Posted on 12/04/2006 8:24:04 AM PST by MNJohnnie
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1747605/posts
Communication Professor Examines Media Bias in President's Speeches Virginia Tech News ^ | 11/30/06 | Jean Elliott
Posted on 12/02/2006 5:28:58 PM CST by LS
BLACKSBURG, VA., November 30, 2006 -- Jim A. Kuypers, assistant professor of communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, reveals a disturbing world of media bias in his new book Bush's War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2006).
Convincingly and without resorting to partisan politics, Kuypers strongly illustrates in eight chapters “how the press failed America in its coverage on the War on Terror.” In each comparison, Kuypers “detected massive bias on the part of the press.” In fact, Kuypers calls the mainstream news media an “anti-democratic institution” in the conclusion.
“What has essentially happened since 9/11 has been that Bush has repeated the same themes, and framed those themes the same whenever discussing the War on Terror,” said Kuypers, who specializes in political communication and rhetoric. “Immediately following 9/11, the mainstream news media (represented by CBS, ABC, NBC, USA Today, New York Times, and Washington Post) did echo Bush, but within eight weeks it began to intentionally ignore certain information the president was sharing, and instead reframed the president's themes or intentionally introduced new material to shift the focus.”
This goes beyond reporting alternate points of view. “In short,” Kupyers explained, “if someone were relying only on the mainstream media for information, they would have no idea what the president actually said. It was as if the press were reporting on a different speech.”
The book is essentially a “comparative framing analysis.” Overall, Kuypers examined themes about 9-11 and the War on Terror that the President used, and compared them to the themes that the press used when reporting on what the president said.
“Framing is a process whereby communicators, consciously or unconsciously, act to construct a point of view that encourages the facts of a given situation to be interpreted by others in a particular manner,” notes Kuypers.
At the heart of each chapter are these questions: What did President Bush talk about, and how did he want us to think about it? What did the mainstream news media talk about following president Bush’s speeches, and how did they want us to think about it?
According to Arkansas State University’s Dennis W. White, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, "This is a time of maximum danger for our country—a time of crisis. The American people historically turn to the President during these times for explanation, for comfort, and for exhortation to purpose. Yet, the President does not speak directly to the people. His speech is mediated; he speaks through the media, members of the media comment on presidential speech, and others comment on the comment. Jim Kuypers is the best in the business at explaining presidential crisis communication and its relationship to the media.”
"This is a skilled and thoughtful work of scholarship, well worth a careful reading,” said Stephen D. Cooper of Marshall University. “Kuypers's book is provocative in the best sense of the word: It can stimulate fresh thinking about presidential rhetoric and press reporting of it—which Kuypers shows can be two very different things.”
Kuypers, of Christiansburg, Va., received his Ph.D from Louisiana State University and both his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Florida State. He joined Virginia Tech's Department of Communication last year after having taught political communication for tens years at Dartmouth College
ROTFLMAO !!
Good afternoon Johnnie and thanks for the ping.
PMS . . . oooh, I have a feeling Rush is about to get into BIG trouble again . . . LOL!
Newsbuster.org | December 4, 2006 - 08:12.
'Today' invited John Murtha in for a victory lap this morning, and the Dem congressman from PA responded with breathtaking megalomania seasoned with anti-Americanism. Calling America "the enemy" in Iraq, he preened over having been "way ahead" and demanded the US now "take my advice."
NBC's invitation came in the wake of the leak of a Donald Rumsfeld memo floating the idea of redeploying American troops from Baghdad and other cities to safer areas in Iraq or Kuwait, where they would act as a “quick reaction force.”
Matt Lauer, claiming he wasn't "putting words in your mouth," proceeded to do just that:
"Do you feel that you were chided unnecessarily and wrongly and in some way made the poster child for cut and run based on some assumptions you made and suggestions you made that the Secretary of Defense later came to the same conclusion?
Murtha, in all his glory: "Well, there's no question that I was away ahead."
Murtha later took his megalomania one step further. After calling the United States "the enemy" in Iraq, he claimed "it's time to take my advice."
I've never seen on minute of one episode of 24 yet.
Guess my hope is a dvd complete set for Christmas
The main reason Rush brought it up was to keep letting everyone know that he plays golf often with the rich and famous.
He is eternally insecure.
Rush is right!
That one always puzzled me...what is there about Felix that's a bad thing? As I remember, Felix was the name of royalty or for royalty from a Latin background. Hussein could either by Saddam OR King Abdullah's father (in Jordan). Hussein is a fairly common name...
Rush Is Funny...Need 52 Divisions of MoDope...
A women's platoon would be good to take out suspected women terrorists...when men shoot women, it is bad PR, but women shooting women would not have the same DBM impact.
I thought it was challenging Allen's machismo, until the Jewish heritage come up. Then I knew what Webb was doing for the second time....
Shoot, even Nancy Pelosi won't do that...absurdities upon absurdities...
Hello
AG, if you get 24 on DVD, just lock yourself in the family room with tons of pizza, a microwave and cases of Mountain Dew or Red Bull. You'll want to watch every episode, one after the next.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. Violence is any day preferable to impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent."
Mahatma Gandhi
LOL..................the old media won the election for the Dems last time around. Ignoring the new media is not a conscious effort by many voters.........in reality, many of the Democrat voters do not READ news........ especially the "new media". They have NO PERIL in ignoring the new media.
Hello A.Hun!!!!!!
(or Rumrunners)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.