Public Communication Contexts & Cultures Coverage of Foreign Affairs

Professor Eric Freedman14 September 2011

freedma5@msu.edu

Assigned Readings & Past PowerPoints

• PowerPoints will be posted within 24 hours after each lecture

• All assigned readings are listed, with links to many of them.1. www.ericinlithuania.wordpress.com2. Click on Lectures3. Click on Political Communication Undergraduate Course 4. Click on Assigned Readings for list of readings for each

lecture5. For PowerPoints, click on the lecture title

Discussion Questions From Samizdat to the Arab Spring

• Is grassroots-generated political change always good, and for whom?

• Can communications technology be misused, and who determines that?

• What happens when established power institutions themselves wield new communications technologies?

• Are there important things that the “old,” “traditional” or “legacy” media do—or at least did—better than online and social media do—at least so far?

Lecture Outline

• Why report on and follow foreign news?• Identifying newsworthy impacts at home• Framing of coverage• News sources• Journalists abroad: constraints

& ethics

Common Themes

• Power of the media in a variety of countries and political systems.

• Conflicts between those with political and economic power on one side and those with less power or no power on the other side.

• Impacts of changing communication technologies and economic models.

• Role of the press in bringing events to light, helping to set the public agenda for discussion and action by citizens and policymakers.

Glossary

• “Parachute” journalism: The practice of journalists arriving (usually to a foreign place, & often with little background on that place) only to cover a story, then leaving

• Media credibility: Ability to believe or trust in the accuracy, fairness & balance of news coverage

• Gatekeepers: Those who decide what news is covered & how

Foreign Coverage: Points to Ponder

• What types of foreign news do you pay attention to, and why?

• Where do you get your news about foreign events?

• What kinds of news about Lithuania would you want the public in other countries to pay attention to, and why?

• What kinds of news about Lithuania would you not want the public in other countries to pay attention to, and why?

Quick Quiz

• Write a 1-sentence summary of the most recent news story about foreign events that you read, heard or watched (but not the stories assigned for today’s class).

• Where did you see, hear or read the story?• And did you deliberately pay attention or did

it just happen to catch your attention?

Stakeholders in Foreign News Coverage

• Newsmakers• News coverers (journalists and quasi-

journalists)• Policymakers and decision-makers• General public

Discussion: Stakeholders in 2 News Stories

• Polish immigrants in Great Britain

• French sale of ships to Russia

“It’s a little bit premature to take this step because it establishes a precedent,” said Rasa Jukneviciene, the Lithuanian defense minister. In the past, she said, French officials assured Lithuania that sensitive technology would not be included. “But now we are getting information that it is included,” Ms. Jukneviciene said.

The Baltic states have long raised concerns, keenly aware of the comments of Russia’s naval chief, Adm. Vladimir S. Vysotsky, who last year bluntly evaluated the potential benefits the equipment could have offered during the five-day Georgian war in 2008: “Everything that we did in the space of 26 hours at the time, this ship will do within 40 minutes.”

Framing

“Framing essentially involves selection and salience. To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described.”

--Entman, 1993

Potential Impact of Framing

“The fact that framing might lead audiences to have different reactions is an important implication for political communication.”

--Gan et al., 2005

Saparmurat Niyazov, President-for-Life of Turkmenistan

“Diplomacy rarely deals with one truth. More often it is a complex multi-faceted puzzle.” --Kendall, 2009

“Hitachi GE picked for nuclear plant talks: Lithuania” Vilnius (AFP) July 14, 2011

News sources quoted or cited:• Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius• Deputy Energy Minister Romas Svedas • Latvian President Andris BerzinsNot quoted or cited:• Hitachi GE officials• Competing company• Latvia, Estonia & Poland officials • Visaginas residents & officials

Some Ethical Issues for Journalists Abroad & Their News Organizations

• Obligation to follow local laws?• Bribes?• Using anonymous sources?

Questions: • Is it OK to act unethically if the story is

“worth” it, or important enough?• Who decides if it is OK?

Remember: Points to Ponder

• What types of foreign news do you pay attention to, and why?

• Where do you get your news about foreign events?

• What kinds of news about Lithuania would you want the public in other countries to pay attention to, and why?

• What kinds of news about Lithuania would you not want the public in other countries to pay attention to, and why?

Readings for Next Week

MAIN READING“The Fragmenting Mass Media Marketplace,” John Dimmick et al., in Changing the News: The Forces Shaping Journalism in Uncertain Times, 2011

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS“Reloading at the Statehouse” (American Journalism Review, 2010)“The New Face of Washington’s Press Corps” (Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism, 2009)