State–press relations revisited: a case study on how American media portray the post-war Vietnam

Abstract

This study revisited the state^press relations theory by analyzing the coverage of Vietnam over the 30 years between 1980 and 2009 in two leading American news magazines, Time and Newsweek. A contribution of this research is its context of the long-term and volatile relationship between these two countries. Despite progress in the diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam, the portrayal of Vietnam in US media remained unchanged. This finding indicates that American media do not always support the US government’s political stance when covering international news. It suggests a new direction for future research applying this theory.