Mainstream Media Coverage Research Articles

Interlopers by choice, or interlopers by circumstance? Alexey Navalny and alternative journalistic projects in contemporary autocratic Russia

In February 2024, Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny died in a Western Siberian prison aged just 47. Known as a vocal opposition leader in Russia in the 2010s, he was regularly trying to be elected but also organised the largest mass anti-establishment and anti-corruption protests in Russia before his untimely death. Deprived of access and coverage in the Russian mainstream media, Navalny and his associates established their own media channels, including personal YouTube channels and online media outlets such as Navalny LIVE to avoid censorship and expose the corruption and abuses of power of high-ranking officials in Russia. However, at the same time, Navalny and his colleagues cannot be labelled as ‘journalists’ in a normative sense. They were not professional journalists and had not gone through the processes of journalistic socialisation, but rather ‘tried on’ journalistic roles and investigative journalism practices to expose corrupt elites. In this sense, Navalny and his team can be called (explicit) interlopers who adopt journalistic identities and force a reconsideration of what journalists are and journalism is. In this study, we look at the case of Navalny and his team and their investigative documentaries on YouTube. We relate his practice to the journalistic concept of (explicit) interlopers, analyse how their unique and alternative journalistic project has diversified a largely monopolised and authoritarian Russian public sphere, and propose extending the notion of interlopers by differentiating between interlopers by choice, and interlopers by circumstance.

Tracing the Conflict Between Türkiye and Syria Through the Turkish Mainstream Media's Coverage of the Syrian President Bashar al‐Assad

The Syrian civil war began in March 2011 and spread throughout the country in April 2011. Therefore, in this study news articles and columns published in 2011 were selected and analyzed through purposive sampling. This study uses content analysis to examine the coverage of Syrian President Bashar al‐Assad in mainstream print newspapers with different ideological orientations in Türkiye. The theoretical framework of this study is based on the concept of localization of foreign news. The research has the potential to reveal both the transformation of the tone of media texts over time and the similarities and differences in the coverage of an international conflict by newspapers with different ideological orientations. Despite ideological differences, the study reveals similarities in the orientation of the newspapers studied toward local interests. The dominance of Turkish officials as news actors, the limited portrayal of Syrian security forces, and the selection of photographs reinforce the parallel stance with Turkish foreign policy. The media's tone toward Assad and Syrian politics became more negative and critical as the conflict escalated.

Australian foreign policy, the media and responses to mass atrocities

ABSTRACT This paper begins to put together a thus-far missing picture of the dynamics between Australian public opinion, media and foreign policy responses to genocide and other mass atrocities, in the Asia-Pacific and further afield. It examines key factors likely to influence these relationships, focusing on the role and significance of normative-ideational imperatives, such as Australian values and notions of ‘good international citizenship’ in Australia's foreign policymaking. To assess the centrality of these imperatives for the public and their implications for foreign policy, an exploratory study is conducted of Australian mainstream media's coverage of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar during 2016–2017. The findings point to striking normative omissions in the media's coverage and public and official deliberations over Australia's policy responses to the crisis. The essay discusses potential explanations for these omissions and highlights themes for further research arising from the study. These relate to the influence of political party bipartisanship on Australia's foreign policies, the importance of middle powers cooperation for international atrocity prevention, and the extent to which a focus on refugee intake and humanitarian aid might have substituted for discussions of more direct ways Australia could assist in halting the violence itself.

The Relationship Between News Coverage of COVID-19 Misinformation and Online Search Behavior

ABSTRACT The spread of health misinformation poses a threat to public health as it can influence individuals’ health beliefs and, potentially, behaviors, and their support for public health policies. The mainstream news media have the potential to inadvertently increase the salience of misinformation through their reporting. This study explores the agenda-setting effects of mainstream news media coverage on public salience of public health misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed the association between news media coverage and public salience – as measured by Google Trends relative search volume – of three different pieces of COVID-19 misinformation: (1) hydroxychloroquine is a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19; (2) the COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility; and (3) ivermectin is a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19. We plotted news coverage of each piece of misinformation against Google Trends relative search volume over time. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models were used to account for autocorrelation and analyze the relationship between the two time series. News media coverage volume was a significant predictor of same-day relative search volume for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. The relationship between news media coverage and searches for COVID-19 vaccines and infertility was not significant. These findings indicate mainstream news media coverage may contribute to the public salience of misinformation. Mainstream media outlets should contextualize their reporting on misinformation with verification from scientific consensus.

Research on the Image of Yanqing in Mainstream Media Coverage of the Winter Olympics

The successful hosting of large-scale sports events can assist in the construction and dissemination of urban media image, and enhance urban competitiveness. This article mainly takes news reports on Yanqing from three mainstream media outlets, namely People's Daily, Beijing Daily, and Beijing Evening News, during the Winter Olympics as research samples. Using methods such as content analysis, the article analyzes Yanqing's urban media image from multiple perspectives by analyzing the emotional color, coverage density, themes, and keyword frequency of news reports. It presents a good media image of Yanqing built at different levels such as government, environment, culture, and society during the Winter Olympics.

A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis of Chinese and American News Coverage on Climate Change

As the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) convened, the climate issue remained a focal point of coverage in both Chinese and American mainstream media. This paper seeks to explore the linguistic features of news discourse of climate change in China and the United States and the discursive strategy applied to strengthen national ideologies. Taking the reports on climate change in China Daily and Los Angeles Times within 2 months after COP27 as the research corpus, this paper examines the language features, the discursive processes of the text and possible social factors through a combination of corpus linguistics(CL) and critical discourse analysis(CDA) under the framework of Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Model of Discourse. The finding suggests that both countries enhance national ideologies by constructing a responsible national image through objective climate reporting. Chinese media tends to focus on national efforts to improve ecological environment and global cooperation, while US newspaper attaches importance to climate security and pursues a leading position in global ecological governance.

A Study of Environmental Organizations in Puerto Rico Advocating for Social and Environmental Justice

After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, we wanted to determine how the islanders viewed environmental organizations as part of an effort to understand the relationships between attitudes, institutions, and environmental and social justice issues. As a category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Maria was one of the strongest to hit Puerto Rico. Yet, the US mainstream media coverage of this and other environmental issues was lacking. From a total of 90 environmental organizations in Puerto Rico, we surveyed 19 that were active in the southwest of the island. We asked: (1) How do local people view environmental and social justice issues and (2) given their organizations’ efforts to deal with these issues, what are their successes? To address these questions, we developed a survey in English and Spanish and conducted personal and online interviews with 30 relevant individuals. Their most successful outcomes included: (1) educating and creating greater awareness of environmental issues; (2) introducing environmental changes into their communities; and (3) becoming and surviving as economically sustainable organizations. The results inform our understanding between environmental organizations and social and environmental justice in Puerto Rico and more broadly, because the organizations surveyed are at the center of fighting climate change and achieving environmental justice.

Going mainstream: Cryptocurrency narratives in newspapers

This paper quantifies mainstream media coverage of Bitcoin to understand how a once niche interest entered public culture. From 2011 to 2022, five key narratives are identified as criminality, culture, politics, price and technology. Price, politics, and culture have become more prominent in coverage while the technology narrative has waned. Coverage that is more political or cultural is associated with subsequently lower returns whereas the criminality narrative is associated with higher returns. Together this suggests that as narratives have become more mainstream, they have created additional demand, despite the negative association with criminal activity.

The Quality of COVID-19 Coverage: Investigating Relevance and Viewpoint Diversity in German Mainstream and Alternative Media

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic was a major challenge for journalism. In the case of Germany, critics very early on voiced concerns over the quality of mainstream media coverage. Mainstream media were attacked for the intensity of their coverage, for reporting too much and unnecessarily frightening audiences, for not presenting a diversity of viewpoints on the pandemic and the measures taken to mitigate it, and for being one-sided and too close to the government. Against this background, this paper examines the intensity and viewpoint diversity of the coverage of 13 mainstream and two alternative media in Germany in 2020 and 2021. Based on a comprehensive manual content analysis of almost 9000 news stories, we conclude that the mainstream media did not cover the pandemic in a fundamentally exaggerated or one-sided way. However, they did not always report intensively when the pandemic was particularly severe, and they tended to warn against the pandemic rather than criticize the measures taken. In contrast, alternative media coverage tended to be more one-sided and generally biased against government measures.

Presidential Authority and the Legitimation of Far-Right News

What position do far-right news outlets occupy in contemporary U.S. politics, and how did Trump use the power of the presidency to contribute to their rise among Republican legislators and mainstream American media? We posit that Trump’s position as president, in conjunction with his populist communication style that favored far-right outlets, contributed to the legitimation of such outlets. We first analyze Trump’s tweets during his presidency (January 2017–January 2021) mentioning three far-right outlets (One America News Network, Newsmax, and Breitbart), conceptualizing these messages as authority signals that symbolically lend legitimacy to the media sources. We then provide rich descriptive information regarding subsequent mentions of the far-right outlets in four national mainstream newspapers as well as appearances by GOP (Republican) members of Congress in the far-right outlets. We find significant and positive correlations between Trump’s tweets and mainstream media coverage of One America News Network (OANN) and Newsmax, and significant and positive correlations between Trump’s tweets and GOP Congressional interviews on OANN and Newsmax. Together, these results represent an example of presidential authority signals that bolster far-right outlets and aid in their legitimization among legislators and the mainstream press. The findings shed light on the role of political leaders in the recent mainstreaming of the far-right across many democratic countries.

Divergences between mainstream and social media discourses after COP26, and why they matter

Abstract UN climate conferences (COPs) have become powerful opportunities for driving public attention to climate issues and raising awareness via mainstream and social media coverage. While there is an abundance of studies examining various elements of the media arenas separately, there are currently no comparative analyses of how mainstream media outlets and social media opinion leaders react to and thereby shape discourses around COPs. Using Bourdieu’s field theory to conceptualize agents in the two arenas as ‘adversaries’, we use manual content analysis to compare reactions to the 2021 Glasgow climate conference (COP26) across the five top English-language online newspapers in Australia, India, the UK and the USA with those of prominent users and organizations on Facebook and Instagram. We find entirely different appraisals of the conference between the two arenas: Where the mainstream media outlets highlighted the progress of the summit, social media leaders were eager to criticize its failures and those of world leaders to take sufficient action. We discuss the implications of this divergence, specifically (i) the extent to which it hinders the cultivation of cohesive narratives about critical climate issues, and (ii) how the failure frame advocated by social media opinion leaders may de-legitimize international policy initiatives and undercut public support for and engagement with these efforts.

Examining media's coverage of COVID-19 vaccines and social media sentiments on vaccine manufacturers' stock prices.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a widespread public health and financial crisis. The rapid vaccine development generated extensive discussions in both mainstream and social media, sparking optimism in the global financial markets. This study aims to explore the key themes from mainstream media's coverage of COVID-19 vaccines on Facebook and examine how public interactions and responses on Facebook to mainstream media's posts are associated with daily stock prices and trade volume of major vaccine manufacturers. We obtained mainstream media's coverage of COVID-19 vaccines and major vaccine manufacturers on Facebook from CrowdTangle, a public insights tool owned and operated by Facebook, as well as the corresponding trade volume and daily closing prices from January 2020 to December 2021. Structural topic modelling was used to analyze social media posts while regression analysis was conducted to determine the impact of Facebook reactions on stock prices and trade volume. 10 diverse topics ranging from vaccine trials and their politicization (note: check that we use American spelling throughout), to stock market discussions were found to evolve over the pandemic. Although Facebook reactions were not consistently associated with vaccine manufacturers' stock prices, 'Haha' and 'Angry' reactions showed the strongest association with stock price fluctuations. In comparison, social media reactions had little observable impact on trading volume. Topics generated reflect both actual events during vaccine development as well as its political and economic impact. The topics generated in this study reflect both the actual events surrounding vaccine development and its broader political and economic impact. While we anticipated a stronger correlation, our findings suggest a limited relationship between emotional reactions on Facebook and vaccine manufacturers' stock prices and trading volume. We also discussed potential technical enhancements for future studies, including the integration of large language models.

An Analysis of the Sentiment and Impact of Mainstream Media Coverage of Chinese Tourists in the U.S. and China in the Aftermath of the COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping global travel, particularly affecting Chinese tourists in the U.S. and China. This study dives deep into how Chinese and American mainstream media portrayed the travels of Chinese tourists in 2023 by analyzing the sentiment and broader impact of the media portrayal surrounding Chinese tourists in both countries, post-COVID-19 outbreak. Doing so sheds light on how these media outlets shape our perception of Chinese tourists, depending on the cultural and national settings. Comparative analysis is used to examine the difference between China Daily and Voice of America in the news headlines on Chinese tourists from 2023. 109 China Daily reports and 59 Voice of America reports were analyzed. Sentiment analysis is used to explore emotional attachments in mainstream media that are rooted in cultural, social and discursive contexts. By digging into the content, the researchers grasp a fuller picture of the experiences and hurdles faced by Chinese tourists. Moreover, this analysis prompts us to contemplate the fairness and impartiality of media coverage, offering valuable insights for reflection. The study finds differences in news coverage between Chinese and U.S. media about Chinese tourists, impacting China’s image and the tourists’ perception.

Cancelling “Effeminate” Men: Discursive Constructions of the Masculinity in Mainstream Media Coverage in China

In response to the trend of Chinese men becoming more “effeminate”, the Chinese government has successively introduced relevant policies to promote masculinity, accompanied by extensive media coverage. Against this background, the study takes the mainstream news media’s portrayal of masculinity as the research object, attempting to deconstruct the discourse concerning masculinity in China. The study draws on coverage of masculinity in mainstream media as data, utilizing the method of critical discourse analysis. It is found that the discourse structure surrounding masculinity in China’s mainstream media mainly concentrates on three aspects. First is the diversification of Chinese masculinity, reflecting the influence of neoliberalism on males, and a call for an understanding of diversified masculinity. Secondly, masculinity in China is also constructed on the discourse of gender conflict, primarily based on the gender binary and the ideology of maintaining traditional gender roles. Lastly, there is a tendency towards politicization of masculinity in China, where it is utilized in the service of national security and strength. By examining how and what kinds of discourses of “masculinity” are constructed, this research can contribute to the studies of masculinity in China, and further explain the issue of societal acceptance of effeminate men.

Indigenous sport nationalism, settler borders, and (in)convenient solutions: media framing of the 2010 Iroquois Nationals passport dispute

ABSTRACT This study examines mainstream media coverage of the Iroquois Nationals’ withdrawal from the 2010 men’s World Lacrosse Championship as a result of failing to meet the requirements of US and UK immigration authorities. While the team’s refusal to use either US or Canadian passports in international travels raised important questions about Indigenous sovereignty in settler states, mainstream media largely framed the incident as an issue readily resolvable by short-term bureaucratic and technical solutions. The findings shed some light on the limitations of this coverage but also highlight the value of sport as a site where the underlying tensions within settler colonial states manifest.

From Starmer's scuffle to the Siege of Ottawa: the resistible rise of the anti-vaxxers

This article discusses the energy and aggressiveness of the campaigns against mitigating transmission of Covid-19 during the pandemic, and especially against vaccination. These campaigns have brought anti-vaxx sentiments into the limelight with a vengeance. The aim of the article is to seek a better understanding of the forms that the contemporary anti-vaxx movements can take and what is fuelling them. It has three parts. The first describes recent anti-vaxxer actions in the UK, France, Austria and Canada, highlighting the siege of Ottawa. The second part draws on the history of anti-vaxx movements in the UK and the USA for insights into their militancy; and in the third part there is an exploration of ideas about what makes anti-vaxx platforms so attractive and who is drawn towards them. Countering anti-vaxxer propaganda requires an understanding of the pathways by which the information spreads. False narratives will move from anti-vaccine echo chambers to mass audiences via social-media sharing, as well as coverage in local and mainstream media. Countering this misinformation all along the pathway requires a whole-of–society effort that is multifaceted, tolerant of short-term setbacks, and persistent even in challenging conditions. The NHS faces the whole of society. Could it, in its present state, be the vehicle for engaging the anti-vaxxer movements?

“Let the tournament for the woke begin!”: Euro 2020 and the reproduction of Cultural Marxist conspiracies in online criticisms of the “take the knee” protest

ABSTRACT Exploring online criticisms of the “take the knee” protest during “Euro 2020”, this article examines how alt- and far-right conspiracies were both constructed and communicated via the social media platform, Twitter. By providing a novel exploration of alt-right conspiracies during an international football tournament, a qualitative thematic analysis of 1,388 original tweets relating to Euro 2020 was undertaken. The findings reveal how, in criticisms levelled at both “wokeism” and the Black Lives Matter movement, anti-white criticisms of the “take the knee” protest were embroiled in alt-right conspiracies that exposed an assumed Cultural Marxist, “woke agenda” in the tournament’s organisation and mainstream media coverage. In conclusion, it is argued that conspiratorial discourses, associated with the alt-right, provided a framework through which the protest could be understood. This emphasises how the significance of conspiracy functions to promote the wider dissemination of alt-right ideology across popular cultural contexts, such as sport.

Digital Pseudo-Identification in the Post-Truth Era: Exploring Logical Fallacies in the Mainstream Media Coverage of the COVID-19 Vaccines

Because of China’s new wave of COVID-19 in May 2023, the issue of tackling COVID-19 misinformation remains relevant. Based on Lippmann’s theory of public opinion and agenda setting theory, this article aims to examine the concept of digital pseudo-identification as a type of logical fallacy that refers to supporting journalists’ opinions with ‘false’ arguments that lack factual evidence. To do so, the study applied computer-aided content analysis, as well as rhetorical and critical discourse analyses, to examine 400 articles related to four COVID-19 vaccines (‘Oxford-AstraZeneca’, ‘Pfizer-BioNTech’, ‘Sputnik V’ and ‘Sinovac’) published on the online versions of two major British and American mainstream media sources between August 2020 and December 2021. The results of the study show that journalists of the ‘The New York Times’ and ‘The Guardian’ used similar logical fallacies, including the opinions of pseudo-authorities and references to pseudo-statistics and stereotypes, which contributed to creating distorted representations of the COVID-19 vaccines and propagating online misinformation. The study also reveals political bias in both of the mainstream media sources, with relatively more positive coverage of the European vaccines than non-European vaccines. The findings have important implications for journalism and open up perspectives for further research on the concept of digital pseudo-identification in the humanities and social sciences.

On the Eve of the Authoritarian Turn: Mourning the Lives of the “Terrorists”

ABSTRACT On 14 August 2013, Egyptian security forces killed hundreds of supporters and sympathizers of the Muslim Brotherhood in two squares of Egypt's capital Cairo: Rab‘a al-‘Adawiyya and al-Nahda. Those killed had protested against the military coup that ousted President Mohamed Morsi. The state's propaganda machine and the media connected to Egypt's influential business people designated those killed as terrorists. Human rights organizations paint a grim picture of the decade of authoritarian rule. In the regime's rhetoric, the fight against terrorism justifies the continued crackdown on Egyptian civil society movements and opposition. Again this year, the anniversary of the Rab‘a al-‘Adawiyya and al-Nahda massacres is likely to receive little coverage in the country's mainstream media. While the voices of those opposing the military coup in 2013 in Egypt are long silenced, on the massacre's tenth anniversary, it is time to recall an alternative to the narrative of the Egyptian state. Participants of a women's Quran reading group in one of Cairo’s impoverished neighborhoods questioned the military coup in 2013 and anticipated what was to come.

Media views in Indonesia on the belt and road initiative policy : a study of Indonesian new media reports to the BRI project of China in Indonesia

The pros and cons of the project of BRI in Indonesia cannot be separated from mainstream and online mass media coverage in Indonesia. In the coverage, there is a framing to build a story so that the influence of journalists is so great that the news is read by the public. In addition, the informant factor as well as ideology influence the news statements that appeared in the media. This research focuses on how the construction of the mass media coverage in Indonesia, especially the new media (online news) related to the cooperation between Indonesian and Chinese government in the BRI project. The research uses a qualitative descriptive approach and framing analysis. The research object is the official portal of online news such as Media Indonesia.com. Republika.com Kompas.com, and Jawapos.com. Based on the results of research and discussion, it can be concluded that the framing of online media coverage Kompas.com, mediaindonesia.com, jawapos.com and Republika.com have differences. Kompas.com and jawapos.com put more emphasis on scientific and intellectual language because both of their readers have a better level of education and economics. Whereas republika.com and mediaindonesia.com tend to use straightforward and simple language. Kompas.com and jawapos.com lead opinions to think critically with data while republika.com and mediaindonesia.com leads the public to see the implementation of Indonesia's and China economic cooperation programs in the BRI project.