Derek Moscato | Western Washington University (original) (raw)

Book Reviews by Derek Moscato

International Journal of Communication, 2020

The crossroads of high-country culture, narrative, and ideology is fully parsed out in John S. Ne... more The crossroads of high-country culture, narrative, and ideology is fully parsed out in John S. Nelson’s Cowboy Politics: Myths and Discourses in Popular Westerns from The Virginian to Unforgiven and Deadwood. Westerns, of course, come out of the tradition of the frontier and the American West. Their nature as media artifacts is therefore equal parts material and discursive. Their prominent role in constructing a cultural and geographic heritage also offers a dynamic, relevant arena for contemplating the way popular culture fuels political myth making in the United States. In novels, movies, and television dramatizations, according to Nelson, the western stands in not only for one nation’s story but for civilization itself. Westerns also offer a counter-narrative to modern civilization by producing an accessible political theory while interrogating contemporary politics. The mythology produced by the western, therefore, helps us to understand political discourses in the context of hinterland fights and moral stories of the frontier but also the larger struggles of humankind. In this sense, it helps navigate complex and evolving social and political terrain.

A book review of Media Commons: Globalization and Environmental Discourses

Valerie Alia's book, The New Media Nation: Indigenous Peoples and Global Communication (New York:... more Valerie Alia's book, The New Media Nation: Indigenous Peoples and Global Communication (New York: Berghahn Books, 2012, 270 pp.), points the way to major communication breakthroughs for traditional communities around the world, in turn fostering a more democratic media discourse. From Canada to Japan, and Australia to Mexico, this ambitious and wide-reaching work examines a broad international movement that at once protects ancient languages and customs but also communicates to audiences across countries, oceans, and political boundaries. The publication is divided roughly into five sections: The emergence of a global vision for Indigenous communities scattered around the world; government policy obstacles and opportunities; lessons from Canada, where Indigenous media efforts have been particularly dynamic; the global surge in television, radio and other technological media advances; and finally the long-term prospects and aspirations for Indigenous media. By laying out such a comprehensive groundwork for the rise of global Indigenous media over a variety of formats, particularly over the past century, Alia shows how recent social media breakthroughs such as the highly successful #IdleNoMore movement—a sustained online protest by Canada's First Nations peoples—have been in fact inevitable. The world's Indigenous communities have leveraged media technologies to overcome geographic isolation, to foster new linkages with Indigenous populations globally, and ultimately to mitigate structural power imbalances exacerbated by non-Indigenous media and other institutions.

Papers by Derek Moscato

Journal of Communication Inquiry, 2023

This study assesses the journalistic sources contributing to international climate change op-eds ... more This study assesses the journalistic sources contributing to international climate change op-eds in tandem with narratives arising from this prominent platform for media elites and institutions. Through a theoretical lens of ecological modernization, this paper conducted a mixed methodological analysis featuring descriptive quantitative analysis and a subsequent narrative analysis. The authors first analyzed a dataset of 305 op-eds published by the New York Times and China Daily between January 2016 and October 2019. The authors also assessed the narratively-constructed themes embedded within selected op-eds leading up to the United States' departure from the Paris Agreement. These narratives, which featured appeals to a global ecological modernization, are (1) Humankind's shared economic destiny; (2) The new globalization and diplomacy; (3) The looming climate catastrophe. While the New York Times and China Daily featured different op-ed contributors and climate topics, both publications helped to construct larger unifying narratives about the role of climate change in global politics, economy, and society.

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 2021

This study examines the confluence of sport and soft power within public diplomacy. It analyses p... more This study examines the confluence of sport and soft power within public diplomacy. It analyses professional baseball player Ichiro Suzuki’s role in the United States as a sporting ambassador from Japan — potentially catalysing goodwill, cultural interest, perceptions of national personality traits and even views of policy issues such as international trade and country relations. In doing so, this research draws from non-state public diplomacy, which considers the transnational impacts of non-traditional communication vehicles such as cultural and sporting exchanges. It measures US public sentiment towards Japan through quantitative analysis of survey responses collected by Pew Research Center in conjunction with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. The success of Japan’s cultural and sporting exports highlights their potential and realised role in binding national ties. Furthermore, Tokyo’s hosting of the Summer Olympiad emphasises the role of sport not only as a vehicle for competition and entertainment but also its utility in global engagement.

Arctic Yearbook, 2020

Climate change discourses loom large over the Arctic even as the growth of energy, mining, and tr... more Climate change discourses loom large over the Arctic even as the growth of energy, mining, and transportation opportunities align with growing demand for global commodities. A prominent forum for mediating these conversations to stakeholders and publics has been the Arctic Council. This article examines the emergence of Arctic Council dialogue as a global intergovernmental forum in the Arctic and a conduit for economic-ecological communication. A textual analysis of the forum’s declarations over two decades analyzes the relationships between stakeholders in the Arctic and emergent discourse frameworks. As a vehicle for analysis, it helps to identify the embedded or proclaimed interests of government and markets—and the relationship between climate change with political, social, and cultural forms. Analyzing Arctic Council Declarations from annual meetings also highlights the mediatization of political action and the trajectory of the organization’s environmental mandate over the past quarter-century.

Arctic Yearbook, 2018

China’s issuance of its 2018 Arctic Policy white paper, calling for a “Polar Silk Road,” provides... more China’s issuance of its 2018 Arctic Policy white paper, calling for a “Polar Silk Road,” provides a unique lens into how narratives about China are fostered in global news outlets. The white paper, garnering headlines from international media outlets, provided the kind of foreign policy milestone that allowed journalists to develop a narrative about the country’s interest and actions in the polar sphere. Drawing from media framing theory, this study seeks to establish how three prominent media outlets from North America, Europe, and Asia covered China’s highprofile Arctic publication. Using news stories and a qualitative analysis, this paper’s analysis offers a glimpse into the dynamic interplay of global media and policy at a time when China’s interests converge with the Arctic’s increasingly prominent place in international affairs. China’s self-identification as a “Near-Arctic State” has created an inevitable focal point for the press and subsequent dialogue highlighting the convergence of Chinese and Arctic affairs.

Corporate Reputation Review, 2019

This study explored the relationship between the Big Five personality characteristics and consume... more This study explored the relationship between the Big Five personality characteristics and consumer perceptions of organizational corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviors. Specifically, the current work focused on both general consumer CSR skepticism and on consumers’ perceived motives for organizational involvement in CSR initiatives. The results suggested that those high in extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness tended to be less skeptical of companies’ CSR efforts while those high in neuroticism were generally more skeptical of CSR behaviors.

Researchers have argued that social media such as Twitter redistribute news media's power over ho... more Researchers have argued that social media such as Twitter redistribute news media's power over how issues are framed to scattered networks of activists and citizens. But what happens when an online campaign such as #BringBackOurGirls against Boko Haram's kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls garners global media coverage? Using qualitative frame analysis, this study assesses how news media in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States framed the #BBOG activism campaign and finds key differences in news coverage. Despite Twitter's potential for " networked framing " and diffusing news media's power over discourses, the differential framing and localization of #BBOG in the United Kingdom and the United States vis-à-vis Nigeria demonstrates how institutional norms, local politics, and contextual realities can constrain social media activists' preferred framing of important issues. Thus, despite Twitter's promise for activism, online activists need to grapple with ways to maintain control over their issue discourses in the Twittersphere locally and (especially) internationally. We provide some recommendations on how to do this.

Transformative technological, environmental, and political events in recent years have converged ... more Transformative technological, environmental, and political events in recent years have converged to emphasize a turn to spatialization within the study of media and communication, in particular within studies of the political economy of media. The Arctic, as a global region denoted by economic growth, ecological transformation, and increasingly dynamic international politics, presents a natural focal point for the impact of spatial media. This study examines both History Channel's reality television program Ice Road Truckers and its Discovery Channel counterpart Deadliest Catch, including the programs' histories and their implicit or direct roles in influencing discourse about the Arctic and sub-Arctic's economy and ecology. How do these programs articulate a discourse about the North American Arctic for a mass audience, and how does this discourse relate to real-world ecological and economic conditions of the region?

Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant calamity created a global focal point for debate about nucle... more Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant calamity created a global focal point for debate about nuclear energy, and a notable forum for dissent. The incident, marked by the meltdown of three of the nuclear facility's reactors, is the largest nuclear incident since the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster of 1986. In 2014, the popular Japanese manga Oishinbo, authored by Tetsu Kariya, helped set off a firestorm of intense debate in social and traditional media when it published a fictionalized account of the environmental and health hazards for residents living close to the plant. This paper explores the ethical implications of such portrayals in a fictionalized medium through the theoretical lens of Jürgen Habermas and against the unique backdrop of Japan's evolving media landscape and tumultuous recent environmental history. Habermas' discourse ethics theory is well situated to analyze this complex case, in spite of the eventual and well-publicized suspension of the Oishinbo comic. Habermas' favoring of a public moral discourse that is free of power imbalances, and one in which the superior argument for society as a whole ultimately prevails, helps contextualize the important but contentious discourse that took place across Japan in the wake of Kariya's publication about Fukushima, and the responsibility of the manga in balancing the well-being of Fukushima Prefecture residents with a broader public interest. By connecting his actions to a transcendental purpose of giving voice to a marginalized constituency, Kariya established discourse within manga as a pathway to potential resolution for victims of an ecological crisis.

Gastrodiplomacy, the conﬂuence of public diplomacy and national cuisine, has elevated the meal as... more Gastrodiplomacy, the conﬂuence of public diplomacy and national cuisine, has elevated the meal as a symbolic and real tool in the acquisition of soft power among countries. The pairing of food with national values can help a nation reach out to the world (Nirwandy and Awang in Procedia130:325–332, 2014) or illuminate a region or culture (Williams et al. in Int J Leis Tour Mark 4:1–8, 2014). Utilizing Entman’s theory of mediated public diplomacy and building on the concept of the national leader as a ‘‘diplomat-in-chief’’(Snow in Persuader-in-chief: Global opinion and public diplomacy in the age of Obama. Nimble Books, 2009; Golanand Yang in Am Behav Sci 57(9):1277–1292, 2013), this study reports from a qualitative analysis of U.S. media coverage of the April 2014 dinner meeting between U.S. PresidentBarack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe—dubbed the ‘‘Sushi Summit’’ by some media outlets. Through analysis of the projected media frames, highlighting an evolving relationship between the two nations and the role of the meal itself, this study highlights the important role of cultural congruency in mediated public diplomacy.

Patagonia's 2014 documentary DamNation marks a compelling and unconventional milestone in the evo... more Patagonia's 2014 documentary DamNation marks a compelling and unconventional milestone in the evolution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as public relations practice. The company drew from commercial acumen but also grassroots organizing, moving its CSR initiative closer to a form of social and environmental activism. This study, especially relevant for strategic communicators focused on CSR and sustainability issues, assesses DamNation's impact upon Patagonia's audience in terms of message effectiveness, company reputation, and willingness to act on Patagonia's behalf in addressing the issue of dams. An online survey with experimental conditions was used to measure audience views on Patagonia's campaign, as well as differences between those exposed to such company-sponsored activism and those who are not. Findings from the study shed light on both emerging CSR practices and integration of grassroots activism approaches.

The confluence of activism and social media—legitimized by efforts such as the Arab Spring and Oc... more The confluence of activism and social media—legitimized by efforts such as the Arab Spring and Occupy Movements— represents a growing area of mainstream media focus. Using Canada's #IdleNoMore movement as a case, this study uses framing theory to better understand how traditional media are representing activism borne of social media such as Twitter, and how such activism can ultimately have an impact in political and public policy debates. A qualitative framing analysis is used to identify frames present in media reporting of #IdleNoMore during its first two months by two prominent Canadian publications. Emergent frames show that hashtag activism as a catalyst for a social movement was embraced as a theme by one of the publications, therefore helping to legitimize the role of social media tools such as Twitter. In other frames, both positive and negative depictions of the social movement helped to identify for mainstream audiences both historical grievances and future challenges and opportunities for Canada's First Nations communities.

Books by Derek Moscato