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This article investigates a central assertion of new institutionalist approaches to news—that all things being equal news coverage will tend toward homogeneity—in an analysis of news coverage of events in Fallujah, Iraq, in April 2004. An index of homogeneity is developed borrowing from the Herfindahl-Hirschmann index of market concentration in economics. Using this index, it is shown that coverage of Fallujah in the major mainstream American news outlets was relatively homogeneous and in this respect apparently differed from the more diverse reporting on Abu Ghraib. The comparative homogeneity of Fallujah news is explained in part using new institutionalist principles. The author concludes that developing new institutionalist theory requires more precise conceptualization and measurement of its key predictions, such as the expectation that major national media usually cover big stories similarly.
Robert M. Entman (Sat,) studied this question.
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