Episodic Coverage Research Articles

Blurring the Lines: Feature News Videos and Documentaries in a New Digital Age

Historically, feature stories in the news have been characterized by their timely and episodic coverage of current events. In comparison, documentaries have been known to be in-depth, thematic explorations of social, political, or cultural issues. As news organizations expand their multimedia offerings and documentary filmmakers are increasingly driven towards creating interactive content, the boundaries between these forms of storytelling have become increasingly unclear. Through a comparative analysis and literature reviews, this paper investigates the creative elements such as narrative structure, visual style, and authorial voice in feature news videos and documentaries have changed within the contemporary media ecosystem, and examines the evolution of non-fictional storytelling. The study situates this inquiry within the broader context of disruption and reimagination in journalism and non-fictional storytelling within our digital landscape. Ultimately, by examining the blurring of the lines between feature news videos and documentaries, this paper provides insight into the changing dynamics of truth-telling and meaning-making in the new media landscape.

US media coverage of housing and the Great Recession: Do inequality and race matter?

Housing is an issue that affects all individuals in society. People have first-hand experiences with housing, or the lack thereof, daily. Housing is also a macro-issue that is affected by and has implications for the nation’s economy and public policy. Despite the centrality of housing for individuals and society, few scholars have examined media coverage of the issue. We examine media framing of housing in the New York Times between 2005 and 2010, a period that encompasses the 2008 Great Recession. We investigate whether the New York Times framed housing episodically by focusing on individuals or thematically by focusing on societal factors. We compare framing of housing topics related to inequality – such as homelessness, affordable housing, foreclosure and public housing – to more general housing topics – such as mortgages, homeownership and economic policy. We also examine if frames differ depending on whether the coverage mentions racial minorities. We find that the New York Times framed housing primarily as a thematic issue during this period; however, for stories focused specifically on inequality and racial minorities, there was substantially more episodic coverage. This research provides the much-needed insight into news coverage of inequality and race in the context of housing and housing policy.

Complex Problems and Media Norms: Understanding Coastal Development and Ecological Impacts in Florida Through Discourse Analysis

ABSTRACT Media analysis has been applied to the complex challenges of development and urban sprawl, but to date no study examines how coastal development is understood in relation to critical marine and estuarine ecosystems. As anthropogenic pressures increasingly reshape coastal ecosystems, efforts to understand how problems and solutions are framed in public discourse are timely and valuable. We present a case study of media coverage and framing of development and the environment in Florida, USA, where coastal development and attendant consequences have been emergent for decades (n = 645). Findings explore how drivers of environmental change and the effects of environmental changes are discussed, what potential solutions are considered, and how actors and trade-offs are characterized. We identify two parallel but discrete narratives: one offering disjointed episodic coverage of particular development projects, and one providing larger-scale contextualized discussion of development and the environment more broadly. We discuss the implications for policy and collective action of the disconnect between these two narratives.

How the Agricultural Press Addresses the Slurry–Water Nexus: A Text Mining Analysis

Water pollution from intensive livestock husbandry is a persistent social-ecological problem. Since remedies require attention to the slurry–water nexus among practitioners, the agricultural press is a strategic entry point for agenda setting. Systematic content analysis can provide insights into how farming practices and sustainability issues are communicated, which may influence farmers’ attention to the issue and to potential solutions. To address this question, we present a semantic network analysis of three specialized farming magazines in Germany and analyze their coverage of the slurry–water nexus, in particular relationships of actors and issues and co-occurrence with political events. We used text mining methods in order to analyze a text corpus consisting of 4227 online articles published between 2010 and 2020. Results show that one fifth of all slurry-themed articles contained water-related content. We found a shift over time from dominantly management-oriented content towards a politicized debate with more actors and stronger semantic relationships with water protection constructed as an insulated stand-alone issue. This is accompanied by a shift from thematic reporting to episodic reporting focused on environmental legislation and compliance management. This implies less attention to innovations for water-conserving slurry management. Despite its shortcomings, episodic coverage may open up windows of opportunity to improve communication by experts and policy makers.

Analysis of News Coverage of Kashmir Crisis by Global News Channels After the Abolition of Article 370

This study analyzes the Kashmir conflict by little empirical work on Kashmir News after the abolition of Article 370. The purpose here is to identify the nature of news coverage by the global news media. For this purpose, 193 new stories were selected which were appeared at the web sources of three global news channels BBC, CNN, Aljazeera. This study primarily focusses on Content analysis of how CNN, BBC and AL JAZEERA designed Kashmir in their online news broadcasting with time frame of from 5 August to 30 September 2019 soon after the revocation of Article 370 while determining the difference in storytelling and the search for stories of information about Kashmir. By using an original coding program that extract on the coverage of Kashmir conflict, media effects and agenda-setting theories, the analysis is found that AL JAZEERA has heavily relied on episodic coverage and focued on international condemnation frame in its coverage than CNN which heavily focused on the Human-interest frame as well as BBC relied on the responsibility frame in its coverage related Kashmir. The study investigates the sources of the stories where AL JAZEERA cited government leader and official statements; CNN added journalists’ views whereas BBC heavily relied on their correspondents’ version. However, the investigation provides the insight into the worldwide media coverage of the issue and their view

The Chick Diffusion: How Newspapers Fail to Meet Normative Expectations Regarding Their Democratic Role in Public Debate

ABSTRACTMedia scholarship has commonly regarded newspapers as an essential element of strong democratic societies: a forum that structures public debate, providing engaged citizens with coherent frameworks to identify, interpret and tackle complex issues. Despite general agreement on the merits of this goal, there is little empirical evidence suggesting it approximates the democratic role historically played by newspapers. We examined three decades of newspaper coverage of chicken meat production in the UK to find evidence relevant to the normative expectations of the democratic role of newspapers as forum for public debate, by means of a two-stage framing analysis of 766 relevant articles from seven outlets. We found mutually disconnected episodic coverage of specific issues whose aggregate effect is consistent with the diffusion rather than the structuring of public debate. Newspapers here afforded polemic rather than the systemic contestation expected. The polemic contestation we found, with diffusion of public debate as an emergent political effect, troubles the assumptions subsequent to which it is possible to argue for the democratic role of newspapers.

Covering the Boko Haram crisis beyond the nation: Analysis of shifting time and space frames in news reporting

Through framing analysis, this article considers how two prominent Nigerian daily newspapers and two prominent United States daily newspapers have reported on the activities of Boko Haram during the period February 2014 to May 2015. The article finds that all four of these newspapers shifted how they framed the Boko Haram activities over the 16-month period, although with some differences. At first, the coverage focused on how the Boko Haram acts affected individuals directly caught up in singular attacks indicating an episodic coverage. This focus on individuals and the present events bolster great emotional support. Further reporting over the 16-month period suggested a shift to the society and then international level which was more contextual (thematic) indicating the wider social impact of terrorism. This therefore shows that the shift in framing of the crisis can be understood in three ways: from the episodic to the thematic, from the individual (through the societal) to the international level, and from the present (immediate) to the future implications of terrorism. The significance of identifying these shifts is to draw attention to framing as a lens to understand terrorism news expansion salience.

Mediating Political Mobility as Stunt-Girl Entertainment: Newspaper Coverage of New York’s Suffrage Hike to Albany

In December 1912, a group of women calling themselves suffrage pilgrims left New York City on foot and hiked 170 miles to Albany to urge the Governor-elect William Sulzer to pass a woman suffrage amendment. At a time when women’s mobility was restricted and transgressive, their hike sparked public condemnation and the media’s fascination. This research examines the newspaper coverage of their hike and argues that reporters tamed and ordered the threat of the suffragists’ political mobility by featuring their protest as entertainment that conformed to the popular genre of stunt-girl serials in the 1910s. Journalists domesticated the transgressive protest by serializing the political pilgrimage through episodic coverage that captured the hikers at moments of stasis and made the hike more legible for potentially threatened readers. The numerous articles depoliticized the hike and constructed the women’s feat as palatable entertainment and an impressive stunt that merited a just reward.

Reporting Demonstrations: On Episodic and Thematic Coverage of Protest Events in Belgian Television News

Media attention is a crucial political resource for protest groups. This study examines the description of protests in Belgian television news. Specifically, it analyzes the degree to which the coverage of protests is episodic (event- or exemplar-oriented) or thematic (issue-oriented) and looks into the factors that drive these coverage types. Protest event data from police archives (Brussels; 2003–2010) are combined with detailed measures of television news content (public and private broadcasting) to analyze media description (N = 564). The results show that the coverage of protest is primarily thematic. Episodic coverage is dominated by coverage about the details of the event; exemplars are rarely used. Protests that are disruptive, staged by organizations with low media standing, and covered by the commercial station are more event-oriented. Reports of large demonstrations and reports with follow-up items contain more episodic-exemplar coverage. Results are discussed in light of the conditionality of the protest paradigm.

The revolution that never took place: episodic framing of political repression and unrest in Egypt

The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of both the mass media and the social media in supporting the protesters in Tahrir Square in spring 2011, and to challenge the claim that the new social media created an alternative public sphere (Castells 1997) that empowered the Egyptian protesters by portraying them in a positive light, thereby precipitating ‘the end of a 30-year autocratic regime’ (Harlow and Johnson 2011).The distinction between episodic frames and thematic frames is crucial in this investigation: episodic frames being defined as those that depict public issues ‘in terms of concrete instances’ and thematic frames as those that place ‘public issues in some more general or abstract context’ and that present these issues in terms of ‘general outcomes and conditions’ (Iyengar 1991: 14). This episodic-thematic distinction suggests that episodic coverage of the Tahrir protests provided limited insight into the limited success of these protests, and that thematic interpretations did not provide sufficient insight into the endemic nature of repression in Egyptian society.

International Protest Events and the Hierarchy of Credibility: Media Frames Defining the Police and Protestors as Social Problems

The objective of the study is to contribute to the discourse about media by investigating frames and journalistic techniques used by the corporate mass media to establish boundaries for understanding police and protesters at the 2010 G20 Summit, any temporal changes, and the applicability of the hierarchy of credibility at this international protest event. Using data from 2009 to 2011 in two national and one local newspaper, a frame analysis seeks to uncover how the media frame behaviour and events, what are the primary and second definers of reality, and how the police and protesters are depicted as social problems. The findings suggest that media portrayals of the social actors are framed within an inferential structure that shifts from protester violence before the summits to police violence afterward. Episodic coverage and the decontextualization of people and events create the boundaries for discussion, through the use of the attribution-of-responsibility, conflict, economic-consequences, and human-interest generic frames in the areas of security, social problems, and controversy. We conclude that the results depart from previous research by suggesting a reconceptualization of the hierarchy of credibility. Within conflict and human interest frames, this crisis event destabilized the police as primary definers of crime in favour of citizens and protesters.

“Sexual Hyenas” and Programs for At-Risk Youth

This essay evaluates the relationship between commercial media representations and structural inequality through the lens of the recent Penn State scandal involving child abuse allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Specifically, the research provides two central lines of inquiry: first, detailing the power structures in a profitdriven corporate culture that make systematic child predation possible in large institutions like Penn State; and second, encouraging recognition that the routines and rules adopted by the U.S. commercial media system-including episodic coverage of isolated, sensational stories-often preclude meaningful coverage of corrupt institutions or systems. In concert, the two approaches provide a two-pronged call for commercial media: to stop presenting crimes like the one at Penn State as isolated events, and instead to provide crucial connections that permit media audiences to understand how power structures shape society and foster inequality.

Frame and Blame: An Analysis of How National and Local Newspapers Framed the Jena Six Controversy

This study analyzed local and national news-papers to determine how each framed the Jena Six controversy and to determine if either broke from traditional episodic coverage in framing crime and African Americans. Local papers more frequently put a human face on the issue, while national papers more frequently framed it as a moral wrong. However, unlike previous studies, this analysis found that both local and national papers used more thematic than episodic coverage, suggesting that sometimes the circumstances surrounding a crime can be so egregious that societal factors must be included in coverage.

News Frames Terrorism: A Comparative Analysis of Frames Employed in Terrorism Coverage in U.S. and U.K. Newspapers

Scholars have been increasingly concerned with portrayals of terrorism in mainstream and alternative media outlets following the September 11 and subsequent terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Spain. Communication researchers have examined public response and reaction to terrorist attacks, definitions of terrorism, policy questions, media portrayals of terrorism, and framing across different media and nations. This study undertakes a comparative framing analysis of media coverage of terrorism, as reported by prominent U.S. and U.K. newspapers, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Findings revealed that the U.S. papers engaged in more episodic coverage and the U.K. papers in more thematic coverage of terrorism and terrorism-related events. The U.S. papers were consumed with presenting news associated with the military approach, whereas the U.K. papers were oriented toward diplomatic evaluations of terrorist events.

Are we expecting too much from print media? An analysis of newspaper coverage of the 2002 Canadian healthcare reform debate

News media effects on their audiences are complex. Four commonly cited effects are: informing audiences; agenda-setting; framing; and persuading. The release in autumn 2002 of two reports on options for reforming Canada's healthcare system attracted widespread media attention. We explored the potential for each of the four media effects by examining Canadian newspaper representation of this healthcare policy debate. Clippings were gathered from regional and national newspapers. Two data collection methodologies were employed: the first involved two staggered “constructed weeks” designed to capture thematic news framing styles; the second collected “intensive” or episodic coverage immediately following the report releases. Health reform articles with a financing and/or delivery focus were included. Using a codebook, articles were coded to track article characteristics, tone, healthcare sector and reform themes, and key actors. A greater quantity of episodic ( n = 3 4 1 clippings) versus thematic coverage ( n = 7 7 ) was documented. Coverage type did not vary significantly by newspaper, reporting source (e.g., staff reporter versus staff editorialist) or article type (e.g., news versus letter). Thematic articles were significantly shorter in length compared to episodic clippings. Episodic coverage tended to have a positive tone, while thematic coverage ranged in tone. Most coverage was general in scope. Sector-specific coverage favoured physician and hospital care—the two providers accorded privileged financing arrangements under Canada's universal, provincially administered health-insurance plans. Coverage of healthcare financing arrangements favoured broad discussions of publicly financed healthcare, federal–provincial governmental relations, and the Canada Health Act that governs provincial plans. Governmental actors and the political institutions that they represent were the dominant actors. Professional associations were also visible, but played a less dominant role. Given its non-specific scope, it is unclear how informative this coverage was. The large quantity and short duration of the episodic coverage, and the preponderance of governmental actors, suggests these newspapers acted as conduits for the policy agenda. Differences in framing styles were observed by coverage type, newspaper, reporting source, article length and type of article. Finally, the dominance of governmental actors provided these actors with numerous opportunities to persuade the public.

Staff, Time, Space Constraints Limit Coverage of Children's Health Issues

A society's future well-being lies with health and well-being of its children. As gatekeepers of messages public receives, press plays pivotal role in influencing awareness of child-related issues1 and serves as foundation for public opinion about need for policy issues that promote interests on a variety of issues.2World Health Organization researchers and others have broadened definition of health issues by considering social determinants of that is, social and environmental factors that fundamentally influence health but are not traditionally defined as health issues in medical model. As examples, stories addressing nutrition or immunizations fit traditional definition of health reporting; whereas, stories about benefits of all-day kindergarten or affordability of day care may not. Yet non-traditional subjects influence long-term health status of children and adults.3While not mutually exclusive, traditional health stories typically invite day-to-day, episodic reporting; whereas, non-traditional stories require a comprehensive discussion of systemic causes, policy considerations or broad implications. By shifting from episodic coverage to contextual, analytic reportage on issues not traditionally defined as children's health, newspapers could provide a proactive approach to dealing with health issues and problems that affect lives of today's children and lay foundation for adult health status.4Literature ReviewGraber said media set public agenda by focusing attention on an issue, and they build public agenda by supplying the context (emphasis added) that determines how people will think about issue and evaluate its merits.5 Brewer and McCombs documented agenda-setting effects of ongoing coverage and found is considerable evidence for success of ... proactive agenda setting for issues.6Iyengar distinguishes between episodic and thematic formats, or frames, suggesting that episodic frame takes an event-oriented approach while thematic frame places issues in a general or abstract context.7 He concluded that episodic framing, which was predominant, led viewers to focus on individuals or groups in rather than deep-seated socioeconomic or political factors at work.8 Indeed, thematic frames provide in-depth, interpretive analysis9 because they portray issues more broadly and abstractly by placing them in some appropriate context.10Empirical research has found that a disproportionate amount of coverage in national and local media was devoted to episodic coverage of crime and violence while little coverage was devoted to contextual reportage of policy issues related to children.11 Kunkel concluded that media's coverage of crime and violence may displace other child-oriented coverage.12Researchers who examined media's thoroughness of coverage found that of five topics widely recognized as among most significant issues facing children, two topics-crime/violence and abuse/neglect-accounted for nine out of every 10 stories. Other issues-teen pregnancy, health insurance and child care-were consistently overlooked.13 Moreover, researchers said their most important finding was dramatically low rate at which stories about crime/violence or child abuse/neglect provided any contextual information that would help reader relate episodic, breaking news developments to broader societal patterns affecting well-being.14While much descriptive research has been done on media portrayal of issues, there has been little documentation of how journalists view difference between contextual, thematic reportage of social and environmental factors that influence health and traditional episodic coverage of health issues. …

Youth and violence on local television news in California.

This study explores how local television news structures the public and policy debate on youth violence. A content analysis was performed on 214 hours of local television news from California. Each of the 1791 stories concerning youth, violence, or both was coded and analyzed for whether it included a public health perspective. There were five key findings. First, violence dominated local television news coverage. Second, the specifics of particular crimes dominated coverage of violence. Third, over half of the stories on youth involved violence, while more than two thirds of the violence stories concerned youth. Fourth, episodic coverage of violence was more than five times more frequent than thematic coverage, which included links to broader social factors. Finally, only one story had an explicit public health frame. Local television news provides extremely limited coverage of contributing etiological factors in stories on violence. If our nation's most popular source of news continues to report on violence primarily through crime stories isolated from their social context, the chance for widespread support for public health solutions to violence will be diminished.