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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
for acquiring local and international news. In addition, national news organizations also
provide a significant local ‘spin’ to the framing of news stories. Because journalists
select ‘relevant’ facts and place them in what they consider the appropriate context,
and thereby ‘frame’ a story, all news stories offer no more than a representation of
‘reality’.
The colonial involvement of the Netherlands with the islands of Aruba and Curacao
ended long time ago, but the constitutional bonds that were created in 1954 with the
Charter of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, still exist. The bonds changed over time
and in addition to Aruba’s Status Aparte in 1986, Curaçao also became an autonomous
country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands on October 10, 2010.
History, cultural differences, the geographical location of the parts of the Kingdom and
changes in the political arena in Aruba, Curaçaoan and the Netherlands are elements
that contribute to the persistence of certain (historical) images and stereotypes about
each other. Maintaining the –intercultural- relations in this constitutional construction
has proven to be a challenge. Studies like With flag and ripple (van Romondt, 2003),
Stereotypes overseas (Marcha, 2010) or The colonial playground (Sluis, 2010) are
striking examples of how relations are perceived. Representation or even stereotypes
between Arubans, Curaçaoans and the Dutch still exist and shape current interactions.
Studies on how stereotypes influence mutual perception and intercultural cooperation
between Curaçao and the Netherlands (Heijes, 2004) or relations in the Kingdom of the
Netherlands (Marcha, 2010; Marcha & Verweel, 2009) consider stereotypes to be a
given in the relations between the countries in the Kingdom. Media, in this regard, are
considered to be mechanisms that - like socialization, education and politics - help
assign stereotypes and influence stereotypical perception by covering Kingdomrelations
in a negative way (Marcha & Verweel, 2009).
This paper explores the idea that mutual representation or stereotypes are reinforced in
Aruban, Curaçaoan and Dutch newspapers. The comparison of different newspapers
and their content by frame analysis will unravel what frames are used and how the
relations in the Kingdom are described.
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