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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 630

Part of General Poster Session (Other abstracts in this session)

High Five – Five Countries, Five News Programs, Same Topic, Same Day, Five Presentations

Authors: Krause-Ono, Margit
Submitted by: Krause-Ono, Margit (Muroran Institute of Technology, Japan)

Since autumn of 2011, major prime-time TV news programs featuring a global event have been gathered on specific dates from five countries (Japan’s NHK News7, Germany’s ARD Tagesschau, France’s TF1 LE20H, the U.K. BBC News at Six, and the U.S. CBS Evening News). The comparison and analysis of the contents and presentation (linguistic, visual, and cultural) of these national evening news broadcasts is funded by a three year grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT).

This research was prompted by calls for greater competency in media literacy by the EU commission (2007) and by the Japanese MEXT (2008). As workplaces become increasingly international, Japanese companies are also now demanding more intra- and intercultural competency of newly employed personnel (Yoshida, 2010). Comparative analysis of mass media, especially televised news, under the premises of intercultural communication is a field little explored until now (Sueda 2009).

The comparison’s aim is to show how news content and its presentations are influenced and biased by culture, and even perpetuate culture themselves. The eventual application of this method and research in academic classes should lead to students’ increased information, media literacy, and intercultural competency.

This poster session will, among others, compare how the same global topic is dealt with in equivalent news programs of five different countries, focusing especially on Germany, the UK and Japan. The topics will be 2011‘s Gaddafi’s death on October 20th, Papandreou’s canceling the Eurozone referendum on November 3rd, and one year after Fukushima on March 11, 2012. The relations of the visual (static, in movement, animated, etc.) and the oral (announce, report, interview, off-voice narration, etc.) parts of the news will be examined. Also, the ratio/amount and content of international (global) and national (local) news presented in each country will become apparent. Furthermore, intra- and intercultural news analysis will be conducted to elucidate how news content and its linguistic and visual presentation are influenced by cultural norms and assumptions, and in which way media itself repeats and engenders culture.

The audience is invited to discuss the shown preliminary research results and provide constructive questions and criticism.