AbstractTitle: Foreign news coverage. Does the media influence the action in international crises? (Utrikesbevakning. Påverkar media agerandet i internationella kriser?)Number of pages: 39Author: Charlotta AndréssonTutor: Professor Lowe HedmanCourse: Media and Communication Studies CUniversity: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.Date of submission: 2007-01-03, autumn term of 2006Purpose/AimThe purpose of the essay is partly to examine if foreign news coverage influence the political agenda setting and the incentives of the public’s willingness to give charity for humanitarian crises. It is also to answer if the media are responsible for the possible consequences of the news coverage. My main questions at issue are:1. Does the foreign news coverage influence the political agenda setting and the incentives of the public’s willingness to give charity for humanitarian crises?2. Is media responsible for the possible consequences of their foreign news coverage?I also ask a question at issue in a research of Swedish foreign news coverage in my essay to get a clearer picture of the foreign news coverage:3. How does Swedish foreign news coverage relate to prior research?Method:The second chapter of the essay is a literature research of news selection and news values. The third chapter of the essay is a research of media’s influence on the world politics and humanitarian aid. These two chapters are literature studies based on prior research, theories and debates. The fourth chapter is an empirical study of a news programme on a Swedish TV-channel during a five months period between 2004 and 2005. My interest in the empirical study was to examine how the material was divided geographically and as regards contents. The fifth and sixth chapter of the essay consists of an analysis and a discussion.Main results:As my main result I concluded that the media influence the political agenda setting and the the incentives of the public’s willingness to give charity for humanitarian crises. The media throw light upon which crises that should be given priority to. The theories for news selection and news value agrees with the result of my research of Swedish foreign news coverage. I also concluded that the media alone was not responsible for the possible consequen...
