This report provides the proceedings of an expert seminar, held during the preparatory meeting of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) summit, which was designed to contribute to the new media orientation of the CSCE. The proceedings notes that the main media issue in the 1990s is no longer to legitimize freedom over…

Evaluates how well the media guided readers and viewers through the Chernobyl disaster. Concludes that the press and television did not provide enough radiation and risk information in their coverage of the Chernobyl accident, but what was provided was appropriate, even-handed, and conservative. (NKA)

Investigates and compares events following two nuclear accidents in the United States and the Soviet Union. Considers that the accompanying flow of information shows that the optimistic bulletins of official sources provided too few facts and weakened credibility with both journalists and the public. (NKA)

A Study investigated the informal methods of governmental information control used in four countries--the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and the Soviet Union--to determine how the governments discretely and quietly limited unfavorable publicity. The examination revealed seven possible control methods: (1) preemptive leaks, (2)…

A study examined the influence of nation states' self-interests on their media's coverage of a major news event, in this instance, the Soviet shooting down of a Korean airliner. It was hypothesized (1) that there would be discrepancies between different accounts of the KAL 007 incident, a complex news event with international political…

Explains that the news media commit fundamental errors of attribution in covering risk situations by (1) treating them as novelties, (2) failing to analyze the entire system, and (3) using insufficiently analytical language. (NKA)