TV News Coverage Research Articles

The Impact of the End of the Cold War on Canadian and American TV News Coverage of Cuba: Image Consistency or Image Change?

The profound changes experienced by the international political system from 1988 to 1992, subsumed under the rubric “the fall of Communism,” suggest an opportunity for changes in the way North American television news would report on events in Cuba. This article examines major network news coverage of Cuba in Canada (CBC and CTV) and in the United States (ABC, CBS, and NBC) from 1988 through 1992. Given the different histories of Canadian-Cuban and U.S.-Cuban relations since the revolution, the extent of similar negative coverage of the island in both countries’ reporting is somewhat surprising. Also, it is apparent that the end of the Cold War did not change, in any fundamental way, the frames employed by television news in its coverage of Cuba.

The Media's Reception of the Risk Associated with Radioactive Disasters

There is an urgent need to develop methodologies to examine the response by the media to radioactive disasters. 'Reception study' is a new research approach in the field of mass communication, studying how the viewers construct meaning from TV news. This ongoing reception study explores how fifteen respondents, all involved in the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, recall and interpret TV news coverage nine years after the accident. The main aim is to discover how the news affects the recipients' interpretations of a disaster and what kind of thoughts, reactions and associations risk messages provoke in retrospect, in the present and in the beliefs about the future. The initial findings indicate that the Chernobyl news on TV was mainly based on technical rationality, while viewers construct meaning founded on symbolic, cultural rationality. The transmission of catastrophe news is not just a matter of responding to the information needs of the public. Denotative risk messages simultaneously convey connotative, symbolic resonance of risk on a metaphysical level.

The expression of localism: Local TV news coverage in the new video marketplace

The emergence of a new video marketplace raises questions about the commitment of local TV news organizations to the FCC localism doctrine. Local news coverage at ten Pennsylvania stations in 1992 was content analyzed and compared with 1976 data collected by Adams (1980). Results indicate that stations devoted more coverage to outlying market areas in 1992 than in 1976, but emphasized sensationalism/human interest stories at the expense of local public affairs issues.

Playing safe: Media coverage of child sexual abuse prevention strategies

AbstractThis paper examines the media coverage of preventing child sexual abuse. It draws on a content analysis of all press and TV news coverage about child sexual abuse that appeared in the UK during a complete 12‐month period. The findings demonstrate that the bulk of the coverage was case‐based, for example focusing on the Orkney case. There was very little opportunity for broader discussion of general issues of concern, including how sexual assaults against children might be prevented. The coverage of ‘prevention’ which did exist drew on a very narrow range of debates and was disproportionately concerned with abuse outside the home (abductions by strangers, or abuse within institutions such as schools or children's homes). Discussions about prevention were dominated by reactive news stories generated by particular ‘scandals’. The coverage was also largely drawn from a small constituency of official source agencies (such as government officials, court proceedings and police statements). There were few attempts to address the broader social conditions which might facilitate or inhibit sexual violence or to examine explicitly political analyses of the problem. The paper argues for a more diverse discussion about ways of preventing sexual violence against children, especially assaults by fathers, uncles, brothers and friends of the family. This demands close attention to the ways in which the mass media operate, as well as the priorities of source agencies. The paper points to factors within news production practices which both obstruct and facilitate debate about prevention and concludes by suggesting strategies to promote this issue as a vital part of the public agenda.

The role of race and gender as determinants of local TV news coverage

This study compares the frequency and nature of appearances in the news for different racial or gender groups to test the theory that white women have been making progress at the expense of minorities. Findings based on local TV news coverage in a major market suggest that white women are not faring better than minorities. Rather, the interaction of race and gender reveals more about the frequency of appearance in the news than does either race or gender alone. Even so, despite changes wrought by minority and women's interest groups, being a white male remains the most significant advantage for representation in the news, just as it appears to be of an advantage in the world at large.

Format and Symbols in TV Coverage of Terrorism in the United States and Great Britain

A conceptual scheme for understanding how TV news formats shape reports broadcast in the United States and the United Kingdom is examined in this explanatory, comparative study of TV news coverage of a terrorist incident in London's Hyde Park in 1982. While ideological positions clearly flow from most news reports, the analysis suggests that news practices and perspectives also contribute to the visual and thematic emphasis of reports. News formats of the event type associated with regular evening newcasts in both countries focused on visuals of the aftermath and tactics of terrorism, while topic type formats associated with interviews and documentary presentations included materials about purposes, goals, and rationale. These variations in format produced consistent differences in message content in both countries, suggesting that an organizational media logic is relevant for understanding information control about terrorism and other events. Implications are noted for theoretic understanding about ideology and social control. In particular, future research attention is directed to regulation and control of news formats, and the implications for a mass audience, leadership styles, and international affairs.

Reflections: Ethnographic content analysis

An ethnographic approach to document analysis is offered based on principles of qualitative data collection and analysis. It is proposed that numeric as well as narrative data be collected when studying such documents as TV new and movies. Ethnographic content analysis is briefly contrasted with conventional modes of quantitative content analysis to illustrate the usefulness of constant comparison for discovering emergent patterns, emphases and themes in an analysis of TV news coverage of the Iranian hostage situation. It is suggested that an ethnographic perspective can help delineate patterns of human action when document analysis is conceptualized as fieldwork.

Impact of Format and Ideology on TV News Coverage of Iran

Impact of Format and Ideology on TV News Coverage of Iran

AP Wire Reports vs. CBS TV News Coverage of a Presidential Campaign

AP Wire Reports vs. CBS TV News Coverage of a Presidential Campaign

Television Newsfilm Problems

Using super-8 film for television news reporting is a possibility for the future because of the obvious advantages of ease of handling and reduction in film cost. This will offset the cost of retooling and buying new projection equipment. Improvements made in amateur super-8 cameras have preceded in many features the 16mm professional camera. If the demand for a super-8 camera for television use were made, manufacturers would develop one. The same is true of super-8 film stock for television. A super-8 camera now on the market produces a magnetic-striped sound film using a double-system sound recording technique; however, a single-system sound camera could be developed for TV news coverage. A survey of 400 news film operations in the U.S. showed that a significant percentage desired to explore super-8 film for news coverage.

A Study of Bias in TV Coverage of the Vietnam War: 1969 and 1970

B ecause television is the sole source of national and world news for many Americans, the of television news coverage of the Vietnam war is a question of tremendous national importance. Nielson ratings show that over 35 million TV sets are tuned to evening news shows each night. Polls conducted in 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, and 1967 by Elmo Roper and Associates indicate not only that TV is the primary source of news for most Americans, but that it has widened its lead over the other media as being the most believable source. Not only is the power of television enormous, but the broadcast industry is oligopolistic: Viewers must choose among three networks, and in some cases only two. For all these reasons, the question whether TV news coverage is biased assumes tremendous significance, and claims of bias in reporting of the Vietnam war have been made by opponents as well as supporters of that war. It is beyond the scope of this study to determine what fair coverage actually is; this is a matter for normative judgment. What this study does attempt to measure is how successful and worthwhile the Nixon Administration's Vietnam policy was made to appear through TV coverage in the 1969 and 1970 national evening newscasts. The concept of is key to the study. It was defined as that quality of statements of opinion or of actual or supposed fact that would influence one to support or oppose a President or his policy. The veracity of a given statement is thus independent of its as defined above, and a neutral rating on the scale measuring bias (which will be discussed later) is not ipso facto desirable,