The media dependence model: an analysis of the performance and structure of U.S. and global news (2024)

The Media Dependence Model: An Analysis of the Performance and Structure of U.S. And Global News by

2016

This dissertation is an attempt to make sense out of the many questions surrounding news media performance and its inadequacies. Are journalists and their related professional practices to blame for the failings of news content or is it more a function of the structure in which they operate? What is the structure of today’s news media? In the digital age, does the long documented domination of official sources over sourcing tendencies found in news coverage continue to persist in mainstream news media? Further, are the criticisms of the old, traditional media still applicable for new, global-oriented news media, including in foreign languages transmitted abroad? These questions are answered by the positing of an original model of news analysis called the media dependence model (MDM). The name was chosen to emphasize the chief failing of the U.S. news media system: its reliance on corporate funding and ownership and the unfortunate result of this structure leading to a lack of indepe...

Beyond the four theories of the press: A new model of national media systems

Mass Communication and Society, 2002

“Networks of News: News Management, Technology, and the Construction of International Relations”

Studies of the news media in international affairs have demonstrated that national news organizations tend to follow the lead of national governments in reporting international events. On the other hand arguments have been made about the way media globalization is leading to a worldwide homogenization of journalistic practices and news reports. This paper presents results from an innovative analysis of Coalition news management activities during the Major Combat Operations phase of the 2003 conflict in Iraq. Using data from briefings and press conferences including the agendas and framings used by politicians, briefers and journalists the study tracks the dynamics of news management across a four weeks period. The study concentrates on the news production process and the exchanges between officials and both national and foreign journalists. The data is broken down across briefing locations allowing comparison of US, UK and theatre-of-war venues. The analysis suggests continuities with earlier conflicts in the tendency of journalists to reflect distinctive national priorities and framings of the situation. It also suggests, however, that journalists‘ access to an international range of external information sources undermined the ability of news managers to control agendas and framings and forced them into a reactive mode. This suggests the weakening of states ability to use the control of information as a source of news management and the importance of the development of non-linear models of news if we are to understand the impact of the news media in 21st century international affairs.

Media and politics: a new paradigma?

2010

The exercise of political power in a democracy is primarily made through communication with institutions, civil society and individuals. What happens if governments have to deal with an enormous increase of mass, personal and interactive communication like the latest "explosion of communication"? The new media landscape arises issues in the relation of democratic governments with society, specially when it comes to the exercise of its power. In the past, media influenced not only the way government spoke with citizens but the political process and the media-politics relationship. Now it seems governments all over the world are successfully changing the media and the news. New attacks on the freedom of the press and journalists happen all over the world in either liberal or conservative regimes. This article with look for examples from several countries, as France, Italy, Portugal, Venezuela, Argentina, the United States and Russia, and will try to draw a picture and not just to gather a sum of anecdotical evidence. Can these strains and limitations result from the "excess" of nongovernment communications, leading governments to overtake the media, by legal procedures, exerting economic pressure, interfering in the media or upgrading their own marketing, propaganda and misinformation? The present day governmental hyperpropaganda and the constraints on journalists activity hint at the emergence of a new paradigma in the governments-media relation: severe constraints within a formal democracy. It is widely accepted that "attempts by governments to control and manipulate the media are universal because public officials everywhere believe that media are important political forces" and that, in consequence, nowhere are the media totally free from formal and informal government and social controls, even in times of peace. On the whole, authoritarian governments control more extensively and more rigidly than nonauthoritarian ones, but all control systems represent a point of continuum. There are also gradations of control within nations, depending on the current regime and political setting, regional and local variations, and then nature of news. The specifics of control systems vary from country to country, but the overall patterns are similar (Graber, 2010: 16). Hallin and Mancini (2004) theorised media systems with a mutual dependency between political and media institutions and practices, avoiding the paradigma of media always being the dependent variable on relation to the system of social control which it reflects: "media institutions have an impact of their own on other social structures" (Hallin and Mancini, 2004: 8). Considering that mutual dependency, they proposed three models of media systems: the Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist (including Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain), the North and Central European or 1 Please do not quote without consulting the author.

The political economy of attention: Global news agencies and the destruction of democracy

2017

The digital information age brings an unlimited capacity for news and entertainment, as newspapers, television, satellite and cable networks are supplemented (or supplanted) by some 200 million websites. Ironically, in the midst of this burgeoning information circus, global news agencies, remain primary producers of news and information, even for entertainment. The largest news agency is Associated Press (AP), which has some 250 news bureaus in 120 countries, with a net income of almost $200 million. Yet, despite its size and reach, AP may be the least investigated news media organization. Indeed, AP is seldom mentioned or else appears as a normative given in media studies of news framing, agenda setting, and political economies of the media industry. This critique of framing functions of AP offers some initial observations on global news agencies and their impact on democratic communication and citizenship. This work fi nds that as part of a transnational media regime constrained o...

Media, communication, and democracy: Global and national environments – an introduction

2012

Journalism Research and the Hierarchy of Influences Model: A Global Perspective

Brazilian Journalism Research, 2007

The future of journalism in emerging deliberative space