From Toronto to A’quila: A Unique Experience For Political Science Specialist Masashi Crete-Nishihata.

By Masashi Crete-Nishihata, HBA 2009 INNIS

The G8 Research Group (G8RG) based out of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, has been studying the G8 since 1987. While there has been a myriad of investigations into the role of the media in political agenda-setting and public opinion-making, the impact of the international press on the G8 has received little attention by scholars and policy analysts. This lack of attention has left a significant rift in G8 scholarship, as the media have become a central facet of the annual meetings.

Each year, International Media Centres are constructed at the G8 Summit site to house the thousands of journalists assigned to the event who act as primary conduits of information. In 2007, the G8RG formed a media studies unit to investigate the bi-directional relationship between mainstream media and the G8.

From 2008 to the summer of 2009, I acted as the director of this group and led a team of student researchers in an ambitious media content analysis project that sought to analyze how mainstream newspapers were reporting on the 2009 G8 Summit.

Thanks to generous support from Innis College and other sponsors, I was able to travel to the 2009 G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, to conduct crucial field research. During the summit, my team conducted real-time monitoring of media reports, attended press conferences with world leaders, and interacted with representatives from NGOs and the media interested in our work.

A final report on our findings will be available on our website: www.g7.utoronto.ca.