AbstractsCommunication

The United Nations is an influential international governmental organization founded after World War II. Since its establishment, the United Nations has attracted substantial media attention. This study explored how one mainstream medium, Time magazine, portrayed this organization. Focusing on Time magazine's coverage of the United Nations in two time periods, this quantitative content analysis examined the way the United Nations was portrayed in the first 20 years after establishment, 1945-1965, compared to the latest 20 years, 1995-2015.It used both framing theory and research on international news flows. The content analysis included 483 United Nations news stories published in the two time periods. The results indicated that the coverage on the United Nations by Time magazine decreased drastically during 1995-2015, compared to 1945-1965. The United States retained its dominant status in United Nations news in both eras. Only 12 covers related to the United Nations were published the two eras. The important topics in United Nations' coverage were international politics, war/conflicts and other.The findings indicated that although the volume of United Nations news decreased dramatically, the way Time magazine portrayed this organization was similar in the two time periods. The findings also showed that the inequality of international flows persisted between core countries and peripheral countries in the two eras. Core countries dominated United Nations news in both periods. Advisors/Committee Members: Kalyango, Yusuf (Committee Chair).