Press Coverage Research Articles

Megaprojects in austerity times: Populism, politicisation, and the breaking of the neoliberal consensus

Drawing on the literature on neoliberalism and populism this paper examines the potential of contentious politics that target iconic megaprojects for promoting societal politicisation and effectively challenge the neoliberal consensus over the necessity of sustained growth and competitiveness, in a context of enduring austerity. Using the case of Valencia as an entry point, it looks at how, just as decision makers and global architects alike had mobilised iconic megaprojects and events to generate consent for the city’s neoliberal urban policy, opposition movements, with less economic resources but in innovative ways, provided an alternative narrative to interpret the urban policy and its social consequences. Empirically, this paper draws upon 35 semi-structured research interviews and a press coverage analysis of national and regional newspapers. Interviews were conducted with urban environment professionals, members of business associations, members of political parties, elected politicians, journalists, community representatives and members of the social movements involved. From both theoretical and empirical perspectives, the case of Valencia raises important questions regarding the potential of populist strategies to foster politicisation and challenge the neoliberal post-political consensus.

The impact of key audit matters on goodwill accounting and investment behavior: Evidence from China

This study investigates whether key audit matters (KAMs) in audit reports impact accounting for goodwill impairment and investors' decision-making. Using a matching-based difference-in-difference estimator, this study finds that small audit firms fail to compel managers to promptly impair goodwill but cause further price distortion from goodwill inflation under the KAM reporting model. Additionally, negative press coverage improves the effectiveness of KAMs disclosed by small audit firms in goodwill accounting. Finally, KAMs disclosed by small audit firms will only mislead non-professional investors. This study extends the existing research on the association between audit reports, specific reporting quality, and resource allocation in the capital market.

Emma Goes to the Arctic

This article tells the story of Emma Burnham Dresser's 1931 voyage on the Soviet icebreaker Malygin. Emma was not interested in Marxism or social experimentation. Nor was she fleeing discrimation or religious persecution.  Instead, she wanted an exotic experience; hence, Emma's story introduces a new kind of traveler to the scholarly literature on the history of tourism to the Soviet Union: the wealthy socialite looking for her latest adventure.  By focusing on contemporary press coverage of the trip, we can also see how American interpretations of it differ from the narratives offered by Soviet media, and how Emma's actions defied American conceptions of the Arctic as a space where men went to prove their masculinity.  

The Capital Market Effects of Centralizing Regulated Financial Information

ABSTRACTWe study the capital market effects of information centralization by exploiting the staggered implementation of digital storage and access platforms for regulated financial information (Officially Appointed Mechanisms, or OAMs) in the European Union. We find that the implementation of OAMs results in significant improvements in capital market liquidity, consistent with the notion that OAMs lower investors' processing costs. The findings are more pronounced when processing costs are high to begin with, that is, when firms (1) are small and receive low business press coverage and (2) have high levels of retail ownership. We then identify a mechanism through which centralization facilitates capital market effects: information spillovers. First, we find that liquidity improvements are larger when OAMs have features that easily allow investors to search for peer firm information. Second, liquidity improvements are larger for firms with a high share of industry peers operating on the same OAM and for firms with a high share of small, low‐coverage peers on that OAM. Third, around the annual report release dates of peer firms, focal‐firm liquidity improves and focal‐peer stock return synchronicity increases. Overall, our evidence suggests that, even in a modern information age, information centralization improves capital market liquidity and facilitates the acquisition and use of peer firm information.

An Experiment on the Press Coverage of Child Sexual Abuse: Can Readers Differentiate Between Good and Bad Reporting?

ABSTRACT News reporting on child sexual abuse (CSA) plays an important role in educating the public and fighting sexual violence, according to the public interest model of normative media theory. Bad reporting, however, is widespread and hinders a solution-oriented approach. Against this backdrop, the current study investigated which normative and subjective criteria are used by readers when they assess the quality of CSA newspaper reporting (RQ1). Furthermore, it was tested if readers can differentiate between good and bad CSA reporting quality (RQ2) and if their personal involvement in the topic—concerning victimization, exposure to CSA reporting, CSA knowledge—influences assessments of journalistic quality (RQ3). An experimental online study with a national quota sample of N = 2724 adults (18–65 years; M age  = 44.1; 52.5% women) from Germany was conducted in 2020. The study is preregistered and further materials are shared on osf.io. It turned out that readers mostly used the normative criteria to assess CSA reporting quality that are suggested by the academic literature (RQ1). Readers were able to differentiate between CSA reporting with high versus low journalistic quality (RQ2)—irrespective of their own CSA victimization (RQ3). Readers rated bad reporting as mediocre, though, indicating potential unawareness of certain quality issues.

A decade of PrEP: the evolution of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis content and sentiments in South African print news media, 2012–2021

After nearly a decade of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) rollout in sub-Saharan Africa, there has been limited study of PrEP messaging in news media. We selected twenty South African newspapers with the highest circulation volumes to retrieve articles published in 2012–2021 mentioning PrEP (N = 249). Using inductive content analysis, we developed a structured codebook to characterise PrEP-related content and sentiments, as well as their evolution over time, in the South African press. Many articles espoused favourable attitudes towards PrEP (52%), but a sizeable fraction espoused unfavourable attitudes (11%). Relative to PrEP-favourable articles, PrEP-unfavourable articles were significantly more likely to emphasise the drawbacks/consequences of PrEP use, including adherence/persistence requirements (52% vs. 24%, p = .007), cost (48% vs. 11%, p < .001), and risk compensation (52% vs. 5%, p < .001). Nevertheless, the presence of these drawbacks/consequences in print media largely declined over time. Key populations (e.g. adolescents, female sex workers) were frequently mentioned potential PrEP candidates. Despite message variations over time, prevention effectiveness and adherence/persistence requirements were the most widely cited PrEP benefits and drawbacks, respectively. Study findings demonstrate the dynamic nature of PrEP coverage in the South African press, likely in response to PrEP scale-up and real-world PrEP implementation during the study period.

From Fritzl to #MeToo: twelve years of rape coverage in the British press

From Fritzl to #MeToo: twelve years of rape coverage in the British press

Photorealism versus photography. AI-generated depiction in the age of visual disinformation

ABSTRACT In the spring of 2023, we witnessed a breakthrough in the development of AI-generated images accessible to the general public. Pictures of Pope Francis wearing a stylishly long, white puffer jacket or driving a motorcycle down a busy street went viral. The same thing happened with AI-generated pictures fabulating over what the press coverage of an imminent arrest of former US President Donald Trump would look like. Amnesty International used AI to generate images to mark the second anniversary of police violence against protesters in Colombia. Boris Eldagsen turned down an award for Best Creative Photograph from the Sony World Photography Awards, announcing that it had been generated with AI. Critical reactions in the public were not long in coming. The use of AI to generate images was discussed with sometimes shrill words and phrases such as fake, fraud, a threat to photography’s credibility, and fake news. This article seeks to intervene in this crisis-oriented debate by proposing three analytical moves: First, we need a concept of photorealism that is kept separate from the idea of photography. Secondly, we need a conceptual distinction between two basic functions of photography: depiction and detection. In addition to this primary distinction between image functions, the article proposes a third move to introduce a function-oriented genre concept. Through an interdisciplinary approach to photorealism, photography, and genre, these three analytical measures are presented and examined step by step and discussed through analyzes of concrete and recent examples of AI-generated and AI-enhanced publicly available images in today’s society. Today’s crisis-oriented public debate about AI images serves neither democracy, art, journalism, nor photography. The purpose of the article is to contribute a simple and, at the same time, useful analytical tool in these discussions about the relationship between photography and current and future image technologies.

Framing Strategies for the Populist Coverage: Exploring Press of India and Pakistan

This research paper examines the framing of political news coverage in Pakistan and India, focusing on the prominent English-language newspapers Dawn and The Hindu, respectively. Utilizing content analysis of news spanning pre-election and post-election periods, the study reveals significant variations in framing strategies employed by the two newspapers. Dawn exhibits a notable emphasis on anti-elite frames, particularly during electoral phases, while allocating comparatively fewer news stories to people-centric framing. In contrast, The Hindu demonstrates a more consistent approach, The distribution of coverage differs, with Pakistan showing heightened scrutiny of political conduct prior to elections and increased focus on Government Execution in post-election. Furthermore, there is a noticeable shift towards negative tone in post-election coverage, reflecting public expectations for accountability and governance effectiveness. These findings underscore the dynamic nature of press coverage in shaping public discourse and highlight the evolving priorities and concerns within the political landscapes of Pakistan and India. Keywords: Populism, Framing Strategies, populist leaders, General Election India, General Election Pakistan

The first press release about the meetings of football teams in Mykolaіv

Local periodicals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were studied. and local history literature from the funds of the State Archive of the Mykolaiv Region, the National Library of Ukraine named after V. I. Vernadskyi, the Odesa National Scientific Library, and the Mykolaiv Regional Universal Scientific Library to find out the history of the beginning of the game of football in Mykolaiv. In the shipbuilding city of Mykolaiv, which was previously closed to foreigners, where the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Empire was located, the possibility of commercial ships entering began in 1862, when the Commercial Port was opened with permission for the entry of foreign ships to visit and stay in the city of foreigners. Mykolaiv became one of the important ports for grain trade, where many foreign representative offices and banks were opened, commercial shipbuilding began to develop, and the cultural life of the city intensified. According to later local studies, it was established that, based on the memories of contemporaries, the first football meetings in Mykolaiv were started at the end of the 19th century. foreign sailors of merchant ships. Having adopted football traditions from foreigners, in 1901–1902 the teams of the city gymnasium and real school played football, and from 1906, the teams of the mechanical and technical school. At this time, street and district city football teams are created. Despite the fact that the first friendly meetings of football teams took place at the end of the 19th century, reports about the matches appeared in the local press only at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1908, Charles Bate, an employee of the bread office, organized the "Zebra" team, which played with foreigners and teams from educational institutions and sports clubs both in Mykolaiv and Odesa. Football matches took place on adapted sites, first near the Commercial Port, and later in different areas of the city. The referees of the matches were elected collegially from representatives of both opposing teams. Football matches were played according to English rules. The game of football at the time of its coverage in the local press was popular among the townspeople, especially among the youth of educational institutions, intelligentsia, and port workers. Newspaper articles cite examples of the presence of a significant number of spectators and fans, in connection with which the police had to be called in to maintain order. Local periodicals published not only announcements about scheduled meetings of football teams, notes with analysis of matches and their results, but also training schedules and sportsmen's runs around the city. Press publications announcing scheduled meetings, emotions from matches, the opportunity to observe and participate in joint training with popular athletes in the city contributed to the spread of football in the city. Most often, notes about football matches were printed by the "Nikolaevskaya newspaper", popular among the townspeople, with which a sports journalist probably cooperated, who did not indicate his surname or sign his authorship with the cryptonym Z-a.

Stories of digital sexual assault: an analysis of victim positions in news media

ABSTRACT Digital sexual assault, the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, is becoming an increasingly debated topic leaving victims and survivors to negotiate a large number of stories about and representations of digital violence in the public sphere. This article investigates the construction of victimhood in the Danish press coverage of digital sexual assault. The study shows that victims’ stories and perspectives are under-represented in public discourse, and further analysis of selected media articles leads to the identification of five dominant victim positions: 1) The innocent girl; 2) The forever-ruined victim; 3) The greedy, guilty victim; 4) The local, working-class victim; and 5) The heroic victim. These victim positions frame victims either as passive or as responsible for the assault, its consequences, and their own recovery. It is the conclusion of the study that the public media’s construction of victimhood lacks nuance and diversity and risks marginalizing victims and their experiences of digital victimization.

Emerging economies in business news: Repositioning leaders in the Global South

Drawing from nation-branding as a recent development in contemporary globalization, and new middle power theory that examines hierarchies of nations, we used thematic textual analysis to examine business press coverage of the IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) consortium for business news representations and the positioning of IBSA nations in the global arena. Analysis of coverage in India’s The Financial Express, Brazil’s Valor Econômico and South Africa’s Business Day revealed that regional economic leadership, strengths in trade and technology, development aid and the consortium’s collective engagement in global activism inform the business press’ positioning of the IBSA countries as new middle powers.

Journalists’ Apprehension of Being Politically Correct: A Source of Racial Stereotyping of Street Harassment Perpetrators in the Press

ABSTRACT While racialized stereotyping in mass media is well-documented, sociological analysis of the journalistic practices and norms contributing to the production of such representations remains underdeveloped. We study these by analyzing media reporting on street harassment in the Netherlands, which frequently mentioned the racialized profiles of perpetrators. Existing research has proposed two major causes of racialized stereotyping in the press: (1) journalists’ passive and unreflective reproduction of popular racialized stereotypes and (2) commercialization of the press as favoring the provocative racialized discourse of right-wing populists. Based on content analysis of press coverage and interviews with Dutch journalists and the actors they reported on—politicians, activists, and others involved in the public problem of street harassment—we identify apprehension of political correctness as a third cause of racialized framings in the press. Specifically, we show how many journalists considered addressing the question of whether racialized men are overrepresented as perpetrators to be a way of avoiding complicity with politicians and other powerful actors who allegedly avoid sensitive questions about race and migration. This article proposes a theory of “apprehension of political correctness” as a contribution to scholarship on journalistic practice and racialized stereotyping in the press.

여성 대상 범죄 보도 프레임 : 2014년 성폭행 사건 언론 보도로 인한 손해배상 판결 전후의 비교

여성 대상 범죄 보도 프레임 : 2014년 성폭행 사건 언론 보도로 인한 손해배상 판결 전후의 비교

Fashioning Zaya Wade in the Press: Authenticity, Black Femininity, and Transnormativity

Since Zaya Wade came out as transgender, she has continued to take up prominence in popular culture and press coverage of Zaya has centered on her fashion. In this article, we analyze press coverage of Zaya to examine the intersections of Blackness, femininity, trans identity, and child celebrity. Building on scholarship about trans representation and performing Black femininity in popular media, we focus our attention on how Zaya is presented as authentic—a core theme in this scholarship. In our analysis, we illustrate how these representations appear seemingly positive by shedding light on Zaya's unique perspectives about family, beauty, and activism. Yet, we find the press coverage only promotes Zaya's unique identity to the extent her performance of authentic Black femininity upholds transnormativity. This article unpacks how authenticity is used as a strategy of transnormativity that is animated by Zaya's Blackness, femininity, and status as a child celebrity and activist.

Analisis Hukum dan Etika terhadap Tanggung Jawab PERS di Masyarakat Indonesia

The text discusses the rules and ethics of journalism, focusing on guiding individuals or groups in managing the behavior of the press, broadcasting, and mass media from the process of news gathering, writing, composition, and dissemination. The research methodology used in this study is Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to determine the most appropriate method. The research applies three stages: planning, implementation, and analysis of the results, which analyze the results of the Literature Review conducted by the author. Based on the research results and discussions regarding the analysis of Indonesian press law and ethics in being accountable for press coverage that can trigger conflicts in society, it can be concluded that reporting that can trigger conflicts in society is through the right of reply (Article 5 paragraph [2] Press Law) and the right of correction (Article 5 paragraph [3] Press Law).

Lies Have Short Legs: Brazilian Media Exposes Bolsonaro's Deceptive Claims Amidst Misinformation Surge

In an era marked by widespread misinformation and declining trust in institutions and journalism, the deceptive statements made by former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro have gained significant attention. However, it was only in the second year of his term, during the COVID-19 pandemic, that news outlets actively began to expose and denounce his false and misleading claims. This article presents a content analysis comparing press coverage of the following four pivotal moments in the Bolsonaro administration during the pandemic: his speech at the UN General Assembly in 2020, his national radio and TV address in March 2021, his speech to ambassadors in July 2022, and his interview with Jornal Nacional, the most-watched news program in Brazil, in August 2022. By examining articles and headlines from the country's three most prominent newspapers, including two leading fact-checking agencies, this study reveals a shift in media discourse with the term 'lie' being increasingly used. Our hypothesis is that journalism is striving to reclaim its role as a trustworthy institution.

Under the spotlight: How media coverage impacts shareholder activism campaigns

This study provides novel evidence on the strategic role of media coverage in influencing shareholder activism campaigns. Analyzing a comprehensive dataset of activist interventions from 2000–2014, we find activists strategically target firms with high levels of recent business press coverage, especially negative coverage. These findings support theoretical predictions that activists prefer transparent, poorly performing firms. We also find a positive association between pre intervention press coverage and the likelihood an activism campaign receives coverage. This “sticky” media coverage effect suggests activists target visible firms to increase campaign exposure. Finally, using propensity score matching and regression analysis, we show activist campaigns receiving press coverage have significantly higher announcement returns, underscoring a key benefit of media coverage for activists. Overall, our results highlight the important interplay between media coverage, shareholder activists, and capital markets. The findings should interest managers seeking to assess activism risk and activists aiming to maximize campaign impact.

The Late Nineteenth-Century North American Catholic Schools Question: Tangled Disputes over Catholic Public Education in Manitoba and Minnesota

Abstract: Debates over the role of the state in Catholic education rocked both the United States and Canada during the early-to-mid 1890s. Arguably the two most famous of these disputes—the “Manitoba Schools Question” (1890–1897) and the “Faribault Plan” (1890–1893) in Minnesota—unfolded alongside one another in neighboring polities. Both centered on whether Catholic schools could receive taxpayer funding and whether they should be recognized as public institutions. This article explores cross-border press coverage of them to demonstrate their deep top-down and bottom-up ties. It argues they represent two sides of a broader, intertwined late nineteenth-century North American Catholic Schools Question.

“A Desirable Class of Homeseekers”: Colonization, Race, and Italian Migration in the Progressive Era US South

Abstract At the turn of the twentieth century in Italy and the United States, a transnational media dialogue emerged that promoted facilitated emigration policies that their supporters called colonization. Designed to permanently transfer a highly mobile population to a region with a proportionally small foreign-born population, colonization's press coverage exhibited an elite class and race consciousness that sought to remake landless Italian migrants, undesirable in other areas of the United States, into good citizens working their own farms in the American South. A close reading of articles published in Progressive Era magazines in Italian and English, and direct appeals for settlement to the Italian ambassador in Washington, demonstrate how proposals to colonize Italians in the American South shaped the debate over desirability in a period grappling with policy solutions, both in Italy and the United States, to an emerging immigration problem. Race and the immigration problem intersected powerfully in the Progressive Era South in unusual ways as colonizationists adopted their own definitions of racial desirability that centered white southerners’ economic needs. When historians take distribution policy as seriously as Progressives did, the public debate over desirability that drove turn-of-the-century restrictionism becomes more complicated and the significance of the regional setting more pronounced.