Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Alternatives To The “Race To The Bottom” In Vietnam: Minimum Wage Strikes And Their Aftermath, Angie Tran

Angie Tran

This case study focuses on strategic mediating roles of labor newspapers. Concentrating on minimum wage strikes from 2005 to 2006, it shows the state’s pro-foreign direct investment policy, tensions between state bureaucracies and labor unions, and their debates. It demonstrates alternatives to the “race to the bottom” thesis. The larger implication is that labor organizing and spontaneous collective actions can be successful even within a one-party state. It remains to be seen how the new strike law ratified in 2006 addresses structural weaknesses of the labor unions and the state, and how it affects labor organizing for workers’ rights and …

The Third Sleeve: Emerging Labor Newspapers And The Response Of The Labor Unions And The State To Workers’ Resistance In Vietnam, Angie Tran

Angie Tran

This article focuses on how the Vietnamese General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) responds to workers’ strikes. A complex, non-monolithic VGCL has developed a “third sleeve,” its dynamic pro-labor press, which plays strategic mediating roles among the state, labor unions, and management. The labor newspapers use their forums to champion workers’ rights and interests and empower labor unions that negotiate with state bureaucracies and management on the workers’ behalf. Simultaneously, the labor press must respond to policies and agendas of the VGCL and the state, which still hold to their power to monitor and control workers’ collective action.

Proximity And Journalistic Practice In Environmental Discourse: Experiencing “Job Blackmail” In The News, Barbara Johnstone, Justin Mando

Barbara Johnstone

Who's Driving The Asylum Debate: Newspaper And Government Representations Of Asylum Seekers, Natascha Klocker, Kevin M. Dunn

Natascha Klocker

The welfare and future of asylum seekers in Australia have been very contentious contemporary issues. Findings based on content analysis of media releases in 2001 and 2002 reveal the unrelentingly negative way in which the federal government portrayed asylum seekers. While the government's negative tenor was constant during the study period, the specific terms of reference altered, from 'threat' through 'other', to 'illegality' and to 'burden'. The negative construction of asylum seekers was clearly mutable. Analysis of newspaper reporting during the same period indicates that the media largely adopted the negativity and specific references of the government. The media dependence …

Newspaper Coverage Of Drug Policy: An Analysis Of Pre-Election Reporting Of The Greens' Drug Policy In Australia, Danika Hall, Sandra C. Jones, Fiona Cowlin

Sandra Jones

Introduction and Aims. With the headline 'Ecstasy Over The Counter' in a popular daily newspaper, the debate on drug policy officially entered the arena of the 2003 New South Wales (Australia) State Election. The debate resurfaced in the lead-up to the 2004 Australian Federal Election. This paper analyses the pre-election coverage of drug policy issues in four Australian newspapers. Design and Methods. Four high-circulation daily newspapers were monitored for a one-month period prior to both elections and analysed for their coverage of drug policy, particularly with respect to the policy of the Greens. Results. The newspapers took different perspectives on …

"Fourth World" Values In A Spanish-Language Newspaper Serving An Immigrant Community, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Richard J. Peltz-Steele

This study operationalized the Four Worlds model for mass media values in a new context — that of a foreign-language newspaper serving a recent-immigrant community within a First World society, namely a Hispanic community in central Arkansas, in the United States. The study established baseline representations of previously described “First World” and “Fourth World” values in a mainstream central Arkansas newspaper, and in Cherokee and Koori newspapers. The study speculated that the central Arkansas Hispanic community exists with a measure of physical and cultural separation from mainstream society — arising from informal barriers such as socioecomomic status, residential neighborhoods, language, …

Newspaper Theft, Self-Preservation And The Dimensions Of Censorship, Erik Ugland, Jennifer Lambe

Erik Ugland

One of the most common yet understudied means of suppressing free expression on college and university campuses is the theft of freely-distributed student publications, particularly newspapers. This study examines news accounts of nearly 300 newspaper theft incidents at colleges and universities between 1995 and 2008 in order to identify the manifestations and consequences of this peculiar form of censorship, and to augment existing research on censorship and tolerance by looking not at what people say about free expression but at what they do when they have the power of censorship in their own hands. Among the key findings is that …