Presenter: Weihan Zhu

Media Representation and Democratic Decline: An Analysis of U.S. News Coverage

Oral Presentation

Abstract

This research is to explore how US news media may shape public understanding of democratic decline. The research is based on my interest in threats on democracy since the world is experiencing huge changes now. Growing political conflicts and social divisions are happening around the world. The main way for people to know what is happening is by news reported in daily life. US news media is the largest one in the world. These situations help to create this topic. There are some studies on the decline of democracy. Somer and McCoy (2019) argue that “Us vs. Them” divisions reduce trust and can lead to democratic decline. Weyland (2020) expresses how populist leaders use strong moral narratives to challenge institutions such as courts and the media. These studies often focus on the relationship between news and people and the reason why the news try to influence people, but less attention is given to how these news influence the public and how to decline democracy. This project asks: How have US news represented democratic decline during the past ten years. The research will focus on 40 news articles from sources such as CNN and The New York Times and compare differences in language, framing and political opinions. Articles will be categorized by topic, tone, and political orientation to analyze how democratic issues are presented to the public. A limitation of this research is that the number of the samples is small compared with the large and complex US news system.

Biography

Weihan Zhu is a first-year international student in the Vantage Arts program at UBC. He is interested in media studies, politics, and the influence of journalism on public opinion. Outside the classroom, he enjoys soccer, photography, and exploring different opinions through conversation and online media. He hopes to continue studying mathematics on data analyzing in his future academic career.