Sean Spicer is the News: The Relationship Between Sean Spicer and The White House Press Corps

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aut.author.twitter@DanSelmanJulian
aut.embargoNoen_NZ
aut.thirdpc.containsNoen_NZ
dc.contributor.advisorCraig, Geoffrey
dc.contributor.authorJulian, Danielle
dc.date.accessioned2018-11-04T21:46:02Z
dc.date.available2018-11-04T21:46:02Z
dc.date.copyright2018
dc.date.issued2018
dc.date.updated2018-11-02T07:30:35Z
dc.description.abstractThis research concerns the relationship between former White House press secretary Sean Spicer and the White House press corps, analysed through the reportage of the daily White House press briefing. This relationship can be seen as a continuation of Trump’s relationship with the news media during his candidacy. This thesis quantitatively measures the reportage by the White House press corps using content analysis (Krippendorff, 2002), and qualitative analysis of the reportage using journalism discourse analysis (Wodak & Meyers, 2001; Fairclough, 2010). These analyses are achieved by analysing three cases that became headlines due to the moment of contention between Spicer and the press corps. These case studies are: 1) The initial press briefing, when Spicer lectured the press corps for falsely reporting the size of Trump’s inauguration’s crowd. 2) Press Briefing #30, when Spicer forcefully instructed reporter April D. Ryan to ‘stop shaking her head.' 3) Press Briefing #36, when Spicer controversially compared Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Nazi Party Leader Adolf Hitler and incorrectly claimed that Hitler did not use chemical weapons. Online news articles about these case studies from 30 media outlets that have journalists in the White House press corps have been selected. The thesis then compares and contrasts the case studies’ press briefing transcripts to the online news articles. The theories that are used to perform this thesis’ analyses are, disciplined bodies (Craig, 2016), habitus (Bourdieu, 2002; Craig, 2016), spin (Downes, 1998; McNair, 2000, Craig, 2013), political source relations (Downes, 1998, McNair, 2000, Davis, 2003, Sanders, 2009), news values (Galtung & Ruge, 1965; Harcup & O’Neill, 2016), the mediated public sphere (McNair, 2000; Herman & Chomsky, 2002, Jackson & Valentine, 2014). This thesis finds that in political journalism there is a proliferation of articles that are more concerned about the political process as opposed to political policy. This finding is in line with the findings from The Pew Research Centre (2017), which found in the first 100 days of the Trump administration that news stories focused on Trump's and his staff's character and leadership as opposed to the administration's policies. This thesis asserts that this pattern is damaging to the American mediated public sphere, as it stifles the citizen's ability to learn about important policy matters that are affecting their everyday lives.en_NZ
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/11936
dc.language.isoenen_NZ
dc.publisherAuckland University of Technology
dc.rights.accessrightsOpenAccess
dc.subjectThe White Houseen_NZ
dc.subjectPress briefingen_NZ
dc.subjectThe White House press briefingen_NZ
dc.subjectPress Secretaryen_NZ
dc.subjectMedia relationsen_NZ
dc.subjectSean Spiceren_NZ
dc.subjectDonald Trumpen_NZ
dc.subjectThe White House press corpsen_NZ
dc.subjectNews valuesen_NZ
dc.subjectSpinen_NZ
dc.subjectPolitical journalismen_NZ
dc.subjectMediated public sphereen_NZ
dc.subjectPolitical communicationen_NZ
dc.subjectPolitical source relationsen_NZ
dc.subjectPublic relationsen_NZ
dc.subjectUS politicsen_NZ
dc.subjectPolitical public relationsen_NZ
dc.subjectHabitusen_NZ
dc.subjectPolitical performanceen_NZ
dc.titleSean Spicer is the News: The Relationship Between Sean Spicer and The White House Press Corpsen_NZ
dc.typeThesisen_NZ
thesis.degree.grantorAuckland University of Technology
thesis.degree.levelMasters Theses
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Communication Studiesen_NZ
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