Through the News Prism: Visions of Papua New Guinea in the British Media

THROUGH THE NEWS PRISM
VISIONS OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA IN THE BRITISH MEDIA
by
ALICE CRANSHAW WOODWARD
This dissertation is submitted to the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and
Cultural Studies, Cardiff University, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies
May 2013

ii
Declaration
I declare that this dissertation is the result of my own efforts. The various sources to which I
am indebted are clearly indicated in the references in the text and in the bibliography.
I further declare that this work has never been accepted in the substance of any degree, and is
not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any other degree.
I hereby give consent for my dissertation to be available for photocopying and for inter-
library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations.
Alice Woodward
(Candidate)
Stephen Cushion
(Supervisor)

iii
Acknowledgements
I would like to take the chance to firstly thank and express my appreciation to my dissertation
supervisor, Dr Stephen Cushion. I am extremely grateful for all of your advice throughout
this challenging process, your insightful feedback helped shape my work.
I would like to acknowledge Liam Fox of ABC news, who gave up his time to speak with me,
a valuable contribution for which I am grateful.
To a fantastic group of friends, both old and new, who have been there throughout the ups
and downs of university, always willing to offer help and guidance.
I extend my gratitude to Alleyne, for her literary advice and approval of my work. You
assured me I was following the correct path when I doubted myself.
Finally, I would like to thank my family. To my brother, Josh, and our parents, Hartley and
Stella, for their encouragement and assurance from the outset, providing the pillar of support
they always have. If it was not for their love and belief I would not have made it this far.

iv
Abstract
The current study investigates coverage of Papua New Guinea across British national
newspapers and the BBC’s online news, focusing on the period between 2012 and 2013.
Utilising a combination of content analysis and close textual analysis, the study aims to
examine the portrayal of the nation in the British news, and explore how depictions vary
across news outlets. The research also aims to identify which, of the many newsworthy
events that took place in the nation over the 14-month period, received the most coverage.
Findings reveal that the royal visit from Prince Charles and Camilla ranked highest on the
news agenda. Beyond this, negative stories that presented the nation and its people as brutish
featured highly, while political issues were widely overlooked by the British press. The
public service broadcaster stood out as upholding a hard news agenda, while at the other end
of the spectrum, tabloids perceptibly amplified the macabre. Mid-markets portrayed a more
positive image of the nation than any other media type, and broadsheets, similar to the public
service broadcaster, maintained a reasonable degree of objectivity in their reporting. Based
on the wealth of literature surrounding news values, and incorporating the results of an
interview with Papua New Guinea correspondent, Liam Fox, the study explores why Papua
New Guinea receives the coverage it does. Stressing the impact of national identity in
constructing nations beyond our borders, the implications for the future of international news
are explored, alongside the rationale for maintaining foreign coverage in democratic society.
Overall, the dissertation argues the importance of contextualising news from foreign nations
to avoid negative typecasting, and prevent the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’ from widening
further.

v
Contents
Declaration ii
Acknowledgements iii
Abstract iv
Contents v
List of Tables vii
List of Figures vii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Literature Review 4
1.1 Introduction 4
1.2 News Values: Reporting International Affairs 4
1.3 National Identity and the News: Manufacturing the ‘Other’ 6
1.4 Bad Things Happen in Bad Places: Western News Representation of ‘the Rest’ 8
1.5 Censored Democracy: What Future for International News? 9
1.6 Conclusion 11
Chapter 2: Methodology 12
2.1 Introduction 12
2.2 Research Design 12
2.3 Code Frame and Sample 14
2.4 Limitations 15
2.5 Conclusion 15
Chapter 3: Findings 17
3.1 Introduction 17
3.2 Topics, Traits, and Damaging Depictions 17

vi
3.3 Tone of Coverage: Neutralising the Negative 22
3.4 Commonwealth Ties: The Royal Visit 24
3.5 Papuan Politics: Mutiny and Corruption? 26
3.6 Murder, Magic and Mayhem 28
3.7 When Disaster Strikes 30
3.8 Conclusion 31
Conclusion 33
Bibliography 38
Appendix A: Coding sheet 41
Appendix B: Codebook 43
Appendix C: Interview transcript 47

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List of Tables
Description Page number
1. Primary themes by media type 18
2. Primary representation of Papua New Guinea 21
3. Tone of coverage by media type 23
4. Primary representation of Papua New Guinea in articles on the royal visit 24
List of Figures
Description Page number
1. Attributes associated with Papua New Guinea people in articles 19
2. Tone of coverage of Papua New Guinea 22
3. Percentage of murder stories published across media outlets 28

1
Introduction
In 2006, Boris Johnson, the now Mayor of London, wrote of the Labour party’s leadership
crisis in The Daily Telegraph as comparable to “Papua New Guinea-style orgies of
cannibalism and chief-killing”. The London High Commissioner for Papua New Guinea,
Jean Kekedo, responded:
I consider the comments, coming from a senior British MP, very damaging to the
image of Papua New Guinea and an insult to the integrity and intelligence of all
Papua New Guineans […] How far removed and ill-informed can Mr Johnson be
from the reality of the situation in modern-day Papua New Guinea? (BBC,
8.09.06)
Johnson’s comments are indicative of wider views, since the Western media have
consistently been found to portray developing nations in a negative light (Lent 1977; Chang
1998; Franks 2004; Beer 2010), prone to distorting and amplifying events (Masmoudi 1984).
Such coverage may influence public perception, upholding the world’s power structures and
potentially stunting developing nations’ ability to progress (Delacroix and Ragin 1978).
With a population of around 7 million, an estimated 87 per cent of which are living in rural
areas1
, and over 800 indigenous languages2
, Papua New Guinea is one of the most diverse
countries in the world. However, there has been little academic inquiry into how the nation is
depicted in the Western news. This dissertation provides a systematic study of Papua New
Guinea during the course of an eventful year, aiming to paint a representative picture of the
Pacific nation as portrayed in the British news. The study seeks to examine UK reporting of
a developing nation that is both geographically and culturally miles away, establishing
differences between the reporting of public service and commercial news outlets, and
between broadsheet, mid-market, and tabloid newspapers.
Between January 2012 and February 2013, a number of newsworthy events took place in
Papua New Guinea: a landslide wiped out at least 25 people in Nogoli; a passenger ferry sank
off the coast of Lae killing at least 140 inhabitants; supporters of Sir Michael Somare
initiated an unsuccessful coup to overthrow Peter O’Neill and reinstate Somare as Prime
Minister; a rocky road to the general election saw an enduring power tussle between Somare
1
World Bank, The. 2011. Urban population (% of total). The World Bank Group [Online]. Available at:
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS [Accessed: 20th
April 2013]
2
Lewis, M.P., Simons, G.F, and Fennig, C.D. 2013. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Ethnologue [Online]
17. Available at: http://www.ethnologue.com/country/PG [Accessed: 20th
April 2013]

2
and O’Neill; members of a cannibal cult accused of murder were arrested in Madang; and a
rising concern over the widespread belief in sorcery culminated in the murder of a young
woman accused of practicing black magic in Mount Hagen.
These events are evidently negative in nature. However, studies have consistently shown
newsroom agendas prioritise bad news. One only has to flick through a newspaper to
understand how bad news dominates the pages of dailies. The focus will therefore shift to
which stories receive most coverage, and how the nation is portrayed.
The next chapter reviews existing literature on newsroom values, discussing how they affect
the flow of news from developing nations, and the light such portrayals are cast in. The
impact of national identity in framing foreign nations will also be explored, and the
democratic rationale for reporting international events will be considered. Overall, the
chapter argues the importance of Western news expanding their radar to present a broader
and more balanced panorama of the world.
The methodology chapter then details how a content analysis was conducted on all UK
national newspapers and the BBC online, followed by a close textual analysis of the articles
produced. The research aims are outlined in detail, and the means for attaining answers to the
proposed enquiries are explained. The chapter also states the limitations of the study, making
suggestions for future research into the representation of developing nations, particularly
those less explored in the Pacific region.
The findings chapter explores dominant themes associated with Papua New Guinea in news
articles. Representations of the nation and character traits associated with its inhabitants are
also identified. The aim is to establish differences between broadsheet, mid-market, tabloid
and public service broadcasters conveying news from the nation, and the overall image of the
country that is portrayed.
The conclusion reflects on the key findings, entering into a broader discussion of the
implications for the future of Papua New Guinea and international news on the whole.
Variations across media outlets will be discussed, and the news values identified in the
literature review will be reconsidered. Results of an interview with foreign correspondent for

3
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Liam Fox, will be introduced to explore the broader
issues surrounding the flow of news from developing nations to the West.

4
1. Literature Review
1.1 Introduction
This chapter aims to contextualise the current study of British coverage of Papua New Guinea
by reviewing and engaging with academic literature surrounding the structural principles that
underpin newsroom selection of stories. The factors that influence international news flow
and the portrayal of developing nations in Western media will be addressed, with the aim of
understanding how Papua New Guinea might feature on the news agenda in the UK. A final
section explores the future of international reporting, and the importance of international
news maintaining its place on the Western news agenda.
1.2 News Values: Reporting International Affairs
In order to understand the significance of the volume and nature of coverage of Papua New
Guinea in British news, one needs to be informed of the extensive research into the news
values that academics have established as shaping what becomes news.
Östgaard’s early study of news values found that it is more difficult for news concerning
unfamiliar persons or issues to pass into the public sphere than it is for news with which
editors and audiences are familiar (1965: 46). Galtung and Ruge’s (1965) seminal study of
values influencing foreign coverage in Norwegian newspapers endorsed this value under the
title of ‘meaningfulness’, which suggests the culturally familiar navigates through the
newsroom filter with greater ease.
Galtung and Ruge ranked the primary factors of news selection as follows: frequency;
threshold; unambiguity; meaningfulness; consonance; unexpectedness; continuity;
composition; reference to elite nations; reference to elite people; reference to persons and
reference to something negative (1965: 70). From these criteria, the authors theorised that
once a story was selected, it would be distorted and the factors that led to its selection
emphasised (ibid: 71). Chang (1998) echoed the finding that ‘meaningfulness’ dictates
selection of news in his study of international coverage of a major world event; a value other
academics have sanctioned under the label ‘cultural proximity’ or ‘cultural affinity’ (Wu
2007; Golan 2008).

5
Harcup and O’Neill (2001) exposed flaws in Galtung and Ruge’s study, since it focused on
isolated events, largely dismissing day-to-day news stories. They studied three daily UK
national newspapers over one month, proposing a revived set of news values: the power elite;
celebrity; entertainment; surprise; bad news; good news; magnitude; relevance; follow-up;
newspaper agenda (ibid: 279). Many of these are adapted from the original taxonomy, but
brought into a contemporary context, and several studies have supported these findings.
However, how well these carry across to a public service broadcaster like the BBC is open to
question.
Cushion reasoned that “public service media tend to have more regulatory obligations to
cover more of the world, locally and globally” (2012: 14). Public broadcasting, due to the
freedom from commercial pressures, is perceived to reflect a more realistic “window on the
world” (ibid: 25) that other news organisations cannot. It has also been indicated that public
broadcasters play a role in shaping national identities (ibid: 76-77), so it may be hypothesised
that a study of BBC news coverage should reveal a greater volume of neutral reporting on
Papua New Guinea.
Academics have detected a positive correlation between how relevant a nation is and the
amount of coverage it receives (Chang and Lee 1992; Golan 2008). Chang, utilising the
world system theory developed by Wallerstein (1974), explored Reuters coverage of a World
Trade Organization conference, and found that peripheral and semiperipheral countries were
perceived as “insignificant, if not irrelevant” (1998: 544). This corresponds with Berglez’s
(2008: 848) theory that global news networks such as CNN and the BBC, and international
news agencies like Reuters, deliver a global outlook in their financial reporting, however, this
is not necessarily consistent in their reporting of political, cultural and ecological news.
It has consistently been found that not all countries are created equal in the international news
arena (Chang 1998; Wu 2000; Golan 2008; Beer 2010), with the core countries directing the
news flow, and peripheral countries constrained by the North-South paradigm. Chang noted:
The hierarchical positions among nations in the world landscape have resulted in
disproportional quantity and quality of news flow and coverage for developing
and underdeveloped countries (1998: 533).

6
Thus, developing nations like Papua New Guinea struggle to find their place on the news
agenda, and it may be predicted that when news from the country does break through the
filter to the West, it appears within a negative framework. Some researchers have ascertained
the emergence of a new post-Cold War framework for the selection of news, to replace the
East versus West bipolar perspective (Wu 2000, 2003; Berglez 2008), within which economic
interest takes precedence over ideological antagonism or cultural ties. As Wu (2003: 20)
declared: “international news coverage gravitates to the powerful”. Therefore, the only way
developing countries make it into the global limelight is through widespread disruptive
occurrences (Wu 2000, 2003). Golan’s (2008) review of scholarship found four key
variables that affect coverage: deviance; cultural affinity; relevance; and location in the world
system. Perhaps Papua New Guinea may be expected to feature more highly on the agenda
in the aftermath of deviant events that occurred during the sample period, such as crises and
sorcery killings. However, the nation’s low rank in the world system may affect coverage.
Cushion identified that scholarly research has demonstrated that:
News delivers a highly partial prism through which to view and understand the
world, consisting of a select few characters and countries, with a familiar set of
conventions and practices and a relatively predictable agenda of concerns and
anxieties (2012: 49-50).
Such processes affect not only what is selected, but also how news is constructed, the image
portrayed, and how audiences perceive the nation in question. In order to further explore this,
it is necessary to divert attention to the impact of national identity on news.
1.3 National Identity and the News: Manufacturing the ‘Other’
Many academics have written of the connection between national identity and the media
(Anderson 1983; Billig 1995; Berglez 2008). Beer (2010) employed the global journalism
theory to study news flow from Africa to television news channels in three world regions.
Beer recognised the contradictory impact of news institutions in strengthening the national
state, but also deconstructing the notion of it in the context of globalisation (ibid: 597).
Holohan précised the outcome of such shared myths: “the idea of the insider always creates
an outsider” (2006: 16). Östgaard reached a similar conclusion: “the news media tend to
reinforce or at least to uphold the divisions of the world between high status nations and low
status nations” (1965: 55).

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Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities (1983) explored the concept that national
identity is socially constructed within the framework of a set of collective myths about the
formation of the nation, in order to generate patriotism. Anderson identified the significant
role that the media play in creating and preserving these ‘imagined communities’, by
addressing newspaper readers as a collective public, and through the sense of kinship that is
produced by the knowledge that across the nation, people are ritualistically reading the same
newspaper. Loto et al, who studied the New Zealand news representation of Pacific islanders
as a minority group, claimed “today, experiences of oneself as citizen, consumer or
community member are often mediated and framed in relation to outcast or deviant groups”
(2006: 101). Thus, developing nations may be negatively framed to reinforce boundaries
between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
Billig’s notion of Banal Nationalism (1995) drew on Anderson’s theory, exploring the
ideological habits which reproduce nationhood in the West. Billig similarly identified
nationhood as structuring newspapers, which regularly echo the nationalistic clichés spoken
by politicians, and address readers as members of the nation. Such regular “flagging” breeds
the perception that ‘we’ are the normality against which ‘their’ deviations may be measured
(see also Hall 1997; Loto et al 2006). The reinforcement of this ideology makes existing
social patterns appear natural, so it is not questioned why certain countries don’t appear in the
news, as they have been deemed ‘irrelevant’ to ‘us’. Thus “we, the readers, readily accept the
deixis of homeland, and the apartheid of news into ‘home’ and foreign” (Billig 1995: 126).
This creation of the ‘other’ means that stereotypes are more easily reproduced, leading to a
distorted portrayal of foreign nations. Galtung and Ruge’s (1965) theory that foreign news is
distorted has been corroborated. Masmoudi’s (1984) summary of debates led by UNESCO
revealed that developing countries maintained that news flow across borders is imbalanced
and information presented in the Western news about the developing world is insufficient and
distorted.
National identity is connected to both the volume of international coverage, and the nature
and representation of other nations within such coverage, as it creates an ‘other’, who is then
subject to a specific process of selectivity to fit archetypal portrayals. Having explored the
values identified by academics that lead to an “insufficient” volume of news coverage, it is

8
important to now turn to the “distortion” element, by exploring scholarly study on the nature
of coverage regarding developing countries.
1.4 Bad Things Happen in Bad Places: Western News Representation of ‘the Rest’
Several scholars have studied the tone of Western coverage concerning the developing world,
predominantly concluding that developing nations tend to appear in the context of conflict
and unrest, portraying a widely negative perspective (Lent 1977; Chang 1998; Franks 2004;
Golan 2008; Beer 2010). Franks (2004: 427) was concerned by the move away from factual
programming on developing countries, citing a project commissioned by The Department for
International Development (2000), which found a high proportion of television broadcasting
of such nations “related to conflict, famine, terrorism and disaster”: an oft reached conclusion
of studies into international news reporting. Cushion (2012: 63) summarised that the primary
tool of news selection identified by scholars has been “if it bleeds, it leads”.
Africa in particular has provided a focal point for such studies, consistently found to be
negatively presented in Western media (Chang 1998; Beaudoin and Thorson 2001; Golan
2008; Beer 2010). Beaudoin and Thorson’s (2001: 481) analysis of foreign news in
American newspapers found that Africa was depicted as a region “consumed with power
issues”, in contrast to depictions of Western Europe as “beautiful”. Golan (2008) identified
Africa as suffering under the ‘bad news syndrome’, consistently portrayed negatively with a
focus on deviant issues, while Beer (2010) examined the Afro-pessimism image of the ‘dark
continent’ in international news. Golan (2008) found that Africa received little coverage,
despite various newsworthy events that occurred during the sample period. Conversely, Beer
(2010) discovered Africa was actually not that absent from the Western news agenda, and
more visible than a number of other continents. Regardless of contradictory findings on the
amount of coverage, there has been broad agreement among scholars that “coups,
earthquakes, civil unrest, and other social disturbances are often the staple of news in the
West about the rest” (Chang 1998: 535).
Loto et al (2006) looked at the representation of Pacific Islanders in New Zealand print media
over a three month period. They were critical of the media in their finding that Pacific people
are predominantly presented as “unmotivated, unhealthy and criminal others” (ibid: 100).
Loto et al held that whose views are privileged and whose are curbed in news reports is a
reflection of the wider power relations in society. They identified that news is framed

9
through the prejudices of majority groups, and “talks to the expectations and assumptions of
some groups more than others” (ibid: 104). The pivotal point recognised in the study was
that the positive achievements of minority groups were overlooked or downplayed, while
coverage focused on their ‘problems’ (ibid: 115).
Loto et al’s (2006) study examined the representation of Pacific Islanders, so has cultural
resonance with the current study of Papua New Guinea. However, it was in the context of
Pacific people being segregated as a minority group in New Zealand, so does not reflect the
international scope of the present research. The study nonetheless bore similar results to
wider scholarly research on Western representation of developing nations, and the assertion
that “academic considerations of Pacific people are virtually non-existent” (ibid: 102) seems
accurate.
One of few studies to consider the Pacific region, Papua New Guinea in particular, was
Kariel and Rosenvall’s (1984) study of Canadian daily newspapers. This put into practice
four factors of political, economic, physical and psychological determinants, examining their
effect on international news flow. They found that the accuracy of the variables fluctuated
across different nations. Papua New Guinea, for example, received more coverage than
expected in terms of their lack of trade and elite status. However, this coverage was
consistent with the predictors of population and GDP. While the study yielded some
interesting results, it is dated, and few recent studies seem to have extended their radar to
encompass the nation.
One may question why nations like Papua New Guinea are relevant, both to academics as an
object of study and to the public as a source of news; a question that editors themselves seem
to ponder. Hoge (1997: 49) cited Mortimer Zuckerman, editor in chief of U.S. News: “There
is a diminution of coverage, simply because the issues are less relevant”. The ensuing section
aims to summarise the reasons provided by academics for reporting news beyond national
borders, incorporating the emergent notion of ‘globalisation’.
1.5 Censored Democracy: What Future for International News?
Cushion purported that “what is selected as “news” and how it is constructed in journalism
are, in short, critical to informed citizenship” (2012: 59). In his essay ‘Foreign News: Who
gives a damn?’ Hoge (1997) wrote of the decrease in international reporting, citing interviews

10
with editors and surveys which documented the decline. Hoge expressed that in democratic
society, the purpose of sustaining such coverage is to keep the public prepared. Thus, the
blame is placed on media proprietors for failing “to make news of the wider world interesting
and relevant”, and fulfil their role of informing citizens (ibid: 52). This viewpoint was
endorsed by Cushion: “access to coverage of the notable issues of our age […] remains
relevant to all, irrespective of specialist interests or entertainment value” (2012: 59).
Despite the power the media hold in influencing public perception (Wu 2003; Franks 2004;
Golan 2008; Cushion 2012) and foreign policy (Beer 2010; Golan 2008), time and space
constraints mean that media gatekeepers cannot deliver equal coverage of all nations in the
world. Beer (2010) found that over a one-year period, Oceania received the least coverage of
all continents, totalling just 220 reports (1.5 per cent of coverage) across UK, US and German
television news; thus Papua New Guinea’s prospects look grim.
Media gatekeepers seem to overlook the important role they play in the welfare and internal
progress of other nations (Chang 1998). Franks (2004) stressed the importance of
programming outside of the news to give a more balanced view of a country, lamenting that
these negative images of “gloom and disaster” (ibid: 427) were the dominant impression
audiences abstracted of the developing world.
The arrival of the internet has been heralded as part of the move towards a global identity,
bearing the potential to break down barriers. Many academics have written of the effect of
‘globalisation’ on international news flow and the rise of global journalism (Chang 1998;
Berglez 2008; Beer 2010). Wu stipulated:
New procedures to improve information flow and international understanding
should be advanced because the advent of the global village will make
complicated international issues more pressing (2000: 128).
The aforementioned studies have acknowledged that despite media content becoming more
“deterritorialized”, global journalism is still a minority, and the formation of a global identity
to replace national identities seems a distant goal. Hoge (1997: 49) seemed pessimistic as to
the progress of this notion, citing findings by The International Institute of Communications,
which revealed the globalisation of news to be “more myth than reality in most parts of the
world”. Hoge did, however, claim that West European television channels and quality

11
newspapers remain “more internationally minded than U.S. media” (ibid), despite limited
coverage from certain regions. The current study may go part of the way to deciphering
whether this remains true sixteen years on.
Having reviewed the importance of international news coverage and explored academic
research into the presence of developing nations in the Western media, the current study is
situated as a contemporary investigation into the coverage of a relatively unexplored nation.
The subsequent section summarises the key points identified in existing literature, stating
how these have fed into the framework of this research.
1.6 Conclusion
A review of the numerous studies of news values establishes expectations of the volume and
tone of coverage that Papua New Guinea may receive in the British news. National identity
may be perceived as widening the gap between ‘local’ and ‘foreign’, with newspapers
allegedly playing a role in reinforcing the stereotyped ‘other’. The discrepancy between the
‘real world’ and the ‘news world’ has been widely acknowledged (Chang 1998; Wu 2000,
2003, 2007). This focus on deviant issues and tragedies is unlikely to reflect the daily reality
in these nations, but perhaps acts to reinforce the power of national identity in allowing these
prejudiced stories and stereotypes to enter the public sphere, for the most part unchallenged.
The majority of studies mentioned above employed content analyses, the results of which
were then taken to be ‘representative’, however, how universally applicable these results are
depends on various factors. For example, much of the existing research has studied the US
media, since it is the global giant “placed in the brightest spotlight on the stage of the news
world” (Wu 2000: 126). Yet, such findings cannot be generalised as representative of
Western coverage on the whole. Tunstall (1992) observed that following the US, Europe has
become a world news leader. Hence a study of UK news media coverage of a nation may
yield some interesting results. The following chapter details the research questions and
methods utilised to conduct research into British news coverage of Papua New Guinea.

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2. Methodology
2.1 Introduction
Numerous academics have argued the importance of Western media conveying a more
objective “window on the world”. However, whether this has materialised remains to be
seen. In order to examine the volume and nature of coverage of Papua New Guinea in the
British news, a content analysis was carried out on the national newspapers of the UK, as
well as the BBC online, over a sample period of 14 months, from January 2012 to February
2013. The following research questions were investigated:
1. What is the volume of coverage of Papua New Guinea in the British national
newspapers and the BBC online between January 2012 and February 2013?
2. What image of Papua New Guinea is portrayed in the British national
newspapers and the BBC online?
3. Is there any difference in coverage of Papua New Guinea between broadsheet,
mid-market and tabloid newspapers?
4. Is there any difference in coverage of Papua New Guinea between the public
service BBC and national newspapers?
2.2 Research Design
Content analysis enables researchers “to quantify salient and manifest features of a large
number of texts, and the statistics are used to make broader inferences about the processes
and politics of representation” (Deacon et al. 2007: 119). In this sense, it also facilitates the
identification of patterns: here applicable in discerning the prominent themes of stories about
Papua New Guinea, and representation of the nation and its people in the British media. As a
directive method, content analysis gives firm answers to questions posed regarding quantity,
allowing interpretation of a mass of texts to generate a “big picture” (ibid: 119) of the nation
as drawn in the British news.
Quantitative approaches have dominated research in the field of news values; however
Cushion identified “a quantitative approach can only tell part of the story […] it provides
more breadth than depth” (2012: 60). Accordingly, this study utilised a quantitative approach
to grasp the volume of news produced on Papua New Guinea and identify patterns of

13
representation, incorporating elements of qualitative analysis to examine the image that is
portrayed, and how this differed across newspapers and the BBC’s online news.
In order to obtain a representative image of the British media, all national newspapers were
included in the research. The BBC online was also studied to establish whether there is a
notable difference in the coverage of Papua New Guinea between the two mediums in how
they serve national interests, particularly since as a public service broadcaster, the BBC has a
commitment to impartiality and serving the public interest3
. The BBC also has an obligation
to cover international affairs, adhering to its mission statement aim of ‘bringing the UK to the
world and the world to the UK’4
. The BBC is one of the world’s leading public service
broadcasters5
, and the UK’s leading online news provider (Cushion 2012: 40), so it was on
this rationale that it was chosen.
Nexis was used to conduct a search of all national newspapers. Major mentions of ‘Papua
New Guinea’ were entered as the search criteria. Only stories which focused primarily on the
nation of Papua New Guinea were selected. Thus, articles which mentioned Papua New
Guinea but focused on another nation were omitted, as were other UK and regional editions
of newspapers. On the BBC website, ‘Papua New Guinea’ was entered into the search bar,
and stories were selected on the same criteria, and omitted if they were video reports or ‘in
pictures’ articles. All articles were recorded into SPSS. A total of 114 stories composed the
data set.
For the purposes of this research, Liam Fox, Papua New Guinea correspondent for the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), agreed to an interview. The rationale for
carrying out the interview was to gain an insight from someone who knows the country well.
As an online and television journalist who has been covering the country for four years, Fox’s
views were valuable to the current study. Although it is not a representative sample to
generalise to journalistic practices on the whole, it offers a local reporter’s perspective. The
interview was conducted via Skype, and Fox was asked to comment on findings and give his
3
BBC. 2013. The BBC’s Editorial Values [Online]. Available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-editorial-values-editorial-values/
[Accessed: 20th
April 2013]
4
BBC. 2013. Public Purposes [Online]. Available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/publicpurposes/ [Accessed: 28th
March 2013]
5
BBC. 2013. Who We Are: At a Glance [Online]. Available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/ataglance/ [Accessed: 28th
March 2013]

14
opinion on coverage of the nation (see Appendix C for interview transcript). The outcomes
of this interview will be discussed in the concluding chapter of this dissertation.
2.3 Code Frame and Sample
The sample period ran from January 2012 to February 2013, and was chosen since it was the
most recent time frame to study. The time frame was extended to cover 14 months as it
encompassed some noteworthy events (see introduction), deemed newsworthy in accordance
with the ‘bad news’ value frequently identified in studies. This also generated a manageable
sample, appropriate to an undergraduate dissertation.
Content analysis is not without its weaknesses, but these can be reduced by the inclusion of
clear cut operational definitions. With the intention of moderating subjective responses and
ensuring intercoder reliability, 10 per cent of the overall news sample was coded by a second
coder. A 0.810 value of kappa was derived using Cohen’s (1960) kappa method, and
conflicting responses were re-evaluated to determine which interpretation was most
applicable. Where changes were made, all similar stories were re-coded to ensure the
classifying of news articles was consistent and the legitimacy of the analysis remained intact.
Articles were coded for the identifiable theme of the story; context of the story; negative and
positive attributes of Papua New Guinean people; representation of the nation; and explicit
ratings (see Appendix A for full coding sheet). Eighteen options were listed in the ‘themes’
category having been extensively piloted. The ‘attributes’ of inhabitants and ‘representation
of the nation’ were each coded into eleven categories. Examples of articles that were
consigned to these different categories will be presented in the findings chapter. In order to
avoid forced responses, a ‘not possible to say’ option was also incorporated (see Appendix B
for codebook of operational definitions).
To interpret the overall image of the country portrayed, the tone of coverage was calculated
using Beer’s criteria. Beer (2010) aimed to interrogate assumptions about Africa’s status in
the global news flow, studying television coverage of the continent in three world regions.
Beer identified the context (content embedded in positive or negative context) and explicit
ratings (journalists use or citing of words of clearly positive or negative judgement) of
individual reports. This method was applied to examine news articles in the current study.
Many of the primary themes identified in stories were self-explanatory; for example, stories

15
categorised as concerning corruption, murder or tragedy would be grouped as ‘negative’ in
context. Classifying explicit ratings entailed looking at sentences in more detail, identifying
the connotations of words used to determine if they were explicitly negative (e.g. “brutal
slaying”) or emotive (e.g. “utter devastation”). The use of sources was also studied, to
establish who was cited and what quotes were selected. A mean was then calculated as a
combination of context and explicit ratings in order to obtain an overall tone of coverage
score.
2.4 Limitations
The current study has some limitations that ought to be addressed. Due to time constraints,
only one Pacific nation was able to be studied, and for a period of 14 months. A larger
sample would be more representative, allowing researchers to generate more reliable
conclusions. Additionally, conducting interviews with a number of journalists may offer a
more representative viewpoint, since in the current study only one reporter’s perspective was
obtained.
Future studies could look at other Pacific nations to see how developing countries in Oceania
are portrayed in the news. Researching news coverage of Pacific countries in other nations
(for example the US or other European countries) may aid in better explaining the
representation of the region in Western news. A comparative study perhaps looking at local
reporting in comparison to international coverage of a nation may provide further insight to
how local news interprets events compared to how these are relayed through the international
media.
Other mediums could also be studied, for example television broadcasts, or a wider range of
online news forums. A study of news agencies could yield interesting results, since these are
the sources that publications draw on for most of their information about the world. Thus, the
explanation for which countries get coverage and what events make the news may lie
primarily with these wire agencies.
2.5 Conclusion
Combining content analysis and close textual analysis, this study aims to provide an insight
into the way that British media portrays a distant developing nation. The outcomes of the
interview with Papua New Guinea correspondent, Liam Fox, will be introduced in the

16
conclusion to enter into debates about newsroom values and how these affect the volume and
tone of international news.
The following chapter recounts the findings of the study, looking at the themes, character
traits of inhabitants, and representation of Papua New Guinea that is palpable in news
coverage. The distinctions between broadsheet, mid-market, tabloid and public service will
also be discussed in relation to their coverage of the nation.

17
3. Findings
3.1 Introduction
Across the 23 news outlets studied over the 14-month period, a total of 114 articles on Papua
New Guinea were found. Stories selected were mainly negative, and aside from the much
heralded royal visit, focused on crises and deviant events concerning mutiny, cannibalism and
murder. The following chapter conveys the findings of the analysis. Prominent themes will
be explored and character traits associated with Papua New Guineans will be determined.
The representation of the country will be investigated, and disparities between media types
will be identified. Some of the most apparent themes will be studied in more detail, including
the royal visit, politics, murder and crises.
3.2 Topics, Traits, and Damaging Depictions
In order to understand the image of Papua New Guinea that is portrayed in the British news,
articles were coded to identify the primary themes of stories, character traits of inhabitants,
and the representation of the nation. Firstly, the themes shall be explored (see table 1 for
primary themes established by media type). The topics ranged from the discovery of a new
species in the “hotspot of biodiversity” (Financial Times, 21.01.12), to the arrest of members
of a cannibal cult. The results indicate that editors, for the most part, selected the royal visit
in November 2012 (21 stories). This was followed by natural resources (14 stories),
primarily appearing in the business pages describing mining shares. Politics was third most
common (12 stories), followed by murder (11 stories), to cover the sorcery killing in
February 2013. Beyond these, tragedy featured highly, accounting for the passenger ferry
that sank in February 2012, while the failed mutiny of January 2012 received similar
coverage (9 stories each). Seven of the categories identified are overtly negative in nature:
murder; tragedy; mutiny; cannibalism; natural disaster; corruption; and social unrest. These
alone composed 35 per cent of the data set.
The findings indicate that the BBC online published the most articles on the nation over the
sample period, totalling 28, perhaps due to the abundance of online space, as opposed to the
limited pages of newspapers. This was followed by The Daily Telegraph with 20 articles and
The Times with 14. Beyond these, none of the other newspapers published in excess of 6
articles on the nation; an average of one every two months. Broadsheets covered the widest
range of topics, followed by the BBC, although the public service agenda was notably more

18
political, perhaps reflecting their commitment to hard news. Mid-markets published the least
articles, yet they tended to adopt a more balanced approach to news selection. In contrast, the
limited framework of tabloids, “notorious for their sensational, often salacious content”
(McNair 2009: 5), was confined to the royal visit, murder, sport, cannibalism and tragedy. A
distinction between what Sparks (2000: 14-15) termed the “semiserious”, the “serious-
popular”, and the “newsstand tabloid” was thus evident from the outset, with broadsheets
extending their reach to cover the distant nation more so than other print publications.
Beer’s (2010: 3) study of international news flow identified an Afro-pessimism news flow
“code book”, in which issues such as ‘famine’ and ‘disputed elections’ are grouped together
to fit the ‘basket case’ image of the African continent. It appears in the current study, a
6
Data was rounded up so may not add up to 100 per cent
Theme Broadsheet Mid-market Tabloid Public Service Total
Royal visit 8 5 6 2 21 (18.4%)
Natural resources 10 4 - - 14 (12.3%)
Politics 1 - - 11 12 (10.5%)
Murder 3 1 5 2 11 (9.6%)
Tragedy 3 - 3 3 9 (7.9%)
Mutiny 3 - - 6 9 (7.9%)
Cannibalism 4 - 3 - 7 (6.1%)
Sport 3 - 4 - 7 (6.1%)
Travel story 5 1 - - 6 (5.3%)
New species discovery 3 2 - 1 6 (5.3%)
Marriage 2 - - 1 3 (2.6%)
Scientific study 2 - - - 2 (1.8%)
Natural disaster 1 - - 1 2 (1.8%)
International relations 1 - - - 1 (0.9%)
Environment 1 - - - 1 (0.9%)
Crime and retribution 1 - - - 1 (0.9%)
Corruption - - - 1 1 (0.9%)
Social unrest 1 - - - 1 (0.9%)
Total 52 13 21 28 114 (100%)6
Table 1. Primary themes by media type

19
0
5
10
15
20
25
Percentageofsample
Character trait
Mid-market
Tabloid
Public service
Broadsheet
Papua New Guinean, or perhaps Pacific island “code book” may feature the latter, also
comprising issues such as ‘cannibalism’ and ‘tragedy’.
With the intention of understanding the characterisation of Papua New Guinea, eleven coding
categories were developed to classify attributes associated with Papuan people (n=101). This
enabled an evaluation of the extent to which negative characterisations were emphasised
across news items (see figure 1 for percentages of attributes found). Overall, 61.4 per cent of
attributes identified fell into negative categories.
Violent and brutish was the most common (23.7 per cent), evident in stories describing the
cannibal cult, and the “mob” who “tortured and bound” a young woman accused of
witchcraft (i, 9.02.13). Tabloids stood out as disseminating these negative portrayals,
perhaps due to their news agenda prioritising the bizarre. Broadsheets similarly published the
most articles in this category, followed by the traits of welcoming and friendly, apparent in
articles on the royal visit. Hence, there appears to be some correlation between broadsheets
and tabloids in the features carried. However, broadsheets covered an array of topics,
Figure 1. Attributes associated with Papua New Guinean people in news articles

20
presenting a wider range of interpretations of the people, including attributes such as exotic
and compassionate, which did not appear in other media outlets.
The trait of welcoming and friendly drew equally with the trait of uncooperative (20.8 per
cent), which appeared primarily in articles on the BBC online. However, this may be
expected given their focus on political issues, which largely revolved around the feud
between Somare and O’Neill, portraying the political leaders as oppositional. The primitive
and tribal categorisation was evident in an article about the Commonwealth Parliamentary
Association plan to visit Papua New Guinea to discuss “women in politics, gender equality
and domestic violence, health, education and development” (The Sunday Times, 2.12.12),
implying the local parliamentarians require Western intervention to progress on such matters.
Positive attributes accounted for 38.6 per cent of characteristics identified. The category that
McNair (2009: 5) termed “mid-market tabloids” principally presented the nation positively,
as welcoming and friendly, deviating from the alleged ‘tabloidization’ of the British press
which shifts focus to entertainment and the sensational. Broadsheets and the public service
broadcaster primarily depicted negative character traits, while positive traits outweighed
negative in mid-markets and, perhaps surprisingly, tabloids. Despite these positive
depictions, the portrayal of inhabitants of the nation seems to tally with the prominent themes
identified, in that the highest ranking traits are negative.
The overall representation of Papua New Guinea was also coded into eleven categories (see
table 2 for relative percentages of each grouping). 59.7 per cent of articles fell into negative
categories, the most common of which was violent and dangerous (17.5 per cent), associated
with stories about the cannibal cult and sorcery murder. This was followed by politically
unstable (15.8 per cent), evident in a number of articles on the power tussle and mutiny.
Exotic and unexplored was third most prominent (14 per cent), accounted for mainly by
travel stories describing the “spiky mountain ranges and impenetrable green forests” (The
Times, 21.02.13). Reliant or in need of aid closely followed (13.2 per cent), emerging in
stories on natural disasters and tragedies, which largely presented the nation as dependent on
neighbouring Australia to provide aid in times of crises.
Most articles on the royal visit presented Papua New Guinea as welcoming, and were coded
accordingly. Other stories focused on the primitive and tribal culture, describing the “Mud

21
Men from the Asaro tribe” (The Express, 5.11.12), and a marriage ceremony “in which the
bride’s worth is measured in pigs” (The Times, 25.02.12). At the negative end of the
spectrum, stories such as ‘Papua New Guinea’s top judge charged with obstruction’ (BBC,
6.03.12) framed the nation as corrupt and lawless. With 40.4 per cent of articles falling into
positive categories, the ratio of positive to negative is greater than that of character traits.
However, while the nation’s natural beauty does appear fairly high on the list, the overall
image portrayed is not a positive one.
Mid-markets devoted a considerable amount of their coverage to positive portrayals (84.6 per
cent). In all other media types, negative representations outweighed the positive.
Surprisingly, the BBC carried the highest percentage of negative news (85.7 per cent).
However, it is worth noting that this was mainly due to the volume of political coverage they
presented, the context of which was manifestly unfavourable.
Having explored the themes of stories, attributes of Papuan people, and representation of the
nation, it is apparent that in each of these categories, negative groupings outweigh the
positive. The issues explored thus far focus on the context of articles; however this cannot
7
Representation Broadsheet Midmarket Tabloid Public service Total
Exotic, unexplored and
beautiful 7 4 3 2 16 (14%)
Welcoming 6 3 3 2 14 (12.3%)
Resourceful for mining 9 4 - - 13 (11.4%)
Sporty - - 2 - 2 (1.8%)
Spiritual 1 - - - 1 (0.9%)
Total positive 23 (44.2%) 11 (84.6%) 8 (38.1%) 4 (14.3%) 46 (40.4%)
Violent and dangerous 9 1 8 2 20 (17.5%)
Politically unstable 4 - - 14 18 (15.8%)
Reliant or in need of aid 7 - 4 4 15 (13.2%)
Primitive and tribal 7 1 - - 8 (7%)
Corrupt and Lawless 1 - 1 4 6 (5.3%)
Unwelcoming 1 - - - 1 (0.9%)
Total negative 29 (55.8%) 2 (15.4%) 13 (61.9%) 24 (85.7%) 68 (59.7%)7
Table 2. Primary representation of Papua New Guinea

22
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Overall tone of coverage
Explicit ratings
Context
Percentage of data sample
Rating
Positive
Negative
Neutral
convey a representative image of the British news’ portrayal of the nation. Therefore, the
next section explores the tone of coverage, detailing how this varied across news outlets.
3.3 Tone of Coverage: Neutralising the Negative
To better facilitate understanding of the balance between positive and negative coverage, the
tone of news was calculated. Context and explicit ratings were noted as positive, negative or
neutral, and the tone was then derived as the average of these ratings (see figure 2). Beer
(2010) found Oceania received more positive coverage (30.5 per cent) than negative (21.4 per
cent) over a twelve-month period in UK, US and German television news. The current study
found 34.2 per cent of stories on Papua New Guinea were negative, with just 17.1 per cent
conveying a positive tone. Interestingly, the remaining 48.7 per cent were deemed neutral,
almost mirroring Beer’s finding that 48.2 per cent of television reports carried a neutral tone.
Thus, the relative percentages of positive and negative coverage appear inverted in the
current study. Beer’s study of Oceania clearly took into account all fourteen countries of the
continent, and looked at a wider range of Western news outlets. However, the results of the
current research would suggest that the inclusion of developed countries such as Australia
and New Zealand may increase the volume of positive coverage, whereas continents like
South America and Africa are host to a collection of nations of a similar developmental level.
Figure 2. Tone of coverage of Papua New Guinea

23
It is important to note that not all the stories were placed in a negative framework. The 17.1
per cent that were deemed positive covered a variety of topics, ranging from marriage and the
exotic culture, to travel in “one of the last true untouched frontiers” (The Times, 21.02.13).
Loto et al identified that in their study of the representation of Pacific islanders in the New
Zealand press, while representations were not always unequivocally negative, “positive cases
can function merely to reinforce the perception that Pacific people have only themselves to
blame for not measuring up or taking advantage of their opportunities” (2006: 115). Yet it
remains open as to whether readers share this interpretation.
Additionally, to decipher variations between media outlets, the tone of coverage as evident
across media types was calculated (see table 3). Tabloid newspapers carried the most
negative tone (50 per cent) and the smallest percentage of positive stories across all media
types (4.8 per cent). Despite publishing the least stories on the nation, mid-market papers
were predominantly neutral, with only 7.7 per cent of articles published deemed negative in
tone. While focusing less on politics, broadsheet papers did cover a wide array of topics, and
for the most part carried a neutral tone (48.1 per cent) consistent with the BBC’s value of
impartiality. Although 68 per cent of articles on the BBC were negative in context, the
manner in which these were communicated balanced it out, bringing the overall tone of
coverage to predominantly neutral (48.2 per cent). Thus, a sharp distinction was manifest
between the media types.
The findings indicate that the themes, character traits, representation of the nation, and tone
of coverage were principally negative. While the BBC, broadsheet and mid-market
newspapers presented a largely neutral account, tabloids played up the negativity of news
stories. The following section presents more in depth findings on the themes established in
Media type Positive Neutral Negative
Broadsheet 19.2% 48.1% 32.7%
Mid-market 34.6% 57.7% 7.7%
Tabloid 4.8% 45.2% 50%
Public service 14.3% 48.2% 37.5%
Table 3. Tone of coverage by media type
Media type Positive Neutral Negative
Broadsheet 19.2% 48.1% 32.7%
Mid-market 34.6% 57.7% 7.7%
Tabloid 4.8% 45.2% 50%
Public service 14.3% 48.2% 37.5%
Table 3. Tone of coverage by media type

24
the study, including the royal visit, politics, murder and crises. The variations between news
providers in their coverage and portrayals of the nation will also be brought into sharper
focus.
3.4 Commonwealth Ties: The Royal Visit
Charles and Camilla’s jubilee tour featured highly on the news agenda (see table 1),
presumably as the monarchy is an integral element of British society. Accounting for almost
a fifth of all coverage, the royal visit was the most prominent theme, covered by fourteen of
the twenty-three titles examined. Overall, 43 per cent of the articles on the royal visit carried
a positive tone, and 50 per cent presented a neutral account, so only a minority were
condescending of the culture. Articles on the royal visit were coded into five categories to
interpret the representation of the country (see table 4).
Welcoming was the most prominent of these categories (52.4 per cent), evident in articles
referring to the “well-wishers” (Mail on Sunday, 4.11.12) who attended the “welcoming
ceremony” (The Daily Telegraph, 5.11.12) and “warmly cheered” (The Express, 5.11.12) the
royals. However, two articles published in The Times took a different approach. One article,
which described the royals’ welcome tour of the sports stadium “riding around in a Bedford
van sitting on a dining room chair” (The Times, 5.11.12), was coded as depicting the nation as
primitive, unable to properly cater for a royal visit. A second article classified as presenting
the country as tribal compared the dancers in leaf headdresses to “rather energetic dancing
8
Primary representation Frequency
Welcoming 11 (52.4%)
Exotic 5 (23.8%)
Primitive 3 (14.3%)
Tribal 1 (4.8%)
Unwelcoming 1 (4.8%)8
Table 4. Primary representation of Papua New Guinea in articles on the royal visit
Table 3. Primary representation of Papua New Guinea in articles on the royal visit

25
bushes”, expressing a dismissal of the culture through derogatory depictions of local customs.
The same article stated on royal duty:
On occasion it involves warriors waving spears in one’s face and half-naked men
smeared in mud prancing with a vaguely menacing air. It also involves topless
young women dancing as an accompaniment to just about everything the royal
couple did […] Above all, the day was a chance for the local population to look as
frightening as possibly [sic] in the presence of their royal guests, all in the name
of traditional cultural values (The Times, 5.11.12).
Despite appearing in the news section, the article offers a partisan interpretation of events,
turning the welcoming reception that the royal couple received into a threatening display of
tribal culture. The deprecating way in which these “traditional cultural values” are described
repudiates the nation’s history and ethos in a nigh on imperialist manner.
The BBC articles adopted a more fair-minded stance than other papers, relaying the itinerary
of the visit, which included being shown “crafts, canoe building […] local painting, weaving
and pottery”, as well as touring an aid project “concerned with the replanting of coastal
mangroves” (4.11.12). These descriptions present a self-sufficient culture, concerned with
the environment and unaffected by the Western lifestyle.
The exotic nature of inhabitants was depicted in articles describing the 15-year-old local girl
who was chosen to place orchid flowers on the royal’s shoulders. The BBC illustrated her
outfit of a “pandanas leaf skirt, body paint and a headdress made of bird of paradise feathers”
(3.11.12). However, the majority of articles in other papers took her state of undress as the
focal point of the story, carrying headlines such as ‘ROYAL TOUR ISLANDERS’
TOPLESS WELCOME’ (The Sunday Telegraph, 4.11.12) and ‘HEIR MEETS A PAIR’ (The
Sun, 4.11.12), depicting the “boob-baring local” (Daily Star Sunday, 4.11.12) as an
embodiment of ‘otherness’.
All articles in the sample were coded for primary, secondary, and tertiary themes where
applicable, since many of the categories coincided. The royal visit was identified as a
secondary theme in two tabloid articles about cannibalism. One referred to the task the
couple were to face in “dodging the cannibals of Papua New Guinea”, advising them to
“decline any offer of a finger buffet” (Daily Star Sunday, 2.09.12). Another carried the bold

26
headline ‘Q. What’s cooking tonight? A. You are, your Highness; CANNIBAL ISLE FOR
CHARLES’. The article begins:
Charles and Camilla are to brave 1,000 cannibals on their Diamond Jubilee tour
next month. They will visit the remote South Pacific island of Papua New Guinea
where cannibals make soup from genitals and eat human brains raw. Some
travellers fear to even step foot on the island because they are so scared (Daily
Star Sunday, 2.09.12).
The article adopts a sweeping stereotype of the nation, and is a contrast to the majority of
news coverage on their visit describing the warm welcome the couple received.
The distinction between tabloid and broadsheet newspapers was somewhat blurred, with
some broadsheet reports adopting a crude approach to the culture, classically characteristic of
tabloids. The BBC stood out as depicting the vibrant culture in a positive manner. While the
nation was largely portrayed as welcoming and friendly, this is an event-oriented variable,
and had it not occurred during the sample period, the nation would likely have been cast in a
far more negative light.
3.5 Papuan Politics: Mutiny and Corruption?
Politics was a fairly prominent theme (12 stories). However, all bar one of the articles on
politics was published on the BBC, perhaps drawing a distinction between the news values of
public service and commercial publications. Over 60 per cent of the articles published by the
BBC were on political issues and the mutiny to overthrow Peter O’Neill and have Sir
Michael Somare reinstated as Prime Minister. In contrast, none of the mid-market or tabloid
titles surveyed included articles on the election or political instability of the nation. The
Daily Telegraph included one article on the election. However, it was only 60 words long,
compared to the average length of 300 words for BBC articles on politics. This finding
indicates a more serious agenda of news on the public service BBC, reflecting one of its six
public purposes: ‘sustaining citizenship and civil society’9
. Despite being “the most
editorially committed to the coverage of politics” of the press (McNair 2000: 16), it would
appear broadsheet coverage of political issues did not extend to the nation, perhaps confined
to the politics of the Western superpowers.
9
March 2013]

27
Golan and Wanta (2003) argued that the presence of conflict in a region is a significant
predictor of coverage of elections by US network newscasts. While the arrest of a cannibal
cult in the northern town of Madang received mention in a number of papers, few of these
stated the role this event played in postponing the election. The BBC, however, did not
report the cannibal incident, instead featuring a number of articles on the election. The
BBC’s claim to ‘build a global understanding of international issues and broaden UK
audiences’ experience of different cultures’10
appears to entail minimising output of bad news
that may reproduce stereotypes, revealing a more serious and impartial news agenda.
Political articles covered the power struggle between the “rival prime ministers” (BBC,
26.01.12); the top judge “charged with obstructing a police investigation into his management
of the court” (BBC, 6.03.12); and the “chaotic start” to the elections (BBC, 24.06.12). None
of the political articles were recognised as positive, yet taking into account context and
explicit ratings, 62.5 per cent of the stories were neutral, with the remaining 37.5 per cent
falling into the negative category. This implies that despite the negative context of many of
the political articles, they were fairly objectively written, perhaps due to the BBC’s
commitment to impartiality. Similarly, while the context of articles on the coup in January
2012 was negative, all reports were fairly neutral in their relaying of the story, somewhat
balancing out the negative background of the event.
One BBC article titled ‘Australia ‘concerned’ by PNG election delay’ (6.04.12) presents the
nations former coloniser as tied to it, ‘concerned’ it is not abiding by the rules laid out upon
its independence. Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, is quoted as “disappointed and
concerned” at the delay. However, the article balances this by quoting Papua New Guinea’s
Deputy Prime Minister as saying “You must respect our wishes. You must not intrude into
our election process”. While political instability appeared a recurring theme in these articles
(see table 4), the BBC, unlike many other papers, often quoted Papua New Guinea officials as
well as Australian political leaders, allowing the nation a voice of its own.
The attributes associated with Papua New Guinea people which were derived from political
articles were corrupt (27.3 per cent) and uncooperative (72.7 per cent), while the primary
representation of the nation was politically unstable (75 per cent). This was followed by
10
March 2013]

28
27.3%
9.1%
45.5%
18.2%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Broadsheet Midmarket Tabloid Public service
corrupt (16.7 per cent) and lawless (8.3 per cent). Hence, despite the relatively neutral
reporting of political events in Papua New Guinea, the nation’s political landscape was
nonetheless cast in a negative light, and broadly overlooked by all national newspapers.
3.6 Murder, Magic and Mayhem
Composing just under 10 per cent of coverage, murder appeared fourth most prominent.
Along with the royal visit, murder was the only theme to appear across all four media types
(see figure 3). All eleven articles placed in this category relayed the story of a young mother
who was accused of sorcery and burnt alive in Mount Hagen before a crowd.
The tabloid papers were most preoccupied with this topic as newsworthy; however some
presented a more neutral account than others. While the description of the crime is
undeniably gruesome, some articles balanced this by including quotes such as “the killing has
caused outrage across Papua New Guinea” (Daily Star, 19.02.13). Meanwhile, others carried
headlines such as ‘WITCH HORROR’ (The Sun, 19.02.13) and ‘Black magic woman dead;
TORTURE’ (Daily Mirror, 8.02.13). A short article in The Daily Telegraph used only one
quote from a police spokesperson, to state they believed the girl had been “gang raped and
killed by two known suspects” (15.02.13), compared to an article in the i paper which used
the more subdued quote to state an estimated 50 people were thought to have “laid a hand on
Figure 3. Percentage of murder stories published across media outlets

29
the victim” (9.02.13). Considering political issues were essentially overlooked by the
commercial papers, this event was perceptibly amplified in the British press. Many studies
have “concluded that newspaper accounts of foreign affairs are colored by philosophic,
moral, and political perspectives prevailing in the nations where the newspaper is published”
(Lent 1977: 47). This is a possible explanation for why such events are magnified, presented
with the graphic headlines as mentioned above.
The BBC also covered the story, presenting a much more nuanced version. Prime Minister
Peter O’Neill was quoted, calling the case “barbaric”, and a police commander was cited
saying “we are not finished” (BBC, 19.02.13). The article presents the issue as being taken
seriously, with national leaders condemning the incident and police stated as having
interviewed forty people in connection with the crime. Many articles in commercial papers
seemed to downplay the action being taken, instead highlighting the brutality of the crime.
Thus, the public service news provider was more objective, and concerned with presenting a
bigger picture to avoid negative stereotyping and balance the patent horror of the story.
Australia’s public service broadcaster, ABC, cited Ken Fairweather, the current MP for
Sumkar, near Bogia as saying on the case:
You’ll find any area where there is lots of malaria, lots of mosquitoes, you’ll also
have this propensity to have puripuri if you like or whatever you want to call it,
that’s associated with sickness, hallucination (ABC, 5.07.12).
This possible explanation was not mentioned in any of the British articles on the sorcery
murder, potentially evidencing the selective process of citing sources.
Similarly, murder appeared as a tertiary theme in seven articles, linking it with the cannibal
cult story. Of the five articles on the initial arrest of members of a cannibal cult, four quoted
police commander Mr Anthony Wagambie saying “they don’t think they’ve done anything
wrong” in the opening two paragraphs. This opening sentiment conjures an image of
remorseless murderers, neglecting to contextualise the story. Cannibalism is not a
condonable act, but the limited sources and selective quotations mean that stories are cast into
the spotlight without capturing the full framework in which such events take place.
Lent acknowledged that research has shown “foreign news in United States newspapers often
deals with crises, the bizarre or outlandish or the East-West struggle” (1977: 47). The BBC

30
extended its reach beyond these criteria, covering a wider range of events but homing in on
political issues. However, the commercial papers’ focus on deaths in Papua New Guinea
tallied with Lent’s assertion, as stories on murder were chiefly associated with cannibalism
and witchcraft – perceived as primitive and bizarre behaviours to 21st
century civilised
nations – despite being part of British history.
3.7 When Disaster Strikes
Reports on tragedies and natural disasters composed 9.7 per cent of coverage. This
comprised a ferry that sank off the coast of Lae (9 stories), which was covered by all media
types except the mid-market titles, and a landslide in Nogoli (2 stories). Woollacott gauged
that crisis reporting stems from the “West’s deep disillusion with nearly all post-colonial
societies, as well as the Western assumption that the West is still the ultimate arbiter of the
rest of the world” (1975: 10). This seems poignant as seven of the nine articles on the sunken
ferry tragedy were classified as representing Papua New Guinea as reliant and in need of aid.
This was evident in quotes from the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who declared:
“This is obviously a major tragedy. We have been asked to provide assistance to PNG and
we are providing that assistance” (The Mirror, 3.02.12). Many articles specified the aid
Australia was providing:
An Australian search and rescue plane […] reached the scene by the afternoon and
two other Australian planes were on their way. An AMSA spokeswoman, Carly
Lusk, said the crew of the first plane threw several life rafts to survivors in the
water (The Guardian, 3.02.12).
The stories detail the achievements of the Australian rescue mission, but do not mention the
Papua New Guinean rescue boats, suggesting the country was unable to help itself. The
article in The Mirror which cited Julia Gillard (see above) in fact did not quote any
representatives of the nation, only the Australian Prime Minister. Lewis, Cushion and
Thomas (2005) found that news channels selection of sources is limited to individuals in
politics, business, law and order, and the news media. This study would add to this finding
that the voices of developed nations are more resonant in international news, even when the
issue at hand concerns a developing nation.
Curiously, the landslide that swept two villages, killing an estimated 40 people, received little
coverage (2 stories). While the BBC dedicated 290 words to the story, The Daily Telegraph
published only a brief article of 70 words. However, both articles emphasised the devastation

31
caused. The Telegraph (26.01.12) quoted an aid worker who said: “People lost their entire
families. They are in shock”. The BBC explained “this was one of the worst landslides in
Papua New Guinea”, quoting a local MP, Francis Potape: “There are people buried under the
ground and a number of them are children” (25.01.12). The destruction wrought is
acknowledged, and both articles cite nationals, giving the country an opportunity it rarely
receives to define events that occur within its borders.
Lent understood “Western reporting traditionally has played up the violent and disastrous – in
short, bad news” (1977: 48). While this holds true with the reporting of murder in Papua
New Guinea, and also the ferry that sank, which were both fairly well covered, the landslide
appears an anomaly. Perhaps the lack of reporting stems from the dominant ideology
surrounding the nation, depicting it as a land of sorcery and cannibalism, allowing no space
for the construction of victimhood when natural disaster strikes. Thus, the “students and
trainee teachers” (The Guardian, 3.02.12) who were on the ferry were an exception to the
stereotypical portrayals of Papuan people, as they were educated and did not deserve their
fate.
In addition to the limited coverage of the landslide, severe flooding in September 2012 which
left tens of thousands of people isolated went unreported in the UK. A mother and child died
of starvation in Paipa, and a woman in Tumbalere died as she could not reach her local health
clinic to get necessary medication. Despite the destruction caused and the relief effort that
ensued, the flooding failed to receive coverage in any of the outlets studied.
3.8 Conclusion
Overall, the volume of negative news outweighed the positive. The royal visit to some
degree countered the bad news, yet had this not occurred, the picture of Papua New Guinea
captured in the news would likely be more adverse.
There were clear differences across media outlets, with most broadsheet and mid-market
papers and the BBC attempting to neutralise the negative news by relaying stories in a
balanced manner. The public service broadcaster presented a bigger picture to contextualise
events, adhering to its mission statement and pursuing a more serious and impartial news
agenda, with a focus on political issues to uphold civil society.

32
The next chapter will enter into a discussion of these findings, considering the variation
across media outlets and the implications for Papua New Guinea. The news values identified
in the literature review will be reconsidered, and the interview with foreign correspondent,
Liam Fox, will be introduced to explore the broader issues surrounding reporting of
international affairs.

33
Conclusion
Almost forty years ago, a Filipino information official bemoaned:
It is as if Western reporters feel their job in any developing society is to identify
that society’s weakest points and biggest problems and then make them worse by
exaggeration and unremitting publicity (cited in Woollacott 1975: 48).
This statement has been echoed in the research of many studies exploring international news
of developing countries since, begging the question: has anything changed?
Despite being classed as a peripheral country (Chase-Dunn, Kawano and Brewer 2000),
Papua New Guinea was not that absent from the news agenda. Therefore, Chang’s (1998:
544) finding that peripheral and semiperipheral countries were perceived as “insignificant, if
not irrelevant” in Reuters coverage of a WTO event does not appear to resonate within the
context of this study. Beer (2010) found that in 2008, Oceania received the least coverage of
all continents in UK, US and German television news. However, it may be inferred from this
that print and online media are more likely to cover the distant region than television news.
Chang’s (1998) observation that hierarchical positions affect the quality of news flow seems
accurate, since negative coverage of Papua New Guinea outweighed the positive. Beer
(2010) discovered that despite minimal coverage, Oceania was more positively presented
than any other region. The current examination of Papua New Guinea in isolation would
suggest that positive reporting may stem from the presence of other Western nations in the
region, such as Australia and New Zealand.
Loto et al (2006: 111) concluded from their study of the representation of Pacific islanders in
the New Zealand press: “Pacific people need to be framed as passive and irresponsible in
order to justify the framing of Palagi as active and responsible”. This appears to carry across
to the current research, as the majority of stories ascribed undesirable traits to Papua New
Guineans. Thus, associating ‘them’ with brutish and primordial behaviours and beliefs
reinforces the framing of the UK as humane and civilised.
As outlined in the methods chapter, an interview with ABC’s online and television Papua
New Guinea correspondent, Liam Fox, was conducted, in which the findings of the study
were discussed. Reflecting on Boris Johnson’s reference to “Papua New Guinea-style orgies

34
of cannibalism and chief killing”, it would appear that the media propagate negative
typecasts. Fox remarked:
Stereotypes exist because […] there’s some nugget or kernel of truth to the way
things work, and people grab onto that as an easy way to describe things. And it
gets over used and abused, but it’s also a biological way of telling between us and
them.
Evocative of Billig’s notion of national identity and Anderson’s imagined communities (see
chapter 2), this ‘othering’ appears to be deep rooted. The media’s power in fortifying this
collective identity, against which foreign nations and peoples are measured, appears to build
layers on the dividing wall that separates ‘us’ from ‘them’.
Wu’s (2000, 2003) assertion that the main way developing nations make it into the
international news is through disruptive occurrences seems pertinent, particularly incidents,
as Golan (2008) observed, of a deviant nature. The prominence of stories on cannibalism and
sorcery causes political issues to be demoted. Thus, a developing nation’s struggle towards
democracy is overlooked in favour of news on the brutish behaviours that plague the isolated
communities unaffected by Westernisation. Fox encapsulated this notion:
It’s unavoidably, unquestionably, interesting and fascinating to read about stuff
like that. There’s no denying that. Whether that’s human voyeurism, whether it’s
that we like to see dark things, I don’t know. The simple fact is […] this stuff
sells.
Fox’s remark seems to reaffirm the existence of newsroom values. Galtung and Ruge’s
(1965) ‘threshold’ news value appears to carry to the present day, since the stories on
murders were gruesome, and only tragedies with a significant number of fatalities were
reported. Commenting on the stark disparity in coverage between the ferry tragedy and
natural disasters, Fox theorised:
Well that’s a much larger scale loss of life […] it’s an unfortunate reality of the
news organisation that the body count matters. The more people that die the
bigger the story it is.
By and large, reference to something negative clearly prevailed as the main value of selecting
news.

35
The value of ‘meaningfulness’ was appropriated, as the story that received the most coverage
was the royal visit, which concerned UK citizens, and also coincided with the value of
‘reference to elite people’. Franks (2004: 426-427) asserted:
There may be plenty of foreign news, but by definition news from poor countries
is nearly always bad news – associated with disasters or wars. The only regular
exception to this is visits by the royal family or other celebrity Westerners.
Franks’ statement appears to have bearing, since the royal visit was the only high ranking
story of a positive inclination. Subsequent themes such as murder, tragedy and cannibalism
coincide with the proposed ‘definition’ of news from poor countries equating to bad news.
The current study refutes Berglez’s (2008) theory that global news networks like the BBC
deliver a global outlook in their financial reporting but not necessarily in their covering of
political, cultural and ecological news. The BBC seemed committed to objective reporting of
hard news, allocating a substantial amount of its coverage regarding Papua New Guinea to
the mutiny, election and power struggle between Somare and O’Neill. Yet, the BBC also
included a lengthy article on the discovery of a new amphibian in the jungle, and another on a
Papuan marriage, illustrating the diverse, colourful culture.
Broadsheets maintained a high degree of neutrality in their reporting with few exceptions.
However, the claim that broadsheets contain “more demanding content” (McNair 2009: 5) is
questionable, since while these papers covered a range of topics, they published only one
article on Papuan politics. McNair’s claim may hold true in domestic news, but does not
seem to carry across to international reporting.
Despite publishing fewer articles on the nation, mid-market titles for the most part carried a
positive or neutral tone, while the lack of coverage was to be expected given the scarcity of
publications in this category. Tabloids were by far the most negative in their reporting,
highlighting deviant occurrences in compliance with their propensity towards
“sensationalization of topics not considered “nice” by common consent among other
newspapers” (Bromley and Cushion 2011: 223). Considering three of the top five selling

36
newspapers in the UK are tabloids11
, and the alleged ‘tabloidization’ of the press, the future
for international news looks bleak.
In light of Hoge’s (1997) assertion that the UK is more internationally minded than the US, a
Nexis search was conducted spanning the sample period, firstly of 20 major UK newspapers,
then of 20 major US newspapers. The UK search generated 530 articles, compared to the US
search which produced 107. Although not all of these focus primarily on the nation and as
such were not included in the sample, there is nonetheless a vast difference in the volume of
coverage, implying Hoge’s claim still holds.
The move to commercial news, most evident in tabloid titles, seems to have caused the initial
moral purposes of journalism to be lost. Selectivity takes the place of objectivity; the bizarre
takes precedence over the political; and bad news triumphs over good news. Fox explained:
While the BBC can afford, because it doesn’t operate towards commercial
imperative, to occasionally report about PNG, other papers, other organisations,
have got to get people to click on the stories or buy the papers.
Consequently, hard news from nations like Papua New Guinea gets pushed down the news
agenda. As only fragments of news about the nation, predominantly negative in nature, make
it onto the global media stage, public perception becomes skewed. Golan (2008) identified
Africa as suffering under the ‘Bad News Syndrome’, yet this phenomenon is widespread, and
appears to encompass Papua New Guinea. Fox reasoned:
To do positive stories you have to invest time here. You have to get to know it.
You have to have a journalist who lives in an area to understand it. Foreign
bureaus are shrinking in all media organisations […] and if it’s not good now, it’s
only going to get worse. Papua New Guinea is at the bottom of a very long list of
places that most news organisations don’t care about.
Liam Fox is one of only two foreign correspondents based in Papua New Guinea, both of
whom work for Australian news organisations. Given this lack of an international presence,
it seems viable that Papua New Guinea may be viewed by editors as a distant source of
bizarre and deviant news. However, the manner in which many newspapers select and
recount the stories overlooks the gravity of the situation, presenting a sweeping generalisation
of the nation and its people. These people live in desolate parts of the jungle, unaffected by
11
Guardian, The. 2012. ABCs: National daily newspaper circulation October 2012. Available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/table/2012/nov/09/abcs-national-newspapers [Accessed: 23rd
April 2013]

37
Western values, and in many ways are simply living as British people did centuries ago. The
killings are in no way condonable, but the difference in lifestyle needs to be understood to
contextualise these stories.
Liam Fox claimed that “organisations that have people based here, the ABC and the AAP,
[…] have a lot more positive stories than news organisations that don’t have anyone based
here”. Since a principal purpose of news is to prioritise national interests, one might think
that a fellow Commonwealth nation would be more objectively reported in British news. It is
the responsibility of journalists to report on wrongdoings, but coverage ought to be balanced
so that negative occurrences do not overshadow positive developments.
While the BBC maintained a hard news agenda and largely upheld an objective stance, the
discriminatory processes of news selection in most national newspapers meant that Papua
New Guinea appeared in the Western media more as a spectacle of ‘otherness’ than as an
equal. This ethnocentric approach holds Papua New Guinea back from its place in the global
village, and drives the goal of globalisation further away. As one of few places on this earth
that remains untouched by Westernisation, Papua New Guinea ought to be valued for its
unique culture and diversity, rather than branded for its downfalls as a consequence of
doctrinaire attitudes adopted by the Western media.
WORD COUNT: 11,999

38
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41
Appendix A: Coding Sheet
1. ID Number:
2. Publication:
1 The Daily
Telegraph
2 The Sunday
Telegraph
3 The Times
4 The Sunday
Times
5 Financial
Times
6 The Guardian
7 The Observer
8 The
Independent
9 Independent
on Sunday
10 i
11 Daily Mail
12 Mail on
Sunday
13 Daily Express
14 Sunday
Express
15 The Sun
16 The Sun on
Sunday
17 Daily Mirror
18 Sunday Mirror
19 Daily Star
20 Daily Star
Sunday
21 The Morning
Star
22 The People
23 BBC Online
3. Type of media:
1 Broadsheet/ former broadsheet
2 Mid-market
3 Tabloid
4 Public service
4. Date:
5. Word length:
0 0 to 99
100 100 to 199
200 200 to 299
300 300 to 399
400 400 to 499
500 500 to 599
600 600 to 699
700 700 to 799
800 800 to 899
900 900 to 999
1000 1000+
6. Type of story:
1 News article
2 Opinion article
3 Sport
4 Feature article
5 Business
0 Not possible to say
7. Theme of story (primary, secondary and tertiary if applicable):
1 Cannibalism
2 Natural resources
3 International relations
4 Marriage
5 Environment/ landscape
6 Travel story
7 Crime and retribution
8 Royal visit
9 Scientific study
10 Tragedy
11 New species discovery
12 Politics

42
13 Sport
14 Corruption
15 Mutiny
16 Natural disaster
17 Social unrest
18 Murder
8. Context:
1 Positive
2 Neutral
3 Negative
9. Negative attributes of PNG people:
1 Violent and brutish
2 Corrupt
3 Primitive and tribal
4 Distinct group (‘other’)
5 Uncooperative
10. Positive attributes of PNG people:
1 Welcoming and friendly
2 Physically active
3 Community/ family oriented
4 Educated
5 Compassionate
6 Exotic
11. Representation of PNG:
1 Exotic, unexplored and
beautiful
2 Violent and dangerous
3 Resourceful for mining
4 Primitive and tribal
5 Spiritual
6 Corrupt and lawless
7 Welcoming
8 Reliant/ in need of aid
9 Politically unstable
10 Unwelcoming
11 Sporty
12. Explicit ratings:
1 Positive
2 Neutral
3 Negative

43
Appendix B: Codebook
The study shall utilise content analysis, a quantitative method, and the purpose of this coding
book is to provide the instructions of how to code the news articles in a way that makes direct
comparisons possible and reliable. This codebook contains the names and descriptions of the
variables and the range of values for coding correct and incorrect missing values. Therefore,
this coding book will be applicable to both print and online media. The sample is to cover all
national newspapers of the UK, and the BBC’s online news. The media types studied as
applicable to their relative categories is listed in the below table.
Print Broadsheet Print Mid-market Print Tabloid Online Public Service
The Daily Telegraph Daily Mail The Sun BBC
The Sunday Telegraph Mail on Sunday Sun on Sunday
Financial Times Daily Express Daily Mirror
The Sunday Times Sunday Express Sunday Mirror
The Times Daily Star
The Guardian Daily Star Sunday
The Observer The Morning Star
The Independent The People
Independent on
Sunday
i
The unit of analysis is individual news articles. All articles in the main sections of
newspapers are to be included in the sample. Editorials, opinions pieces, and business news
should also be included. Book reviews, ‘in pictures’ articles and video reports should be
excluded, as should regional editions of newspapers. The time frame for the analysis will
span 14 months, from the start of January 2012 to the end of February 2013.
1. Item identification number:
Each news item is to be uniquely identified with an identification number. These will
begin at 1, increasing in value to cover the total sample size.
2. Publication:
The publication is to be identified from those listed in the above table.
3. Media type:
The type of media is to be identified between the print newspapers of broadsheet
(value 1), mid-market (value 2) and tabloid (value 3), and the online public service
broadcaster (value 4).
4. Date:
The date is to be recorded as five or six digits, separated by full stops. For example,
February the fourteenth 2012 is to be written 14.02.12, May the first 2013 is to be
written 1.05.13.

44
5. Word length:
The word length of articles is to be noted, in increments of 100 words, up to a
maximum value of 1000 words upwards. Between 0 and 99 words should be coded
value 0, between 100 and 200 words should be coded value 100, and so on, up to a
maximum value of 1000 words and above, to be coded as value 1000.
6. Type of story:
The type of story is to be noted according to which news section the article falls into.
These comprise news (value 1); opinion (value 2); sport (value 3); feature (value 4);
and business (value 5). If this is not clear, ‘not possible to say’ should be selected
(value 0).
7. Theme of story (primary, secondary and tertiary):
The primary theme of an article should be identified, and if applicable, secondary and
tertiary themes may also be noted from the following:
V1: Cannibalism – acts of eating human flesh.
V2: Natural resources – natural materials or substances which can be exploited for
economic gain.
V3: International relations – relations with other countries, particularly regarding
progressive development and politics.
V4: Marriage – the formal union of marriage between two parties, either as a
newspaper announcement or feature story.
V5: Environment/ landscape – the geographic surroundings or conditions, often
considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal, in which people, animals, or plants live.
V6: Travel story – recounting experiences in a particular place, primarily appearing in
feature sections of newspapers.
V7: Crime and retribution – an act which constitutes an offence and is punishable by
law, concerning arrest of suspected criminals and deliberating punishment, which is
enforced by the justice system.
V8: Royal visit – concerning the visit of members of the British royal family, namely
Prince Charles and Camilla on their jubilee tour.
V9: Scientific study – a method of investigation concerning the nation and its people,
involving observations or experiments to construct or test hypotheses.
V10: Tragedy – a very sad event or situation, especially one involving death or
suffering, particularly concerning a large number of people.
V11: New species discovery – the discovery of a new species of plant or animal.
V12: Politics – the activities of the government or people who try to influence the
way a country is governed, including elections and rivalry between ministers.
V13: Sport – concerning national sport teams or the exchange of sport players to the
nation.
V14: Corruption – illegal, bad, or dishonest behaviour, especially committed by
people in positions of power.

45
V15: Mutiny – refusal to obey the orders of a person in authority, for example,
culminating in a coup to overthrow political leaders.
V16: Natural disaster – disasters caused by natural occurrences such as adverse
weather conditions, for example landslides and flooding.
V17: Social unrest – an uneasy or troubled condition among inhabitants.
V18: Murder – the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another,
including cases of sorcery killings.
8. Context:
Article embedded in positive (value 1), negative (value 3) or neutral (value 2) context.
To be determined by the content of the story: for example, murder categorised as
negative context; marriage categorised as positive context. If not possible to say,
value 0 is to be selected.
9. Negative attributes of Papua New Guinea people:
Articles containing evidence of particular negative attributes of Papua New Guinea
people to be categorised from those listed below. If it is not possible to categorise
from these options, a ‘not possible to say’ (value 0) option is to be selected.
V1: Violent and brutish – acting with or characterised by uncontrolled, strong, rough
force. Engaging in acts of brutality and violence, such as murder.
V2: Corrupt – guilty of dishonest practices, such as bribery, lacking integrity;
crooked. Often concerning ministers in government or, for example, judges.
V3: Primitive and tribal – relating to human society at a very early stage of
development, with people living in a simple way without machines, often relating to
tribes.
V4: Distinct group (‘other’) – different in nature or quality; dissimilar (usually ‘from’
the West): a measure of contrast.
V5: Uncooperative – not willing to work with or be helpful to other people, for
example concerning disputes between political leaders and between national
government and international actors
10. Positive attributes of Papua New Guinea people:
Articles containing evidence of particular positive attributes of Papua New Guinea
people to be categorised from those listed below. If it is not possible to categorise
from these options, a ‘not possible to say’ (value 0) option is to be selected.
V1: Welcoming and friendly – to receive or accept with pleasure: amicable.
V2: Physically active – involving physical effort or action, such as active sport.
V3: Community/ family oriented – friendliness and understanding between local
people.
V4: Educated – learned or knowledgeable, for example students and teachers.
V5: Compassionate – sympathetic, for example showing compassion, not avenging
acts in an ‘eye for an eye’ manner.
V6: Exotic – of foreign origin or character; strikingly unusual or strange in effect or
appearance.

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