Japan: Speaking of China

As we noted during our discussions for the video presentation, China is often mentioned in all our media sources. For Japan, it is probably due in part to the geographic and politically significant proximity that China often appears in the news. However, as always, the Yomiuri Daily has reported on a foreign affairs event involving the Japanese, or in the case of the following article, the Chinese President's up-coming visit to Japan. The article even mentions the 2,000 year history between the two countries. Of course, it does also briefly list the controversial issues that the two are playing over.

The article starts out with Chinese President Hu's statement to use the visit to its full potential, followed by a brief mention of the previous president's controversial visit 10 years before. Then after an statement on the 2000 years of friendly relations between the two, the article lists issues that the two nation's have been working together on such as the investigations over frozen dumplings manufactured in China that gave a gave a number of people in Japan food poisoning. This is, on the other hand, followed by a second list detailing some topics of disagreement such as oil rights, Tibet, the Olympics...etc. It ends with the less controversial request by the Japanese for the lease of a Panda to the Ueno Zoo and Hu's assurance that they understand the Japanese people and their Prime Minister Fukuda have this strong wish.

U.K.: A Blog for every subject...

I have only just stumbled upon the vast selection of blogs The Times of London publishes on its website. Not being one to follow the opinion section very closely, I first discovered the tab listing its blogs today. The variety boggles the mind. With 32 blogs, The Times even outdoes The Guardian's 28, and the subjects range from motor racing to general news, motherhood to religion. There's an entire blog kept up by the Paris correspondent, which publishes as many cultural posts as ones commenting on politics (although the political analysis is nothing fresh - just a recap of recent events or sentiments that echoes and refers to other French media sources), as well as one kept by the Iraq correspondent in Baghdad.

An April 25 posting on the Inside Iraq blog delves into subject matter that might be buried if it were published in the print edition. It discusses recent gains by Iraqi soldiers in defeating Shia insurgents in Basra. Unlike U.S. coverage, which tends to report more about the American military, this blog includes interviews with Iraqi soldiers. It details the operation in Basra as one would expect to hear a battle covered during war time: by discussing the obstacles originally faced by the Iraqi army and how they overcame them. It does not sensationalize the situation. The article even goes so far as to contextualize the situation by explaining which subgroup the Shia militants are thought to have been linked to. Rather than utilizing the anti-war frame to discuss U.K. involvement, the reporter blogs from the perspective of the Iraqi army and their role in bringing stability back to their country.

U.K.: More from the horserace

The Guardian has a lengthy article today summing up the past week of campaigning for Barack Obama. In 25 paragraphs the U.S. bureau chief discusses Obama's fatigue, Reverend Wright's recent remarks, Obama's subsequent renunciation of his pastor, the Senator's appearances with his wife this week to emphasize his working-class background and family values, opinions from the locals in Indiana and North Carolina, and how Obama and Clinton stand in relation to one another in terms of delegates.

The British press accept the same frames that are put forth in the American media. They follow the horserace just as carefully, and having already explained the roles of superdelegates much earlier in the campaign season, British media can now ponder the importance of such details without providing context. Much of the article is biased towards the frames of the candidates' fatigue, the invocation of the "race card" by Reverend Wright, and the assumption in the press since the Pennsylvania primary last week that the tide has turned in Clinton's favor. However, the media are manufacturing this very tone themselves, and this article alludes to that by using a reporter on the Obama trail as a source:

"'He is in the middle of a shit storm,' one of the journalists travelling with him said."

Overall, the piece seems subjective. For the most part, it attributes analytical comments about the campaign to various sources and spokespeople, but comments such as the ending clearly show the influence of the press in the race: "In a bad week for him [Obama], it was a rare boost" to have superdelegate Joe Andrew announce his support for the Illinois senator this week.

Still, The Guardian does a good job getting so many quotes and writing such a lengthy article, considering the fact that the bureau chief who authored this article has had one to two bylines each day this week.

U.K.: Waning power of the UN

Chicken Yoghurt scoffs at the UN in a post in response to an article about the UN's scolding of the U.S. for not sharing intelligence about North Korea's aid to Syria in building a nuclear reactor. The blogger specifically attacks Mohamed ElBaradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief, by suggesting that he not do his job by getting involved. The blogger writes that ElBaradei should have realized that the precedent set by Hans Blix several years earlier was for the UN to remain somewhat hands-off when it comes to American Republican governments and their plans for squelching nuclear weapon development in the hands of other countries.

The blogger, Justin McKeating, takes an ironic tone, and even as he is criticizing ElBaradei, he is agreeing with him that this is something the UN should be monitoring. McKeating has the freedom to criticize institutions such as the UN without considering political alliances, and because he is not bound to commenting on completely relevant things, he can bring up old news such as Hans Blix without having to worry about being unbiased.

U.K.: Olympic torch in Japan

The Times of London reports on the Olympic torch relay in Japan, after the torch passed through Nagano with little incident other than a "clash" between pro-Tibetan protesters and Chinese students. The article mentions the legs that remain of the relay, as well as the way in which Nagano handled the security (using their own guards instead of the Chinese ones, which was a contentious choice when it came to light a couple weeks ago). Other than these two items, though, the article's focus is less on the torch relay than on the political situation regarding Tibet. The article shows the influence of the protesters and all the attention they've been getting on the Chinese government, who "may have" decided to meet with the Dalai Lama's representatives as a result. It goes on to discuss the ways in which the Chinese media are viewing the Tibet situation and to report the responses of Olympics officials and Chinese government officials.

The article uses the now-established frame of the Tibetan struggle for independence to report the latest in the torch relay, but it fleshes out that frame now with more context and balanced responses from different sides of the issue (Olympics officials, government officials, the Chinese media, Chinese political analysts).

U.K.: "Berlusconi's Back!"

Nosemonkey's EUtopia has a bit of fun discussing the re-election of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The blogger lists all the reasons he is excited about Berlusconi being back in power - all of which are to be taken ironically, as the blogger views Berlusconi as having high entertainment value but low political effectiveness. The blogger compares Berlusconi to the previous PM, Romano Prodi, who was "not holding a near monopoly in the Italian media, not trying to blatantly advance his own commercial interests through his high office, [and] not re-writing the country’s electoral laws to give his own party an advantage," among other things.

This is a great example of a blogger who writes just for the sake of providing commentary. There is little research behind his post, and the blogger acknowledges that, as someone who is not Italian, it is difficult for him to understand the details of Italy's election process. Instead, he links to a Reuters article that reports the actual news of Berlusconi's victory and to the international section of Spiegel Online, a German site, which provides a more comprehensive, contextualized analysis of the election. This brings up one difficulty in covering international news: background information. For readers unfamiliar with other countries' governments, it is difficult for news stories to include enough context to the story without introducing bias. Also, readers' appetites for consuming such news may not be as high if they know nothing about the subject (one article we read mentioned that readers who have more background information learn more from a news story). As a result, people with little background knowledge--such as this blogger--rely on easy stereotypes and well-publicized news stories, as Nosemonkey's EUtopia has done.

U.K.: Olympic Torch in India

The Guardian follows the Olympic torch to India today in an article that follows the protest frame that has now become the established form of reporting on this story. The article opens by noting the security restrictions in place and how they "drained [the event] of pomp and circumstance." The Guardian, too, has eliminated anything celebratory from its coverage. It mentions that there were schoolchildren bussed in to cheer on the torchbearers and that several sponsors were disappointed at being barred from getting near the relay path by security, although they were supposed to have access. However, there are no mentions of the athletes who carried the torch (only those who declined to do so), no references to India's Olympic competitors this year, and no background on where the torch was previously or where it is headed to next. Also lacking were comments from any Olympic officials.

What did the article include, then? It was mostly focused on the attempts of protesters to break through the security cordon. One group did, but "...most were met with disproportionate force -- one Tibetan was wrestled to the ground on Indian television by 12 police officers." The article tells of a protest march that began earlier at the site of Mahatma Gandhi's funeral pyre, and it ends with two paragraphs on India's history of political discord with China.