Details of Research Outputs

Geographical distance as a "natural" attribute of news has always been systematically and artificially manipulated by media workers. This study investigated how various community newspapers select, interpret, and package events originating in places of varying distances. Contextualized in Hong Kong, the paper emphasize the relationships among three sets of variables: 1) Three types of newspapers (mass appeal, elite, and proestablishment); 2) four news locales (local, China, Asian, and international); and 3) three content characteristics (power reliance, conflicting viewpoints, and problem attribution). To test our hypotheses, this study was conducted using a large-scale content analysis of all 14 daily newspapers in Hong Kong. Findings were mixed, but showing consistently that local news was systematically differentiated from non-local news. The differences are mainly regardingthe frequency of political authorities cited, presence of diversified opinions, and the likelihood of either individuals or institutions being blamed for social wrongs. Considerable variations were detected across different types of newspapers as well. In addition, we found that the growing influence of China's dominant ideology on the political life of Hong Kong has taken its toll on the territory's media practice.