This article explores the textual properties of arguably one of the most influential textual domains in contemporary society; that of mass-media discourse. Within this genre, it examines English-language hard news media reports from the United States, Great Britain and Australia focussing on the concepts of objectivity within this domain. Drawing…

Uses Kantian logic to analyze the statement of Libertarian press theory "Truth beats falsehood in a free marketplace of ideas" as a definition, an observation, and a universal truth. Notes three corresponding moral universes, with differing ethical obligations. Discusses strengths and weaknesses of each. Cautions media ethics analysts…

Identifies the major insights concerning contemporary communication and media practices associated with the postmodern condition and evaluates their contribution to critical media studies. Suggests that postmodern media studies are themselves a symptom of the very postmodern culture they seek to analyze. (RS)

Notes that the paradigm of resistance has enjoyed widespread popularity in the field of media studies. Argues for understanding media studies as a field in Pierre Bourdieu's sense of the term. Explores the analytical and political limits of this paradigm, and by extension, the intellectual vision that proceeds from it. (SR)

Offers a "guard dog" metaphor for the functioning of the mass media, suggesting that media perform as a sentry for groups having sufficient power and influence to create and control their own security systems. Delineates this perspective from others, and suggests several hypotheses that may be derived for testing the utility of the guard dog…

Explores how synergy and related strategies have become major building blocks of the global mass media system, used to optimize their presence across many media channels as possible, and to organize cross-media activities across national borders. Discusses synergy and media fragmentation, making synergy work, synergy beyond advertising, and…

Discusses developments which have helped erode U.S. media's competitive advantage in the global media marketplace. Argues that, to reclaim dominance, firms need to adopt cooperative business strategies, such as the formation of joint alliances. Gives examples of successful alliances. (SR)

Reviews critically the dominant discourse on science and the media. Finds that the dominant concern has conceptual and methodological problems. Argues that the dominant discourse has promoted a science coverage dutiful to scientific interests and has inhibited a truly critical appraisal of popular science communication. (RS)

Contributes to scholarship on sexual content and gender portrayals in advertising by assessing images of women and men in magazine ads in 1983 and 1993. Finds both genders were portrayed more explicitly and through more sexually intimate contact in 1993; images of men were more explicit in the 1990s; and portrayals were most explicit in women's…

The eugenicists of the 1920s and 1930s aggressively pursued media attention and sought policy change for their cause of improving the human race by selective breeding. Eugenics gained momentum in the United States when the American Eugenics Society (AES) was organized in 1921. Policy formation and information dissemination were central to the…

Examines the ways in which individuals' perceptions of media use are influenced by others. Explains that three recent theories--critical mass theory, social influence model of media use, and adaptive structuration theory--suggest that individuals' perceptions of media emerge as a result of their interaction with others. Reports on a study that…

Compares coverage of social and natural science in "The New York Times," the "Los Angeles Times," and network television news. Reveals that journalists demarcate social and natural science, but fail clearly to demarcate social science and lay perspectives; and that social science is portrayed in the media as a less distinctive…

Discusses five major processes of media internationalization in China. Shows that the influence of foreign media culture in China is uneven and is contingent on the strength of ideological control at both the central and local level, as well as on the media's nature, geographical location, and degree of commercialization. (SR)

Media effects should not be thought of as either isomorphic or fragmentary. Instead, the similarities and differences between them should be studied. This approach would offer the potential to determine not only what the media effects are, but how they occur. This is possible through the discovery of patterns in research theories and findings. To…

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…