TY - JOUR
T1 - Diversity in foreign news in US newspapers before and after the invasion of Iraq
AU - Choi, Jihyang
PY - 2009/10
Y1 - 2009/10
N2 - The objective of this study is to explore how the Iraq War affected the patterns of newspapers' foreign news coverage, specifically how the war affected the quality of foreign news in three prominent US newspapers, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Miami Herald in 2001, 2003, and 2005. Diversity was adopted as a criterion to measure the quality of foreign news coverage, employing the Herfindahl Index to calculate the level of diversity. The study reveals that, in general, the diversity of sources, geographic origins and topics significantly decreased after the start of the war. This was due to the pattern of concentration on a few categories. After the invasion of Iraq, newspapers' preferences for government sources, Middle East origins, military/defence related stories and news about international politics increased.
AB - The objective of this study is to explore how the Iraq War affected the patterns of newspapers' foreign news coverage, specifically how the war affected the quality of foreign news in three prominent US newspapers, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Miami Herald in 2001, 2003, and 2005. Diversity was adopted as a criterion to measure the quality of foreign news coverage, employing the Herfindahl Index to calculate the level of diversity. The study reveals that, in general, the diversity of sources, geographic origins and topics significantly decreased after the start of the war. This was due to the pattern of concentration on a few categories. After the invasion of Iraq, newspapers' preferences for government sources, Middle East origins, military/defence related stories and news about international politics increased.
KW - Herfindahl Index
KW - Iraq War
KW - US press
KW - diversity
KW - foreign news
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77950746827&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1748048509339788
DO - 10.1177/1748048509339788
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77950746827
SN - 1748-0485
VL - 71
SP - 525
EP - 542
JO - International Communication Gazette
JF - International Communication Gazette
IS - 6
ER -