scholarly journals Atheism in US and UK Newspapers: Negativity about Non-Belief and Non-Believers

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 291
Author(s):  
A. Maurits van der Veen ◽  
Erik Bleich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
The Media ◽  
First Time

Atheists are among the most disliked “religious” groups in the United States, but the origins of this aversion remain poorly understood. Because the media are an important source of public attitudes, we analyze coverage of atheism and atheists in American and British newspapers. Using computational text analysis techniques, including sentiment analysis and topic modeling, we show that atheism is portrayed negatively by the print media. Significantly, we show that greater negativity is associated with atheism as a concept than with atheists as individuals. Building on this insight, and challenging arguments that prominent atheist intellectuals attract negative coverage, we also find that coverage of famous atheists is actually more positive than that of atheists or atheism in general. Overall, our findings add a new dimension to scholarship on differences between individual-targeted and group-targeted tolerance in public attitudes, establishing for the first time that media coverage mirrors such differences.

“Illegal,” “Undocumented,” or “Unauthorized”: Equivalency Frames, Issue Frames, and Public Opinion on Immigration

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 789-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Merolla ◽  
S. Karthick Ramakrishnan ◽  
Chris Haynes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Limited Effect ◽  
Issue Frames ◽  
First Time

Immigration has been a salient and contentious topic in the United States, with a great deal of congressional debate, advocacy efforts, and media coverage. Among conservative and liberal groups, there is a vigorous debate over the terms used to describe this population, such as “undocumented” or “illegal,” as both sides perceive significant consequences to public opinion that flow out of this choice in equivalency frames. These same groups also compete over the ways in which immigration policies are framed. Here, for the first time, we examine the use of both types of frames (of immigrants themselves, and the policies affecting them) in media coverage. Importantly, we also test for whether these various frames affect preferences on three different policies of legalization. Our results suggest that efforts to focus on the terms used to describe immigrants have limited effect, and that efforts to frame policy offer greater promise in swaying public opinion on immigration.

scholarly journals Screening Power: Harry Truman and the Nuclear Leviathan (ENG)

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 38-52
Author(s):  
Isabelle Freda
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nuclear Age ◽  
Political Sovereignty ◽  
Power And Control ◽  
The Media ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
And Control ◽  
First Time

Harry Truman’s succession to the United States presidency upon Franklin Roosevelt’s death in 1945 thrust an obscure and inexperienced politician into the center of one of the 20th century’s most critical historical moment: the final months of World War II, as the United States was preparing to deploy nuclear weapons for the first time. Truman’s clear unequalness (in both image and substance) to the tasks at hand, in juxtaposition with the epic scale of the tasks themselves, provides a unique exposure of the illusory nature of presidential authority in the Nuclear Age. Using Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan as a means of delineating the theory and image of political sovereignty, this essay examines three distinct moments from the early days of Truman’s administration that serve to elucidate the absence of presidential power and control that continues to this day to underlie the media apparatus that defines the American presidency.

scholarly journals It Takes Three: How Mass Media Coverage Conditions Public Responsiveness to Policy Outputs in the United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Williams ◽  
Martijn Schoonvelde
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Policy Area ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Attention ◽  
Public Demand

Democratic governance requires that policy outcomes and public demand for policy be linked. While studies have shown empirical support for such a relationship in various policy domains, empirical evidence also indicates that the public is relatively unaware of policy outputs. This raises a puzzle: Why do policy outputs influence public attitudes if the public knows little about them?MethodsThis study seeks to address this paradox by examining the conditioning role of media coverage. We rely on data derived from the Policy Agendas Project in the United States, allowing us to analyze the relationship between policy outcomes, public preferences, and newspaper content across a long span of time (1972–2007).ResultsOur results indicate that public policy preferences respond to policy outputs, and that this relationship is strengthened by greater media attention to a policy area. Importantly, our findings also indicate that without media attention to a policy area, there is no direct effect of policy outputs on public demand for policy.ConclusionsMedia coverage appears to be a key factor for public responsiveness to occur. In the absence of policy coverage by the media, public responsiveness to policy outputs is greatly reduced.

Climate Change Communication in Spain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Carmen Erviti ◽  
Bienvenido León
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spanish Population ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
The Media

It is not easy to determine the precise moment when climate change became a public communication issue in Spain. Among early references, the national newspaper El País published a story titled “World climate is going to change,” on November 17, 1976, and the term “global warming,” imported from the United States, appeared frequently in the media, from 1988 onward. However, academic research about communication of this important issue is relatively recent. A seminar held in 2005 warned that there were “no specific studies on the way the Spanish citizenry is facing the climate change threat” (II Seminario de Comunicación, Educación y Participación frente al Cambio Climático, Lekaroz, Navarra). This seminar precipitated the first study on public perception of climate change in Spain. According to more recent research, 90.1% of Spanish citizens are aware that climate change is happening, whereas only 4.6% are not. Historical records indicate that awareness has grown consistently in the early 21st century, with awareness levels that are similar to those of other countries. However, although there exists a strong consensus within the scientific community on the existence and the anthropogenic origin of climate change, polls indicate that only a small part of the Spanish population (39.0%) is aware of this agreement; a figure that is similar to that of other countries, such as the United States. In addition, two thirds of the Spanish population (64.4%) believe that climate change is mainly a consequence of human activities; a higher percentage than in other countries, like the United States. This ambivalent picture is not surprising, considering climate change is a marginal topic for mainstream Spanish media. According to a study conducted in 2005 and 2011, only 0.2% of all stories in the main national newspapers and 0.19% of national TV news focused on climate change, a lower percentage than in other countries. Media coverage of this issue has fluctuated since the 1990s, depending on several factors, like the existence of links to current affairs (such as international climate summits), notable report publications (from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), and public engagement efforts (such as the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth). As far as the quality of the coverage is concerned, research shows similar trends to those detected internationally, including politicization, superficiality, and catastrophism. However, compared to other countries, there is a lower representation of skeptic viewpoints in the Spanish media that may be related to a weaker public visibility of skeptic think tanks and personalities. Academic interest in climate change communication has risen since 2010. Only four publications (books or articles) were released from 2001 to 2005, whereas more than 30 appeared in the period 2011–2015. Research has primarily focused on public perception and media coverage of climate change and has been conducted mainly by four universities (Universidad Complutense, Universidad de Málaga, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, and Universidad de Navarra). Communication actions related to climate change have been carried out by several nongovernmental organizations, often as part of international events and campaigns. In the early 21st century, national and regional public institutions have conducted several campaigns to communicate and raise climate change awareness, producing several exhibitions and publications, mainly on climate change mitigation. Several forums have suggested that the current weaknesses could benefit from a closer relationship among the media and scientific institutions. This could contribute to provide more credible information on the reality of climate change, as well as the options for mitigation and adaptation. Future research could also address climate change coverage in online media and social networks, as well as reception studies, currently underrepresented in academic studies conducted in the country.

Media and Mayhem in Corrections: The Role of the Media in Prison Riots

1996 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUE MAHAN ◽  
RICHARD LAWRENCE
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Santa Fe ◽  
The Media ◽  
Prison Riots

Three of the most infamous prison riots in the United States took place in Attica, New York; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Lucasville, Ohio in 1971, 1980, and 1993, respectively. Although an examination of the three riots reveals differences in the uprisings, there are important similarities in the underlying conditions behind them. Analysis of the three riots shows the significant role played by representatives of the media both in negotiating with inmates and taking back the three institutions. In this article, the authors discuss the influence and effect of media coverage on prison riots based on what was learned from the participation of the media in the Attica, Santa Fe, and Lucasville uprisings.

scholarly journals Gifted Parents: The impact of giftedness on parenting cultures in the United States, 1920 – 1960

Dynamis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-347
Author(s):  
Kimberly Probolus
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gifted Student ◽  
Gifted Children ◽  
American Schools ◽  
The Media ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

This paper explores how discourses of giftedness informed attitudes towards parenting in the United States from 1920 to 1960. Using psychologists’ studies of giftedness, media coverage of the topic, and guidebooks for parents of gifted children, I argue that giftedness emerged in the 1910s, and by the 1920s addressed a newly limited definition of intelligence and problems in urban public education, coinciding with the popularity of the culture and personality school. Scholarly debates about giftedness traveled from the academy to the wider public through the media and guidebooks for parents. Media coverage brought awareness of the problem of the neglected gifted student, and guidebooks offered parents practical suggestions about how to raise gifted children. I show that the discourse contributed to racial segregation in American schools and classrooms by using merit to determine access to educa- tional opportunity. Experts’ advice about giftedness also altered expectations about childrearing and encouraged parents to become more involved in their child’s educational development. This argument puts the history of psychology in conversation with histories of parenting, and it evidences how the discourse on giftedness impacted institutional inequality both through merit-based gifted and talented programs and by impacting ideologies of parenting. Thus, I provide a more comprehensive account of how and why giftedness profoundly shaped both the school and the home. This article considers the cultural work the discourse accomplished; it gave the public the impression that disparities in educational achievement between individuals and groups could be explained by the parenting a child received, putting significant pressure on all parents to make educational achievement a top priority for their child.

How Local Media Coverage of Voter Fraud Influences Partisan Perceptions in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriano Udani ◽  
David C. Kimball ◽  
Brian Fogarty
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Election Administration ◽  
Local Media ◽  
American Elections ◽  
The Media ◽  
Voter Fraud ◽  
2012 Election

Extant findings show that voter fraud is extremely rare and difficult to prove in the United States. Voter’s knowledge about voter fraud allegations likely comes through the media, who tend to sensationalize the issue. In this study, we argue that the more voters are exposed to media coverage of voter fraud allegations, the more likely that they will perceive that voter fraud is a frequent problem. We merge the 2012 Survey of Performance of American Elections with state-level media coverage of voter fraud leading up to the 2012 election. Our results show that media coverage of voter fraud is associated with public beliefs about voter fraud. In states where fraud was more frequently featured in local media outlets, public concerns about voter fraud were heightened. In particular, we find that press attention to voter fraud has a larger influence on Republicans than Democrats and Independents. We further find that media coverage of voter fraud does not further polarize partisan perceptions of voter fraud. Rather, political interest moderates state media coverage on voter fraud beliefs only among Republicans. Last, our results provide no support that demographic changes, approval of election administration, or information concerning actual reported voting irregularities have any discernable effects on partisan perceptions.

Sexist Acts in Sports: Media Reactions and Forms of Apologia

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet S. Fink ◽  
John F. Borland ◽  
Sarah K. Fields
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sports Media ◽  
Women In Sport ◽  
The Media ◽  
Practical Implications

Critical analysis of media coverage is vital as scholars have long suggested that what the media choose to cover and how they choose to cover it have incredible influence on audience perceptions. Therefore, how the media cover negative incidents and sexist comments relative to women in sport can illuminate the manner in which they reinforce or challenge the hegemonic nature of sport. This study critically examined the media’s reaction to 5 specific sexist incidents in sport from 2004 to 2007 and the reactions of the perpetrators themselves and their defenders as represented in the media. Articles (N = 278) covering the incidents from 5 large newspapers representing different areas of the United States were analyzed. Results indicated that there were 4 strategies of apologia (i.e., denial, bolstering, transcendence, and differentiation), and 2 other themes, silence and marginalized sexism, emerged. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

scholarly journals Polityczne public relations w podczas kampanii wyborczych w III RP

2018 ◽  
pp. 11-26
Author(s):  
Jarosław Kardaś
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Reliable Source ◽  
The Media ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Good Presentation

Creating the image of politicians is always a deliberate act. PR should be a reliable source of information about politicians or party. Very often the image of a political party or a politician is being built exclusively on the basis of media coverage. It seems that success in politics inevitably connects with a good presentation in the media. The experience of Polish political PR is only 25 years old. This can not be compared with the experiences of western countries, especially the United States. However, even in this period, we have seen a very well-run election campaigns, but also those which were conducted incompetently.

scholarly journals Critiquing Anthropocentric Media Coverage of the COVID-19 Sport “Hiatus”

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 559-565
Author(s):  
Samuel M. Clevenger ◽  
Oliver Rick ◽  
Jacob Bustad
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Recent Trend ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Human Interest ◽  
Sports Industry ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Discourses

This commentary highlights a recent trend of anthropocentrism (a focus on human-centered interests and activities) in the media coverage in the United States and Europe on the disruption of the contemporary sports industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors argued that the coverage promotes anthropocentric narratives by framing the pandemic as an external force causing a temporary and unforeseen “hiatus” in the sports industry. As a result, media consumers learn about human interest stories associated with consumer demand and industry adaptation: stories that renormalize, rather than question, the sports industry in its current and hegemonic form. Such media discourses bypass an opportunity to consider the longstanding entanglements of human and nonhuman actors in sporting contexts, rethink sport through environmental and nonhuman perspectives, and, ultimately, advance more progressive, democratic politics. The commentary employs a posthumanist lens to critique the recent anthropocentric media coverage, highlighting the ways in which it reproduces the dualist logic of neoliberal capitalism and deflects attention to the human and nonhuman relations that have always existed in contexts of sport and human physicality.

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