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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
The total constructed weeks add up to 10 weeks per newspaper, with 251 articles for
Amigoe Curaçao, 113 articles for Amigoe Aruba, 56 articles for Telegraaf and 37
articles for the NRC. From this sample only the articles specifically about relations in
the Kingdom were included for the analysis in this paper, which led to a total of 237
articles (113 articles for Curaçao, 62 for Aruba, 15 for NRC and 21 for De Telegraaf).
The unit of analysis in this study was the individual news story. Each story was
downloaded and coded according to 16 items from a code instrument. The code
instrument was divided into several categories which included general information
(place in the newspaper, author), thematic information (main topic or actors in article),
framing items and relational dimension.
2.2.1 Framing
To measure the extent to which frames appear in news stories in Aruba, Curaçao and
the Netherlands, a coding scheme was applied based on the standard set of content
analytic indicators as developed by Semetko and Valkenburg (2000). They found a
reliable set of content analytic indicators necessary for studying developments in the
news over time and similarities and differences in the way in which politics and other
topics (…) are framed in the news in different countries.” (Semetko & Valkenburg,
2000; p. 94). The coding scheme in the current study involves a series of 19 questions
with a no (0) and yes (1) answer possibility. Each frame consists of several questions
that together meant to measure one of the five news frames of responsibility, human
interest, conflict, morality and economic consequences.
In addition to examining how events are categorized, framing researchers look out for
words with powerful cultural resonances – which seem to be highly charged and
memorable (Kitzinger, 2007). Framing can be distinguished by identifying significant
cues or looking at specific elements of a text, like headlines or the placement of the
article in the newspaper. Cues from which aspects of the text can be examined involve:
Type of used language, employed labels and definitions, assigned responsibility,
proposed solutions, links and contextualization, invoked historical associations, similes
and metaphors, emotional appeals, how speakers are introduced and the description of
different characters, groups or entities (Kitzinger, 2007).
3. Findings
4.1 General findings
Apart from the frame indicators the code instrument also included variables on general
characteristics of the articles (like place in newspaper and size), thematic variables like
the main topic and central actor in the article.
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