Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:26:03.880Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dominating the news: government officials in front-page news coverage of policy issues in the United States and Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2014

Jiso Yoon  and
Amber E. Boydstun
Jiso Yoon
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Kansas, USA E-mail: [email protected]
Amber E. Boydstun
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of California, Davis, USA E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What determines which political actors dominate a country’s news? Understanding the forces that shape political actors’ news coverage matters, because these actors can influence which problems and alternatives receive a nation’s public and policy attention. Across free-press nations, the degree of media attention actors receive is rarely proportional to their degree of participation in the policymaking process. Yet, the nature of this “mis”-representation varies by country. We argue that journalistic operating procedures – namely, journalists’ incentive-driven relationships with government officials – help explain cross-national variance in actors’ media representation relative to policymaking participation. We examine two free-press countries with dramatically different journalistic procedures: United States and Korea. For each, we compare actors’ policymaking participation to news coverage (using all 2008 New York Times and Hankyoreh Daily front-page stories). Although exhibiting greater general discrepancy between actors’ policymaking and media representation, diverse actors are over-represented in United States news; in Korea, governmental actors are dominant.

Keywords

comparativejournalistic normsKoreamedianewspolicy process
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , August 2014 , pp. 207 - 235
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Althaus, S. L., Edy, J. A. and Phalen, P. F. (2001) Using Substitutes for Full-Text News Stories in Content Analysis? American Journal of Political Science 45(3): 707–723.Google Scholar
Andrews, K. and Edwards, B. (2004) Advocacy Organizations in the US Policy Process. Annual Review of Sociology 30: 479–506.Google Scholar
Banerjee, I. (2007) The Internet and Governance in Asia: A Critical Reader . Singapore: Asian Media and Communication Center and Nanyang Technical University.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, F. R., Berry, J. M., Hojnacki, M., Kimball, D. C. and Leech, B. L. (2009) Lobbying and Policy Change. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, F. R., De Boef, S. and Boydstun, A. E. (2008) The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, F. R. and Jones, B. D. (1993) Agendas and Instability in American Politics. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, F. and Leech, B. (1998) Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in Political Science. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bennett, L. W. (1990) Toward a Theory of Press-State Relations. Journal of Communication 40(2): 103–125.Google Scholar
Bennett, L. W., Lawrence, R. G. and Livingston, S. (2007) When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Berkowitz, D. (1992) Who Sets the Media Agenda? The Ability of Policymakers to Determine News Decisions. In Kennamer D. J. (ed.), Public, Opinion, the Press and Public Policy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 81–102.Google Scholar
Bernstein, C. and Woodward, B. (1994) All the President’s Men, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Birkland, T. A. (1997) After Disaster: Agenda Setting, Public Policy, and Focusing Events. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Blumer, J. G. and Gurevitch, M. (1975) Towards a Comparative Framework for Political Communication Research. In Chaffee S. H. (ed.), Political Communication: Issues and Strategies for Research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 165–193.Google Scholar
Boydstun, A. E. (2013) Making the News: Politics, the Media, and Agenda Setting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Chang, H. (1999) Abolishing Journalist Rooms. Monthly Magazine of Newspaper and Broadcasting 345 (September): 90–92.Google Scholar
Chang, Y., Kim, J. and Ahn, Y. (2007) Four years of news briefing rooms in Korea. Oh My News, www.ohmynews.com (accessed 15 July 2013).Google Scholar
Choi, S. (2011) South Korea’s Capital Grapples with the Cost of a Welfare Policy and Income Inequality. New York Times, 24 August: A13.Google Scholar
Cohen, B. (1963) The Press and Foreign Policy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cook, T. E. (2005) Governing with the News: The News Media as a Political Institution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dahlgren, P. (1995) Television and the Public Sphere: Citizenship, Democracy and the Media. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Danielian, L. H. and Page, B. I. (1994) The Heavenly Chorus: Interest Group Voices on TV News. American Journal of Political Science 38(4): 1056–1078.Google Scholar
Domke, D., Graham, E. S., Coe, K., John, S. L. and Coopman, T. (2006) Going Public as Political Strategy. Political Communication 23(3): 291–312.Google Scholar
Donsbach, W. and Patterson, T. E. (2004) Political News Journalists. In Esser F. and Pfetsch B. (eds.), Comparing Political Communication: Theories, Cases and Challenges. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 251–270.Google Scholar
Druckman, J. N. (2005) Media Matter. Political Communication 22(4): 463–481.Google Scholar
Edwards, G. C. and Wood, B. D. (1999) Who Influences Whom? The President, Congress, and the Media. The American Political Science Review 93(1): 327–344.Google Scholar
Esser, F. (2008) Dimensions of Political News Cultures: Sound Bite and Image Bite News in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States. The International Journal of Press/Politics 13(4): 401–428.Google Scholar
Ferree, M. M., Gamson, W. A., Gerhards, J. and Rucht, D. (2002) Shaping Abortion Discourse. Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Flemming, R. B., Wood, B. D. and Bohte, J. (1999) Attention to Issues in a System of Separated Powers: The Macrodynamics of American Policy Agendas. The Journal of Politics 61(1): 76–108.Google Scholar
Freedom House (2000) Freedom in the world, http://www.freedomhouse.org (accessed 24 March 2011).Google Scholar
Galtung, J. and Ruge, M. (1965) The Structure of Foreign News: The Presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus Crises in Four Norwegian Newspapers. Journal of Peace Research 2(1): 64–91.Google Scholar
Gandy, O. H. Jr. (1982) Beyond Agenda Setting: Information Subsidies and Public Policy. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishers.Google Scholar
Gans, H. J. (2004) Deciding What’s News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek, and Time. 25th Anniversary Edition. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Glazier, R. A. and Boydstun, A. E. (2012) The President, the Press, and the War: A Tale of Two Framing Agendas. Political Communication 29(4): 428–446.Google Scholar
Golder, M. (2004) Democratic electoral systems around the world. 1946–2000, https://files.nyu.edu/mrg217/public/codebook_es1.pdf (accessed 8 November 2012).Google Scholar
Grant, J. (1988) Internal Reporting by Investigative Journalists in China and its Influence on Government Policy. Gazette 41(1): 53–65.Google Scholar
Groseclose, T. and Milyo, J. (2005) A Measure of Media Bias. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 120(4): 1191–1237.Google Scholar
Hallin, D. and Mancini, P. (2004) Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallin, D. C. and Papathanassopoulos, S. (2002) Political Clientelism and the Media. Media, Culture and Society 24(2): 175–195.Google Scholar
Hamilton, J. T. (2006) All the News That’s Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms Information into News. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hanitzsch, T. (2007) Deconstructing Journalistic Culture: Toward a Universal Theory. Communication Theory 17(4): 367–385.Google Scholar
Harcup, T. and O’Neill, D. (2001) What is News? Galtung and Ruge Revisited. Journalism Studies 2(2): 261–280.Google Scholar
Herbert, J. (2000) Journalism in the Digital Age: Theory and Practice for Broadcast, Print and On-Line Media. Waltham, MA: Focal Press.Google Scholar
Iyengar, S. and Kinder, D. R. (1987) News that Matters: Television and American Opinion. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Iyengar, S. and McGrady, J. A. (2007) Media Politics: A Citizen’s Guide. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Kernell, S., Jacobson, G. and Kousser, T. (2011) The Logic of American Politics, 4th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Kil, S. and Moon, C. (2001) Understanding Korean Politics: An Introduction. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Kim, J. (2001) Journalist Clubs. Kwanhoon Media Studies Journal 79: 197–209.Google Scholar
Kingdon, J. W. (1995) Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policy, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Koh, J. and Song, K. (2008) Probe Launched by Police into Candidate Nominations. Hankyoreh Daily, 5 August: 1.Google Scholar
Krauss, E. (2000) Broadcasting and Politics in Japan: NHK and Television News. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kuypers, J. A. (2006) Bush’s War . Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc.Google Scholar
Kwon, H. (2005) Targeting Public Spending in a New Democracy: Evidence from South Korea. British Journal of Political Science 35: 321–341.Google Scholar
Lawrence, R. (2000) The Politics of Force: Media and the Construction of Police Brutality. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lee, S., Song, K., Chung, I. and Lee, Y. (2010) Research on Perceptions of Print News Subscribers for Development Strategies of News Organizations. Korea Press Foundation Research Report. Seoul, Korea: Korea Press Foundation.Google Scholar
Lippmann, W. (1922) Public Opinion. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Mazzoleni, G. and Schulz, W. (1999) Mediatization of Politics: A Challenge for Democracy? Political Communication 16(3): 247–261.Google Scholar
McCarthy, N., Poole, K. T. and Rosenthal, H. (2006) Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Norris, P. (2000) A Virtuous Circle. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Norris, P. (2004) Global Political Communication. In Esser F. and Pfetsch B. (eds.), Comparing Political Communication: Theories, Cases and Challenges. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 115–150.Google Scholar
Norris, P. (2009) Comparing Political Communications: Common Frameworks or Babelian Confusion? Government and Opposition 44(3): 321–340.Google Scholar
Peake, J. S. and Eshbaugh-Soha, M. (2008) The Agenda-Setting Impact of Major Presidential TV Addresses. Political Communication 25(2): 113–137.Google Scholar
Pfetsch, B. (2001) Political Communication Culture in the United States and Germany. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 6(1): 46–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pharr, S. and Krauss, E. (1996) Media and Politics in Japan. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, E. E. (1960) The Semisovereign People: A Realist’s View of Democracy in America. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Schudson, M. (2002) The News Media as Political Institutions. Annual Review of Political Science 5: 249–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sellers, P. J. and Schaffner, B. F. (2007) Winning Coverage in the US Senate. Political Communication 24(4): 377–391.Google Scholar
Shugart, M. S. and Carey, J. M. (1992) Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sigal, L. (1973) Reporters and Officials. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath.Google Scholar
Sigal, L. (1986) Sources Make the News. In Manoff R. and Schudson M. (eds.), Reading the News. New York: Pantheon Books, 9–37.Google Scholar
Tarrow, S. (2010) The Strategy of Paired Comparison: Toward a Theory of Practice. Comparative Political Studies 43(2): 230–259.Google Scholar
Tresch, A. (2009) Politicians and the Media: Determinants of Legislators’ Presence and Prominence in Swiss Newspapers. The International Journal of Press/Politics 14(1): 67–90.Google Scholar
Van Belle, D. A. (2003) Bureaucratic Responsiveness to the News Media. Political Communication 20(3): 263–285.Google Scholar
van Dalen, A. (2012) Structural Bias in Cross-National Perspective: How Political Systems and Journalism Cultures Influence Government Dominance in the News. The International Journal of Press/Politics 17(1): 32–55.Google Scholar
van Dalen, A., De Vreese, C. H. and Albaek, E. (2012) Different Roles, Different Content? A Four-Country Comparison of the Role Conceptions and Reporting Style of Political Journalists. Journalism 13(7): 903–922.Google Scholar
Waisbord, S. R. (2000) Watchdog Journalism in South America: News, Accountability, and Democracy. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Watts, M. D., Domke, D., Shah, D. V. and Fan, D. P. (1999) Elite Cues and Media Bias in Presidential Campaigns: Explaining Public Perceptions of a Liberal Press. Communication Research 26(2): 144–175.Google Scholar
Wolfe, M., Boydstun, A. E. and Baumgartner, F. R. (2009) Comparing the Topics of Front-Page and Full-Paper Stories in the New York Times. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, 2–5 April.Google Scholar
Wolfsfeld, G. (1997) Media and Political Conflict: News from the Middle East. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wolfsfeld, G. and Sheafer, T. (2006) Competing Actors and the Construction of Political News. Political Communication 23(3): 333–354.Google Scholar
Yoon, J. (2010) The Statist Perspective Revisited. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, 2–5 September.Google Scholar
Zhao, Y. (1998) Media, Market and Democracy in China: Between the Party Line and the Bottom Line. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar