Bad News: The Changing Coverage of National Leaders in Foreign Media of Western Democracies

Abstract

This is a study on international news flow based on a computerized analysis of foreign news coverage of national leaders in seven liberal democracies (Canada, Germany, France, Israel, Italy, the U.K., and the U.S.), encompassing a period of 30 years (N = 266,177). The results attest to a longitudinal trend in the coverage of foreign leaders in the political media of three countries—Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.: the tone is becoming increasingly negative. Two main factors account for these variations. The first is the level of political personalization in foreign coverage: Greater focus on foreign leaders is positively associated with increasing negativity toward these leaders. The second factor relates to proximity between countries: Negativity was found to be inversely and significantly associated with value and geographic proximity and to be inversely associated, with marginal significance, with political and economic proximity.

Notes

¹ http://unbisnet.un.org:8080/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=votingandmenu=searchandsubmenu=power#focus

² https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=20721.0

³ Retrieved from http://www.cepii.fr/anglaisgraph/bdd/distances.htm

⁴ National Material Capabilities (v3.02). Retrieved from http://www.correlatesofwar.org/

⁵ Data on Armed Conflict. Retrieved from http://www.prio.no/CSCW/Datasets/Armed-Conflict/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meital Balmas

Meital Balmas (Ph.D., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2012) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research interests include public opinion, political personalization, and media effects.