Mass Media Content

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Mass Media Content

• Milburn
• Psychology 335

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W. L. BennettComponents of media content

• Personalization
• Dramatization
• Fragmentation
• Normalization
• Effects
• Limits range of acceptable political action
• Limits critical thinking capacities

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StoriesRome Airport

• Ibraham Mohammed Khaledhow would you explain his
  behavior?
• It was supposed to be a suicide mission
• He has memories, but no regrets
• No emotion, no hint of remorse
• Attribution Theory
• Crazy (internal)
• Khaled Im not the cause of anythingI was just
  doing what any young Palestinian would do
  (external)
• Continual struggle among political actors and
  media to explain causality of actions

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StoriesLibya bombing

• Reaction to bombing of Berlin discothèque
• Pilot
• I was assigned three targets and I hit three
  targets complete mission success
• Bob Zelnick
• Political success as well as a military success
• Omitted events from news story
• Khadafis adopted infant daughter killed in
  attack
• French Consulate bombed
• Could you say of the pilot that
• He had memories, but no regrets?
• Actor/Observer difference on international scale

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StoriesSri Lanka

• Historical context provided
• Tamils brought to Sri Lanka in 1800s to work in
  the rubber and coconut plantations
• Because of discrimination, they have desperate
  economic life
• There have been these kinds of atrocities by
  both sides
• What is the difference from the first two
  stories?
• Lack of U.S. interest allows media to have a
  different perspective