Media Analysis
Introduction
".the world consists of individual and national actors, and since it is axiomatic that action is cased on the actor's image of reality, international action will be based on the images of international reality. This image is not shaped by the news media. alone; personal relations abroad, diplomatic dispatches, etc., count too - whether less, equally, or more, we do not know. But the regularity, ubiquity and perseverance of news media will in any case make them first-rate competitors for the number one position as international image-former." 1
Communication scholars are still debating the influence the media have on public opinion, but one thing is agreed upon: the media has a stronger impact in setting the public agenda in the area of foreign policy than in any other area. In the political arena of foreign policy, people have less first-hand experience with foreign policy issues than with domestic ones. Moreover, foreign issues tend to be less engaging and more complex to enter everyday communication between family, friends, neighbours, and co-workers. From this perspective, people are highly dependent upon the news media for information, and media representations of foreign actors are viewed as a making a significant contribution to informing and educating the citizenship in order to participate in the domestic debate on foreign policy. In recent years, observers have also begun to attribute to the news media a new and autonomous capacity to influence the formulation and conduct of foreign policy. According to Pea2, it is likely that the media have the potential to influence the modification of the policies being conducted regarding the events covered.
Media Background
One obvious difficulty in data collection was choosing appropriate sources from extremely diverse media background in each country.
Australia
- 2 national daily newspapers
- 28 major capital city daily newspapers
- 38 regional dailies
- 315 non-daily regional papers
- 155 suburban newspapers
- 2 national public broadcasters (TV and radio)
- 3 major networks
- 48 commercial free-to-air TV stations
Korea
- Over 10 general daily news papers
- 5 international papers
- Over 100 special papers (e.g.,. economy, sports, IT, culture, etc.)
- About 50 only internet papers (cf. "oh-my news", "no-cut news", etc.)
- 3 national broadcasting stations ( KBS, MBC, SBS)
Thailand
- 150 circulation: 30 Nationwide or Bangkok-based and 120 Provincial
- 32 Thai language dailies
- 2 English dailies
- 6 Chinese dailies
- Six Free Channels and a cable TV (Channel 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and ITV and UBC)
New Zealand
- 11 daily newspapers
- 3 national Sunday papers
- over 60 community newspapers throughout the country
- NZ TV
Chosen Media Sources
In order to facilitate the realistic execution of this large scale, trans-national, comparative project, the data must be limited in scope and nature, but nevertheless provide a soundly-based representative sample. Sampling criteria included the influential reputation of the media outlet in a country, the high circulation numbers or audience ratings, ownership, political diversity, national and regional distribution, a range of styles and formats (tabloid/broadsheet), and even linguistic diversity (Thai or Korean vs. English). The final selection, as how best to represent national media situations, was left to the judgment of the researchers in each location.
This project provides data from the daily coverage of the EU in five most influential newspapers in each country and on two main evening television news bulletins of the day (or prime time news) in each country.
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Data and Methodology
Data
| News Definition: | Following the definition of foreign news in the UNESCO report, "Foreign News in the Media",3 for the news items to be included into the sample they have to deal with events or situations in the EU outside the home country, or events in the home country in which EU takes part, or which are presented as having relevance to the EU situations. News on the EU was defined as stories mentioning the EU at least once, even marginally. |
| Search Engines Utilised: | Australia: Lexis Nexis, Factiva, Fairfax electronic archives (limited access), Media Monitors transcripts of TV news items New Zealand: Newstext, Factiva databases, the Otago Daily Times search engine, Newztel, recorded and manually transcribed TV news Korea: Electronic search engines for all newspapers and TV news bulletins Thailand: Manual research on Bangkok Post, The Nation and Thai Rath; Manager and Matichon search engines, and a mixture of manual and electronic searches for the two TV stations. |
| Timeframe: | 1 January 2004 - 31 December 2004 This page is currently presenting the results of 6 months of media monitoring in Thailand and New Zealand, 4 months of monitoring in South Korea and 3 months of monitoring in Australia. It is due to the sheer volume of data there are discrepancies in the periods of monitoring. Page update in January 2005 will introduce the results of 12 months of monitoring in 2004 |
| Type of Coverage: | daily coverage of the EU |
Methodology
Studying news media is necessarily complex and requires diverse, eclectic methods.4 The media content analysis employed in the project is based on a two-fold approach -- first, the analysis of manifested, surface, extensive characteristics of the coverage of an issue, or formal characteristics; and, second, the analysis of the latent, in-depth, intensive mechanisms of image formation, or substantive features.
Findings
Formal Characteristics of EU Media Coverage
- Volume of Coverage
- Monthly Distribution
- Distribution by Outlet
- Sources
- Focus of Domesticity
- Degree of Centrality
- Length of Articles
- Placement of Articles
Substantive Characteristics of EU Media Coverage
- Information Input: Newspapers
- Information Input: Television
- Information Input: "EU as an Economic Power"
- Information Input: "EU as a Political Power"
- Information Input: "EU as a Social Actor"
NB: Analysis of data on actors, evaluations, news values, and journalistic attitudes is currently in progress
Case Studies
Identifying the common points across in media coverage of the EU in all the countries, the research team is focusing its investigation around several key ‘case studies’.
CASE 1: The European Union’s External Identity
Conference Papers:
- Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, Jessica Bain, Katrina Stats, and Paveena Sutthisripok, Seeing Europe Through the Eyes of Others: Asia-Pacific Perceptions of the European Union
- Martin Holland, Natalia Chaban, Brad Jones, and Kenneth Chan, Perceptions of the EU in Asia-Pacific Region: Findings from a Survey of Public Opinion (link)
- Katrina Stats, Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, Fiona Machin, Se Na Kim and Paveena Sutthisripok, From the Outside Looking In: Asia-Pacific Perceptions of the European Union (link)
- Martin Holland, Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Fiona Machin, Kim Se Na and Paveena Sutthisripok, Regional Cooperation and Identity in Asia (link)
- Michael E. DeGolyer and Kenneth Chan, Perceptions of the EU in the Asia-Pacific Region
CASE 2: Asia-Pacific Perceptions of the EU as an International Power
Conference Papers:
- Maria Rogahn, Katrina Stats, Natalia Chaban, Jessica Bain, Martin Holland, and Paveena Sutthisripok, A Mediator on the World-Stage? How the EU's Commitment in Foreign Affairs is Portrayed by New Zealand & Australian Media
- Katrina Stats, Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, and Paveena Sutthisripok, A Rising Star? Asia Pacific Perceptions of the European Union (link)
- Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, Katrina Stats, and Paveena Sutthisripok, The European Union and the World: How the EU as a Global Actor is Framed in Asia-Pacific Media (link)
- Natalia Chaban, Jessica Bain, and Katrina Stats, ‘Frenemies’?: Images of the US-EU Relations in Asia-Pacific Media (link)
- Paveena Sutthisripok and Natalia Chaban, A ‘New Political Giant’ or an ‘Old Dwarf’: Metaphors in Constructing Images of the EU in Thai English Newspapers (link)
CASE 3: Asia-Pacific Perceptions of the EU Enlargement
Conference Papers:
- Paveena Sutthisripok, Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, and Katrina Stats, Lost in Translations?: Examining EU images in Thai and English Newspapers (link)
- Natalia Chaban, Jessica Bain, Katrina Stats and Fiona Machin, Images of Turkey in ANZAC media: past imperfect, present continuous, future indefinite? (link)
- Katrina Stats, Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, and Paveena Sutthisripok, Watching Europe Grow: EU Enlargement from an Asia-Pacific Perspective (link)
- Paveena Sutthisripok, Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, and Katrina Stats, Framing EU Enlargement in Asia-Pacific Media (link)
CASE 4: The EU as a Model for Regional Integration
Conference Papers:
- Paveena Sutthisripok, Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, and Katrina Stats, Reflection on the Perceptions of Asian Media on the EU Integration (link)
CASE 5: Framing concept “EU” by the Asia-Pacific Media
Conference Papers:
- Natalia Chaban, Jessica Bain, Katrina Stats, and Paveena Sutthisripok, The European Union in Metaphors: Images of the EU in the Asia-Pacific (link)
- Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, Katrina Stats, and Paveena Sutthisripok, Hiding in the Shadows: Images of the EU in the Media and Minds of the Asia-Pacific (link)
- Jessica Bain, Europe at 6.00: Images of the EU on NZ Television News
- Martin Holland and Natalia Chaban, Outside Looking In: EU Media Coverage: A Comparative Analysis of Australia, Korea, New Zealand and Thailand (link)
- Natalia Chaban and Martin Holland, Images of the EU in Asia-Pacific Media: A 4-Country Comparative Analysis (link)
- Katrina Stats, Reading Europe: Representations of the European Union in the Australian Media (link)
- Katrina Stats, Images of the EU as an Economic Partner for Asia-Pacific: Emerging Frames in National Media (link)
- Se Na Kim, Images of the EU in the Area of Social Policy for Asia-Pacific: Emerging Frames in National Media (link)
- Paveena Sutthisripok, Images of the EU as a Political Partner for Asia-Pacific: Emerging Frames in National Media (link)
- Natalia Chaban, When Enough is Enough: Dynamics of the EU Representations in Asia-Pacific Media (link)
- Jessica Bain, The Power of Television News: Images of the EU Asia-Pacific Broadcast Media (link)
References
1 Galtung, Johan and Mari Holmboe Ruge, "The Structure of Foreign News", Journal of Peace Research, 1965, Vol. 2, No.1, 64-91, p.64.
2 Pea, Mnica, News media and the foreign policy decision-making process, CNN or Washington in Razn y Palabra, N 32, Abril - Mayo 2003 http://www.cem.itesm.mx/dacs/publicaciones/logos/anteriores/n32/mpena.htm
3Sreberny-Mohammadi, Annabelle with Kaarle Nordentreng, Robert Stevenson and Frank Ugboajah (eds), Foreign News in Media: International Reporting in 29 Countries, Paris: UNESCO, 1985, p. 14.
4Cook, Timothy, Governing with the News: The News Media as a Political Institution, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1998.