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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
Morality 6.3% 0.0 8.2 7.1 9.5
Economic
Consequence
24.1% 10.7 29.5 21.4 23.8
Surprisingly, the ‘serious’ newspaper NRC frequently used the human interest frame
(64.3%), next to the use of the responsibility (71.4%) and the conflict frame (57.1%).
The findings for the Amigoe for Aruba and Curaçao were however consistent with
Semetko and Valkenburg and found that “the more sober and serious the newspaper”
the more frequent the attribution of responsibility and the conflict frame are used.
Amigoe Aruba utilizes the attribution of responsibility in 81.4% of the articles and
Amigoe Curaçao in 73.7%. For the conflict frame this is respectively 32.1% and 43.2%.
Results for the more sensationalist newspaper De Telegraaf are also consistent with
other studies by emphasizing the human interest frame. Compared to the other frames,
the morality frame is scarcely used in all newspapers. The less frequent use of the
economic consequence frame was unexpected, since one of the major bottlenecks in
the negotiations between the Netherlands Antilles and the Netherlands concerned the
debt relief.
4.3 Relational Dimension in the different newspapers (RQ2)
The expectation of a negative tendency in news coverage regarding the relations
between Aruba, Curaçao and the Netherlands presides the second aim of this study to
look at what aspects of the relations in the Kingdom are covered and with what value
these descriptions are presented in the different newspapers. For each article and for
every relational dimension (variable 16A to 16P) the presence or absence of that
particular relation is determined by either coding 0 (relational dimension not present) or
1 (relational dimension present).
The dimensions that are used the most in Amigoe Aruba are in order of predominance:
the transactional relationship, the equal relationship and the hegemonic/unequal power
relation, which are used respectively 30, 20 and 19 times. Amigoe Curaçao uses a
transactional description of the relation 77 times, the hegemonic/unequal power
relation 52 times followed by involvement (39 times) and an unequal relational
dimension (38). NRC describes the relational dimension the most in terms of inequality
(10 times), division (6 times) and personal relationship (4). While in the Telegraaf the
use of personal relationship is most common and is used 10 times, followed by
connection/engagement (7 times) and division/quarrel and unequal relationship (both 6
times).
Apart from what is covered in regard to relations in the Kingdom, this study also
focused on the estimation of the relational description. Table 3 shows the positive or
negative value of the relation as presented in the different newspapers.
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