Timothy M. Jones

Foreign Nation Visibility in U.S. News Coverage A Longitudinal Analysis (1950-2006)

Previous scholarship has neglected to fully explore the dynamic nature of international news flow over time. This study uses content analysis to track foreign nation visibility on a yearly basis in two major U.S. news outlets: the New York Times (1950-2006) and NBC Nightly News (1968-2006). Time-series analysis is used to evaluate the influence of five contextual factors on foreign nation visibility in the news: (a) geographic proximity, (b) bilateral trade flow, (c) U.S. troop deployment, (d) GDP per capita, and (e) population. The research findings build on earlier news flow studies by adding a longitudinal dimension that has been absent from previous news “flow” scholarship.

Torture in the Eye of the Beholder: Social Identity, News Coverage, and Abu Ghraib

This study compares how the 2004 Abu Ghraib prison story was defined by journalists in seven countries (Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United States). A content analysis of leading print news outlets from each country reveals a range of politically significant descriptive labels. At one extreme, American journalists overwhelmingly avoided torture to describe Abu Ghraib, emphasizing instead more ambiguous, and arguably more innocuous, terms such as abuse or mistreatment. At the other extreme, German, Italian, and Spanish journalists tended to define what happened at the prison as torture rather than as abuse or mistreatment. In between these emphases were Australian, British, and Canadian journalists, who fell somewhat closer to the characterizations employed by U.S. journalists. Our view is that these divergences in news coverage are best explained by social identity theory, though other potential explanations are also considered.

Successful Determination of Larval Dispersal Distances and Subsequent Settlement for Long-Lived Pelagic Larvae

Despite its importance, we still have a poor understanding of the level of connectivity between marine populations in most geographical locations. Taking advantage of the natural features of the southeast coast of New Zealands North Island, we deployed a series of settlement stations and conducted plankton tows to capture recent settlers and planktonic larvae of the common intertidal gastropod Austrolittorina cincta (6–8 week larval period). Satellite image analysis and ground truthing surveys revealed the absence of suitable intertidal rocky shore habitat for A. cincta over a 100 km stretch of coastline between Kapiti Island to the south and Wanganui to the north. Fifteen settlement stations (3 replicates×5 sites), which were used to mimic intertidal habitat suitable for A. cincta, were deployed for two months around and north of Kapiti Island (at 0.5, 1, 5, 15, 50 km). In addition, we also conducted plankton tows at each settlement station when the stations were first deployed to collect A. cincta larvae in the water column. On collection, all newly settled gastropods and larvae in the plankton samples were individually isolated, and a species-specific microsatellite marker was used to positively identify A. cincta individuals. Most of the positively identified A. cincta settlers and larvae were collected at the first three sampling stations (<5 km). However, low numbers of A. cincta settlers and larvae were also recorded at the two more distant locations (15 and 50 km). Dispersal curves modeled from our data suggested that <1% of gastropod larvae would travel more than 100 km. While our data show that most larvae are retained close to their natal populations (<5 km), a small proportion of larvae are able to travel much larger geographic distances. Our estimates of larval dispersal and subsequent settlement are one of only a few for marine species with a long-lived larva.

The view from above (and below): a comparison of American, British, and Arab news coverage of US drones

In recent years, the United States has significantly expanded its use of drone warfare. Experts are divided: some defend drones as a legal, effective way to target terrorists while others suggest drones are inaccurate and contribute to anti-Americanism. In addition, international public opinion differs starkly with Americans largely supportive of the program while publics across the globe condemn it. Suspecting news coverage might play a pivotal role in these differences, the authors explored the framing of the US drone program in American, British, and Arab news coverage. Consistent with research on social identity theory and ethnocentrism in news, they find that US coverage was more likely to frame the policy favorably – emphasizing its legality, strategic value and technological sophistication while downplaying civilian deaths – while British and, to a greater extent, Arab coverage was more critical. The authors discuss how these findings build on existing theory and explore the implications for US drone policy.

Massive Mortality of a Planktivorous Seabird in Response to a Marine Heatwave

Climate change has exacerbated the occurrence of large-scale sea-surface temperature anomalies, or marine heatwaves (MHW) - extreme phenomena often associated with mass mortality events of marine organisms. Using a combination of citizen science and federal datasets, we investigated the causal mechanisms of the 2014/15 die-off of Cassins Auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus), a small zooplanktivorous seabird, during the NE Pacific MHW of 2013-2015. Carcass deposition followed an effective reduction in the energy content of mesozooplankton, coincident with the loss of cold-water foraging habitat caused by the intrusion of the NE Pacific MHW into the nearshore environment. Models examining interannual variability in effort-controlled carcass abundance (2001-2014) identified the biomass of lipid-poor zooplankton as the dominant predictor of increased carcass abundance. In 2014, Cassins Auklets dispersing from colonies in British Columbia likely congregated into a nearshore band of cooler upwelled water, and ultimately died from starvation following the shift in zooplankton composition associated with onshore transport of the NE Pacific MHW. For Cassins Auklets, already in decline due to ocean warming, large-scale and persistent MHWs might represent a global population precipice.

Spongivory in the Wakatobi Marine National Park, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract: Sponges are functionally important coral reef fauna and there is strong evidence from the Caribbean that predation has important impacts on sponge-assemblage dynamics; whether the same is true for Indo-Pacific sponges remains unknown. As a first step toward understanding the potential effects of spongivores on sponge diversity and abundance, we identified sponge predators at nine sites in Wakatobi Marine National Park, Indonesia, and conducted a short-term caging experiment to examine the effects of excluding predators on noncryptic reef sponges at this location. Nudibranchs were the most abundant invertebrate spongivores, although their low densities are likely to limit their influence on sponges. Fish were the most abundant vertebrate spongivores with 16 species from six families observed feeding on sponges. Based on their abundance and our feeding observations, the fish with the greatest potential to influence sponge assemblages in Wakatobi Marine National Park were Zanclus cornutus, Chaetodon kleinii, Pygoplites diacanthus, and Pomacanthus sexstriatus. We did not detect an effect of excluding spongivores on noncryptic reef sponge abundance in our caging experiment, which may be due to these species having evolved chemical defenses against predators. Important areas for further research include the chemical ecology of Indo-Pacific sponges and whether spongivory currently restricts some species to cryptic or nonreef habitats.

American Atrocity Revisited: National Identity, Cascading Frames, and the My Lai Massacre

This study draws on the “cascading activation” model of press-state relations to explore U.S. political and news discourse surrounding the 1968 My Lai Massacre. We systematically analyze White House, military, congressional, and news communications and draw upon scholarship in social psychology to assess why the press might challenge certain frames in response to My Lai but indiscriminately echo others. In particular, within these communications, we examine how serious and widespread the actions at My Lai were conveyed to be, how the circumstances were portrayed, how the actors involved in the incident were characterized, and the extent to which America’s core values were questioned. Our findings suggest that the Nixon administration employed frames designed to downplay the severity of the My Lai incident, highlight extenuating circumstances faced by those directly involved, denigrate the alleged low-level perpetrators, and bolster the national identity. These frames were then largely echoed in the press, despite consistent and forceful challenges by congressional Democrats. These findings, we argue, align with the cascading activation model, and we build on it by highlighting the underlying importance of “cultural resonance” in the framing process. We reflect on the theoretical and practical implications of these patterns and, in doing so, engage the broader scholarly debate over the process through which U.S. news coverage aligns with the communications of government officials, particularly in moments of national dissonance.