one model rather than another. To answer this question, the authors develop ways to measure public spheres, at both national and transnational level. They ground this attempt to move comparative media analysis forward conceptually and empirically via a case study comparing media content about the EU Constitution in six countries.