The media dependence model: An analysis of the performance and structure of U.S. and global news

This dissertation is an attempt to make sense out of the many questions surrounding news media performance and its inadequacies. Are journalists and their related professional practices to blame for the failings of news content or is it more a function of the structure in which they operate? What is the structure of today's news media? In the digital age, does the long documented domination of official sources over sourcing tendencies found in news coverage continue to persist in mainstream news media? Further, are the criticisms of the old, traditional media still applicable for new, global-oriented news media, including in foreign languages transmitted abroad?;These questions are answered by the positing of an original model of news analysis called the media dependence model (MDM). The name was chosen to emphasize the chief failing of the U.S. news media system: its reliance on corporate funding and ownership and the unfortunate result of this structure leading to a lack of independence from Washington (the White House and key Congressional leaders) and Wall Street (Madison Avenue and the public relations industry) positioning.;A main pillar of the MDM is the synthesis of two critical models of news analysis and the application of their respective strengths toward the other's weaknesses. The synthesis is based on Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky's propaganda model (1988, 2002, 2008) and W. Lance Bennett's indexing model (Bennett, 1990; Bennett, Lawrence, & Livingston, 2007). Indexing has particular methodological strengths, while the propaganda model has more theoretical robustness. Both complement the other.;While the scope of the synthesis is broad and substantial, and contributes much in terms of understanding news content, it still leaves important questions that this dissertation endeavors to address. The MDM answers how and why social movements garner news media attention and sympathy, while others do not. In several chapters, the tendencies of the news media to cover social movements in opposition to U.S. policy in a derisive fashion was illustrated through case studies on opposition movements based in Puerto Rico (Chapter 6) and Ecuador (Chapter 7).;The MDM theorizes ownership of the news media in a manner appropriate for the age of globalization, with findings based on a substantial and thorough content analysis of important events in Fallujah, where the most substantial military operation was conducted during the occupation of Iraq (Chapter 4). This work does not leave domestic matters unaddressed or under-theorized. It does so by distinguishing between foreign and domestic news reporting and modeling domestic coverage, including a detailed case study on immigration which revealed dichotomized tendencies for the press to highlight certain unaccompanied minors over others (Chapter 8).;A number of political communication scholars have argued that the ending of the Cold War has brought about an era of press independence, which avoids the dichotomized coverage tendencies that were characteristic of the previous era. Findings from a case study (Chapter 5) on massacres occurring in similar time periods in Acteal, Mexico and Racak, Yugoslavia, purposefully selected for its occurrence before the "war on terror," but after the ending of the Cold War, strongly suggest that we are still not in an era of press ambiguity.;Structure, as opposed to the norms and routines of professionalized journalism, is shown to be the leading variable in so far as impact on news content is concerned. A chapter documenting instances of "spiking," the cutting of stories found to be too critical or incisive, as well as an assortment of other punitive editorial measures taken against journalists, all point to the influence of ownership and advertising as being more important than the particular practices of journalists when it comes to impact on news content (Chapter 9).;In spite of containing "bird's eye" conclusions and critical analysis on news media performance and its respective tendencies, this dissertation also addresses the conditions and instances in which exceptions are most likely to arise, with references to scholarly literature I have grouped and termed as "press exceptionalism." Exceptional content characteristics were found, and duly evaluated in relation to the MDM, in nearly every case study undertaken in this work.;The dissertation closes with an eye toward the future. In the midst of a volatile time for the journalism industry and U.S. news media, implications and future trends are taken into consideration. The "Fox effect" and the paradigm shift toward the journalism of assertion; the crisis in journalism and the critical juncture that the industry is currently undergoing; needed policies and reforms to rectify the poor state of press affairs are all considered in relation to the MDM.