Is there any truth in the saying “no news is good news” or is there a reason to question whether media actually do reflect the world’s worst conflicts proportionally? The communication technologies have seen major developments in recent years, and more and more people choose to read their news on the Internet. With smartphones and other devices, one could imagine that there would be easier to cover more conflict areas than ever – but is this what has happened? In this study we aimed to investigate how three chosen Swedish newspapers reflected five of the on-going conflicts of 2012 and how this can be explained with the theories; the CNN effect and Stealth Conflicts. We started out with studies of the two theories. The definition of “conflict” used in this study is Uppsala Conflict Data Program’s “war and minor conflict”. Then a quantitative study followed, where we used the three newspapers’ websites to search for articles about our chosen conflict areas: Algeria, Israel, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Syria. The conclusion of this study is that there is, at least among our chosen newspapers, a disproportionate covering of the world’s conflicts, with the exception of Syria. This matches largely with how the two theories explain the media’s covering of conflicts, but we found a deeper explanation in the Stealth Conflict theory, though the CNN effect stood for interesting points as well. The theories could benefit from a merger since that would create a theory with a wider range of explanation tools of why the conflict news reports looks and works the way it does and of its consequences.

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This study explores the Australian and New Zealand media-government relationship during foreign instability and regional military intervention. It offers a critique of print media coverage and political communication during the 2002-2003 Solomon Islands crisis and the subsequent Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands. By reviewing the Indexing Hypothesis and CNN Effect, this thesis considers media and government data from the year preceding the intervention. By investigating the media-government relationship in the Pacific region, this study builds on the literature that has so far primarily focused on American and European led interventions. Previous research has illustrated the advantages and limitations to specific methodological practises. This study has drawn from the current literature to form a unique methodical approach. The methods to test the Australian and New Zealand media-government relationship include content analysis, and qualitative techniques for use in four complementary tests. Findings from this study indicate that while there is some degree of the media using the political elite as a cue for newsworthy issues, the media appear to often report independently from the political elite perspectives. The political elite set the range of debate, and while the media stay within this range, they appear to sensationalise certain aspects of the debate. Government also appear to benefit from this media behaviour as it uses the media to gauge responses during the policy formation process.

Diploma thesis is concerned with the topic of relations between modern media and foreign policy. In a general context of this relation, we focused on the theory of CNN effect, describing it causes and particular manifestations mutual media and policy interactions. We try to analyze CNN effect on single case of armed conflict in Libya and its media coverage by influential American daily papers. By combination of existing scientific methods, we created adapted research method for our case, which is based on quantitative content analyses of all published articles with main topics - armed conflict in Libya - in the period of 33 days till the adoption of Security Council resolution. Main variables of our research was the date of publishing, articles range, section in newspaper and especially "value direction" of article in favor or not in favor of armed intervention to Libya. Analyses of media coverage of this topic were then confronted with factual analyses of topic in same time period. Results of our research confirmed potential relation between media coverage and US state department decision to intervene in Libya conflict. For absolute causality confirmation between these two variables would be necessary much more extensive research. Additional output of this research was confirmation of partial...

The master thesis examines the war reporting of two Czech dailies (Mladá fronta DNES and Právo), specifically their coverage of the Czech Army mission and deployment in Afghanistan. In the theoretical part the quality of reporting, topic and factors that influence the journalist work are considered. A major theme is the relationship of media and political elites and some of its manifestations - the CNN effect connected with the media and public push on the departure of US military from Vietnam, and peace- journalism a concept of reporting on wars by exploiting more themes like reconstruction and peaceful solutions rather than war and combat. The quantitative analysis aims to verify these phenomenon in the Czech media. This is done mainly by analysing the reports sources and looking for the presence of three frames derived from the theoretical literature on this topic: heroic framing applied on Czech soldiers, national framing reflecting the national interests, and humanitarian and development aid framing.

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to analyse the image of Mexico in the media of the United States in the first half of 2010. First, the author gives an overview of selected media theories and describes the specifics of the U.S. media market. On the sample of the three media (El Paso Times, New York Times and Fox News) she analyses how were the U.S. media referring about Mexico and its citizens. She is validating hypotheses, which she based on characteristics of each of analysed media. She comes to a conclusion that reporting about Mexico varies among the selected media, which reflects specifics of each of them. In conclusion, she is applying some of the media theories presented in the first chapter. She finds that CNN effect and framing occur. Additionally, she argues that Baudrillard's simulacrum also appears.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: Foreign news coverage. Does the media influence the action in international crises? (Utrikesbevakning. Påverkar media agerandet i internationella kriser?)</p><p>Number of pages: 39</p><p>Author: Charlotta Andrésson</p><p>Tutor: Professor Lowe Hedman</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.</p><p>Date of submission: 2007-01-03, autumn term of 2006</p><p>Purpose/Aim</p><p>The purpose of the essay is partly to examine if foreign news coverage influence the political agenda setting and the incentives of the public’s willingness to give charity for humanitarian crises. It is also to answer if the media are responsible for the possible consequences of the news coverage. My main questions at issue are:</p><p>1. Does the foreign news coverage influence the political agenda setting and the incentives of the public’s willingness to give charity for humanitarian crises?</p><p>2. Is media responsible for the possible consequences of their foreign news coverage?</p><p>I also ask a question at issue in a research of Swedish foreign news coverage in my essay to get a clearer picture of the foreign news coverage:</p><p>3. How does Swedish foreign news coverage relate to prior research?</p><p>Method:</p><p>The second chapter of the essay is a literature research of news selection and news values. The third chapter of the essay is a research of media’s influence on the world politics and humanitarian aid. These two chapters are literature studies based on prior research, theories and debates. The fourth chapter is an empirical study of a news programme on a Swedish TV-channel during a five months period between 2004 and 2005. My interest in the empirical study was to examine how the material was divided geographically and as regards contents. The fifth and sixth chapter of the essay consists of an analysis and a discussion.</p><p>Main results:</p><p>As my main result I concluded that the media influence the political agenda setting and the the incentives of the public’s willingness to give charity for humanitarian crises. The media throw light upon which crises that should be given priority to. The theories for news selection and news value agrees with the result of my research of Swedish foreign news coverage. I also concluded that the media alone was not responsible for the possible consequences for their foreign news coverage but that they are the premier channel of information about the world for most people.</p><p>Keywords: Foreign news, news selection and news value, CNN-effect, Media and political agenda setting, Media influence of humanitarian aid.</p>

Abstract Title: Foreign news coverage. Does the media influence the action in international crises? (Utrikesbevakning. Påverkar media agerandet i internationella kriser?) Number of pages: 39 Author: Charlotta Andrésson Tutor: Professor Lowe Hedman Course: Media and Communication Studies C University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University. Date of submission: 2007-01-03, autumn term of 2006 Purpose/Aim The purpose of the essay is partly to examine if foreign news coverage influence the political agenda setting and the incentives of the public’s willingness to give charity for humanitarian crises. It is also to answer if the media are responsible for the possible consequences of the news coverage. My main questions at issue are: 1. Does the foreign news coverage influence the political agenda setting and the incentives of the public’s willingness to give charity for humanitarian crises? 2. Is media responsible for the possible consequences of their foreign news coverage? I also ask a question at issue in a research of Swedish foreign news coverage in my essay to get a clearer picture of the foreign news coverage: 3. How does Swedish foreign news coverage relate to prior research? Method: The second chapter of the essay is a literature research of news selection and news values. The third chapter of the essay is a research of media’s influence on the world politics and humanitarian aid. These two chapters are literature studies based on prior research, theories and debates. The fourth chapter is an empirical study of a news programme on a Swedish TV-channel during a five months period between 2004 and 2005. My interest in the empirical study was to examine how the material was divided geographically and as regards contents. The fifth and sixth chapter of the essay consists of an analysis and a discussion. Main results: As my main result I concluded that the media influence the political agenda setting and the the incentives of the public’s willingness to give charity for humanitarian crises. The media throw light upon which crises that should be given priority to. The theories for news selection and news value agrees with the result of my research of Swedish foreign news coverage. I also concluded that the media alone was not responsible for the possible consequences for their foreign news coverage but that they are the premier channel of information about the world for most people. Keywords: Foreign news, news selection and news value, CNN-effect, Media and political agenda setting, Media influence of humanitarian aid.

Are foreign policy officials responsive to policy preferences of the mass media and the public in making their decisions? That question has dogged scholars for decades but there has been little agreement among them on what is the true nature of mass media- and public opinion-foreign policy link. In terms of mass media impact, there are two media theories which dominate the debate. First, the CNN Effect theory claims that, by their nature, the mass media have the power to compel policy officials to adopt their policy preferences. Second, the Manufacturing Consent theory counters with the claim that foreign policy is too serious a matter for officials to yield to mass media demands. Scholars are similarly divided on the impact of public opinion on foreign policy. Lacking in almost all the known studies is an appreciation that foreign policy emerges out of a process involving policy stages. These policy stages have different characteristics. In addition to the nature of those stages in themselves, relationships between policy actors - including the mass media, the public and officials - are different in those stages. Officials tend to react differently at each stage of policy when pressured by the mass media and public opinion. Therefore, in this study, I propose that we will have a better understanding of mass media and public opinion influence on foreign policy officials if we study official responsiveness or sensitivity at the stages of the foreign policy process - policy initiation, policy implementation and policy review. I further argue that official responsiveness to mass media and public opinion depends largely on the stage of policy. For this research, I carried out a case study of Britain's war with Iraq in 2003 to test my theory. Principally, I tried to answer the question: Does foreign policy officials' responsiveness to mass media and public opinion depend on the stage of policy? I found that official response to the mass media and public opinion was not as precise as suggested by the dominant camps in the debate. More importantly, Official response to mass media and public opinion varied in the stages of policy. Specifically, I found that British officials were most responsive to mass media and public opinion at the policy initiation stage, very unresponsive at the implementation stage and even more unresponsive at the policy review stage. As a result of the variations in official responsiveness at the stages, I argue that there is a need to re-evaluate the way we study mass media- and public opinion-foreign policy link. To better understand the impact of the mass media and public opinion on foreign policy, I conclude that we need to examine how policy actors interact at different stages of the foreign policy process.