Deciding Who's News: A Content Analysis of Disaster, National and International News in Two Elite Newspapers from 1885 through 1989.

摘要

This study analyses the relationship between international news references and disaster news references in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The American media receive frequent criticism for inadequate coverage of news from other nations. Both formal and informal critics charge the United States media with bias, incompetence, inaccuracy, and distortion when reporting foreign news. Using a computerized content analysis model to analyze print journalism coverage, the author examines the characteristics of foreign news going out to readers of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The research suggests that there is a demonstratable relationship between the loss of human life in a foreign nation and the power and politics of that nation and its portrayal in the American media.