Guy J. Golan

INTER-MEDIA AGENDA SETTING AND GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE

For several decades, media scholars have attempted to identify the key variables that shape the complicated international news selection process. At the heart of the research lies the question of what make a nation or an international event newsworthy? Research findings point to several key determinants of international news coverage including deviance, relevance, cultural affinity and location in the hierarchy of nations. The current study suggests that the newsworthiness of international events may result from an inter-media agenda-setting process. The current analysis points to significant correlations between the international news agenda of the morning New York Times and the international news agendas of three evening television news programs. The current study argues that inter-media agenda setting should be considered in future studies on the international news selection process.

Where in the World Is Africa? Predicting Coverage of Africa by US Television Networks

The current study investigates coverage of African nations by four US television news-casts. It focuses on the news period between 2002 and 2004 and reveals that despite presence of wide-scale famine, civil conflict, disputed elections and an AIDS epidemic, the African continent received limited coverage. Based on research on the determinants of international news coverage, the study investigates how deviance, relevance, cultural affinity and location in the world system may be used to predict coverage. Results identify trade with the US and gross domestic product as the two key predictors of coverage of African nations. In the discussion, the studys results are incorporated into the larger theoretical application of world system theory into research on the determinants of international news coverage.

Social Media Activism in Response to the Influence of Political Parody Videos on YouTube

Grounded in scholarship on both the perceptual and behavioral components of the third-person effect, the present experimental study examined the effects of perceived impact of political parody videos on self and on others, by varying the perceived intent of the video producer and perceived level of exposure. Building on previous research on the behavioral consequences of such presumed influence, we tested a hierarchical regression model to show how perceived influence on others predicted individuals’ willingness to engage in social media activism (i.e., corrective actions). Results demonstrated that participants in our study showed greater perceived influence of the political parody video when it was presented by a source of highly persuasive intent than by a source of low persuasive intent. Unlike our prediction for the effect of perceived exposure, we did not find the effect of perceived level of exposure on the presumed influence on others. Finally, the results of a hierarchical regression analysis showed that the perception of influence on others was positively associated with participants’ willingness to take a corrective action—the likelihood of engaging in political social media activism.

Source and content diversity in Op-Ed Pages: assessing editorial strategies in The New York Times and the Washington Post

A content analysis of opinion editorial (Op-Ed) articles published in the Washington Post and The New York Times between 1999 and 2003 was used to assess source and issue stand diversity on three salient issues. The study revealed that editors in both newspapers allowed only limited diversity in its source selection and issue stand on the discussion of gay marriages, affirmative action and the death penalty. The authors identify the lack of diversity as inconsistent with the original stated purpose of the Op-Ed as a forum for the articulation of diverse viewpoints on salient issues and call upon future studies to further examine diversity of sources and issue stands in Op-Ed pages.

SECOND-LEVEL AGENDA SETTING AND POLITICAL ADVERTISING

This study examines the agenda-setting function of televised political advertisements during the 2004 US presidential election. Adding to the growing research on second-level agenda setting, we examined how the advertising agendas of the Bush and Kerry campaigns may have impacted the public evaluations of the two candidates. Our results provide support for the agenda-setting hypothesis as well as mixed support for the second-level hypothesis. Research findings are discussed in terms of the larger context of agenda-setting research and theory.

A Social Networks Approach to Public Relations on Twitter: Social Mediators and Mediated Public Relations

This study proposes theoretical and practical frameworks to systematically examine mediated public relations in social media spaces. We applied a social network conceptual framework to identify and characterize social mediators that connect the US State Department with its international public. The results showed that social mediators vary in terms of their formality and interdependence. Formal social mediators were primarily US government agencies while informal social mediators were nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals. Notably, relationships with populations in the Middle East and North Africa were mediated primarily by informal actors, and formal mediators played a key role in connecting the public with everywhere else in the world. Government-related formal mediators and informal social mediators showed similar levels of bilateral relationships. In contrast, news media, the most traditional public relations mediators, were rarely found as social mediators and demonstrated the most unilateral relationships.

The gates of op-ed diplomacy Newspaper framing the 2011 Egyptian revolution

The op-ed section of the newspaper is unique in that it allows experts to articulate their opinions regarding salient issues without editorial interference. The current study builds upon previous research on the op-ed through the analysis of the op-ed articles that were published in two European newspapers during the Egyptian revolution of 2011. The content analysis focused on the identity of the op-ed contributors, their use of sources, and their selection of frames as highlighted in their opinion articles. The results of the study indicate that the majority of contributors were American newspaper columnists and that the op-eds in the two newspapers focused on similar issue frames but discussed them from different perspectives.

Religiosity and the Third-Person Effect

During the past decade, the 3rd-person effect has emerged as an important area of research in the field of mass communication. This study provides one of the first empirical measurements of the influence of religiosity on the 3rd-person effect. This study provides evidence that, on moral issues, religiosity is positively associated with perceived media impact on others. It also provides evidence that, on nonmoral issues, religiosity is not associated with perceived media impact on self or others.

An Integrated Approach to Public Diplomacy

By focusing on global engagement between governments (along with corporations and nongovernmental organizations [NGOs]) and citizens of foreign nations, public diplomacy research has gained much attention from international relations, mass communications, and political scientists alike. While mostly atheoretical (Entman, 2008; Gilboa, 2000), public diplomacy research is largely influenced by Joseph Nye’s (1990, 2008) soft power perspective. Nye’s perspective highlights the need to move away from traditional government-to-government diplomacy and toward a government-to-citizen perspective that highlights a relational approach based on two-way engagement. The soft power approach was so influential on both public diplomacy practitioners and scholars that President Clinton abolished the United States Information Agency (USIA) and replaced it with the Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. This move signified not only an organizational realignment but also a philosophical shift from a global persuasion model to a model of government-to-citizen engagement focusing on such soft power programs as educational, cultural exchanges along with language training and development programs as the key tools of public diplomacy. Many critics, including the current author, have argued that while soft power programs serve an important role in international engagement, they should complement rather than replace a strategic global communication effort that draws from the mediated public diplomacy approach (Entman, 2004; Sheafer & Gabay, 2009; Sheafer & Shenhav, 2010). While traditional diplomacy is focused on government-to-government engagement and the soft power approach is focused on government-to-citizen engagement, the mediated public diplomacy approach is focused on government-to-citizen engagement that is mediated by a third party—the global news media. The rising influence of global satellite networks and social media (Kwak, Poor, & Skoric, 2006; Nisbet, Nisbet, Scheufele, & Shanahan, 2004; Seib, 2007, 2008) necessitates an updated

New Perspectives on Media Credibility Research

The mass media serves as an important forum in which journalists, public relations professionals, advertising practitioners, politicians, and issue advocates (as well as many others) try to educate, inform, pursue, and influence media audiences. The suc-cess or failure of such efforts can often depend on audiences’ overall perceptions of media credibility (Wanta & Hu, 1994).Scholarship has identified the concept of media credibility as a complex and mul-tidimensional construct (Berlo, Lemert, & Mertz, 1970). Research has typically focused on two main dimensions of media credibility: source credibility (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953; Sundar, 1998; Greer, 2003) and medium credibility (Gaziano, 1987; Kiousis, 2001; Newhagen & Nass, 1989). Source credibility research typically focuses on the characteristics of the message source (such as the speaker, the organiza-tion, or the news organization), whereas research on medium credibility focuses on the medium through which the message is delivered (for example, newspaper compared to television).Scholars of media credibility have pointed to the important influence of audience-based variables in their assessments of both source and medium credibility. These include, but are not limited to, variables such as age (Bucy, 2003), income (Ibelema & Powell, 2001), education (Mulder, 1981), gender (Robinson & Kohut, 1988), and race (Beaudoin & Thorson, 2005).The current issue of