Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study uses framing as a theoretical and methodological mechanism to discern the discourses and frames within the coverage and analyses of the 1994 Rwandan crisis and genocide. Two leading African newspapers were studied: the Daily Nation of Kenya and The Guardian of Nigeria within the first 100 days from April 7th to June 29th. It was determined that (bane of a nation) Rwandan national introspection, an(other) African cataclysm, together with world inaction and indifference were the dominant factors in the coverage of the Rwandan tragedy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper explores the question of whether blogs are an "echo chamber" (meaning they merely repeat media messages) or a "fifth estate" (meaning they criticize and fact-check media sources) in the context of an analysis of blogging on the war in Iraq.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 triggered an intense initial backlash of anti-Islamic hate crime followed by a longer period of residual anti-Islamic hate crime. Reported anti-Islamic hate crime occurred at an average of 0.1 per day during 2001 prior to 9/11 (n=26). During the rest of September, reported anti-Islamic hate crime averaged 15.4 per day (n=308). During the last three months of 2001, reported anti-Islamic hate crime averaged 1.6 per day (n=147). During 2002-2003, reported anti-Islamic hate crime averaged 0.4 per day (n=305). These residual echoes of hate directed at Arab-Americans, Muslims, and those perceived to be Arab-Americans or Muslims, were about 4 times higher than pre 9/11 levels. These patterns have not been systematically studied.

The paper (1) identifies spikes and echoes of anti-Islamic hate crime for other years and trigger events; (2) analyzes the characteristics of anti-Islamic hate crime in comparison with characteristics of anti-Jewish hate crime and anti-Black hate crime; and (3) assesses how these analyses are relevant to three areas of policy and practice: (a) law enforcement preparedness to deal with the backlash effects of future terrorist events; (b) improvements in community efforts to successfully foster inter-group communication and planning for dealing with critical events; and (c) improvements in law enforcement intelligence about potential changes in anti-Islamic hate crime. For example, analysis of available data shows that about 2/3rds of post 9/11 anti-Islamic hate crime were violent offenses compared to only about 1/3rd of post 9/11 anti-Jewish hate crime.

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: The Genocide of the Armenians almost a century ago in Turkey is now sliding into the past, but unanswered questions persist and cause frustration and anxiety: why did it happen? Why did the world let it happen? Why this terrible injustice? Justice has not been rendered, and Armenians cannot put their dead to rest. This obsession with the past keeps surfacing in their literature, reflecting the way they think and perceive the world. Denial of the crime by the perpetrators and their use of intrigue to secure allies and distort history fuel this obsession. Then, there is also the vague image of a lost homeland that kindles a sense of deprivation even in the most integrated or acculturated Armenian American. The latter phenomenon has grown deeper under the influence of the general trend in United States in the 1960s and 1970s to search for one’s roots, a sense of belonging, and an identity connected to the past, to history, and to the other members of the group. American culture of the time facilitated group affiliation and identification. The Armenian past was obviously associated with the massacres and deportations. The memory of that collective traumatic past thus became the source of self-understanding, self-consciousness, and self-identity.
This paper will dwell briefly on the literature of the older generation Armenian American writers, such as David Kherdian, Peter Najarian, Diana Der Hovanessian, Hakob Karapents, Vahe Oshagan, and others, to trace the shaping of that identity and will then proceed to follow the quest for self-identity in the literature of the new generation writers, such as Leonardo Alishan, Carol Edgarian, Peter Balakian, Vickie Smith Foston, Mae M. Derdarian, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, and others.
This paper will show how in some third-generation Armenian writers the Armenian component is gradually pulled out of a nebulous memory hole to become an important dimension in their self-identity and how in others the transmitted memory of images of suffering and death never did loosen its grip, imposing upon everyday life in this New World.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Most studies of political blogging have focused exclusively on the so-called “A-list” political blogs. While these studies have provided important insights into the content of A-list political blogs (Adamic and Glance, 2005), how A-list political blogs influence media coverage (Drezner and Farrell, 2004) and who A-list political bloggers are (McKenna and Pole, 2004), they have largely ignored the thousands of less read political blogs that are written by average citizens every day. As a result, relatively little is known about political blogging “by the rest of us” (Schiano et al., 2004). Perhaps most surprising in this regard is the fact that while there has been much debate over whether political blogging is a form of political participation (McKenna and Pole, 2004), there has been no systematic research into how ordinary people are using blogs as a form of political expression. In this paper, I will address this oversight by using a computer assisted, quantitative content analysis of 25 randomly selected, non-A-list political blogs over the six month period from July to November 2004 in order to determine the relationship between mainstream media coverage and political blog discussion. The results of this study will help shed light on whether the political blogosphere is a merely an “echo chamber” for the messages of political elites as reported in the mainstream media.