Eric Freedman

Setting the News Story Agenda: Candidates and Commentators in News Coverage of a Governor's Race

This study assessed the kinds of sources setting the story “agenda” in election news covering the 1998 governors race in the nine largest Michigan dailies. The assertions of candidates or their partisan supporters were more likely than those of experts or other sources to dominate story leads and paragraphs. Sources included for their expertise on the “horse race” and issue aspects of the campaign were cited in only a third of the election stories, and their comments were usually placed far down in the stories. Statehouse bureau reporters were more likely than their newsroom-based and wire-service colleagues to write stories including experts. A substantial number of stories also contained unattributed “reporter leads.” Most of these leads were references to events or developments that could be verified by any reader. Other reporter leads contained interpretations that were substantiated in the stories. But about 5 percent of the stories were introduced by reporter leads that contained interpretations or conclusions that were not or could not be substantiated in stories. Statehouse bureau reporters were also more likely than wire service or newsroom reporters to write interpretative leads.

Obstacles to the Professionalization of Mass Media in Post-Soviet Central Asia: a case study of Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is the most populous and economically significant of the five Central Asian republics of the former USSR. Although authoritarian, its government appears to recognize the need to train journalists in Western journalistic theory and practice. The observations and experiences of the authors, as recent Fulbright-sponsored journalism scholars in Central Asia, are combined with limited sources on mass media in the region, to discuss the most effective journalism education under current conditions in Central Asia.

Biasing Influences on Balance in Election News Coverage: An Assessment of Newspaper Coverage of the 2006 U.S. Senate Elections

Content analysis of newspaper stories covering eleven U.S. Senate races in 2006 showed most stories favoring Democratic and other liberal candidates. Individual stories favored liberal candidates more than Republicans. Newsrooms with greater proportions of women editors were more even in total stories favoring conservative and liberal candidates. Stories covering open races and stories from newsrooms with a greater proportion of women reporters tended to provide more evenly balanced treatment of candidate assertions. Partisanship of a lead was a strong predictor of that storys partisan tilt. Findings suggest that conventions of fairness and balance were not controlling coverage.

Bureau, Wire Reporters Write More Balanced Stories

A comparison of news stories about Michigan gubernatorial races in 1998 and 2002 shows the challenger received more attention than the incumbent in 1998, while neither dominated the news in 2002.

Whither the experts? Newspaper use of horse race and issue experts in coverage of open governors' races in 2002

This study assessed the use of “horse race” and issue experts by fifteen daily newspapers covering seven open races for governor between Labor Day and Election Day 2002. About 38% of stories cited experts. “Horse race” experts were cited in 27% of news stories, while issue experts were cited in 14%. Experts were cited more frequently in 2002 than in a similar study of a 1998 governors race. Stories by statehouse bureau reporters were more likely than others to cite experts. More prominently displayed stories cited more experts than other stories, as did stories that were more balanced between electoral opponents.

Gender Diversity Absent in Expert Sources for Elections

Stories covering 11 races for the U. S. Senate in 2006 overwhelmingly relied on male “horse race” and issue experts in the largest newspapers in each state. Female experts cited were more likely to first appear deeper in a story than were males.

Partisan and Structural Balance in Newspaper Coverage of U.S. Senate Races in 2004 with Female Nominees

Nine newspapers covering U.S. Senate races in 2004 were mostly even- handed in the space and prominence given candidates. Reporter gender, newsroom diversity, and newspaper size were associated with partisan imbalance giving more favorable treatment to Democrats. The partisanship of a storys lead predicted the storys structural imbalance, regardless of the party the imbalance favored. However, story partisan and structural imbalances were negligibly related, suggesting that news processing conventions rather than journalistic partisanship produced the imbalance.

Press constraints as obstacles to establishing civil societies in central asia: Developing a new model of analysis

More than a decade and a half after independence, none of the press systems in Central Asias five former Soviet republics are categorized as free, nor have any of these countries transitioned to democracy. The question becomes: Why have they failed to evolve into democratic nations after successfully rejecting Soviet domination and Russian colonialism? The Western-rooted development model assumes that democracy, media independence, free markets, and civil society can help establish the primary prerequisites for free and prosperous nations. However, the results of that assumption fall far short of expectations in Central Asia. Recent events provide little reason for optimism about prospects for such structural changes. This study discusses the interrelationship between press freedom and post-communist democratization. It proposes an exploratory matrix of external variables, including religion, that may help explain why press freedom has failed to materialize in Central Asia while democracy has become a reality in other parts of the former Soviet Union and in most former Warsaw Pact nations.

Advancing a Comprehensive Research Agenda for Central Asian Mass Media

In former Soviet Central Asia, independence in 1991 led to five distinctive press systems with authoritarian commonalities. Since then, scholars have barely scratched the surface in studying those press systems in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. This article identifies unexplored and under-explored topics, including questions related to journalistic practices and standards; governmental constraints; training and education; coverage of public affairs; access to information; public attitudes towards the press; social media; self-censorship and ethics; and the Internet. In addition, the article identifies obstacles to research in the region as well as the potential value of collaboration among scholars in and beyond the region. Many of these prospective areas of inquiry are also applicable for other post-communist and post-authoritarian countries in lessdeveloped regions of the world.

Deepening shadows: The eclipse of press rights in Kyrgyzstan

In March 2005, a relatively nonviolent uprising ousted an authoritarian president in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. In the aftermath of the so-called Tulip Revolution, press rights advocates and journalists welcomed the promise of greatly enhanced freedoms. However, the new regime proved to be as authoritarian and corrupt as its predecessor and little liberalization of the press system was evident five years later. Physical assaults continued, including murders, as did harassment, libel suits, impediments to access to information, license denials and self-censorship. There was only slow movement toward privatizing of state-owned media. Independent and oppositional media also remained in financial peril due to the country’s weak economy and high poverty level. Thus, 20 years after independence and a half-decade after the Tulip Revolution, the Soviet propaganda model for a press system was dead in name, but many major attributes survived, with significant implications for the continuum of authoritarianism in other postcommunist nations. The degree to which the April 2010 coup and subsequent constitutional change to a parliamentary democracy will spur an expansion of press rights and sustain market-based independent media outlets remains speculative amid grave concerns about continuing anti-press events.