Zhongdang Pan

Media, Terrorism, and Emotionality: Emotional Differences in Media Content and Public Reactions to the September 11th Terrorist Attacks

Research on print and broadcast media shows differences in cognitive and affective responses. We extend that research by combining content analysis and survey methods to examine medium differences in the emotional tone of coverage concerning the September 11th terrorist attacks, and audience differences in emotional reactions to the attacks. A computer- aided content analysis of national television and newspaper transcripts demonstrates that television news was consistently more emotional than print news. Further, a panel survey found use of television news was more

Information Seeking and Emotional Reactions to the September 11 Terrorist Attacks

Based on uncertainty reduction theory, this paper argues that individuals were motivated to seek information and learn about the September 11 terrorist attacks to reduce uncertainty about what happened. Results from a panel survey indicate that negative emotional response was a strong predictor of efforts to learn. Analyses also show that relative increases in newspaper, television, and Internet use from Wave 1 to Wave 2 were positively related to efforts to learn about the attacks. The findings extend uncertainty reduction theory to the mass media context thereby contributing to our understanding of uses and gratifications.

Shifting Journalistic Paradigms How China’s Journalists Assess “Media Exemplars”

This study examines shifting journalisticparadigms in a transitional society. Analyzing data from surveys of journalists and journalism students in the People’s Republicof China, the authors find that professional journalism has emerged as a direct competitor to the party-journalism paradigm. Although the former is manifested in journalists’ positive appraisal of professional news media, the latter is embodied in praising the official party organs. The professional perspective is associated with emphasis on the disseminator role of the media and the desire for more liberal arts training in journalism, whereas the party-journalism paradigm is related to the emphasis on the interpretive and popular advocacy roles and the desire for more training in communist propaganda. The two journalistic paradigms are also reflected in differences in evaluating various innovative media outlets in the reforms. The implications of the findings for studies on the articulation of professionalism and other journalism paradigms are discussed.

One Event, Three Stories Media Narratives of the Handover of Hong Kong in Cultural China

This article analyzes how the media from the Peoples Republic of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong constructed their respective narratives about the handover of Hong Kong - based on their institutional configurations, the relevance of the story to their home constituencies, their conventions of news-making and the cultural repertoire on which they drew to make the event intelligible. Domesticating a global media event reflects and reproduces each society as a discursive community; in a defining moment like this, the media bind each society through their shared ways of interpretations and expression.

Online news meets established journalism: how China’s journalists evaluate the credibility of news websites

The internet presents challenges to traditional journalism by being a platform for alternative practices of news production and dissemination. In response, traditional journalists are expected to engage in ‘news repair’ in order to reconfirm the authority of existing news institutions and the legitimacy of traditional models of journalism. This interaction between new media and journalistic practices must be contextualized within a media system. Built upon these premises, this study analyzes data from probability sample surveys of journalists in two Chinese cities. It finds that journalists regard mainstream media organizations’ websites as more credible than those run by commercial portals. The perceived credibility of these two types of news websites varies with journalists’ beliefs about journalism. While party journalism remains a dominant lens through which Chinese journalists evaluate the two types of websites, the sites of commercial portals are viewed by some to be embodying an alternative model of journalism.

Ethical Attitudes and Perceived Practice: A Comparative Study of Journalists in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan

This is a comparative survey study of journalists’ attitudes and perceptions concerning various types of conflicts of interest in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Journalists in all three regions are found to be receptive to freebies in the form of small gifts, meals and trips. However, they almost unanimously agree that monetary benefits from news sources are unacceptable. Compared with freebies, moonlighting seems to be a less serious problem in the three regions. Most journalists think that their colleagues do not commonly practice moonlighting. The journalists strongly agree that they should not solicit advertising on behalf of their employer or work for public relations firms or the government as a second job. With regard to self-censorship, journalists in the three regions unanimously agreed that softening negative coverage of key advertisers was unethical. However, there was considerable disagreement about softening negative coverage of government. The results also show that there is in general a discrepancy between the journalists’ value orientations and perceived reality, especially in Mainland China and Taiwan.