Walter C. Soderlund

Gender in Canadian local television news: Anchors and reporters

This study examined local television news reporting on publicly owned and operated (CBC) stations and private network (CTV and TVA) affiliated stations in the same community. Has government policy had any effect on the ratio of males and females appearing in local television news anchor and reporter roles, the placement and length of these appearances, and the type of stories assigned? Dramatic differences were found in the number and use of women as anchors on public and private network affiliates, suggesting that government commitment to gender equality does make a difference. That breakthrough, however, was not duplicated with respect to reporters.

Women and Crisis Reporting Television News Coverage of Political Crises in the Caribbean

This article examines U.S. network television news coverage of seven political/military crises occurring in the Caribbean Basin. It first documents the extent to which women are involved in covering these crises. In line with existing research, women are found to be underrepresented in all major aspects of on-air media coverage. The article then explores the impact of this under representation on the actual content of media reporting. There is, at the very least, a possibility that those doing the reporting affect the content of the report, as well as who is chosen as a news source, either on-camera and/or quoted. The article examines this question using the technique of “paired comparisons”;specifically, it compares news stories dealing with four of the crises filed from the same location, on the same day, by male and female reporters representing at least two networks. The major finding of this research is that while there are subtle differences in the way in which male and female reporters frame stories, there is a broad consistency in male and female reporting. It is the case, however, that female anchors and reporters are slightly more likely to use female sources in their stories.

Regional and Linguistic Agenda-Setting in Canada: A Study of Newspaper Coverage of Issues Affecting Political Integration in 1976

This note examines the way in which newspapers across Canada reported on events affecting political integration in the country during 1976. The year 1976 was significant with respect to Canadas political integration. While there were crises such as the “strike” of air traffic controllers over the introduction of French as a language of air traffic control in the province of Quebec (the incident which prompted us to undertake the study), it was of course the victory of the Parti Quebecois in the November 15 election which provided the most direct challenge of all to the future of Canadian political integration. That event meant that what had been a cause for concern had now become a cause for alarm; a “situation” had become a “crisis.” A unique characteristic of this study is, therefore, that it begins in a “noncrisis” atmosphere and runs through the period of initial popular realization that the threat to “national unity” is both real and immediate.

El Salvador's Civil War as Seen in North and South American Press

,The way in which media interpret events involving international conflict is recognized increasingly as important in international relations.’ El Salvador was, during the final months of 1981 (as of course it has continued to be), one of the most dangerous “hot spots” of a rekindled cold war: a Western hemisphere society ripped apart by a civil war that has attracted international participation. This research reports on the “pictures of reality” regarding events in El Salvador as conveyed to readers by major newspapers in Argentina, Chile, Canada and the United States. What is reported by the press about El Salvador (or any other foreign crisis), is important because most of us are simply unable to evaluate independently such situations. Rather, we of necessity, must depend on the media for most of our information. Thus, in a real sense, a great deal of what we “know” about a given situation is based upon media reporting. In this particular study we examine press coverage of El Salvador over a 10week period in the Fall of 1981. The major question which we seek to answer is whether media images of “reality” regarding El Salvador differ for readers of news-

Street Protests and Fantasy Parks: Globalization, Culture, and the State

Preface 1. Street Protests and Fantasy Parks / David R. Cameron and Janice Gross Stein 2. The Global Entertainment Economy / John Hannigan 3. Transnationalism, Diasporic Communities, and Changing Identity: Implications for Canadian Citizenship Policy / Lloyd L. Wong 4. Civil Society Activism on the World Wide Web: The Case of the Anti-MAI Lobby / Ronald J. Deibert 5. Communication and Globalization: A Challenge for Public Policy / Marc Raboy 6. The State As Place amid Shifting Spaces / David R. Cameron and Janice Gross Stein Appendix A: Posting to the MAI-NOT Listserv Appendix B: Global Communication Policy Environment Bibliography Contributors Index

Output and Feedback: Canadian Newspapers and Political Integration

pendent newspaper was consistent with two other findings. Some 69% said they preferred to patronize a local independent supermarket instead of a national chain, and 67% said they favored a locally owned appliance store to a national chain. One has to question the genuineness of the expressed preference for locally owned newspapers , g r o c e r y m a r k e t s a n d appliance stores. It may not have been indicative of overt consumer behavior; it may have reflected the conventional wisdom that there is innate good in local ownership. It was suspected that the opposition to government interference with group ownership at both the national and state level might be linked t o Texas conservatism or a laissez faire or pro-business attitude. However, in response to two other items. 69% said that big business had too much power, and 40% agreed that the laws regulating business were not strict enough. The strongest associations in the study were between the two combined knowledge variables and the two combined attitude variables. The 12 correlations between the four variables were all positive and significant beyond the .OOl level and ranged from .41 to .63. Thus persons who were knowledgeable about their local newspaper ownership and about national trends in newspaper groups tended to favor local and independent ownership and tended to favor government limitations on group ownership at both the state and national level. Public awareness of this issue may result in public advocacy of government intervention.

Was R2P a viable option for Syria? Opinion content in the Globe and Mail and the National Post, 2011–2013

In the spring of 2011 the Syrian civil war emerged as a late chapter of the “Arab Spring,” a chapter that in retrospect has turned out to be the most complex and potentially most serious. How such crisis events are framed in press coverage has been identified as important with respect to possible responses the international community makes under the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P). By most indicators (number of casualties, number of refugees, plus the use of chemical weapons against civilians), Syria certainly qualified as a candidate for the application of a UN Security Council authorized R2P reaction response; yet during the first two-and-a-half years of the war no such action was forthcoming. This research examines editorial and opinion pieces on Syria appearing in two leading Canadian newspapers, the Globe and Mail and the National Post, from March 2011 to September 2013 in terms of assessing how the civil war was framed regarding the appropriateness of an R2P military response on the part of the international community. The research has both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. The former examines whether framing promoted or discouraged international involvement (i.e. a “will to intervene”), as well as whether diplomatic and especially military actions such as a “no-fly zone” or more direct military attacks would be likely to result in success or failure. Qualitatively, the major positions taken and arguments presented regarding R2P, and whether it should be invoked for Syria, are reviewed.

Book Review: Is There a Better Structure for News Providers? The Potential in Charitable and Trust OwnershipLevyDavid A LPicardRobert G (eds) Is There a Better Structure for News Providers? The Potential in Charitable and Trust OwnershipOxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 2011. 138 pp. ISBN 978 1 907384 03 5

For some time the business model underlying newspaper profitability has been under attack: audience fragmentation led to a drop in circulation and the internet poached classified advertising. The financial crisis beginning in 2008 that affected the United States and most of Europe intensified the problem, especially for those newspapers that were operating under a significant debt load. The result was a significant retrenchment, especially in terms of the number of journalists employed and news bureaux maintained. David Levy and Robert Picard’s excellent book stems from a conference held at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in 2010 and addresses the question of whether alternative forms of ownership – charities and trusts – might prove to be more successful in providing quality news than traditional commercial business enterprises in financial hard times. The book consists of 11 chapters, divided into three parts, and reviews and evaluates alternative ownership models in Great Britain, the United States, Canada and France. In Part I David Levy establishes the context within which charitable and trust ownership models have become options to consider. Major points are that the economic state of affairs for newspapers varies considerably. For example, declines of newspaper revenues of 30 per cent were cited for the USA, 21 per cent for the UK, 17 per cent for Canada and only 4 per cent for France. Conditions also differ significantly for local and regional papers as opposed to national ones. These factors, along with differences in press cultures and national tax codes, mean that no single model emerges that can be applied across the board. Robert Picard’s chapter explains both the development of and differences between charitable and trust ownership and identifies three major types:

Review: Canada: Street Protests and Fantasy ParksSTREET PROTESTS AND FANTASY PARKS Globalization, culture, and the state Edited by CameronDavid R. and SteinJanice GrossVancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2002, vii, 184pp,

Mitos contribution to the comparative research on the policy-making process in Canada and Japan are enormous and deserve much credit. He has read widely in both English and Japanese about the disputes he examined and tried to make the work both theoretically rich and descriptively interesting. Still, there are a few problems with the book. Perhaps because it started life as a PhD dissertation, one needs considerable expertise to grasp Mitos message. Readings of Krasner and Katzenstein would certainly help to understand the main arguments, and some knowledge of comparative politics/international political economy would be a prerequisite. It is also a pity that his case studies end in 1980 when so much of interest has occurred since then. Despite these small shortcomings, this book deserves to be read by anyone interested in Japanese and Canadian political/economic affairs.

85.00 cloth (ISBN 0-7748-0880-2),

It has been suggested that Western press coverage played a crucial role in the withdrawal of U.S.. support from Ferdinand Marcos and thus indirectly contributed to his subsequent fall from power in 1986. The assassination of prominent Marcos critic Benigno Aquino in August 1983 is cited as a key event in turning American support with respect to long‐time ally Marcos. This study of press coverage on the Philippines in leading newspapers of the U.S.. (The New York Times), the U.K.. (The Times/Sunday Times),and Canada (The Globe and Mait) in 1983, focusing on descriptive words and phrases used with respect to Marcos, examines empirically how the Aquino assassination affected Marcos’ image in terms of transformation and amplification.