An analysis of risk news: A comparative study of the news of Avian Influenza in the New York Times, the United Daily News,and the Apple Daily
Date Issued
2007
Date
2007
Author(s)
Hu, Chih-Wei
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
This paper deals with the news coverage of Avian Influenza in the New York Times, the United Daily, and the Apple Daily, and it compares among the three newspapers how they represent the risk events.
The thesis consists of two major parts, quantity analysis and quality analysis. The former examines the different attributes of the three newspapers according to the results of statistics. The latter explores the important narrative strategies and elements used in the news texts.
A tendency found in the quantity analysis is the three newspapers’ generally lack of prospect ability. They pay attention to risk events and produce lots of relevant reports only when heavy casualties occur in the risks. That is, the number of report about the risk is noticeably increasing only after the risk has occurred and caused high casualties. In addition, this paper analyzes the news text by dividing them into nine categories, demonstrating that the three newspapers show no difference in determining the “News Topic” and in using “News Sources”. But the differences exist in the “News Sections”, “News Genres”, “Wordage”, “Writing angles”, “Experts”, and “Charts and Tables”.
The results of narrative analysis show contrasting narrative strategies in the three newspapers. The New York Times is characterized by its varied introduction words, especially the story-telling way of narration. Besides, the deep explanations, comments, and background conditions of the event are given in the news text. The United Daily News is characterized by its designated topics of Avian Influenza and the first-hand information reported by the correspondents. Also, it pays more attention to the social psychological aspects and domesticates the foreign risk events. The Apple Daily, the most sensational one, is characterized by the negative news titles, brief descriptions and multi-spots information. However, the simple rules and clear charts about how to avoid risks and how the risks occur provide the readers with feasible and persuasive suggestions.
In the conclusion, this paper suggests that: 1. The different strategies of the three newspapers reflect the different media logics and serve the different functions of communication. 2. The delayed high-tech society (Taiwan) leads to the lack of the multiple news sources in the news coverage. 3. The news topics of risk events in the three newspapers all draw on the harms and deaths, no matter their different cultural contexts. 4. The risk knowledge has not been equalized among the public. In other words, the news coverage of the risk events has no difference in using uniformed sources. That is, the role of defining risks largely falls on the experts instead of the lay people.
Subjects
risk society, Avian Influenza, news coverage, narrative analysis, content analysis, delayed high-tech society
Type
other