Support and coping strategies for journalists covering crisis

The study “Preparing for Risks and Building Resilience” by Elsebeth Frey from Oslo Metropolitan University looked at the physical, practical and trauma aspects of crisis journalism through in-depth interviews of nine journalists from five countries.  Trauma reporting is central to journalism. According to previous studies, the vast majority of journalists are exposed to traumatic work-related … Continued


Dimensions of media attention apparatus and terrorist acts

A new study “The Attention Apparatus: Conditions and Affordances of News Reporting in Hybrid Media Events of Terrorist Violence” by Niina Uusitalo  and Katja Valaskivi from University of Tampere conceptualizes news organization as a an attention apparatus through looking at news production in terrorist acts.  The empirical part of the study consisted of 33 thematic … Continued


In covering Ebola, the West saw Africa as inept and disease-ridden

Did Western and African media cover the 2014 Ebola outbreak differently? Adaobi Duru, of University of Louisiana, investigated the matter by analysing Ebola-related articles from five newspapers. The papers came from the United States, United Kingdom, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia – one from each. The US and UK papers emphasized how wretched of a … Continued


ARTICLE: The Lampedusa disaster had no lasting effect on immigration coverage

“Was Lampedusa a key event for immigration news?” An international team of researchers posed this question to a sample of 2 059 news articles on immigration. The sample covers three countries, 17 newspapers, and 16 months around the 2013 shipwreck which claimed the lives of 359 Italy-bound immigrants. A key event is a news event … Continued


ARTICLE: Newsrooms still don’t use Twitter’s potential to the fullest

How did different television networks use Twitter in covering the 2016 Orlando mass shooting? Lourdes Cárdenas, of San Francisco State University, with Celeste González de Bustamante and Jessica Retis, both of the University of Arizona, approached the question through a qualitative content analysis. The Orlando attack had targeted a gay night club on a “Latin … Continued


ARTICLE: Newspapers chasing quick profits are most negative on terrorism

Newspapers’ profit orientation influences how negative their news on terrorism are, Aaron M. Hoffman, of Simon Fraser University Canada, and Dwaine H. A. Jengelley, of Purdue University, write. They analysed the terrorism coverage of United States’ 20 largest newspapers between 1997 and 2014. Authors measured the news articles’ tone by comparing the proportions of negative … Continued


Picture: SH-60B helicopter flies over Sendai by United States Navy, public domain

ARTICLE: Western newspapers used a cultural framework when reporting the Great East Japan Disaster

The Great East Japan Disaster of 2011 provides an important case study through which to evaluate how the western media cover Japan. Besides the nuclear crisis, limited attention has been paid to news reporting across the multiple overlapping disaster. Jamie Matthews of Bournemouth University did a critical discourse analysis of coverage of the disaster in … Continued


Picture: Euromaidan 19 February 9 by ВО Свобода, license CC BY 3.0

ARTICLE: The coverage of the Ukraine conflict in 13 European countries

The crisis in Ukraine in 2014 was covered in varying ways around Europe. A group of researchers did a content analysis for coverage on the conflict from the first half of 2014. All in all, they examined two newspapers (24 issues from each paper) from 13 countries: Albania, Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, … Continued


Picture: Dancing with fire by Jiawei Chen, license CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: How do Norwegian news outlets report extremism?

How should news media deal with actors who promote views deemed anti-democratic and violent? Media have the democratic role of informing the public of anti-democratic and violent forces, and at the same time they should refrain from legitimizing and advancing extremist ideas and aims. In a new study, Anna Grøndahl Larsen of Oslo Metropolitan University … Continued


Untitled by Jackie Williamson, licence CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: National policies affect terrorism coverage

National policies affect the way major broadcasters cover politically motivated violence, write Ying Roselyn Du, of Hong Kong Baptist University, and Lulu Li, of Chinese University of Hong Kong. The authors analysed 142 news stories on terrorist attacks, published online by the Chinese CCTV and the American CNN. The authors searched for news on two … Continued