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The relationship between journalists and political sources has been characterized by a tug of war between reporters and officials where top politicians have the upper hand in the coproduction of news through their ability to provide critical information subsidies that most news media rely on. The dynamic of the journalist–source relationship has, however, mostly been analyzed in stable high-income democracies. This article goes beyond existing research by analyzing the relationship between reporters and officials in Nigeria, in principle, a democracy but in practice, a hybrid regime where journalists face substantial political pressures. Through a combination of content analysis and in-depth interviews, it shows how journalists in Nigeria are not only dependent on the information subsidies found in the West but also affected by politicians using positive (monetary awards) and negative (intimidation and violence) tangible incentives that go well beyond information subsidies. The article argues that this shapes the nature of coproduction of news in Nigeria and that more broadly, the resources available to politicians to influence journalists through such positive tangible incentives and the degree to which they, with impunity, can use negative tangible incentives, should be key dimensions for future comparative work on relations between reporters and officials as political communication research goes beyond stable democracies where money handouts and violence is unlikely to be the key factors influencing news production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that news coverage of protest groups that challenge the status quo treats them relatively critically. To develop a more precise understanding of such coverage, this study content analyzes an international set of newspapers (N = 220) to explore the relationships between a protest group’s goals and tactics on resulting news coverage. The findings indicate that a group’s tactics—more than its goals—play a substantial role in affecting coverage. Furthermore, the findings also show that the protest issue and location indirectly affect coverage through their relationship to a group’s tactics. Implications for journalists and protesters alike are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explore whether political reporters present more meticulous, complex, and active standards of news reporting—justifying their special role as enablers of informed citizenry—and to help resolve the theoretical ambiguity regarding news beats as distinct domains of practice. The sample comprised reporters from three beat clusters—political, financial, and territorial—in nine national Israeli news organizations, who were asked to describe, source by source, how they obtained a sample of their recently published items (N = 840), addressing sourcing patterns, news practices, and communication technologies used. As expected, reporting was found to be distinctive across beat clusters, with political reporters employing significantly and consistently higher standards although financial reporters, in contrast to expectations, were not found to be the weakest link in the reporting chain. Despite the substantial differences, the studied beats embody a united community of practice following a similar media logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops and tests the hypothesis that physically attractive politicians receive more news coverage. The physical attractiveness of Members of the 16th Israeli Knesset (MKs) was assessed by students abroad, who did not know they were evaluating Israeli politicians. The number of times each member appeared on national television news at the time of study was obtained and used as a measure of television news coverage. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that, over and above controls for a host of factors, the physical attractiveness of the MKs was associated with their coverage in television news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores those factors that raise the level of access for oppositional voices in the news media. The Politics-Media-Politics principle argues that cross-national differences in the role of the news media in most political processes can be best understood by examining how variations in political environments affect media performance, which in turn leads to different types of effects on politics. Based on this principle, it is argued that the news media operating in polarized multiparty democracies will allow greater access to oppositional voices than those in two-party democracies. This thesis is examined by comparing the news coverage of major news stories in the United States and Israel in 1984, 1990, and 2000. These two countries provide a useful comparison because they have similar media systems but polar opposite political systems. The results provide strong support for the thesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the role of the media during the two months of postelection crisis in 2008 in Kenya. We discuss how people exchanged information during and after the media ban and analyze online discussions and media coverage. Particular emphasis is given to the role of the social media, such as Web 2.0 communication tools and services, which enable citizens to interact or share content online. Our analysis shows that during the crisis, the social media functioned as an alternative medium for citizen communication or participatory journalism. This experience has important implications for the process of democratization in Kenya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]