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Terrorism, Media Framing, and Political Ideologies: a Triangular Relationship

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Terrorism, Media Framing, and Political Ideologies: a Triangular Relationship Leiden University Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs Master of Science in Crisis and Security Management Terrorism, Media Framing, and Political Ideologies: a triangular relationship By Panayiota Kyriakou s1794272 Supervised by: Dr. Joris Voorhoeve Second Reader: Dr. Alastair Reed 8thof July 2017 1 | Terrorism, Media Framing, and Political Ideologies Terrorism, Media Framing, and Political Ideologies: a triangular relationship The Framing of Terrorism by the Greek Media Keywords: media framing, terrorist attacks, crisis management, politics, far right wing, far left wing, centrism Master thesis Supervised by: Dr. Joris Voorhoeve Second Reader: Dr. Alastair Reed Author: Panayiota Kyriakou Leiden University Campus the Hague Turfmarkt 99 2511 Den Haag Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. 2 | Terrorism, Media Framing, and Political Ideologies Abstract The media has a great influence on citizens and their political views and actions. Bearing in mind that the reporting of newspapers is influenced by political ideology, how can the reporting of terrorism be unbiased? To address this question, this thesis examines the reporting of three ideologically contrasting newspapers (far-right, far-left, and centrist). Golden Dawn, Rizospastis and Kathimerini, three popular Greek newspapers, are investigated in order to determine how the media portrays the threat of terrorism, where the blame for terrorist acts is placed, and the causes attributed to it. Through the use of media framing theory, grounded theory, and political discourse analysis, this study analyzes the newspapers’ reporting of the Charlie Hebdo, Bataclan theater, and Brussels Airport attacks. This thesis has embarked upon a theory building approach, in the context of which it explores how the political ideology of media outlets influences the portrayal of terrorist events of the media. The conclusion is that the portrayal of terrorist events in the media is strongly influenced by political objectives, which leads to the “framing” of news.The three newspapers analyzed here utilize terrorism as a means to promote their political objectives, based on their far right- wing, far left-wing, and centrist ideologies. 3 | Terrorism, Media Framing, and Political Ideologies Acknowledgements Before you lies the Master thesis entitled Terrorism, Media Framing, and Political Ideologies: a triangular relationship, an essential component of the master in Crisis and Security Management at Leiden University. I would like to thank all of the people whose encouragement and support helped me achieve my goal. This research was supervised by Professor Dr. Joris Voorhoeve, with the assistance of Mr. Vasileios P. Karakasis. I am grateful to my supervisor, Professor Voorhoeve, for his interest in my research topic, for his valuable comments, and for giving me the opportunity to explore this field. I would also like to thank Vasileios P. Karakasis for his guidance, improvements, and constructive critiques throughout the research process. I am very grateful to Mr. Karakasis for his suggestions, as well as his trust in me. Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents for their never-ending support, which has inspired me to accomplish this ambitious project. Panayiota Kyriakou The Hague July 2017 4 | Terrorism, Media Framing, and Political Ideologies Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 7 1.1 Reading Guide ................................................................................................................................................. 9 1.2 The events according to Reuters: ............................................................................................................... 10 1.2.1 Charlie Hebdo....................................................................................................................... 10 1.2.2 The Bataclan Theater ........................................................................................................... 11 1.2.3 Brussels Airport .................................................................................................................... 12 1.3 The criteria for the selection of the three Greek newspapers ....................................................... 13 CHAPTER 2: The societal relevance of media framing ................................................................................... 19 2.1 The media’s framing of terrorism .............................................................................................................. 20 2.2 The attacks in Paris and Brussels in the international media ........................................................ 21 2.3 The concept of Orientalism ........................................................................................................................... 24 2.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................ 25 CHAPTER 3: Literature Review ............................................................................................................................... 26 3.1 Biases in reporting ............................................................................................................................................ 27 3.2 Optimistic and pessimistic bias ................................................................................................................... 27 3.3 Establishing framing theory ......................................................................................................................... 28 3.4 Media framing ..................................................................................................................................................... 31 3.5 Shaping political ideas through media framing .................................................................................... 32 3.6 Media framing, terrorism, and politics ..................................................................................................... 33 3.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER 4: Methodology ......................................................................................................................................... 37 4.1 Research Method ............................................................................................................................................... 38 4.2 Explanation of the process ............................................................................................................................ 39 4.3 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................ 41 CHAPTER 5: Data Analysis & Findings ................................................................................................................. 42 5 | Terrorism, Media Framing, and Political Ideologies 5.1 Introductory Remarks .................................................................................................................................. 43 5.2 Data analysis ......................................................................................................................................................... 45 5.2.1 The framing of terrorism in Golden Dawn .......................................................................... 45 5.2.2 The framing of terrorism in Rizospastis ............................................................................... 50 5.2.3 The framing of terrorism in Kathimerini .............................................................................. 55 5.3 Comparison of framing types ....................................................................................................................... 61 5.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................ 66 CHAPTER 6: Conclusion............................................................................................................................................... 67 6. 1 Difficulties ........................................................................................................................................................... 69 6.2 Suggestions for future research .................................................................................................................. 70 Appendix A.1 ............................................................................................................................................................... 73 Appendix A.2 ..............................................................................................................................................................
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