Media Watch September 2014 Abstracts

Abstract: Media Watch September 2014

(Vol. 5, No. 2)

Impact Factor: SJIF 3.276 | IIFS 0.993 | ISRA 0.834

Pseudo-Events as a Mesocyclone: Rethinking Boorstin’s Concept in  the Digital Age

TIMOTHY R. GLEASON

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, USA

Daniel J. Boorstin’s concept of pseudo-events has been around almost as long as Queen Elizabeth II’s reign as monarch. 2012 was the year of the Diamond Jubilee, a 60-year anniversary, which can be viewed as a giant pseudo-event made from smaller pseudo-events. Compliant media were ready and willing to present images reinforcing the power, authority, and naturalness of the monarchy. The Diamond Jubilee, as an event and subject of analysis, exemplified the reconceptualization of pseudo-events using the analogy of a Mesocyclone. The Mesocyclone model of social media and journalism relations, developed in this study, reflects the transformation of relations between media planners, the news media, and the public. The Mesocyclone represents the challenges faced by media planners in creating, sharing, and encouraging others to participate in the process while attempting to keep the news media and public aligned with the event’s message. However, the Mesocyclone is unpredictable because social media sharing has enabled the news media and public to craft their own messages, as well as possibly change the meaning of the event. Boorstin’s concept of pseudo-events has been expanded by also considering Louis Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatus in using the Diamond Jubilee’s pro-monarchy theme as an example.

Journalistic News Framing of White Mainstream Media during the Civil Rights Movement: A Content Analysis  of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

FELICIA McGHEE

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA

Most social movements receive some type of news media coverage during the course of the movement. How the media covers a social movement and its participants is critical in the influence it plays on media consumers. This study analyzes the news framing of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On December 5, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat for a white man. That act of refusal resulted in a 381-day protest of the city’s segregated bus system. This research elucidates how the boycott was framed in the local newspaper, Montgomery Advertiser. The findings of this study are crucial in understanding the complexity of past and contemporary social movements, and how social norms may influence the ensuing news coverage.

The Hegemonic Dance Partners: United States and North Korea

SKYE C. COOLEY

MARK GOODMAN

Mississippi State University

On March 31, 2014 North Korea and South Korea shot artillery shells into each country’s territorial waters. No one was injured in another incident of the 60 years of conflict on the Korean peninsula. This rather nonsensical activity of war is just another step in the hegemonic dance steps initiated by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. This paper applies the theory of hegemony to explain why the leadership of North Korea requires on-going conflict without war.

 Visual Exploration of Environmental Issues:  Photographers as Environmental Advocates

MICHELLE I. SEELIG

University of Miami, USA

Photographers of recent years document land, nature, and the environment to reveal to the public, politicians and lawmakers decay or spoiled lands, endangered cultures and wildlife, and other issues affecting the degradation of Earth’s natural resources and all its inhabitants. Different from their predecessors, contemporary photographers use all media to expose and make the public aware of wide-ranging environmental concerns. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to explore how photographers visually document environmental issues. Interviews and analysis of environmental and nature photographers’ websites are the primary sources for this exploratory study. Findings reveal photographers do not just document the environment, they engage in media as activism. More than words and pictures, media activism comprises a myriad of mediated content from still photos, to moving images, graphics, audio, web and mobile devices, as well as social media all in an effort to improve society.

Press and Corporate Reputation: Factors Affecting Biasness of Business News Reporting in Malaysia

LEE YUEN BENG

School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia

TAN KHOON YAN

Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia

In Malaysia, media bias has always been a hot debated issue. The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition often portrays itself as an advocate of press freedom while the masses often feel otherwise as media organisations are either directly or indirectly owned by component parties of the Barisan Nasional. Readers therefore commonly accuse these organisations of practising media control although the latter often maintains that they are free from external factors or from governmental control. Till date, researches about media biasness have only studied the effects of media biasness on corporate reputations but not about the factors associated to such biasness and are often done within Western contexts. This paper fills these gaps by examining the links between the personal interest of a journalist and their level of compliance with the National Union of Journalists’ Code of Conduct, audience pressure, political interests, and the biasness of business news reporting in Malaysia.

I am Pretty and I know It: Redefining Masculinities in The King and The Clown

SOH, WENG-KHAI

NGO, SHEAU-SHI

Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

The contemporary Korean films and dramas that featuring a body of new representation of pretty boys or what are popularly known as metrosexuality have challenged the conventional association of Korean masculinity to the prevalent macho images. This article intends to focus on the soft-spoken, delicate and neat man featured in The King and the Clown (2005) by examining the cinematic figuration of such masculinity in order to reveal the underpinning ideology of capitalism within the film through the mechanism of representation. It is argued that the construction of pretty boy in this film serves to promote a non-conformative male identity and yet subjects itself to a manipulative consumerist gaze which embedding the ideological position of selling ‘prettiness’ as commodification of masculinity.

Portuguese Democracy and Patterns of Transformation in National  Newspapers: A Comparative Model Approach

HELENA LIMA

University of Porto, Portugal

The Portuguese Revolution of 1974 produced a major transformation on media property. According to the legislation approved by the revolutionary rulers during 1975, all the banks and their interests were nationalized. Almost all main tittles of national press were included in this process, because they were partial or totally owned by societies belonging to the most important financial corporations. The Portuguese state became the owner of a large media group. The analysis of main aspects like political statements, data on press production, official reports allow the identification of the media evolution in this period. This study is focused on editorial policy, management failure and professional behavior, and the relationship between governments and the press. The purpose of this article is to establish a connection between the failure of state policy and the decline of national newspapers and, by opposite, transformations that took place in the Portuguese media property during the nineties.

Media Management Trends, Techniques, and Dynamics: An Indian Experience

V. SAI SRINIVAS

Osmania University, India

Globally, Media is going through a drastic transformation. The fight for survival is leading to innovation of technologies and creativity in the fields of journalism and mass communication, and in this process many organizations are adapting newer forms of journalism. Media moguls irrespective of their age and borders are relentlessly spearheading cross media ownerships combined with convergence of media platforms, paving way for media management to be studied from a never before seen perspective. However, as media industries continue to consolidate and expand their operations beyond domestic borders, it has become all the more imperative to study and research media management with respect to trends, techniques and dynamics from a global standpoint of media consolidation, diversification, and convergence.

Social Movements and Digital Storytelling: Challenges and Prospects in India

GOVIND JI PANDEY

Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, India

This research aims at analysing popularity of digital media among youth for information sharing and generating support for social movements. The user-friendly technology, the reduced cost of production of digital content, and spread of the internet in peri-urban areas have changed the sender and the receiver position dramatically. Once the receivers of the media content are now actively involved in the production and dissemination of digital content. The concept of the gatekeeper is not relevant to the new media content as most of the matter comes directly from the users. The majority of the content is uploaded to various social networking sites without interference of gatekeepers. The digital media have empowered the common man and provided them another platform to share and express their views on various issues of public interest. It seems that this forum has great potential to help in strengthening democratic movements in India by promoting multiple voices on several issues of public interest, that too, without the interference of any gatekeeper.

 

Mass Media Preference and Consumption in Rural India: A Study on Bharat Nirman Campaign

SHALINI NARAYANAN

JYOTI RANJAN SAHOO

Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi

This paper seeks to explore the media habits and preferences of rural audience in India. The study adopted purposive along with random sampling techniques to identify stakeholders in six states of the country who were targeted for the Bharat Nirman campaign conducted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. The results indicated that television is the best medium to target rural and semi-urban audiences for public service advertising. Doordarshan’s regional channels remained one of the preferred communication medium for accessing information along with other regional channels. Newspapers and radio appeared to seriously lag behind as mass media vehicles of choice in comparison to television. The mobile telephone had made some inroads; however, it was hardly being used as a medium for accessing public service information.

Regional News Channels in India: A Study on Viewers Perspective

ATANU MOHAPATRA

Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India

K G SURESH

Manav Rachna International University, India

Satellite television news network have never expanded as they have in India. In less than a decade, between 1998 and 2006, India has experienced the rise of more than 50 24-hours satellite news channels, broadcasting news in different languages. They are a prominent part of a vibrant satellite television industry, comprising more than 300 channels, that has targeted Indian homes since the early 1990s. In one form or the other, at least 106 of these broadcast daily news in 14 regional languages, and their emergence marks a sharp break with the past. They have arisen in a country where the state had monopolised broadcasting since independence, and as late as 1991, India had only one government-controlled television network. The rise of satellite television, and satellite news network, has engendered a transformation in India’s political culture, the nature of the state  and expressions of Indian nationhood.