The study analyzed how independent and state media's news programs differ in the way they framed the Georgian Revolution of Roses. The paper analyzed what sources, frames and key words journalists used to describe the protest in order to investigate if the coverage was objective or biased in any particular direction.
Study provides evidence that by framing protests in a different way, politicians and journalists give different meanings to the same issues and suggest what is at issue. Each party of the political elite tried to promote their own political viewpoints. By preferring sources from the ruling party and their supporters and repeating frames and key words suggested by the ruling party, state television supported the ruling party. By quoting frequently reformers and their supporters and framing the event in a way offered by the reformers, the independent media supported the viewpoints of the reformers.
This participatory position of the independent station is supported by developmental theory, which says media in countries in transition have to assist to the process of democracy. (Baran & Davis, 2003). In the case of Georgia, the opposition was considered eager to fulfill democratic reforms and so the independent media supported their political views.
However, the free press theory suggests that bias is against all professional norms of journalism, regardless the intentions of media to have bias for the "right" side of an issue. (Leigh, 1974). A free press has to offer balanced and objective reports of the event or issue. Otherwise, it will not be credible and lose the public trust, which is most valuable to a free press. (Leigh, 1974). The coverage of the Revolution of Roses in the independent station was not beneficial to the development of a free press. It becomes even more obvious how important an unbiased press is now that the former reformers have become the government. The state TV is still maintaining the ruling party's political viewpoints and the independent television became part of the government's public relations machine by conveying mostly positive news about the policymakers and policies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-11152005-135305 |
| Date | 17 November 2005 |
| Creators | Danelia, Nino |
| Contributors | Andrea Miller, Denis Wu, Margaret DeFleur |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11152005-135305/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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