International News Coverage of Barack Obama As a New President Stephen J
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University of Mary Washington Eagle Scholar Political Science and International Affairs College of Arts and Sciences 6-26-2011 International News Coverage of Barack Obama as a New President Stephen J. Farnsworth University of Mary Washington, [email protected] S Robert Lichter Roland Schatz Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.umw.edu/ps_ia Part of the Journalism Studies Commons, and the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Farnsworth, Stephen J., Lichter, S. Robert, Schatz, Roland. 2011. “International News Coverage of Barack Obama as A New President,” Electronic Media & Politics, 1 (2): 27-45. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts and Sciences at Eagle Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Political Science and International Affairs by an authorized administrator of Eagle Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Electronic Media & Politics June 2011 INTERNATIONAL NEWS COVER- 2009; Zeleny and Cowell 2009; Zeleny AGE OF BARACK OBAMA AS A and Kulish 2008). NEW PRESIDENT Public opinion polls suggest Obama Stephen J. Farnsworth largely succeeded in making the world George Mason University view himself and the country he leads more positively, though the enthusiasm S. Robert Lichter for the new president has since cooled George Mason University somewhat. In Germany, 90 percent of Center for Media and Public Affairs the population said in a survey con- Roland Schatz ducted during April and May of 2010 Media Tenor International that they believed Obama would do the right thing in world affairs, down from 93 percent a year earlier, but dramati- ABSTRACT cally higher than the 14 percent of Ger- mans who said they believed Bush Content-analyzed television newscasts in the would do the right thing in world affairs United Kingdom, Germany and the Middle East in a 2008 survey (Pew 2010). In Britain, during 2009 gave the new president more posi- trust in Obama was at 84 percent in tive coverage than did U.S. media. International 2010, down slightly from 86 percent in news turned negative during the first half of 2010 but remained less negative than U.S. news 2009 but well above the 16 percent level for most outlets. Positive international news cov- of trust British subjects expressed for erage focused on Obama’s personality and his Bush in 2008 (Pew 2010). Americans capacity to govern, while Middle East policies are also quite positive about Obama on received largely negative comments. These find- this measure, with 65 percent expecting ings demonstrate a president’s limited ability to “spin” international news and underscore key him to do the right thing in world affairs, differences among domestic and international as compared to 37 percent who said the news outlets regarding coverage of a new U.S. same about Bush in 2008 (Pew 2010). president. Several Muslim-majority nations ex- perienced sharper drops in trust in Ob- As a presidential candidate and during ama between 2009 and 2010, but in both his early months as president, Barack years evaluations of Obama remained Obama sought to build positive feelings, well above those of Bush. In Turkey, 23 both for the United States and for him- percent trusted Obama to do the right self, in the international arena. From the thing in world affairs, down from 33 hundreds of thousands of adoring Euro- percent in 2009, but far above the mere peans who greeted the presidential can- two percent score Bush received there in didate in Germany in 2008 to the new 2008 (Pew 2010). In Egypt, the compa- president’s 2009 speeches in Istanbul rable numbers for Obama were 31 per- and Cairo (notable for their attempts to cent in 2010 and 41 percent in 2009, as connect with Muslim publics), Obama compared to only 11 percent for Bush in sought to reverse the highly negative 2008 (Pew 2010). In strife-torn Lebanon, views of his predecessor in both Europe 43 percent of those surveyed felt posi- and the Middle East (Shear and Sullivan tively about Obama, as compared to 46 Farnsworth, Stephen J., Lichter, S. Robert, Schatz, Roland. 2011. “International News Coverage of Barack Obama as A New Presi- dent,” Electronic Media & Politics, 1 (2): 27-45. Electronic Media & Politics June 2011 compared to 46 percent in 2009 and 33 Given the language challenges inherent percent for Bush in 2008 (Pew 2010). in studies involving a range of countries, many international comparisons of news While presidential administrations coverage have concentrated on relatively routinely try to influence foreign cover- small numbers of nations often grouped age of the U.S., few recent American by language or region. General classifi- presidents have made international out- cations of media systems that transcend reach the focus that it has been during these common groupings are difficult to the administrations of Obama and develop, even though they can be of George W. Bush (Alter 2010; Brooks great value in international media com- 2006; Entman 2004; Kessler and Wright parisons. 2007; Mueller 2006; Pew 2006, 2010; Wilson 2010; Zaharna 2005). Jesper Stromback (2007, 2008) de- veloped one leading classification How effective has Barack Obama scheme for different media systems been in influencing foreign coverage of based on four-stages of media influence. the U.S.? This paper is an exploratory The first phase is reached when the mass look at how the new president was media become the key links between the treated in a variety of international tele- governors and the governed. This is an vision evening news programs in the important aspect of political develop- United Kingdom, Germany and the ment that nearly all modern nations have Middle East during an 18-month period reached, regardless of the political sys- from January 1, 2009 and to June 30, tem in operation. The second stage ar- 2010. The study period is marked by rives when the mass media are largely Obama’s selection for a Nobel Prize, as independent from governments and other well as a decline in Obama’s interna- political actors. In the third stage, the tional ratings and a flare-up of Middle media have become so influential that East tensions after Israeli commandos political actors adapt their behavior to killed nine civilians on a Turkish ship media-oriented visions of newsworthi- near the Gaza strip in late May (Shear ness in order to maximize their influence 2010). We examine news coverage of in the ongoing political debate. The Obama overall and look at reports link- fourth stage takes this trend a step fur- ing Obama to specific areas of evalua- ther, as political actors internalize these tion, including his personal character and values and allow media-oriented visions capacity to govern as well the United of newsworthiness to become the domi- States’ standing in the world and its pol- nant ways government officials and citi- icies relating to the Middle East. zens evaluate policies and politicians. Throughout this study, we compare these Adherents of this perspective stress that international findings with the tone of the progression from one status to an- comparable coverage of Obama on U.S. other is not necessarily linear or unidi- network television news and Fox News rectional. Advanced democratic nations, during that same 18-month period. for example, may temporarily work un- der the fourth stage during campaigning, The Dynamics of International News but perhaps govern under the third stage Coverage (Stromback 2007, 2008). Farnsworth, Stephen J., Lichter, S. Robert, Schatz, Roland. 2011. “International News Coverage of Barack Obama as A New Presi- dent,” Electronic Media & Politics, 1 (2): 27-45. Electronic Media & Politics June 2011 Another widely recognized classifica- towards politicians. This approach is far tion system for analyzing media systems less common in Liberal media cultures, in advanced western democracies in- where journalistic norms encourage re- volves three categories: a Liberal model, porters to take more critical or adversar- a Democratic Corporatist model, and a ial positions vis-à-vis authority figures Polarized Pluralism model (Hallin and (Stromback 2008). Mancini 2004). The first category is marked by a relative dominance of mar- Scholars studying international media ket mechanisms and commercial media, in recent years have increasingly turned as found in the United States and to a their attention to Al Jazeera, a Qatar- lesser degree in the United Kingdom and based satellite news broadcaster that be- Canada. While the Democratic Corpora- came highly visible internationally fol- tist model also contains commercial me- lowing the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The dia, those media tend to be tied to orga- network was the only media outlet that nized social and political groups, as had reporters in Taliban Afghanistan, found in Sweden, the Netherlands and and its coverage of the war offered a Germany. The Polarized Pluralist model street-level perspective that focused on is marked by a strong centralized state the events of late 2001 as a U.S. invasion and a relatively weak development of of the Muslim part of the world (Jasper- commercial media. This model is found son and El-Kikhia 2003). Al Jazeera’s in Italy and other nations of southern reporters provided much less coverage Europe, and to a lesser extent in France. of the military aspects of the war – (This third category is the closest ap- which were covered in great depth by proximation of the groups of Arab media many western media outlets – and in- examined here.) stead focused on the human costs. The sufferings of Afghan civilians, the col- For our purposes, these perspectives lateral damage of western bombing suggest that news coverage in Liberal campaigns and other humanistic portray- nations will be greatly influenced by als of the costs of war were standard fare commercial preferences, that is, by re- (Jasperson and El-Kikhia 2003).