Social Control in an American Pacific Island: Guam's Local Newspaper Reports on Liberation

摘要

Not much research has examined the social roles of local media in the Pacific Islands. In an attempt to fill this gap, this article critically analyzes news articles, opinion pieces, letters to the editor, and editorials printed in Guam's local newspaper, the Pacific Daily News (PDN). The items were published between the 50th and 60th anniversaries (1994-2004) of the American liberation of Guam. My analysis revealed that the PDN downplayed a conflict between pro-American and prolocal ideological stances. It rallied behind American interests, and when it reported about the resistances of prolocal actors in news articles, it first reaffirmed the actors' loyalty to the United States. This article concludes that the PDN served to hegemonically maintain Guam's society as an unincorporated American territory.