For my research topic, I would like to compare how local and international media cover the same event, what are the approaches taken, the sources reached, the message emphasized. The study will try to understand whether or not the international media reinforces stigmas or stereotypes of that country as seen abroad. And also detect, if so, the role of the media in the development of any kind of bias.
One of those three events will be the subject of the research: (1) the protests that were taken in Brazil in June-July 2013; (2) the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012; or (3) the 2014 FIFA World Cup held in 12 brazilian cities in June-July 2014.
The idea is to analyze how one of the events is portrayed by the main newspapers in Brasil (one or two of the most read would be chosen) and by the international media. The international data for analysis has to be narrowed, but it could be collected from sources such as The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, El Pais, Clarin, Jornal de Noticias and by news agencies such as Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
It would be really interesting to see how one of the events you mentioned was covered by the local press. I think when stories garner international attention, sometimes the substance is watered down more than it would be for the local coverage. It would be challenging to pick one of those very noteworthy events - obviously the World Cup is more memorable to me because it just happened and because the protests leading up to and during the World Cup were highly covered events. I would think that international media might be more likely to feed into stereotypes because many were probably just sent to Brazil for the coverage at the last minute, and likely didn't have a lot of time to get to know the country and its people outside of stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteI think Eva's point is quite interesting. It would also be interesting to see how the coverage of one of those events by one specific local media changed (or if changed at all) after the international media attention was drawn to it.
ReplyDeleteAR: Are you essentially comparing Brazilian vs. Western (i.e., English language) coverage of events that took place in Brazil? Resource availability is an issue that comes to mind. For one thing, it's natural to expect that those with their own Brazilian-speaking journalists in Brazil will approach and cover an event vastly different from those that have to rely on secondary sources (i.e., citing other newspapers) either due to budgetary or language barriers, but this is something that your current proposal does not take into consideration. In fact, maybe that's something you'll want to explore because resource availability and source proximity are likely factors that moderate, if not mediate, what you'll find. Also, how would you operationalize stigmas and stereotypes?
ReplyDeleteYou said you'd like to examine "what are the approaches taken, the sources reached, the message emphasized." That sounds like three research papers. How would you measure these different areas?
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