Narrating “Their War” and “Our War”

2016

War reporting has mostly been analyzed as a struggle between political and military control over information and journalistic professionalism. An analysis of reporting in mainstream media from the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014 shows that many other aspects must also be considered. In a comparative study, mainstream media coverage in four countries, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and Sweden, was analyzed and interviews were held with journalists in the media included in the content analysis. Findings revealed significant variations in the framing of the conflict, portrayal of actors involved, and word choice across national settings. Interviews with journalists also high lighted crucial differences in approaches and perceptions. Results show that the specific journalistic culture in each country, self-censorship, and the degree of activist approach among journalists simi larly play an important role in war reporting. Researchers from all four countries participated in the project.

War reporting has mostly been analyzed as a struggle between political and military control over information and journalistic professionalism. An analysis of reporting in mainstream media from the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014 shows that many other aspects must also be considered. In a comparative study, mainstream media coverage in four countries, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and Sweden, was analyzed and interviews were held with journalists in the media included in the content analysis. Findings revealed significant variations in the framing of the conflict, portrayal of actors involved, and word choice across national settings. Interviews with journalists also high­ lighted crucial differences in approaches and perceptions. Results show that the specific journalistic culture in each country, self-censorship, and the degree of activist approach among journalists simi­ larly play an important role in war reporting. Researchers from all four countries participated in the project.

Patriotic journalism is a worldwide, cross-cultural, and well-documented phenomenon. It is most common in the coverage of military confrontations and terror attacks. However, most of the research literature on the issue is descriptive or normative, rather than analytical. This article suggests a framework aimed at facilitating a more systematic analysis. It consists of two main parts: variables related to the social environment in which journalists act, such as national settings and type of media system, and variables associated with journalism ideologies, such as conceptions of roles and priorities of values.

The article examines the activities of reporters and news sources in the Ukrainian conflict. It adapts a typology that was developed by David Deacon to examine the motivations of reporters in the Spanish civil war. The Bellingcat group of citizen journalists are examples of ‘parajournalists’, news sources identified by Michael Schudson that have begun to act more like reporters. Bellingcat verified material on social media that tracked the course of the covert Russian invasion in 2014, including sightings of the Buk missile launcher which destroyed Malaysian airliner MH17. The author interviewed people from social media in Ukraine to investigate how their political and personal affiliations affect their credibility for the international news organisations who use them as sources.

The study of journalism covers in broad perspectives the principles of reporting in various situations, whether in normal time based on events and press conferences or during news breaking in times of crisis, conflicts or disasters. In this instance, journalists are expected to perform their duty without fear or favour, but with responsibility and ethical considerations. In other words, the journalists need to be professional in their job. Nevertheless, one dimension that involves great discretion, diligence and thoughtful analysis on the part of the journalists is during the reporting of conflicts, for instance war, whether the war news is in their country or another. Studies have shown that government, diplomats, military and humanitarian aid agencies are increasingly affected by the news media through the issues, people and countries the media choose to highlight in war stories. Indeed, the media are seen to have great potential to have enormous influence over decisions and public opinion as well as national and international agenda. Using a qualitative research methodology, the paper seeks to discover the extent the media in Malaysia are professional in their reporting of war stories, especially when they themselves come from a non-warring country. At this juncture, it is also interesting to find out the nature of the news sources and journalists relationship and the extent of professional values they uphold.

2017

War reporting has mostly been analyzed as a struggle between political and military control over information and journalistic professionalism. An analysis of reporting in mainstream media from the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014 shows that many other aspects must also be considered. In a comparative study, mainstream media coverage in four countries, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and Sweden, was analyzed and interviews were held with journalists in the media included in the content analysis. Findings revealed significant variations in the framing of the conflict, portrayal of actors involved, and word choice across national settings. Interviews with journalists also high­ lighted crucial differences in approaches and perceptions. Results show that the specific journalistic culture in each country, self-censorship, and the degree of activist approach among journalists simi­ larly play an important role in war reporting. Researchers from all four countries participated in the project.

This is a contribution from Engagement in Professional Genres. , 2019

This article provides a linguistic analysis of facts and viewpoints in a British-Peninsular Spanish sample of newspaper reports written about the Second Lebanon war (2006). Almeida’s (1992) category system for the analysis of factuality and nonfactuality, and Martin and White’s (2005) Appraisal framework were used to analyze journalistic ideological subjectivities underlying all factual statements in the news reports. Results show differences in how writers align their readers based on the political ideology of the newspaper, confirming Patterson and Donsbach’s (1996, 466) conclusion that “partisanship can and does intrude on news decisions, even among journalists who are conscientiously committed to a code of strict neutrality.” Thus, the results of this study are of interest to discourse analysts and media researchers. Keywords: news reporting, journalistic objectivity, fact, viewpoint, Appraisal Theory, media discourse, Critical Discourse Analysis

Sociology Compass, 2018

News sources are a major part of news production in times of violent crisis and conflict. They can shape the context in which journalists see and frame the events. The relationship between journalists and their sources during conflicts has received extensive scholarly analysis over the last three decades. This paper addresses the characteristics of this relationship by discussing the power balance between the two sides and presenting a typology of traditional and new news sources used during conflict coverage. Two major trends are concluded: (1) The power dynamics between journalists and news sources during conflict and crisis times are changing and becoming more complex, as sources are more able to influence the news and the boundary between them and journalists are becoming more blurred in today's global digital media environment. (2) New faces and sources are included in news stories, such as terrorists, enemy leaders, and ordinary citizens, enriching the audience with alternative views on the conflict. Although both trends suggest a decrease of dependence on official sources, journalists still rely most on such sources, which maintain some of their control over news flow during conflict. 1 | INTRODUCTION It is hard to imagine the news today without news sources. Sources are the foundation and backbone of every news story and the focal point which journalists shape the rest of their story around. They don't only provide information and interpretation about news stories or add credibility to truth claims (Berkowitz, 2009; Gans, 1979; Tuchman, 1972) but also give meaning to the events and shape the public's perception and understanding of them (Hermida,

Revista de Comunicación vol. 24, Nº1, 2024

The war in Ukraine has grabbed headlines around the world. This analysis asks who is covering it and what this says about war reporting. The advent of the Web and the subsequent polarization of the media pits the constant demand for information against the journalistic expectation of calm analysis. While traditional media seem to guarantee credibility, more and more people are turning to alternative information providers. To explore these changes’ repercussions on war correspondents, this study analyzes 11,268 bylines of the news on Ukraine published digitally by the most widely read newspapers in Spain (El País, El Mundo, El Correo, and La Vanguardia) and the USA (The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today and New York Post), during the first week of the conflict, from February 24 to March 2, 2022. Through these, the authors’ working relationship with each newspaper is investigated, employing LinkedIn or Twitter when necessary. While relevant literature suggests that freelancers and agencies dominate international news, this analysis concludes that most of the war coverage (65,64%) has been generated in newsrooms, away from the frontline. While confirming the significant contribution of agencies and a decreasing presence of freelancers, it also confirms the survival of foreign bureaus.