How States, Markets and Globalization Shape the News: The French and US National Press, 1965-97

This article presents a comparative content analysis of the US and French national press in the 1960s and 1990s to test hypotheses about the influence of media structure on journalistic discourse. The US and French press are presented as strongly contrasting models, with the US press more commercial...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of communication (London) 2007-03, Vol.22 (1), p.27-48
Main Authors: Benson, Rodney, Hallin, Daniel C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communication
Communication research
Comparative analysis
Comparative studies
Content analysis
Coverage
Cross cultural studies
France
Globalization
Journalism
Longitudinal studies
Market
Media coverage
Media studies
News
Political behavior
Press
U.S.A
United States
USA
Viewpoint
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article presents a comparative content analysis of the US and French national press in the 1960s and 1990s to test hypotheses about the influence of media structure on journalistic discourse. The US and French press are presented as strongly contrasting models, with the US press more commercialized, and the French press more closely tied to the political field. Using a variety of story- and paragraph-level content indicators, this studyshows that the French press (Le Monde and Le Figaro) offers relatively more critical coverage, a greater representation of civil society viewpoints, a stronger emphasis on both the ideological and strategic ‘game’ aspects of politics, and a higher proportion of interpretation and opinion mixed with factual reporting. Representing the US national press, The New York Times is shown to ‘index’ its coverage more closely to political elite viewpoints. Despite globalizing pressures, French-US differences have not diminished over time.
ISSN:0267-3231
1460-3705
DOI:10.1177/0267323107073746