Media coverage of large countries at the 2015 Milan EXPO

Abstract

An inertial bias or status quo bias in media industries, as in other markets, means the perpetuation of a certain behaviour or attitude. If mass media frequently address certain issues, an inertial bias means that such issues will be treated again independently of their absolute or relative newsworthiness. This paper studies the inertial media bias in relation to the Milan Expo 2015, an event where, in theory, all participant countries ought to have been considered equal. The empirical analysis considers the articles and reports on the Expo of the two most important online Italian newspapers, Repubblica and Corriere della Sera between May and October 2015. The estimates show that the newspapers devoted more articles and words to the largest countries, while the slant towards the richest countries was less evident. In addition, the tone of the media reports regarding large and rich countries was more positive.

Are Video Games Still a Boys’ Club? How German Public Television Covers Video Games

“…With regard to the study’s research questions, the findings support the conclusion of generally biased reporting. This is in line with several other studies on related issues (Mangani & Tizzoni, 2018). Overall, the most compelling finding is the general bias within the sample in terms of the amount of coverage.…”

“…Since the mid-1970s (Schroeder, 2011), journalistic coverage has presented video games as a controversial issue (Kümpel & Haas, 2016) and (re-)produces gaming stereotypes in various forms (Kowert, Griffiths, & Oldmeadow, 2012). Media bias is a long-debated field in communications (Mangani & Tizzoni, 2018), and stereotyped portrayals of certain groups or issues cannot be neglected (Knoll, Eisend, & Steinhagen, 2011; Zapf, 2009). As studies on German TV (Gölz, 2016; Sichler & Prommer 2014), cinema (Prommer, Linke, & Furtwängler, 2019), and specific topics (Bonner, Gonzalez, & Sommer, 2004; Geschke, Sassenberg, Ruhrmann, & Sommer, 2010; Schaaf & Nieland, 2017) suggest, this biased coverage raises concerns about the potential for the unconscious transfer of moral and ethical values, patterns, routines, and general knowledge (Bigl, 2009, 2016; Ortiz deGortari, Aronsson, & Griffiths, 2011).…”

Branding countries through multicultural events: a quantitative analysis of the impact of the FIFA World Cup 2022 on Qatar’s brand

“…The fact that Qatar is a small country could influence how international media companies covered this event. This idea would be consistent with the results by Mangani and Tizzoni (2017) about the international press coverage of countries attending the Milan Expo 2015: the largest countries obtained more coverage than the smaller ones in the most important media companies. This study aimed to analyze and better understand how the FIFA World Cup 2022 impacted Qatar's brand.…”