Framing Europe

1
Framing Europe

• Sigurd Allern, Trends in international
  journalism, February 20th

2
Defining framing

• Frames are organizing principles that are
  socially shared and persistent over time, that
  work symbolically to meaningfully structure the
  social world (Stephen D. Reese (2001 11) in
  Reese, Gandy Grant (eds.) Framing Public Life,
  L. Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey/London)
• To frame is to select some aspects of a
  perceived reality and make them more salient in a
  communicating text (Robert Entman 1993 52)
• The frame suggests what the controversy is
  about, the essence of the issue (Gamson
  Modigliani 1989, in Vreese 27)

3
Frame-building

• Frame-building are factors internal and external
  to journalism that determine how journalists and
  news organizations frame issues. Internal factors
  are to an example journalistic news values,
  market strategies and organizational
  constraints.The frame building process takes
  place in a continuous interaction between
  journalists and elites and social movements. The
  outcomes of the frame-building process are the
  frames manifest in the text (Vreese 2003 24, 43)

4
Frame-setting

• Frame-setting refers to the interaction between
  media frames and individuals prior knowledge and
  predispositions. Frames in the news may affect
  interpretation, learning, and evaluation of
  issues and events. The consequences of
  frame-setting can be considered both on the
  individual and societal level (Vreese 2003 24-25)

5
Generic news frames

• Generic news frames are general and not confined
  to a specific issue. Examples
• Horse race frame (Politics as a game with
  winners and losers)
• Episodic and thematic news frames (Iyengar
  1991)
• Conflict frame
• Economic consequence frame
• Responsibility frame
• Morality frame

6
Issue-specific news frames

• Media frames in specific news stories
• The war in Iraq (occupation frame versus war
  against terrorism-frame)
• Closing of industrial plants (like Union, Årdal)
  economic necessity frame versus social
  responsibility/employment frame
• Predator policy Environmental protect the wolf
  bear frame versus protect the farm animals
  frame

7
The EU is difficult to sell

• Is is difficult to sell an EU story. It must
  either contain an exceptional scandal about the
  EU and how they once again exceed limits on
  spending, or it must be events that have an
  impact such as summits, and Finance and Foreign
  Minister meetings (Editor-in Chief, in
  Vreese53).
• There is always constraints of resources, money
  and time. One eye is on the audience all the time
  and you dont want to do anything people find
  boring. The European stories are quite difficult
  to explain and illustrate in television termsIf
  you ask someone who watches the 9 oclock news
  whether they wanted a piece on how the euro goes
  down in Bavaria, they would say no thank you
  very much, can we please get some football
  instead. (Editor in Chief of BBC 9 oclock News,
  in Vreese 67))

8
The domestic angle

• Two things are important First, what does this
  mean for ordinary Danes? That is to say, what are
  the consequences, financially, politically,
  personally? Second, who are the domestic
  political stakeholders? Do the EU countries
  agree? Is there unanimity? Any vetoes, why and
  how? (Bulletin editor I Danmarks Radio, in
  Vreese 71)

9
Europe in the news (Vreese)

• The analysis of the news coverage of European
  affairs included four distinct periods and more
  than 10 000 television news stories in Britain,
  Denmark, and the Netherlands. The result suggests
  important differences in the news coverage of
  European affairs between an election campaign,
  regularly occurring events (such as the EU
  summits), unique events (such as the introduction
  of the euro) and routine news periods sampled
  throughout a 15month period. (Vreese 165)

10
Routine EU news hardly visible

• EU news can be characterized as hardly visible
  during routine periods and modestly visible
  during key events. The EU story is a primarily
  economic and technocratic news story, framed
  heavily in terms of conflict, more often
  domestically rather tan EU focused, with a
  predominance of domestic political actors that
  are treated either neutrally or evaluated
  negatively. This summarizes some of the main
  features of the news coverage based on more than
  ten thousand news stories sampled from three
  countries over two years (Vreese 116)

11
A strong emphasis on conflict

• The study shows that when European issues are
  covered in the news this often happens with a
  strong emphasis on conflict. This presence of the
  conflict frame suggests that the considerations
  made by journalists when choosing events and
  issues for the news are translated into how these
  are presented in the news. Emphasizing the
  conflict may justify the publication of a news
  story above and beyond its news value and at the
  same time provides journalists with a clear
  conception of how to package and present the
  news. (Vreese 164)

12
EU news in Norwegian media (AIM-project)

• A majority of the EU stories are treated as
  foreign/international news by the Norwegian media
  organisations in this study. The correspondents
  in Brussels normally report to the foreign news
  editors. Most of the journalists with special
  knowledge of the EU are foreign affairs
  journalists or have had such positions earlier.
• There are two important exceptions to this rule.
  Stories about Norwegian membership in the EU and
  political discussions about the implementation of
  EU regulations through the EEA agreement are
  usually covered by political news journalists,
  and Norwegian export interests and trade
  conflicts within the EEA are generally covered by
  economic affairs journalists.

13
How important is EU news?

• Asked about the relative importance of EU news,
  the general answer was that EU news is relatively
  important, compared with other international
  news. However, it becomes even more important
  during periods of active discussion about
  Norwegian membership. At the same time, there are
  some important nuances between some news
  organisations concerning their views of the
  priority of EU news.
• The chief director of the news department of TV2,
  Kjell Øvre Helland, said that EU news are not
  given any special priority. However, he added,
  From time to time, the EU can be top news if
  there is a conflict or crisis going on. He
  argued that lack of audience interest in
  reporting political processes in Brussels is the
  main reason for limiting regular coverage to
  reports from a stringer.

14
National framing

• Before the interviews, we gave the interviewees a
  list of 12 different criteria/news factors for
  the selection of EU-news.
• Relevance for national policy made the top of
  the list, conflicts and crises came second.
  Geographical proximity and the possibility of a
  local angle were also rated relatively high. This
  corresponds with a well known truth if a news
  story can be framed in a national or regional
  context it is much likelier that it will be given
  priority because of the audience and market
  orientation of the media organisation. In
  addition, conflicts are news, consensus is not.
• Compatibility with the news organisations
  ideological orientation lies at the bottom of
  our priority list. We think that this evaluation
  must be interpreted as a professional ideological
  statement We are not mixing news with views.

15
What is the Norwegian interest in this

• During our days of observation at the NRK
  Dagsrevyen the political news editor, Kyrre
  Nakkim, said, When working with EU topics we
  often follow the reports from the Swedish
  Broadcasting Corporation (SVT), and ask
  ourselves what is the Norwegian interest in
  this?
• The standard requirement of framing EU issues in
  a national context is also looked upon by some
  interviewees as a limitation. The most important
  professional challenge is to combine a focus on
  Norwegian cases and Norwegian special interests
  with an understanding of the broader picture and
  the longer trajectories of development in
  Europe, said the foreign news editor at
  Aftenposten, Per Kristian Haugen.

16
Different news priorities

• An important factor conditioning the news
  priority of the EU is the space given to
  international news in general, which is often
  very limited, especially in television newscasts.
  
• Newspapers traditionally have more space for
  diverse news than television. In our study, this
  goes even more for the dailies that are mainly
  distributed through subscription than for the two
  popular tabloids, which depend on newsstand sales
  of single copies. Therefore, a popular tabloid
  usually does not grant much space to
  international affairs apart from the most
  spectacular and dramatic stories. Per Olav
  Ødegaard, foreign news journalist at VG, the
  popular tabloid with the highest circulation of
  all newspapers in Norway, said, We have at least
  two pages of international news every day in the
  general news section of the newspaper. We do not
  carry minor news stories about the EU. Its
  either our major story of the day or nothing.

17
Table 2 Frequency of EU articles  

• News organisation Type of news organisation
  Number of EU articles
•  
• NTB News agency 89
• Aftenposten Regional paper 66
• Bergens Tidende Regional paper 32
• Verdens Gang (VG) National, popular paper 21
• TV2 Television channel, commercial
  8
• NRK Dagsrevyen Television channel, public
  service 3 
• Sum 219

18
News actors

• A cross-tabulation for the recorded actors (news
  sources) in the news items show that 46 of them
  were national actors, mostly politicians, 18
  were various EU actors and 36 foreign actors
  outside the EU. The prominence of national actors
  confirms the importance of a national framing and
  a local angle in the news. A small part of the EU
  stories was based on initiatives or news releases
  from the EU institutions.

19
Dull talking heads

• In television news, the demand for live images is
  of course an extra and dominant news factor that
  can be difficult to satisfy. The story must be
  told in dynamic and interesting footage.
• During our days of observation at the NRK
  Dagsrevyen, one of the senior journalists
  complained that EU news often comes in static
  pictures of elderly men in dark suits. Such news
  does not contribute to making the reportage
  interesting for the viewers. The same journalist
  said that, whenever material available through
  the Eurovision Broadcast Union (EBU) could be
  described as dull talking heads on a podium,
  the pictures would have little interest for most
  viewers and no chance to be selected by the desk
  editor.

20
National or European Identity?

• Asked if journalists can or should play an
  important role in creating a European identity,
  14 of our 15 interviewees unanimously agreed that
  the answer should be a No. Some examples of the
  answers were
• Its not a duty of the news media to influence
  their audiences in such a direction. (Øystein
  Bogen, TV2)
• No, our role is to create engagement and
  interest, not to influence identity. (Grethe. G.
  Johnsen, NRK Dagsrevyen)
• NO! The EU now tries to create a European
  identity based on the member states, but Europe
  also includes those outside. There are not two
  Europes, there is one, and the EU should keep
  that in mind. Journalists should not be active in
  this field. (Atle Skjærstad, Bergens Tidende)

21
Why?

• We think that two factors are particularly
  important. One is the strong desire among news
  journalists and news editors to present
  themselves as reporters, not ideologists or
  political commentators who try to influence the
  audience in this or that direction. The old
  journalistic norms of objectivity, balance, and
  impartiality, especially strong in the news
  agencies and the public service channels, is
  still deeply entrenched in the culture and
  thinking of Norwegian news reporters.
• A second factor is that to strengthen a European
  identity could easily be interpreted as something
  more ideological than news based on a national
  framework, a framing that is embedded in the
  existing news values, audience orientation,
  markets strategies, and daily routines of
  Norwegian news organisations. A national framing
  is evident, something taken for granted.

22
Another voice

• However, one interviewee, Frank Rossavik (Bergens
  Tidende), did say that his answer was a Yes,
  that journalists should play an important role in
  creating a European identity
• This is of importance for a continent as little
  as Europe. We need understanding and conversation
  across borders. Journalism should play a role in
  such matters. In his opinion, the media should
  contribute to a European public sphere, an
  exchange of arguments across borders about common
  problems. He saw this as one of the conditions
  both for a European democracy and a European
  identity. However, he also emphasised that he did
  not think it should be a task of the news media
  to support the political campaigns or identity
  projects instigated by the Commission.

23
The importance of a national angle

• The importance of a national angle can be
  interpreted in more ideological terms as a type
  of traditional nationalism. However, we think the
  most important element here is the market and
  audience orientations of the news organisations,
  a trait common to most news media all over the
  world. How does this affect us, what are the
  consequences for our area and our daily lives?
  are standard questions that the news media try to
  answer.
• Geographical, cultural and political proximity
  represent an informal, standard market contract
  between news organisations and both their
  audiences and their advertisers.

24
An European framing?

• A broader, pan-European perspective of course
  also exists, but only as a supplement to the
  dominant national framing. A constructed
  European framing will, in our opinion, only be
  typical for European news media that either have
  an international audience or are newspapers read
  by elite groups participating in some of the more
  exclusive public spheres of the EU.
• The news organisations are of course independent
  actors that in different ways influence the
  political and cultural developments in their
  countries. At the same time they are mediators,
  channels of communication and arenas for debate,
  normally communicating in a language specific to
  one or more nation states. Their role as part of
  a European public sphere will always have this
  limitation.