Making a Difference: U.S. Press Coverage of the Kwangju and Tiananmen Pro-Democracy Movements

Abstract

This study examined New York Times and Washington Post news coverage and U.S. government responses and foreign policy decisions concerning two similar East Asian political movements in the 1980s—the Kwangju movement in South Korea and the Tiananmen movement in China. The study was grounded in the interdependent relationship between the U.S. media and government. Based on a content analysis of news reports, supplemented with U.S. government documents, the study found that U.S. elite newspapers used news sources and symbolic terms in a diametrical manner to report the two events. The events were reported in a manner that coincided with the U.S. government definitions. Findings are discussed in relation to news source indexing and journalistic accessibility.

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