OUR NEGLECTED NEIGHBORS: HOW THE U.S. ELITE MEDIA COVERED LATIN AMERICA IN 1977

摘要

The western media have been charged with biased reporting of third world nations, and discussion continues over proposed controls of international news flow. However, most criticism has been based upon impressions or limited studies.;Latin America has been particularly neglected, both as a news source and a research topic. This dissertation examines Latin American coverage by the elite media: three news magazines for 1977 and a constructed month for seven prestige papers and network news broadcasts.;A total of 6,784 stories were analyzed: 224,860 square inches of print copy and 474:50 minutes of network news.;One conclusion comes easily: there was no monolithic "American media" but media stressing individual areas of interest and different parts of the world. But, in general, three hypotheses were supported: (1) Latin American news was reported less than news from other world areas; (2) "official" news of business or diplomacy dominated Latin Amerian coverage; (3) the average story from Latin America was shorter than the average foreign story.;Latin America was a poor news source for American gatekeepers, and the media missed religious and political developments throughout Latin America, chiefly in El Salvador and Nicaragua.;There is a need for a better system of information flow among nations, but it is impractical to expect the western media to staff a bureau in each nation. Thus, work must be done with third world nations to improve the overall flow of news.;However, much of the problem with the argument about the western media's tendency to ignore developmental news may be a philosophical difference in the definition of news. More sophisticated research needs to be done to determine if a bias does exist in the U.S. media attitude toward the Latin American nations.;The conclusion of the study is that while media coverage of Latin America was not as bad as earlier critics had said, it still lacks depth and an ability to spot trends, tending to descend upon Latin America when a crisis "suddenly erupts." The media arrive too late, too unprepared and too set in their attitudes toward Latin America.