News coverage of human rights: Investigating determinants of media attention

Abstract

In an empirical assessment of determinants of international news, this study tests the theory that human rights abuses elicit media attention commensurate to the violence. To evaluate this proposition, the study draws on two authoritative human rights indices: the Political Terror Scale and the Cingranelli–Richards human rights score. These indices are correlated country by country with a 180-nation database tracking foreign news coverage by the New York Times, Time magazine, and NBC Nightly News. Making a contribution to this field of research, this cross-media study assesses the magnitude of human rights suffering relative to the influence of economic, geographical, and demographic factors that drive media agenda setting. By informing the public of human suffering, media potentially provide a crucial link to political response and public policy. How well do the US media studied perform this role? Not very well. Results indicate that human rights abuse is a weak predictor of media attention; military and economic factors predominate international news coverage. With human rights ranked 7th of 16 news determinants, the study suggests that greater media attention can – and should – be given to victims in dire distress.