Speaker
Description
West European mainstream news media are in decline. Media directors, managers, and journalists therefore perceive crisis. They even sense conspiracy. New behavioral patterns, forms of political conduct, and use of technologies seem to converge and conspire in the wider population to drown out cherished ways of disseminating quality information.
My research explores the quality of contributions provided on the website of a major German public news broadcaster. The thematic focus is on news texts that contribute to discourses surrounding current violent conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. I use qualitative methods to analyze discourse modes and discursive techniques. The goal is to determine whether news texts meet expectations with regard to basic human standards such as making rational arguments and complying with widely shared moral principles, namely honesty, fairness, reciprocity, and empathy.
Results suggest that significant numbers of news texts on current violent conflicts fail to meet expectations with regard to basic human standards. My paper provides instances of various types of failures and identifies likely causes. One major overarching cause relates to traditional discourse hegemony enjoyed by West European mainstream news media, which encouraged media directors, managers, and journalists to believe that they can "make" opinions irrespective of basic human standards. With respect to the dissemination of quality information, perceived crisis may therefore result from a shift in awareness among news agents rather than significant changes in the wider population. A broad range of views and discontent may have existed all along, but previously failed to pierce the information bubbles of "opinion makers". New technologies may change and strengthen society insofar as they expose "opinion makers" to worlds beyond their own and guide them toward a more exulted existence as information providers.
| Keywords | news, mainstream news media, war, Gaza, Ukraine, human expectations, fairness, honesty, reciprocity, empathy, rationality |
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| trigo@toast.net |