Asian Integration‟s Low Visibility in the United States Elite Press:
The Vicious Cycle of Rational Ignorance
Troy Knudson
Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Research Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 1
Email: tkknudson@yahoo.com

Abstract
Two recent concerns regarding United States foreign policy toward Asia are the lack of coordination
between different types of policy and the lack of policy designed with an understanding of the region
as one integrated entity. These concerns are indicative of a lack of perceived relevance of Asian
integration to the United States. An examination of New York Times coverage of Asia shows that 1)
Asian integration is not visible in the reporting of correspondents stationed at news bureaus in Asia,and 2) when Asian integration is covered, it is not portrayed as particularly relevant to the UnitedStates. It is argued that more external recognition of Asian integration (by the United States news
media, etc.) would facilitate the region’s goal of fostering an identity toward an Asian community byfurther legitimating regional integration to Asian citizens.

Introduction
The Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 propelled Asian countries to establish formal institutions such as
ASEAN Plus Three (ASEAN+3) and the East Asian Summit (EAS) in order to better coordinate thedeepening integration within the region and to channel existing rivalries among countries toward moreconstructive and cooperative ends. Although recognized as a long-term endeavor, one objective of
these institutions is to facilitate the eventual growth of an Asian community (Han, Koh, and Mohan;
2008: 3). The United States has been notoriously ambivalent about the efficacy of such institutions,2
an attitude that has been explained and/or justified by its indifference toward their stated goals, which
are often defined loosely in terms of the very process of integration (Frost, 2008: 117). Moreover, theUnited States has been said to be indifferent toward Asian integration because of its current focus on
the Middle East and its inability to contemplate a regional structure other than the system of bilateralalliances that have contributed to the region‟s peace and prosperity since the beginning of the postwar period.3
Nevertheless, the United States, though not an Asian country, remains by some accounts “theregion‟s most prominent power” (Frost, 2008: 115),4 and “any discussion on how to solve global
1

The research in this paper was made possible by a fellowship and research grant provided by the Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science.
2
As Han, Koh, and Mohan (2008: 3) argue, “The remarkable differences among Asian countries in history,
culture, religious traditions, and levels of economic development contribute to American skepticism thatcreating an East Asian Community is not possible.”
3
As Campbell, Patel, and Singh (2008: 5) argue, “The nations of Asia are integrating, innovating, and investingin ways remarkably different from what American statesmen and international relations theorists have grown
to expect and understand.”4
As Han, Koh, and Mohan (2008: 2) argue, “From Japan to Afghanistan, the United States plays a crucial role inthe security, political, and economic affairs of the region. The United States is either the first or second largest
trading partner of almost every Asian nation in all three sub-regions [Northeast, Southeast, and South Asia].”challenges – from energy security, environmental degradation, and transnational crime; to trade,investment, and finance – must include the United States” (Han, Koh, and Mohan; 2008: 4). For thisreason, some policy analysts have recommended the United States put more effort into understanding
and engaging the processes of Asian integration that are expanding the capacity of Asian countries toaddress these global challenges. Although the United States is already present in the region militarily,
politically and economically, two major concerns of such analysts are the lack of coordination
between different types of foreign policy directed toward Asia and the lack of foreign policy designedwith an understanding of the region as one integrated entity.5 These concerns are indicative of a lackof perceived relevance of Asian integration to United States foreign policy makers. The latter suggeststhat foreign policy makers are unable to identify the United States as an essential element of Asian
integration. The former suggests an inability to identify integration as an essential element of thepeace and prosperity of the Asian region. This study argues that these identification deficits of UnitedStates foreign policy makers are too fundamental to be explained either by ambivalence or by a lackof resources due to the United States fighting two wars in the Middle East. Rather, they stem from alack of perceived connections between Asian integration and the interests of the United States in Asia.

International Perception and Foreign Policy Making
How are the international interests of the United States in Asia formed? Weber once argued, “Notideas but material and ideal interests directly govern men‟s conduct; yet very frequently the „worldimages‟ that have been created by „ideas‟ have, like switchmen, determined the tracks along which
action has been pushed by the dynamics of interest” (Gerth & Mills, 1946: 280). For the purposes ofthis study, it is necessary to understand what information is utilized to create world images inside theminds of United States foreign policy makers. Information upon which foreign policy is made comesfrom a variety of official and unofficial sources. The content of all such sources, from compilations
written by intelligence analysts at the State Department and collected by Congressional staffers, toreports written by researchers at the Congressional Research Service, to policy papers written byscholars at think tanks, are worthy of close descriptive and analytical scrutiny. This study examines aubiquitous source of information that foreign policy makers consume daily – international news
stories from the elite press. 6

5Regarding the former concern, Frost (2008: 122-123) argues, “For at least the last ten years, United States
policies toward Asia have been compartmentalized by issue and by country, with little attention paid to Asia’s
new regionalism and even less interagency coordination. Region-wide economic and security policies are
rarely discussed in the same room.” Campbell, Patel, and Singh (2008: 5) argue that “the sum of America’s
tactical successes does not add up to a successful and comprehensive strategy.” Regarding the latter concern,
Campbell, Patel, and Singh (2008: 80) argue that “failure to more fully interact in Asian institutions may
undermine many gains America has made in the past 50 years. Asia is integrating at an unprecedented rate;
America should respond by investing greater diplomatic capital and aligning focus toward the region.”
6
O’Heffernan (1991: xi) argues, “On a daily basis, the various levels of foreign policy makers in the UnitedStates government read, watch, and listen to the media for news of what is going on around the world before

Although content from the elite press alone cannot sufficiently represent world images
existent in the minds of foreign policy makers, scholars of political communication view this dailysource of information as “an atlas of places, personages, situations, and events; and to the extent thatthe press discusses the ideas that men have for coping with the day‟s ration of problems, it is an atlasof policy possibilities, alternatives, choices” (Cohen, 1963: 13). When utilized as such, the elite press
becomes “a significant force shaping our cultural and political future” (O‟Heffernan, 1991: xi). The
theoretical position of scholars making this argument is related to the social construction of reality. In
this sense, Lynch (2004: 262-263) argues that each decision involved in the news making processcontributes to whatever actions result from the information the news provides: “The jobs ofcommissioning, editing, producing and reporting involve choices; choices of which facts to include
and which to leave out…These choices combine, over time, into discernible patterns, which exert acumulative influence over the course of subsequent events.”
The constructing of these patterns, often interpreted as a process of the elite press manifesting
its control over which events become news and how they are reported, is known as framing (Chaban,Bain, Stats, & Sutthisripok, 2008: 22). Especially with international news, where “alternative
narratives against which to contrast those found in the news media” are less likely to exist (Chaban,Bain, Stats, & Sutthisripok, 2008: 22), this process of “selection, emphasis, exclusion, andelaboration” is a vital aspect of the elite press‟ ability to provide “a central organizing idea for news
content that supplies a context and suggests what the issue is” (Tankard, Hendrickson, Silberman,
Bliss, & Ghanem, 1991: 3). A lack of alternative narratives, in turn, makes the effect of framing thatmuch more potent with international news. Thus, as Movahedi (1985: 20) argues that “images andperceptions of other nations provide the basic framework within which the conduct of international
relations and conflict resolution takes place,” inquiries into how the elite press frames international
news become worthy of academic research.7

International News Research
One way to measure news frames of the elite press is to reduce the information provided within thenews to “smaller, more basic, individual parts” that can be quantified (Vogt, 1999: 238). Using thistype of methodology, researchers focusing on the „cumulative influence‟ that international news in theelite press have „over the course of subsequent events‟ (see Lynch above) typically have examined
one of three behaviors as dependent variables: how other derivative news media report international
news, how the public responds to questions about international affairs, and how foreign policy makers
determine the most appropriate course of action in response to international events. While mostthe cables and reports come in. What they see and hear and read is often a broader and more diverseworldview than what they receive officially.”7
On this same note, Jervis (1976: 28) argues that “it is often impossible to explain crucial decisions and policies
without reference to the decision makers’ beliefs about the world and their images of others.”

research to these ends has focused on what the content of coverage actually is, this study, by assessing
the content of coverage of Asian integration against the standard of the existential phenomenon of
Asian integration, is also an examination of what the content is not. In this way, this study serves as
what Wimmer and Dominick (2003: 142-143) describe as a “reality check.”
Concretely, the purpose of this study is to show that integration among Asian countries is not
visible in the elite news reporting by foreign correspondents stationed at news bureaus within Asia.
Furthermore, this study attempts to show that when Asian integration is covered, it is not portrayed as
particularly relevant to the United States. If this is indeed the situation in elite news coverage flowing
from Asian bureaus, then the information provided within the news is in fact a type of misinformation.
Were it not for foreign policy makers‟ reliance on international news from the elite press to help form
their world images, such misinformation might seem harmless. However, as Graber (1989: 345)
argues, “Officials and publics who rely on foreign affairs news may be misled, and faulty policies
may ensue.” Such faults are argued by Jervis (1976: 13) to result from discrepancies between “the„psychological milieu‟ (the world as the actor sees it) [of foreign policy makers] and the „operational
milieu‟ (the world in which the policy will be carried out).”

Why This Type of Research Is Necessary Now
Since the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization published a report by theInternational Commission for the Study of Communication Problems (1980), which helped expose thefact that transnational media, by transmitting to developing countries only news that they have “cut,filtered, and distorted…impose their own way of seeing the world upon the developing countries”(Masmoudi, 1979: 174), „reality check‟ research (see Wimmer and Dominick above) has yielded
insight on various types of distortion within international news coverage. Most research has focusedon Western media outlets, especially those from the United States, and has sought to highlight
distortions and/or bias within news about certain regions of the world, including Asia. In this regard,
findings typically illustrate a lack of coverage about something other than natural disasters andpolitical conflict. While these findings have been useful in delineating some determinants and effects
of international news, little attention has been devoted to examining the way the phenomenon ofregional integration is portrayed by another region or country‟s news media.
One exception is a study by Chaban, Bain, Stats, & Sutthisripok, who investigated “media
images of the European Union created in, and disseminated through, the news media discourses offour Asia-Pacific countries” (Chaban, Bain, Stats, & Sutthisripok, 2008: 23). Their study examinedpress coverage from the complete year of 2004 and found that in each Asia-Pacific country studied,the portrayal of the European Union by the news media was overshadowed by coverage of individual
European Union member countries. They concluded:It is possible that the prominence of Member States actually indicates a lack of understanding of
the European Union‟s complex political reality by international newsmakers, or a tendency on
their part to assume that their readers and viewers will only understand Member State actors andnot the Community ones. Yet, this newsroom practice may mean a vicious cycle for theinternational media representations of the European Union. The more newsmakers portray only
the Member State components, the more the public will come to view the European Union only inthis fragmented way and the more newsmakers will have to prioritize such images in the future inorder to retain their audience‟s interest (Chaban, Bain, Stats, & Sutthisripok, 2008: 56).

A similar argument could be made about the portrayal of Asian integration by the United States elitepress, whereby through such a vicious cycle, the press exhibit a rational ignorance 8 about Asian
integration that may be exacerbating the ability of foreign policy makers to design policy toward Asiawith an understanding of the region as one integrated entity and to better coordinate different types offoreign policy directed toward the region.
What difference would it make if United States foreign policy makers were able to design
policy toward Asia with an understanding of the region as one integrated entity and better coordinate
different types of foreign policy toward the region? The answer lies in the fact that while the processof becoming more integrated is itself a stated goal of Asian regional institutions such as ASEAN+3
and the EAS, the more difficult processes of building and fostering the identity of an Asian
community are also cited as longer-term goals. 9 Writing in the context of the European Union,
Chaban and Holland (2008: 4) argue that such processes can be facilitated or thwarted by how aregion‟s international identity is represented externally: “A lack of external recognition might
negatively influence internal integration…[by] undermining the very legitimacy of the integration
process for European Union citizens. In light of these potential risks, an account of the existing
external imagery of the European Union becomes a necessity.”
Similarly, this study argues that recognition of Asian integration by United States foreign
policy makers would facilitate the Asian region‟s goal of building and fostering an identity toward an
Asian community by further legitimating the process of regional integration to Asian citizens.
However, results from this study‟s examination of how the United States elite press frames Asian
8

Hamilton (2004: 12) explains that one factor leading to the lack of public affairs coverage in the news media
is the low demand for it from news consumers: “The low demand for public affairs information translates into
fewer incentives for outlets to offer the coverage and sparse rewards for journalists interested in providing thistype of news. Rational ignorance among consumers generates rational omissions among reporters. The result
may be less than optimal amounts and types of public affairs coverage.” The same argument can be made fornews about Asian integration, which does not seem to be in high demand among news consuming foreign
policy makers (or the public).
9
In a 2001 report, the East Asia Vision Group listed the following as its first guiding principle: “Shared Identity– Together we shall develop a shared regional identity by working to galvanize the aspirations of our peoples,
promote greater trust and confidence, and advance common interests so as to foster a new sense of regional
community” (East Asia Vision Group, 2001: 8).

integration suggest that such recognition from the United States might require an overcoming of thecurrent rational ignorance (see Hamilton above) being exhibited by the press toward the region‟s
integration. Thus, it may be in the best interest of regional institutions such as ASEAN+3 and the EAS
to enhance the region‟s international profile in addition to the efforts made internally to foster acommon identity.

Research Questions
This study is exploratory and seeks to yield preliminary results that can be used in future, more formal
and systematic analyses. First, in order to acquire a general assessment of the state of coverage about
the Asian region, the following research question is put forth: How has the newsworthiness of the
Asian region changed since the Asian financial crisis? Second, as most literature on integration in the
Asian region emphasizes the critical moment of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 as an instigator ofthe deepening integration that exists today, 10 it is assumed that some characteristics suggesting theexistence of integration would be detectable in the elite press of the United States. Thus, the following
research question is put forth: To what extent has the elite press in the United States shown the Asian
region to be integrating since the Asian financial crisis? Specifically, it is expected that since the crisis,coverage of the Asian region would become more illustrative of issues that are relevant to more thanone Asian country. Third, having argued that United States foreign policy makers designing policy
toward Asia lack an understanding of Asian integration, the following research question is put forth:to what extent has the United States been portrayed as relevant to the issues of the Asian region?

Design of Analysis
Because the press industry in the United States is made up of thousands of local newspapers withlimited budgets, each focusing primarily on issues most relevant to local populations, the international
news that appears in most newspapers across the country comes from just a few news outlets. The
New York Times is considered among the most influential of these outlets due to its ability to affectthe content of the nightly news programs of the major television networks and its wide circulation
among those with political power, including foreign policy makers. Thus, although it is impossible togeneralize the daily consumption of international news by foreign policy makers, the New York Times
alone was selected for this study because a realistic execution of the analysis requires a media sample
that is relatively narrow. In order to obtain a more comprehensive survey of United States news
coverage of the Asian region and whether or not regional integration is an aspect of that coverage,
studies might also employ any of the following news outlets: the Washington Post, the Wall Street
Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press wire service, and the Cable News Network.
10

According to the East Asia Vision Group (2001: 7), “The Asian financial crisis of the recent past has provided astrong impetus to strengthen regional cooperation. This has given rise to the recognition that East Asia needs
to institutionalize its cooperation to solve similar problems and prevent new ones.”

Also to make the analysis more manageable, a comprehensive assessment of every year‟sworth of coverage after the 1997 financial crisis was not conducted. Instead, coverage from thefollowing three years was employed to determine the presence of any general trends: 1999, 2003, and2007. In most cases, when using United States news outlets to examine the news coverage of a given
topic, it is wise to avoid years in which general elections are held, as unpredictable aspects of theelection itself can become the most newsworthy topic and distort the trends of otherwise normal
coverage. Thus, because general elections at the national level are always held on even-numberedyears in the United States, this study used only coverage from odd-numbered years.
The year 1999 was chosen because it was the first odd-numbered year after the Asianfinancial crisis. It represents the time when Asian countries were beginning to collectively consider
the inevitability of their interrelatedness and how it will determine their future as a region. The year
2007 was chosen because it is the most recent odd-numbered year to have been completed. Although
it was two years prior to the time of this writing, in this study it represents the current situation of the
New York Times’ coverage of the Asian region. The year 2003 was chosen because it is exactly
between 1999 and 2007, thus any observable change in coverage from 1999 to 2007 might be checkedby coverage from 2003. In order to obtain a more comprehensive survey of news coverage, futurestudies might incorporate additional years; specifically, obtaining all coverage after 1999 would
enable the conducting of a time series analysis to determine more conclusively the presence ofstatistical trends within the data.
Because this study is exploratory, specific issues, ongoing or otherwise, covered by thenewspaper are not examined in detail. Entire years are used as units of analysis in order to mitigate theeffects of dramatic increases in coverage due to minor crises. Indeed, although the news media do
tend to increase coverage in response to crises, the increase is often temporal. This study assumes thatcrises occur every year and are thus difficult for researchers to avoid. However, by placing thecoverage of crises in the context of the coverage of an entire year, it is believed that their effect on thedaily coverage of otherwise normal affairs will be minimized. Due to the exploratory nature of thisstudy, no statistical techniques more sophisticated than a comparison of means are employed. In thisregard, the objective here is to acquire a general assessment of the characteristics of United States
news coverage of the Asian region after the Asian financial crisis in order construct moresophisticated hypotheses and employ more sophisticated statistical techniques for future studies.

Research Methodology
LexisNexis was used to obtain the newspaper data. Within the LexisNexis database, international
news articles from the New York Times are categorized by world region. In order to obtain only thearticles about the Asian region, article searches were limited to articles from the Asia Pacific category.
Although it is likely that articles including Asian countries can also be found from other international
news categories such as Africa or Latin America, this study assumes that articles covering any aspect

of Asian integration would likely be placed in the Asia Pacific category. However, this category also
includes articles about countries that are not typically considered in the context of Asian integration,such as Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Thus, article searches were further limited to include
only articles that mentioned at least one EAS member country. The EAS was chosen as an entity
representative of Asia because it is the most comprehensive Asia-based international entity that does
not include any countries outside the New York Times’ international news category of Asia Pacific.11
Also, all articles from the New York Times are categorized by LexisNexis as being from acertain Desk (for example, the Foreign Desk, Business/Finance Desk, Sports Desk, Arts/Culture Desk,etc.). The article searches were limited to only those that came from the Foreign and Business/Finance
Desks. This procedure was taken because this study limits the concept of integration to a process that
occurs across borders or between countries. Although Asian integration also occurs and exists informs unrelated to politics and economics, this study assumes that its representation in a United States
news media outlet would be most easily portrayed as a function of international relations. 12 Articles
are categorized by LexisNexis as being from a certain Desk regardless of whether they were written
by journalists with the New York Times or with a news wire agency subscribed to by the New YorkTimes. On average, about 80% of the New York Times coverage used in this study was written by a
New York Times journalist each year with the remaining 20% being from a news wire agency.

Newsworthiness of Asia
This study assessed the newsworthiness of the Asian region by comparing the number of articles thatappeared in the newspaper over the three years and the average length of the articles. In newspaper
research, the number of articles about a given topic is the most widely used variable to measure a
newspaper‟s attention toward that topic. However, one setback in using this variable alone is that not
all news articles are the same length, and length is often attributed to an article‟s capacity to provide
contextual and implicative analysis. Thus, although it is often neglected, article length is anappropriate complement to the actual number of articles when examining the degree of media
attention toward a given topic.
The length of each article was provided as a word count by LexisNexis during downloading.
Because some investigatory articles can be exceptionally long, creating a large gap between thelongest articles and those just above average length, the raw word counts were codified to give thisvariable a normal distribution. After the raw word count was recorded for each article, the word

11

For example, the Asian Regional Forum (ARF) and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) include a much
more comprehensive sample of countries that could be defined as Asian, but they also include countries fromthe European Union and Latin America, which would make the sampling of articles much more difficult.
12
Thus, for example, even though Korean soccer players who play for clubs in the Japanese professional league,
and a tour of a Chinese ballet company throughout Asian cities are both forms of Asian integration in thecultural sense, articles about them would not be represented by this study’s findings unless they came fromeither the Foreign or Business/Finance Desks.

counts were rearranged in ascending order and separated into sixty categories with an equal number ofarticles belonging to each category. Each category was then assigned a value ascending by 0.1 from
0.1 to 6.0. Thus, each of the sixty values was assigned to an equal number of articles. The values andthe word count range they were assigned to are provided in Appendix 1.
The total number of articles retrieved from the years 1999, 2003, and 2007 was 3,535, thus
the mean number of articles for the three years was 1,178. Results suggest that in terms of number ofarticles, the Asian region became less newsworthy over time, as the number of articles in 1999 and2003 were above the mean (1,297 and 1,288, respectively) and the number of articles for 2007 (950)
was below the mean. However, results for article length suggest that the number of articles alone
cannot comprehensively illustrate the region‟s newsworthiness over the three years. The mean article
length score for all 3,535 articles was 3.04, suggesting an average word count of between 616 and 639
words. The years 1999 and 2007 had scores above the mean (3.23 and 3.16, respectively) while thescore for 2003 was below the mean (2.77). These results suggest that articles from 2003 were on
average about one hundred words shorter than articles from 1999 despite the similarity between theyears in number of articles. In sum, judging by the number of articles and article length, the year inwhich Asia as a whole was the most newsworthy was 1999, as it scored above the mean with bothvariables. Coverage from 2003 scored above the mean in number of articles but below the mean inarticle length, while coverage from 2007 exhibited opposite characteristics, scoring above the mean inarticle length but below the mean in number of articles.
However, it is not conclusive from these results alone that the Asian region, as defined bymember countries of the EAS, has become more newsworthy over time. A more certain conclusion inthis regard might be drawn by examining how extensively countries in the region were covered over
the three selected years. A list of countries mentioned in each article was obtained from LexisNexis
during downloading, which also provided a score representing the extent to which each country
received coverage in each article. The range of score is similar to a scale of one through forty, withforty representing the highest level of coverage. However, because some scores were used more
extensively than others, the raw scores were codified to give this variable a distribution closer tonormal. Similar to article length, after the raw score was recorded for each country, the scores wererearranged in ascending order and separated into six parts. Divisions were made between categories sothat they would be as equal as possible. Each part was assigned a value ascending by one from one tosix. A review by the author of a selection of articles confirmed that a score of one was given when acountry was hardly mentioned, while a score of six was given if an article was basically about thatcountry. Scores two through five represent points along a continuum bridging these two extremes,
creating a scale that quantifies how extensively countries are covered.
In order to determine how often some aspect of the Asian region was given considerable
depth of coverage, this study examined the percentage of articles that awarded any member country of
the EAS a top score of six. The percentage of all 3,535 articles that covered any EAS member country

at this highest level was 21.33. Individually, the years 1999 and 2003 were below this percentage(20.89 and 19.72, respectively) while 2007 was above (24.11). This finding seems to correlate
somewhat with article length, suggesting that adequate space is required for countries to receive ahigh level of coverage. This finding also seems to negatively correlate with the number of articles
appearing per year, suggesting that foreign correspondents stationed in the Asian region are now
writing more in depth coverage about the region, albeit about a more limited number of topics. The
findings from the four variables examined here, which suggest that Asian integration, although
covered more extensively in recent years, may not be a phenomenon worthy of much coverage in the
United States press, are shown in Table 1.

[Table 1 about here]

Portrayal of Asian Integration
While the above findings regarding the newsworthiness of the Asian region are important to assess thegeneral characteristics of coverage, they suggest little about the newspaper‟s coverage of integration
among the nations of the EAS. Indeed, findings from the number of countries mentioned in eacharticle suggest yet another trend. The portrayal of Asian integration was assessed by comparing thenumber of Asian countries that were mentioned in each article over the three years. It is assumed thatas integration deepens within the region, issues become relevant to a larger number of countries in theregional. If this phenomenon is considered newsworthy by the newspaper‟s reporters, the evidence
should be found in the number of countries appearing together in the daily coverage of the region.
Because this study has defined the Asian region as the member countries of the EAS, eachtime a member country was denoted by LexisNexis as having been mentioned in an article, itspresence was recorded. The mean number of countries appearing in all 3,535 articles was 1.52. The
years 2003 and 2007 had scores above the mean (1.59 and 1.56, respectively) while the score for 1999
was below the mean (1.43). Thus, similar to articles exhibiting a high level of coverage, even though
the trend in the general newsworthiness of the Asian region seems to have decreased since the Asianfinancial crisis, the coverage itself seems to be congruent with the fact that Asian countries are indeed
integrating. However, this finding should be interpreted with caution since, as Table 2 shows, thelarge majority of articles from each year include coverage about only one country, suggesting that theUnited States propensity for bilateral relations in the Asian region may be existent in thischaracteristic of news coverage.

[Table 2 about here]

Presence of the United States

It is assume here that in order for the United States to design foreign policy based on an understandingof the Asian region as one integrated entity, issues relevant to integration in the region must also be
perceived as relevant to the United States. Coverage of the Asian region within elite news media
outlets such as the New York Times should provide some indication, symbolically or informatively, ofwhether or not an integrating Asia is considered relevant among American foreign policy makers.
This study examined the percentage of articles that mentioned the United States as well as how
extensively the United States was covered in each article. The method of collecting the data for thesevariables was the same as explained above regarding the data collection for the EAS countries.
The percentage of all 3,535 articles that mentioned the United States was 52.39, or 1,852
articles. The years 1999 and 2003 were below this percentage (50.81 and 51.09, respectively) while2007 was above (56.32). This finding shows that on the surface, issues relevant to the Asian region
seem to have been portrayed as increasingly relevant to the United States after the Asian financial
crisis. The fact that data from this variable and the percentage of articles covering an EAS member
country at the highest level were by far the highest during 2007 suggests that coverage of the Asian
region is moving in a direction auspicious to portraying Asian integration as relevant to the UnitedStates. However, this finding suggests little regarding the level of coverage the United States received
in these articles. The mean score for the level of coverage the United States received in all the 1,852
articles in which it was mentioned was 3.07. The years 1999 and 2007 had scores below the mean
(2.97 and 2.91, respectively) while the score for 2003 was above the mean (3.29). Thus, even though
the United States was most often mentioned during 2007, the level of coverage it received was thelowest, dampening the validity of any conclusion implying an increase in relevance of Asian issues tothe United States over time. The findings from the two variables examined here are shown in Table 3.

[Table 3 about here]

Newsworthiness of Individual Asian Countries
Having established that coverage of the Asian region has included the mentioning of more countries
per article in recent years than just after the Asian financial crisis, suggesting that Asian integration is
being perceived by foreign correspondents stationed in the region, it would be useful to know if somecountries are receiving more coverage than others. Particularly, if it is argued that the perception of
Asian integration in the elite news media is symbolic and constitutive of the perception leading tocertain policies toward the region, it would be important to know which countries are perceived as themost important actors in the integration process, as it is with these countries that the United States will
most likely be interested in engaging.
To this end, this study examined the articles from Table 1 that covered EAS member
countries at the highest level to determine which countries were most often given this type ofcoverage. Results show that for each of the three selected years, China not only received the largest

amount of high level coverage articles among EAS countries, but received more than all other EAS
countries combined. Clearly, in terms of extensiveness of coverage, China is perceived as the most
newsworthy country in the Asian region. Furthermore, this disparity is resilient to the cross tabulatingof highest level coverage scores received by EAS countries with those received by the United States.
Findings from the analyses here are shown in Table 4. Results indicate that the most extensive
coverage given to the phenomenon of Asian integration, whether perceived as relevant to the UnitedStates or not, is portrayed through a China lens. Indeed, most of the time, relevance of an issue toChina seems be a prerequisite for highly extensive coverage.

[Table 4 about here]

Enhancing Asia’s International Profile
This exploratory study sought to uncover some characteristics of the news coverage by the New YorkTimes of the Asian region from the period just after the Asian financial crisis (1999) until two years
prior to the time of writing (2007). The objective was to expose the low visibility of Asian integration
within the coverage as well as the lack of perceived relevance of Asian integration to the UnitedStates. The argument put forth began with the fact that, despite its prominence within the region, theUnited States is notoriously ambivalent to institutions that represent and symbolize the deepening of
Asian regional integration. It was argued that current accounts of this ambivalence, by focusing on theindifference of the United States resulting from its propensity to see the region through the lenses of
its alliances and though bilateral relations, neglect to address the lack of perceived relevance of theintegrative processes within Asian to the United States. Literature from the field of politicalcommunication was used to show that foreign correspondents of the United States elite news media
are partially responsible for rectifying this lack of perceived relevance.
It was shown that even though fewer articles from the region have been published recently
compared to just after the Asian financial crisis, recent articles tend to be longer and, to an extent,
include more EAS countries per article. However, overshadowing this finding is the fact that mostarticles still only mention one country, which precludes any discussion of regional integration as afunction of international relations. As for the perceived relevance of regional integration to the UnitedStates, results are similar. Recent coverage shows a higher percentage of articles that mention the
United States; however, this increase in rate of mentioning is coupled with a decrease in the extent towhich the United States is covered, which precludes any discussion of why issues related to Asian
integration are relevant to the United States. Thus, this study concludes that Asian regional integration
does indeed have a low visibility and is not portrayed as relevant to the United States, at least in the
New York Times. Although it was beyond the scope of this study, future studies might compare thevalence of the articles used here to determine if the increasing trend in characterizing the countries of
the region as integrating is portrayed by more positive or negative coverage.

It was also argued that United States recognition of Asian integration would facilitate theregion‟s goal of building and fostering an identity toward an Asian community, as it could further
legitimate the process of regional integration to Asian citizens. For this reason, it may be in the bestinterest of Asian regional institutions such as ASEAN+3 and the EAS to enhance the region‟sinternational profile in addition to the efforts made toward a common identity. How can this be done?
Because of the layered nature of Asian integration (from the existence of many overlapping
institutions), the process of defining and enhancing a coherent international profile will likely require
an unprecedented amount of cooperation between different regional institutions. It may prove usefulto create a committee under the joint auspices of ASEAN, ASEAN+3, and the EAS whose main
objective is to promote the understanding of Asian solidarity to other parts of the world.
The political communication research used in this study suggests that one method by whichsuch an objective should be pursued is the winning over of major international news media outlets.
This study did not discuss in detail the possible explanations for why the New York Times and/or othernews outlets neglect the integrative aspect of Asia. Hamilton‟s (2004) argument on rational ignorance
within the news media was mentioned to suggest that foreign correspondents ignore this aspect of theregion because, in their view, the cost in understanding Asian integration and explaining its relevanceto the United States would outweigh any potential benefit. If either such an argument is valid, then it
is essential that efforts to enhance the international profile of Asia include explaining the relevance of
Asian integration itself to desired targets, as the rational ignorance within the current media situation
can only be overcome by competitive, alternative interpretations of reality.

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Table 1: General Characteristics of News Coverage
1999

2003

2007

Total (Mean)

Articles (Count)

1,297

1,288

950

1,178

Length (Mean)

3.23

2.77

3.16

3.04

Level 6 (Percent)

20.89

19.72

24.11

21.33

Countries (Mean)

1.43

1.59

1.56

1.52

Table 2: Number of EAS Countries Mentioned per Article
1999

2003

2007

1 Country

952; 73.40%

833; 64.67%

626; 65.89%

2 Countries

235; 18.12%

277; 21.51%

192; 20.21%

3 or More Countries

110;178; 13.82%

132; 13.89%

8.48%

Table 3: Mention of the United States within the News Coverage
1999
Articles (Count)659; 50.81%

2003658; 51.09%

2007
535; 56.32%

Total (Mean)
1,852; 52.39%

Level (Mean)

2.97

3.29

2.91

3.07

Table 4: Highest Level Coverage of Individual Countries
1999

2003

2007

Level 6

w/ US – 6

Level 6

w/ US – 6

Cambodia

8; 3%

1; 4%

6; 2%

Indonesia

6; 2%

7; 3%

Laos

1

2; 1%

1

Malaysia

8; 3%

2; 1%

1

Myanmar

2; 1%

9; 3%

11; 5%

Level 6

w/ US – 6

Brunei

Philippines

8; 3%Singapore

1

1
2; 5%

1; 3%

7; 3%
1; 4%

1

2; 1%

4; 2%

Thailand2; 1%

1Vietnam

2; 1%

4; 2%

1; 4%

China

162; 60%

19; 76%131; 50%

18; 49%128; 55%

13; 57%

Japan

38; 14%

4; 16%

29; 11%

2; 5%

24; 10%2; 9%

S. Korea8; 3%

34; 13%12; 32%

15; 6%

4; 17%

Australia

3; 1%

7; 3%

1; 3%

9; 4%

India

34; 13%18; 7%

1; 3%

26; 11%

2; 9%

N. Zealand

1

37

233

23

Total

1; 4%

1

272

25

260

Appendix 1: Word Count Value Assignment
Value

Words

Value

Words

0.1

28~

1.1 179~

0.2

71~

0.3

Value

Words

Value

Words

Value

Words

Value

Words

2.1 462~

3.1 639~

4.1

860~

5.1 1111~

1.2 209~

2.2 479~

3.2 662~

4.2

889~

5.2 1140~81~

1.3 246~

2.3 499~

3.3 687~

4.3

904~

5.3 1167~

0.4

88~

1.4 279~

2.4 519~

3.4 715~

4.4

931~

5.4 1211~

0.5

95~

1.5 310~

2.5 540~

3.5 739~

4.5

953~

5.5 1251~

0.6 100~

1.6 335~

2.6 559~

3.6 759~

4.6

975~

5.6 1314~

0.7 109~

1.7 359~

2.7 570~

3.7 776~

4.7 1003~

5.7 1387~

0.8 119~

1.8 379~

2.8 580~

3.8 796~

4.8 1028~

5.8 1480~

0.9 132~

1.9 406~

2.9 597~

3.9 816~

4.9 1051~

5.9 1653~

1.0 155~

2.0 436~

3.0 616~

4.0 839~

5.0 1080~

6.0 1903~