Televised News Sources in Network Coverage of International Terrorism [electronic resource] / Tony Atwater and Norma F. Green.
To examine how United States network news personalizes coverage of international terrorism, a study conducted a content analysis of videotaped reports relating to the TWA airliner hijacking of June 1985. Videotapes of the TWA hostage incident from "ABC World News Tonight,""CBS Evening...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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[S.l.] :
Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1988.
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| Summary: | To examine how United States network news personalizes coverage of international terrorism, a study conducted a content analysis of videotaped reports relating to the TWA airliner hijacking of June 1985. Videotapes of the TWA hostage incident from "ABC World News Tonight,""CBS Evening News," and "NBC Nightly News" during the period of June 14 through June 30, 1985, were analyzed according to the televised news source--defined as the videotaped "sound bite" of the newsmaker as seen and heard in the context of a network news report. For this study, televised news sources were included in the analysis when they were seen and heard on camera in either an interview, public speech, or studio setting in both live and prerecorded contexts. A total of 790 "sound bites" were broadcast in 244 stories during the 17-day incident, with CBS televising the largest percentage of news. News stories which qualified as news commentary or analysis were not included in the study. Each "sound bite" was coded using a list of variables including network, source type, source status, time length, source setting, and newscast placement. Results showed that the sources televised during the TWA hijacking were most frequently unofficial, domestic sources. Over half of these sources were either hostages or relatives and friends of hostages, suggesting that network coverage of terrorism tends to relate a "human" drama in which hostages and their families are portrayed as the central characters. (Five tables of data and 30 footnotes are appended.) (MM) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED296395. ERIC Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (71st, Portland, OR, July 2-5, 1988). |
| Physical Description: | 27 p. |