Strategic perspective: Nuclear issues in the New Zealand media

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:5614694

Fridriksson, L N

New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy drew international attention and threw the nation into a foreign policy crisis with the United States over the trilateral mutual security pact ANZUS. After more than a year of diminished intelligence and military cooperation, New Zealand was expelled from the alliance. This study involved a content analysis of coverage of these events and other nuclear issues in selected newspapers of New Zealand and the United States. Research points to the roles of the media as a critical one in the overall relations among countries. Through their frequent use of official government sources, the media tend to uphold the government line or status quo with regard to foreign affairs. This study sought to identify the nuclear issues covered in the New Zealand and US media, the characteristics of that coverage, the sources of that coverage and how coverage varied during changing US-New Zealand relations. The official frame prevailed in coverage of nuclear issues. In the New Zealand and US newspapers under study, most sources of nuclear issue news were government officials. This research also found that most coverage of nuclear issues in the New Zealand media was related to some aspect of US interests, and that coverage of New Zealand's policy in the US media was covered most often when related to the United States. Nuclear issue coverage was most often not crisis-oriented in New Zealand and US newspapers, but coverage of all nuclear issues increased dramatically during the period of the ANZUS policy crisis. This study found a number of changes in nuclear issue coverage in the New Zealand media after the policy crisis was resolved. Among those changes were a tendency to focus less on economic and trade effects of the anti-nuclear policy, a tendency to focus more on ties with other South Pacific nations, use more sources from those countries, and a tendency to focus less on the moral and ethical position of the country.

• Research Organization: Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5614694
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290600* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Nuclear Energy
350100 -- Arms Control-- Policy
Negotiations
& Legislation-- (1987-)
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
AGREEMENTS
AUSTRALASIA
COMMUNICATIONS
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
FOREIGN POLICY
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
NEW ZEALAND
NON-PROLIFERATION POLICY
NORTH AMERICA
USA