The aim of this study is to identify, map and understand the anthropology – the science of man – that can be distinguished in foreign news pages in Swedish daily papers. Concepts of nationality, ethnicity and gender are crucial parameters in this anthropology. Foreign news can be regarded as a textual system in which form and content interact to create its own object of knowledge: the Other, or rather, the Others. Thus, the relationship between foreign news as a textual system and foreign news as anthropology is central to this dissertation. The years 1987, 1995 and 2002 have been selected for examination on the following grounds: 1987 belongs to the cold war era; 1995 belongs to the post-cold war era, and is also the year when Sweden joined the EU; and 2002 belongs to the era defined by the events of September 11 2001. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of a total of 1,162 foreign news articles published during one week in each year, was carried out. The qualitative analysis consists mainly of discourse analysis. Foucault’s discourse theory constitutes the theory of knowledge in the study. It is combined with Barthes’ theory on myths as well as postcolonial and other theories on nationality, ethnicity and gender and the representation of these aspects in journalism and elsewhere. Discourse type is a central concept in the analysis. Discourse types resemble subgenres, but are specifically defined by certain perspectives. Other defining aspects are voices, style, mode of address and closeness/distance to an event/a development. Seven discourse types that constitute the order of the discourse in foreign news pages were identified in this study: On location narratives, Elite event reports, Catastrophe event reports, Situation reports, Commentaries, Picture paragraphs and Quotation paragraphs. The representation of different regions of the world, of different nationalities and ethnicities, and of men and women, are related to these discourse types throughout the study. The anthropology of foreign news establishes vast differences between people. These differences depend on regions, spheres in society, gender and skin colour. They also depend on the textual setting, i.e. the discourse type. Some regions, like Western Europe, USA, the Middle East and North Africa, are always centred. Others, like South America and parts of Africa, are practically ignored. Women are also ignored, hence “othered” by exclusion. When women do appear, this occurs in discourse types which exoticize them concerning gender as well as nationality/ethnicity. Women with darker skin are generally more negatively represented, compared to “white” women. The ruling groups, normally represented by men, appear as quite alike around the world. They are not exoticized and generally speak for themselves. However, powerful men from the Middle East and North Africa and from the (former) Soviet Union are treated differently and represented as threats, sometimes even as tabooed. All these aspects stand out as relatively stable during the research period. Differences in the order of discourse consist mainly of an increase of exoticizing perspectives and of the use of pictures — both of which correspond to a relative increase of women — and of a simultaneous decrease of plain, scanty reports and increase of explicitly subjective articles. International aspects also increase over the years. However, this undermining of the hegemony of the nation on the foreign news pages, still exists within the discourse of the nation. The idea of the nation still limits the understanding of the world. In a similar way, the explicitly subjective articles increase within the discourse of journalistic objectivity. This is an interesting and thought-provoking paradox in the genre of foreign news.

The study used quantitative content analysis to compare the international news content about Africa and the rest of the world in selected daily and weekly newspapers in Malawi and explored the extent to which economic factors, as represented by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), influence news flows about Africa into Malawi. The results showed dominance of the categories of war/international conflict and politics. International news agencies were the principal sources of news items for all the four papers. Though there were differences among the newspapers in the amount of space allocated to various categories such differences were minor. The study established that GDP is not a determinant of the amount of coverage a country receives. / Communication Science / M.A. (International Communication)

This dissertation examines the flow of economic news in Africa, in order to investigate the potential existence of regional hierarchies in international news flow. The research was based on a framework of theories on international news flow. A quantitative and qualitative content analysis of a sample of news articles published in Africa Investor, African Business and Business in Africa during 2007 and 2008 was analysed. The quantitative results showed that South Africa received the highest level of coverage and was covered to a greater extent than any other African country. The qualitative results indicated that there was clear evidence of regional hierarchy in the coverage of African countries: South Africa received extensive coverage probably due to the fact that it is the largest, most advanced and influential economy in the continent. The study showed that inequality in news coverage is not only a global issue, but also a regional one. / Communication Science / M.A. (International Communication)

The diploma thesis with the title "Media Presentation of International Relations in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War in the Czechoslovak Television" uses selected events in the defined period to show how much foreign policy of the Soviet Union influenced the Czechoslovak Television news. First, both Czechoslovak and Soviet foreign policies as well as media policy of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia are described, followed by a brief history of the Czechoslovak Television. The core part of this diploma thesis lies in the third chapter, where specific reports from the news of the Czechoslovak television are analyzed.

<p>The master’s project consists of two parts: the journalistic part Project Awaiting (texts) including four journalistic genres and the subsequent Research Report Project Awaiting. These are 23 pages and 32 pages respectively.</p>

Relying on framing theory, this study used The New York Times to explore how Chinese news was depicted before, during and after the Beijing Summer Olympics. The research regarding how the Chinese government tried to leverage the Olympics to enhance its image is often deliberated. However, there have only been a 3 few studies on the evaluation of the effects the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games had on the image of China, as depicted by The New York Times. This study generated an understanding of the impact the presentations of The New York Times had on the soft power used by China through the Beijing Summer Olympic Games. The study examined how the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics were associated with the depiction of Chinese news in The New York Times during the pre-, mid-, and post-Olympics years. Specifically, world and business sections within The New York Times were mainly influenced by the effects of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. In addition, there were no direct associations found between the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and how China was depicted photographically in The New York Times. In terms of the above factors; this study showed that China's national image did not improve in the New York Times after the 2008 Bejing Summer Olympic Games.