Communication Messages of International Agency of Atomic Energy Coursework

The content-analysis had been conducted for the two communication messages of International Agency of Atomic Energy retrieved from the web-site of this organization. These two documents are:

1. El Baradei Welcomes North Korea´s Commitment On Nuclear Programme Staff Report.
2. IAEA Director General Dr. Mohamed El Baradei Introductory Statement to the Board of Governors.

The type of documents analyzed:

1. The 1 document is Introductory Statement (direct personal communication message);
2. the 2 document is Staff Report (narrative communication message)

Common theme explication

The common object of two communication messages is North Korea Nuclear Program, which will be further proved by necessary statistical analysis but preliminary it can be explicated by the names of documents.

The common theme of these two documents is North Korea’s commitment to abandon its nuclear program and the actions that IAEA has to take in order to foster this process. This assumption can be proved by reference to the text structure and components. Both texts present achieved agreements between North Korea and IAEA on country’s nuclear program, though the first relates to the early stages of negotiation process while the second deals with final stages of IAEA verification of nuclear plants’ dismantling and monitoring.

Nevertheless, both represent the same thematic communication message that could be summarized as the progress in IAEA-North Korea negotiations with participation of Group Six countries. In the first document the main component that shows the centrality of this particular theme may be found in the entering paragraph: “IAEA Director General Mohamed El Baradei has welcomed the commitment by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) to abandon nuclear weapons, and rejoin the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)”.

The context of this communication component shows that there has been achieved agreement with North Korea, so IAEA will have a possibility to engage in cooperation with this country. The second document proves the centrality of this theme by the following context statement: “As you are aware, at the invitation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), an Agency team visited the DPRK during the last week of June with a view to agreeing on modalities for verification and monitoring by the IAEA of the shutdown and sealing of the Yongbyon nuclear facility, as foreseen in the “Initial Actions” agreed at the Six Party Talks in Beijing on 13 February 2007”.

As we see, two entering paragraphs of the documents analyzed present the same context of these communication messages, namely the progress in IAEA negotiations on dismantling North Korea nuclear program, which may therefore be referred as a central common topic.

Furthermore, the commonality of theme outlined in both texts is represented by the frequent reference to IAEA normative documents and policies for of IAEA-North Korea relations. It illustrates the fact that the relations between IAEA and Korea are moving in positive and cooperative direction. This can be supported by direct reference to both documents.

In the 1st document:

• “He said the Agency would conduct “the necessary inspections to assure ourselves that the nuclear weapons programme in the DPRK has been abandoned…”
• “The statement gives a commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, for which negotiations began in August 2003, between China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas”.

In the 2nd document:

• “Document GOV/2007/36 details the ad hoc monitoring and verification arrangement that was worked out between the DPRK and the Agency”.
• “In this context, I would invite the Board to take the actions recommended in document GOV/2007/36”.
• “As explained in my report, the conduct of the verification activities requested by the DPRK was not foreseen in the Agency’s budget”.

At last, the general contexts of communication messages that illustrate the commitment of North Korea to abandon its nuclear program may be supported by evaluation of the new developments by IAEA officials in which value-based statements are utilized. The following references from the text exemplify this fact (key words characterizing positive appraisals are in italics):

• “I welcome the return of the DPRK to the verification process. I am particularly pleased with the active cooperation of the DPRK that the IAEA team…”
• “You may recall that the Board concluded in June that, “a successfully negotiated settlement of the Korean nuclear issue…”
• “IAEA Director General Mohamed El Baradei has welcomed the commitment by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) to abandon nuclear weapons…”

Coding framework

The quantitative analysis of two documents is designed to prove the relevance of the abovementioned assumptions. These can be achieved through analysis the frequency of specific words and rhetoric patterns utilization. Then the interrelation between different categories will be found in order to find communication characteristics of both texts – whether is predominantly descriptive, or analytical or value-based. So the main categories should include

1. physical length of the text;
2. Key words relating to the common theme and the frequency of their utilization
3. Discoursive specificity of their use (descriptive, analytical, value-based). 4. Number of normative documents and action plans mentioned.
4. Physical length of the text: 1 Text – 663 (words); 2 Text – 438 (words);

Table 1. Classification of key words.

Interpretation of the data

1. The frequency of words use in the first category shows that both texts deal with the common problem, namely the DPRK nuclear program in terms of IAEA activities. Therefore, the frequency of this category utilization is nearly the same in both texts since they both represent the same type of communication messages with equal physical length of the text. Thus, the first assumption that both text deal with the same object is proven.
2. The second category of topical keywords shows the same results except one subcategory – “verification”. The frequency of this word utilization in first text is substantially lower than in the second that explicates the fact the first text is more centered on the earlier stages of cooperation when agreements on verification and monitoring between IAEA and DPRK hadn’t been reach (this also can be easily showed referring to the date of documents publication). Thus, notwithstanding the centrality of theme outlined there are some differentiations in terms of it temporal coverage.
3. At last the frequency of words’ usage having emotional connotations of positive developments in cooperation process shows that both documents postulate the progress in IAEA-DPRK relations.
4. Discoursive specificity of words’ use. The result of analysis can be presented in the following diagram.

The diagram shows that the main communicational orientations are based on descriptive and value-based principles of meaning production. The analytical orientation of the key words usage is limited, while descriptive dominates in two categories and value-based in the third (“attitudes”) category.

Normative documents and action plans. In the 1 text there names of normative documents and action plans related to IAEA-DPRK are used 6 times. In the second 8 times. This numbers show the relevance of cooperation endeavors and its effectiveness.

To summarize, the main message of both documents is effectively transferred to the potential auditory, namely that the process of dismantling nuclear program in North Korea is underway and effective. The analysis shows that commonality of this theme and and its concrete discoursive and communicational realization is supported by the quantitative parameters and the context of key words utilization.

References

Director General Dr. Mohamed El Baradei (2007). Introductory Statement to the Board of Governors.IAEA Board of Governors Vienna, Austria. Web.

IAEA Staff Report (2005). El Baradei Welcomes North Korea´s Commitment On Nuclear Programme. Staff Report. Web

Neuman, W. L. (2003). Social research methods (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Holsti, Ole R (1969). Addison Wesley Current Publisher. London: Perseus Publishing.

Riffe, D., Lacy, S., & Fico, F. G. (1998). Analyzing Media Messages: Using Quantitative Content Analysis in Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.