Mediated nationalism: press freedom, mass media, and nationalism

This research seeks to identify the underlying factors in the production of nationalism. Using the World Values Survey to establish levels of nationalist attitudes, the author uses quantitative analysis to examine how levels of nationalism change in response to nationalistic terminology transmitted through online news media. Additionally, this thesis analyzes the relationship between press freedom and levels of nationalist word use in the online news media. The findings demonstrate that a free press has a positive effect on the use of some forms of nationalist terminology in the news and a negative effect on others. The evidence also shows that certain nationalist terminology in news media is associated with substantial increases in nationalist attitudes. These findings show promise for better understanding of factors that can be manipulated to influence levels of nationalism within a country.http://archive.org/details/mediatednational1094556785Major, United States Air ForceApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited