Mass media and public opinion

Hegemony, the dominance of a world view held by elites, is perpetuated by specific media practices. This paper inquires as to how "World News Tonight" and "MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour" compare, in terms of news source selection, graphic forms and sound bites, issue coverage, and rhetoric. The study concludes that both programs' coverage of the Clinton health care plan exhibits hegemonic tendencies. The former shifts attention away from issues with a narrow source list, complex graphics, short sound bites, and frequent use of hyperbole and metaphors. The latter, though superior in its issue coverage, has as narrow a source list as does its commercial counterpart.

The current study is a content analysis and comparison of news articles from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The objective of this study is to explore media coverage of terrorism over the last five decades to determine the impact of religion and to compare coverage between two respected news sources that are known for their liberal (New York Times) and conservative (Wall Street Journal) view points. Using a stratified random sample, 1,832 news articles were selected between 1960 and 2006 from the two news sources of interest. The articles were read, analyzed, and categorized. Then, a qualitative analysis examined a random selection of articles pertaining to religious terrorist events. Results suggest an increase in coverage of religiously perpetrated terrorism in recent decades. Interestingly, coverage from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal showed similar patterns despite being representative of opposite ideologies. Implications are discussed.