Anti-Corruption Policies Revisited Computer Assisted
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EU Grant Agreement number: 290529 Project acronym: ANTICORRP Project title: Anti-Corruption Policies Revisited Work Package: WP 6 Media and corruption Title of deliverable: D 6.1 Extensive content analysis study on the coverage of stories on corruption Computer Assisted Content Analysis of the print press coverage of corruption in France Due date of deliverable: 30 June, 2016 Actual submission date: 30 June, 2016 Author: Alessio Cornia (UNIPG) Organization name of lead beneficiary for this deliverable: UNIPG, UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI PERUGIA Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme Dissemination level PU Public X PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services) RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services) Co Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services) The information and views set out in this publication are those of the author(s) only and do not reflect any collective opinion of the ANTICORRP consortium, nor do they reflect the official opinion of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the European Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of the following information. 1 CONTENTS 1. The Analysed Media p. 3 2. Most used keywords p.4 3. Most frequent words p.5 4. Word associations p. 11 5. Evolution over time p. 30 6. Differences among the observed newspapers p. 30 7. Final remarks p. 33 APPENDIX p. 35 2 Computer Assisted Content Analysis of the print press coverage of corruption in France 1. The analysed media The analysis of the French coverage of corruption topics was conducted on Le Monde, Le Figaro, Ouest France and Les Echos. Le Monde is a quality newspaper, close to the centre-left political positions, with national but also international circulation, offering its readership both facts and opinions. Le Figaro, which is often considered the main competitor of Le Monde, is a quality newspaper with national circulation; its political line is centre-right. Ouest France is a regional newspaper focusing on local news and events in the regions of Brittany, Lower Normandy and Pais de la Loire. Despite addressing a local readership, Ouest France presents the highest circulation figures among French newspapers and is inclined towards conservatives and Christian democrats. Les Echos is a daily financial newspaper; although it exhibits a stance towards economic liberalism, Les Echos is not characterized by a clear political affiliation. As Figure 1 shows, French newspapers produced a high number of articles on corruption. However, compared with countries characterized by similar media systems (i.e., Italy and the UK), the French analysed newspapers covered corruption topics with fewer articles. 3 Figure 1 - Total number of articles per country containing the selected keywords (period: 2004-2013; Romania: 2009-2013) 2. Most used keywords As Table 1 shows, the French coverage strongly focuses on the keyword “corruption” (76,9% of the total presences). Compared with other countries, the words “collusion” and “clientelism” are used quite often. In addition, the word “embezzlement” shows a relevant presence in the French corpus1. The word “kickback” is rarely used, and “familism” is not used at all. 1 The French articles were selected using the French translation of our nine keywords. In particular, the English word “embezzlement” was translated to the French word “péculat”. However, despite the word “péculat” being commonly used in French dictionaries, it does not appear in the French corpus. Instead, French journalists use the word “détournement”. Although “détournement” was not used to select the French corpus, in the present report, we consider it to be the French translation for “embezzlement”. 4 Table 1 - France (2004-2013): Recurring keywords (%) Keyword N % Corruption (Corruption) 30.445 76,9 Bribe (Pots-de-vin) 1.844 4,7 Collusion (Collusion) 1.738 4,4 Clientelism (Clientélisme) 1.690 4,3 Embezzlement (Détournement) 1.466 3,7 Favouritism (Favoritisme) 1.225 3,1 Nepotism (Népostisme) 848 2,1 Kickback (Bakchich) 352 0,9 Familism (Familisme) 0 0,0 Total 39.608 100,0 3. Most frequent words Table 2 shows the words appearing most frequently in the articles that have been selected through the presence of at least one of our nine keywords. Table 2 - France (2004-2013): Most frequent words in the selected articles First part of the table Second part of the table Rank Word N. Rank Word N. 1 COUNTRY 36.421 26 SOCIAL 10.021 2 POLITICS/POLITICIAN 35.655 27 FOREIGN 9.860 3 CORRUPTION 30.445 28 JUSTICE 9.731 4 PREMIER 29.844 29 DOLLAR 9.451 5 PRESIDENT 29.703 30 BILLION 9.369 6 STATE 24.717 31 DEAL/PUBLIC TENDER 8.893 7 MINISTER 20.726 32 EUROPE 8.726 8 PARTY 20.326 33 WAR 8.560 9 GOVERNMENT 18.615 34 CHINESE 8.421 10 INTERNATIONAL 17.856 35 CHINA 8.151 11 POWER 17.248 36 COUNCIL 8.117 12 FRANCE 16.516 37 BANK 8.097 13 MILLION 14.698 38 SYSTEM 7.981 14 EUROPEAN 13.369 39 CANDIDATE 7.963 15 EURO 13.153 40 FINANCIAL 7.913 16 FRENCH 12.918 41 CRISIS 7.804 17 LEADER/HEAD 12.819 42 PARIS 7.657 18 AMERICAN 12.690 43 ECONOMICS 7.654 19 COMPANY 12.240 44 JUDGE 7.587 20 SOCIETY 11.903 45 FORCE/STRENGTH 7.457 21 GROUP 11.571 46 COMMISSION 7.419 22 ELECTION 11.205 47 CAMPAIGN 7.288 23 ECONOMIC 10.794 48 ACCUSE/CHARGE 7.287 24 INVESTIGATION/INQUIRY 10.117 49 LAW 7.276 25 NATIONAL 10.061 50 GLOBAL 7.227 The most used words in the French articles refer to the world of politics (e.g., the words “politics/politician”, “premier”, “president”) and to the world of business (e.g., “company”, 5 “society”, “group”). They also refer to cases and issues occurring in France (e.g., “French”, “France”) and in other countries (e.g., “European”, “American”, “Dollar”, “Chinese”, “China”). Likewise, a number of general words (such as “State”, “power”, “social” and “system”) that are normally used in newspaper articles dealing with non-corruption topics also emerge. Table 3 - France (2004-2013): Most frequent words: people’s family names National/Intern Rank Family names Frequency Kind of actor ational National politics (politicians and 1 SARKOZY 3.760 National government members) International heads of state, gov. 2 POUTINE 3.615 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 3 BERLUSCONI 3.314 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 4 BUSH 2.293 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 5 OBAMA 2.202 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 6 LULA 1.982 International representatives and politicians National politics (politicians and 7 CHIRAC 1.932 National government members) International heads of state, gov. 8 BEN (ALI, ex President of Tunisia) 1.682 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 9 CHAVEZ 1.648 International representatives and politicians National politics (politicians and 10 HOLLANDE 1.403 National government members) National politics (politicians and 11 ROYAL (Ségolène) 1.326 National government members) International heads of state, gov. 12 ABBAS (Abu Mazen) 1.292 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 13 MOUBARAK 1.275 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 14 SHARON 1.265 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 15 ARAFAT 1.248 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 16 HUSSEIN (Saddam) 1.007 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 17 KARZAÏ 1.002 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 18 MEDVEDEV 953 International representatives and politicians BO (Xilai, Chinese politician involved in International heads of state, gov. 19 910 International the murder of an UK buisinessman) representatives and politicians IOUCHTCHENKO (Victor, ex International heads of state, gov. 20 905 International President of Ukraine) representatives and politicians THAKSIN (Shinawatra, ex Thai Prime International heads of state, gov. 21 876 International Minister) representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 22 OLMERT (Ex Prime Minister of Israel) 869 International representatives and politicians National politics (politicians and 23 LE PEN 844 National government members) 24 PASQUA (Charles, Ex Interior Minister 819 National National politics (politicians and 6 involved in a corruption scandal) government members) VILLEPIN (Dominique de, Primo National politics (politicians and 25 777 National Ministro francese 2005-07) government members) International heads of state, gov. 26 ZUMA (South Africa President) 749 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 27 KIRCHNER (President of Argentina) 727 International representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 28 BLAIR 687 International representatives and politicians JINTAO (Former General Secretary of International heads of state, gov. 29 669 International the Chinese Communist Party) representatives and politicians International heads of state, gov. 30 CLINTON 667 International representatives and politicians National politics (politicians and 31 GUÉRINI 654 National government members) International heads of state, gov. 32 TIMOCHENKO 649 International representatives and politicians