Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (75Th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992)
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 349 619 CS 507 966 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (75th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992). Part XII: Foreign en c: International Media. INSTITUTION Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. PUB DATE Aug 92 NOTE 444p.; For other sections of these proceedings, see CS 507 955-970. For the 1991 Proceedings, see ED 340 045. The sixth paper contains small type. PUB TYPE Collected Works Conference Proceedings (021) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PC18 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Censorship; Comparative Analysis; Content Analysis; *Developing Nations; Discourse Modes; *Foreign Countries; *International Communication; Mass Media Role; *Media Research; Political Influences; *Television IDENTIFIERS International News; Journalism Research; *Media Coverage; *Television News ABSTRACT The International Media section of the proceedings contains the following 13 papers: "Text and Context: A Case Study of International News Discourse" (Shujen Wang); "The Future of Public Service Broadcasting in Japan and the U.K.: A Comparative Analysis" (Roya Akhavan-Majid); "Reinventing Freedom of the Press: The Search for a Post-Soviet Model in the New Russia" (Lisa W. Holstein); "Global TV News in Developing Countries: CNN's Expansion to Egypt" (Joe S. Foote and Hussein Amin); "Source Credibility during the Gulf War: A Q-Study of Rural and Urban Saudi Arabian Citizens" (Safran S. Al-Makaty and others); "Journalistic Excellence in Two Different Political Systems: A Comparative Study of American and Chinese News Reporting Awards" (Louisa Ha); "Children of the Himalayas: The Message of Chipko: 'Travel of Information' in Chamoli, India" (Jawahara K. Saidullah); "Vaccination Messages on Nigerian Broadcasting Stations: Does Content Really Matter?" (Folu Ogundimu); "The Role of Women Journalists in Philippine Political Change" (Richard Shafer and Suzanna Hornig); "Anti-Americanism in South Korea: The Mass Media and the Politics of Signification"(Jae-kyoung Lee); "Development Journalism in an Asian Setting: A Study of Depthnews" (Floyd J. McKay); "The Legal Foundations of Mass Media Regulation in Guyana: A Commonwealth Caribbean Case Study" (M. Kent Sidel); and "Propaganda in the U.S. and Taiwan Television News: A Comparative Study of Political Affairs" (Li-Ning Huang). (HB) *********************************************************************** neproaucLions .uppliea uy E0kb are the pest tnat can de made from the original document. *********************************************************************** PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATION IN JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION (75th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992). Part xiir Foreign and International Media. U S DtrfARTMENT OF EDUCATION °nice of Educational Research and improvement "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY CENTER IERIC1 Th,s document nas been reproduced as 4received from the person or organiration originating it C Minor changes have been made to improve reproduCtion dually Points of view or opinions staled in this dOcu merit do not neCeSsaray represent &kat TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES OERI oosition or policy INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 A TEXT AND CONTEXT A Case Study of International News Discourse Shujen Wang Assistant Professor Department of Communication and Theatre Southeastern Louisiana University Mailing address: P.O. Box 927, SLU Hammond, LA 70402 Tel: (504) 549-2149 Fax: (504) 549-5014 Paper presented to International Communication Division, AEJMCAnnual Convention, Montreal, Canada, August 5 - 8, 1992 ABSTRACT TEXT AND CONTEXT A Case Study of International News Discourse Through discourse analysis, this study compared and contrasted the New York Times and Renmin Ribao's coverage of the failed Soviet coup in 1991. By carefully examining the texts of the news reports, while at the same time relating them to the contexts from which they were developed, this study set out to analyze news discourse both at the macro-level (through studies of topics, thematic structures, and schematic structures of the news), and at the micro-level (through the analysis of styles). As many studies have shown that there is a determinate relation between linguistic process and ideological process, it is important and proper to use linguistic theories in such work. The findings of this study suggest that the coverage of this event by the two newspapers was both structurally and quantitatively different. By including information on the contexts, backgrounds, causes of the event, the New York Times was found to be structurally more complete. Renmin Ribao, the Chinese Communist Party newspaper, on the other hand, had omitted all background and contextual information. Important findings further suggest that the press coverage of this event was culturally, ideologically, and politically situated. TEXT AND CONTEXT: A CASE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL NEWS DISCOURSE I. Introduction Many studies, especially those in the fields of structuralism and social linguistics, have shown that the relations between language and ideology are not only close, but inseparable (see, for example, Volosinov, 1986; Macdonell, 1986; Davis & Walton, 1983; Jalbert, 1983; Pecheux, 1982; Hall, 1980; Fowler, Hodge, Kress, 1979; Trew, 1979; and Coward & Ellis, 1977). Because ideologies are "sets of ideas involved in the ordering of experience, making sense of the world" (Hodge, Kress & Jones, 1979, p. 81), and because these ideas are expressed through language, the analysis of language becomes necessary when one attempts to study ideological processes. Journalism is, without a doubt, an ideological process. Its work of "gathering, writing, and publishing or disseminating news" (Webster's New World Dictionary, 1982) definitely involves in the ordering of experiences and making se,,se of the world for its readers/ audience. Similarly, the audience/reader's perception of these reconstructed events is also ideological, because there are no uninterpreted facts in news reporting. Like any other field of ideological creativity, journalism possesses semiotic value, has its own kind of orientation toward reality, and refracts reality in its own way (Volosinov, 1986). It is therefore important to pay special attention to language in any attempts to study the process of journalism, since it is in and through language that journalistic reports exist (Kress, 1983). By comparing and contrasting the American and Chinese press coverage of the failed Soviet coup that took place in 1991, this study seeks to explore, through discourse analysis, the relations between language and ideology in news reporting. II. Research Problem The year 1991 witnessed one of the most significant events in the world history, the collapse of the Soviet Union. The failed coup on August 19 was arguably the most important trigger for this incredible development. During those three days (August 19 to 21) of coup, confusions as well as uncertainties dominated the world political scenes and news coverage alike. Old assumptions and systems 1 5 were under serious scrutiny while the new ones were yet to be established. No one was sure as to whom they should claim as their friends. It is exactly that kind of complex, uncertain, and fast changing situations that make this event significant and valuable for researchers and scholars to put different press theories to test. It is beyond doubt that the United States and the People's Republic of China (henceforth China) share the most complicated and even love/hate relations with the former Soviet Union. Although both countries were on friendly terms with the former Soviet Union at the time of the coup, their respective relations were far from stable due to different historical factors and ideological differences. After providing substantial political and, to a lesser extent, financial aids to help the Soviets with their political reforms, and after numerous talks on mutual nuclear disarmament, the United States would not want to see the hardliners regained power and control in the Soviet Union. China, although was in the middle of economic reform itself, did not agree with the drastic steps the Soviet reformers took in their political reform policies. The success of the coup could mean more harmony and cooperation between the two largest communist parties in the world. This study examines, in some detail, how two important newspapers of the U.S. and China covered this event, how the contexts had affected the "texts" of these reports, and how different ideologies had affected the structures of the news reported in these two newspapers. The two papers chosen are the New York Times and the ChineseCommunist Party newspaper Renmin Ribao (the People's Daily) in Chinese. Content analysis has been the classical methodological approach used to investigate media messages. According to Berelson (1952, p. 18), "Content analysis is a research technique forthe objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication." Precisely because of its emphasis on enumeration and manifest content, this quantitative methodological approach has been criticized for seldom addressing questions of meaning. As Hall (1980) has commented that because media are a major cultural and ideological force in the society, it takes more than the classical, quantitative approach to critically study the underlying meanings of media