Karin Gwinn Wilkins

The Role of Media in Public Disengagement from Political Life

Many scholars blame media for declining political participation in the United States. Survey research results indicate that civic engagement and political distrust may be associated with political Participation, but that these processes are not easily explained by television viewing. Instead, newspaper reading and television news watching, along with level of education, tend to be associated with electoral participation. In conclusion, the author suggests that skepticism be reconceptualized as a healthy part of the democratic process.

Shifting frames of the Palestinian movement in US news

In this research, we explore the conditions under which US news media coverage of the Palestinian movement for independence has shifted over time, in relation to changes in the movement and in the political and social contexts in which it has taken place. To measure shifts in media attention and media frames over time we examined the coverage of Palestinian issues in the New York Times and the Associated Press between 1984 and 1998. Media coverage increased and framing became more positive following two events: the initiation of the first intifada and the signing of the Oslo Peace accords. The effect of these two events, however, differed. These results allow us to consider opposing explanations of movements’ media access and to advance the literature on US news media coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

An evidence review of gender-integrated interventions in reproductive and maternal-child health.

Evidence-based behavior change interventions addressing gender dynamics must be identified and disseminated to improve child health outcomes. Interventions were identified from systematic searches of the published literature and a web-based search (Google and implementers websites). Studies were eligible if an intervention addressed gender dynamics (i.e., norms, unequal access to resources), measured relevant behavioral outcomes (e.g., family planning, antenatal care, nutrition), used at least a moderate evaluation design, and were implemented in low- or middle-income countries. Of the 23 interventions identified, 22 addressed reproductive and maternal-child health behaviors (e.g., birth spacing, antenatal care, breastfeeding) that improve child health. Eight interventions were accommodating (i.e., acknowledged, but did not seek to change gender dynamics), and 15 were transformative (i.e., sought to change gender dynamics). The majority of evaluations (n = 12), including interventions that engaged men and women to modify gender norms, had mixed effects. Evidence was most compelling for empowerment approaches (i.e., participatory action for maternal-child health; increase educational and economic resources, and modify norms to reduce child marriage). Two empowerment approaches had sufficient evidence to warrant scaling-up. Research is needed to assess promising approaches, particularly those that engage men and women to modify gender norms around communication and decision making between spouses.

Mediating terrorism: text and protest in interpretations of The Siege

In this study we focus on the film The Siege (1998), as an illustration of how mediated representations of terrorism serve as a vehicle for Orientalist discourse. This text serves as a specific location of struggle and negotiation over interpretations of media characterizations of Arabs, Arab Americans, Muslims, and Islam. First, we focus on how the film represents these communities and the religion textually. Second, we consider news discourse offering critiques of the film by protesting organizations, and the defenses articulated by some of the films makers. Third, we explore the interpretations of young U.S. viewers as they resonate with competing facets of the text and with public perspectives. Despite the varied possibilities within the text, these interpretations privileged rather than challenged an underlying Orientalist ideology. Still, news media did acknowledge the contestation of dominant discourse, a potential step toward improved portrayals.

The privatization of development through global communication industries: Living Proof?

Development is meant to alleviate problems in the interests of the public good, yet the growing dominance of private donors problematizes this conceptualization. Working through a political-economic analysis of development, we see global communications as an industry that channels wealth from citizens into the hands of few corporate moguls, who then have the resources to assert their agendas in a global development context. We begin by conceptualizing development and social change within communication studies, paying attention to the privatization of aid within global capitalism. Next, we contextualize our case study, describing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and ONE, promoted by Bono, as the funding and management settings of the Living Proof campaign. We analyze the initiative’s construction of development problems, its articulation of how communication is expected to work toward social change, and its conceptualizations of success. The dominant theme of Living Proof program is that “real people” have achieved development success, which can be shared as “proof” with website consumers. We conclude by considering how such a framing serves the agenda of privatized development within a neoliberal project.

Reconsidering Geometries of Development

We argue that the dominant geometry of development should be discarded, given the many limitations this model imposes on development policies and programs. Following a description of the dominant geometry of development, we critique this conceptualization based on grounds of morality and validity. Referencing illustrations of Japan as a development donor and the Chipko movement as an engaged community, we argue that new alternative geometries of development consider other structural and social arrangements. Finally, we consider more holistic, alternative perspectives that integrate material welfare with other humanitarian issues that transcend national boundaries.

Communication and Transition in the Middle East A Critical Analysis of US Intervention and Academic Literature

US intervention in the Middle East builds on a problematic assumption that western technology and knowledge will transform the region into modern, democratic nation-states. The Arab Middle East in particular tends to be constructed in public discourse as suffering from social, political and economic hardships, in order to justify military action and development assistance. In this article, the author considers and critiques recent development intervention using communication technologies in terms of academic literature on communication and transition in the Middle East.

The politics of political communication: Competing news discourses of the 2011 Egyptian protests

The world witnessed the Egyptian community building political protests toward fundamental government change in early 2011. This research explores how news discourse across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the U.S. constructed these political protests, and how media figure in their narratives. Digital media became central characters in the U.S. version, which often referred to events in Egypt as a ‘facebook revolution’. We question whether this emphasis was shared across other news sources outside of the U.S. in the Arab region. This study builds on research conducted on news discourse of political protests, how U.S. media cover the Middle East, and how comparative research informs our knowledge of political communication.

Mapping Fear and Danger in Global Space: Arab Americans’ and Others’ Engagement with Action-Adventure Film

This article explores how Arab American and other US-based communities map global place, fear and danger through their engagement with action-adventure film. While there is extensive literature demonstrating the limited characterization of Arab communities, of Islam and of the Middle East, we know much less about the consequences of these media portrayals. In discussions of action-adventure settings, Arab American groups and informants were much more likely than their counterparts to specify particular places over more generalized regions, and to be highly critical of rather than justify these constructions. These groups’ sense of danger in the world at large, dictating concern with travel outside the known and familiar territory of citizenship, seemed contingent upon cultural identification as well as direct experience. The connection between identification, whether as an American citizen primarily or as an Arab constituent, and fear in the world is critical in understanding how mapping predicates experiences and interpretations.

Mobilizing Communication Globally

, grounded in a concern over the future of com-munication for development as a field of theorization and research tightly linked to practice the world over (Wilkins 2008 and 2009; Enghel 2011). Communication for development (Servaes 1999, 2002, 2007), also known as develop -ment communication (Wilkins 2008) and communication for social change (Gumucio-Dagron and Tufte 2006), has a well-documented history. Over time, critical approaches to the field have called attention to important issues, e.g. the implicit power dynamics at play in the development industry (Wilkins 2000); the relevance of scholarship on social movements for participatory communication research (Huesca 2001); the need to address conditions of absolute poverty in communication interventions (Thomas 2002); and the shift towards technological solutions in a context of increasing inequality (Chakravartty 2009). Dialogic, participatory and democratic approaches to strategic communication have been studied for years – see e.g. Ascroft & Masilela (1994), Lie (1997), Jacobson & Servaes (1999), Huesca (2002), Shah and Wilkins (2004), Gumucio-Dagron (2009). Since the publication in 1989 of an analysis by Fair of more than 200 documented stud -ies of media and development published between 1958 and 1986, a number of research assessments have attempted to illuminate several aspects of the field’s evolution