While it is not new to claim that the news media form an important part of the contemporary political systems, the role of the media is usually neglected in traditional study of public policy. At the same time, previous studies of media-policy relations do not take traditional policy theories into account. The objective of my thesis is to examine the possible role of the media in the policy process in order to establish the link between traditional policy theories and existing media-policy models. Following previous studies of media-policy relations, in particular Robinson’s (2002) study of the ‘CNN effects’ on US humanitarian interventions, this thesis uses data derived from framing analysis, process tracing and in-depth interviews to examine the influence of news coverage in four cases of domestic policy making in Hong Kong with particular reference to several factors, namely media consensus over framing and policy certainty measured by elite consensus and policy stage. Comparison across the selected cases demonstrates that the influence of news coverage is specific to policymakers’ institutional positions and policy stage. Media effects on policy are also enhanced by unfavourable long-term and short-term public attitudes towards the Government and its policy. However, news coverage does not exert an influence on policy all by itself. Rather, the media’s influence on policy is created by the interactions between news coverage and a series of factors, including public views, institutions, and political actors’ beliefs and strategies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:569291 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Chan, Bing Kwan |
| Publisher | University of East Anglia |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/10578/ |
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