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Constructed|ConstructiveJournalism

BRUSSELS,Belgium8-9December2016

TableofcontentsAstudyontheideologicaltendenciesandsemanticcompositionofKoreanpress:AsemanticnetworkanalysisofreportsrelatedtotheAmericanpresidentialcandidates

Hye-MiLee,Hye-YeongGimandSeoung-HoRyu KangwonNationalUniversity,RepublicofKorea 1ReconstructingRwanda:HowRwandanreportersuseconstructivejournalismtopromotepeace

KarenMcIntyreandMeghanSobel VirginiaCommonwealthUniversity,USAandRegisUniversity,USA 13(Non)constructiveframesfordiseaseandageinginpopularsciencejournalism

KatarzynaMolek-KozakowskaUniversityofOpole,Poland 41Traveljournalism:Aconstructiveapproachtotourismreporting

BryanPirolliLondonCollegeofCommunication/UniversityoftheArtsLondon,UK 65Smallislands,bigimpact:ConstructivejournalismpracticesinSt.MaartenandCuraçao

SanneRotmeijerLeidenUniversity/RoyalNetherlandsInstituteofSoutheastAsianandCaribbeanStudies(KITLV),TheNetherlands 80 Therepresentationofmigrantsindigitalmedia:Investigatingwebsitesofselectedmediainstitutions

HeleneSchmolzUniversityofPassau,Germany 103

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AstudyontheideologicaltendenciesandsemanticcompositionofKoreanpress:AsemanticnetworkanalysisofreportsrelatedtotheAmericanpresidentialcandidates

Hye-MiLee,Hye-YeongGimandSeoung-HoRyuKangwonNationalUniversity,RepublicofKorealeehm0818@kangwon.ac.krlhygim87@kangwon.ac.krlshryu@kangwon.ac.krABSTRACT This study has examined the attention on the ‘outsider craze’ during the US presidentialelectionandhowtheKoreanpresshasreportedonthissubject.Accordingtotheideologiesofdifferentmediaorganizations,ChosunIlboandDongaIlbohavebeencategorizedastheconservativepress,whileHankyoreh and Kyunghyang Shinmun have been categorized as the progressive press. These mediaorganizationswere analyzed as tohow they report on the conservative candidate,‘Donald Trump’, andthe progressive candidate,‘Bernie Sanders. First, upon analysis on the subject of Trump, therewas nosignificant difference between the conservative press and the progressive press. Upon analysis of thefrequencyandconnection-orientationof the termsused inTrump-related reports, itappeared that theKoreanpress largelyreportedonthedefensecost inalliedAsiancountriesaswellasthewithdrawalofthe US Armed Forces in Korea, remarks that asserted American imperialism. Such tendencies weresimilarly displayed in all media organizations, and although ‘Trump’ is a character associated withconservativevaluesasaright-wingUSpresidentialcandidate,Koreanmediaorganizationsdidnotdisplaya conflict in ideologies, Koreanmedia coverage on Sanders, however, displayed a difference based onideological tendencies.Theconservativepressand theprogressivepressdisplayedcompletelydifferentcompositions of semantics using the same terms. The progressive press intended to apply Sanders’criticisms of social problems and established politics on the ‘Korean ‘societywith the use of the term‘Korea’, whereas the conservative press criticized specific parties and specific politicians that sawthemselves as resembling Sanders, using the term ‘Korea’ and other blatant expressions. Thisdemonstratesthatthetwodifferentcategoriesofpresshavedifferenttendenciesofreportingintermsofperspectiveandcontext,regardlessoftheuseofthesameterms.Thus, itwasconcludedthattherearecleardifferencesinthecompositionofsemanticsonissuesaccordingtotheideologicaltendenciesofthemediaorganization.KEYWORDSDonaldTrump,BernieSanders,ideologicaltendency,reportingframe,semanticnetworkanalysis1. Introduction

RepublicancandidateDonaldTrumpanddemocraticcandidateBernieSanders,whoraninthe

2016USpresidentialelections,causedwhatisknownasan‘outsidercraze’.Theappearanceof

outsiders in the US elections is not an unprecedented phenomenon: Jimmy Carter in 1976,

RonaldReaganin1980,BillClintonin1992,andGeorgeBushin2000alladvocatedthemselves

asoutsidersandgainedattention.Regardlessofthis,theinterestingaspectoftheoutsidercraze

inthiselectionisthatfocuswasputontwocandidatesofcompletelydifferentcoloratthesame

time. The yearning of the public, who were angry toward established politics and wanted

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change,ledtoacrazedmovementtowardSanders,whoassertedthereliefofinequalityonthe

leftandTrump,whoassertedAmericanimperialismontheright.

HowistheKoreanpressreportingonthis‘outsidercraze’?TheAmericanpresidencyis

anissuethat isreportedonbythepressallovertheworldduetothestrongandfar-reaching

influenceoftheAmericanpresidentatagloballevel.

Thepubliclearnswhathappensinrealityandviewstheworldthroughnews.Itisnotan

exaggerated comment that the public accesses all the information that cannot directly be

experienced through the media. According to Hall (1982), the reality we wish to know is

produced by the ideologies of groups that individually have different understandings on the

selection of the specific use of language and symbols used to report such realities. Tuchman

(1978; 1995), who analyzed news in a realistic compositional perception also explains that

‘news’isnotapresentationofrealityinitself,butarealitythathasbeennewlyrecomposedby

individualsandorganizations.Thecontentproposedthroughreportsisnaturallyaffectedbythe

properties of the media organization and journalists, and the method of regulating meaning

based on a specific frame is formed during this process. The method of regulating meaning

selectivelyreducesoremphasizesaspecificpartduringtheprocessofcomposingnews,rather

thandeliveringasituationasis.Itisimportantthatthesameissuecanbeinterpreteddifferently

(Semetko&Valkenburg,2000),andthereisaneedtoacknowledgethis.

In view of Korean research tendencies, the studies commonly propose that the

ideologicaltendenciesofmediaorganizationshaveanimportant influenceonthecomposition

ofnewsonaspecificissue(Go,Y.S.,2007;Kim,K.H.,Roh,K.Y.,2011;Nam,I.Y.,Park,H.W.,

2007;Park,G.So.,2011;Seong,D.K.,2009;Lim,M.Y.,Ahn,C.H.,Gam,K.S.,Yoo,H.S.,2010:

Lim,S.M.,2012;Ju,C.Y.,2000;Ha,S.H.,Lee,M.K.,2012;Han,D.S.,2001;Hyun,K.M.,Kim,W.

Y.,2005).ThesestudiescategorizetheChosunIlbo,JooongangIlbo,andDongaIlboasthekey

conservativepress,andHankyorehandKyunghyangShinmunastheprogressivepress,basedon

their ideological tendencies. The issue that displays the clearest ideological conflict is reports

concerning North Korea. The media organizations maintain their ideological tendencies and

displayfirmstandingsonNorthKorea-relatedissueseveniftheadministrationchanges.Han,D.

S.(2001)intendedtodemonstratetherealityastohowtheKoreanpressreportonNorthKorea

bynoticing the rapid increase in theamountofarticlesonNorthKoreaafter theSouth-North

Summitin2000.ItwasthenseenthattheChosunIlbohadanunfriendlyandnegativeoutlook

towardNorthKoreademonstratedbyitstoneandview.Hankyoreh,however,hadanamicable

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andpositiveoutlookonNorthKorea, suchashoping foran improved relationshipwithNorth

Korea. This identified a clear difference in reports by two media corporations with differing

ideologies. In addition to North Korea-related issues, studies that analyze the Korean press

verified that the conservativepress and theprogressivepress showclear conflicts concerning

governmentalpoliciesandeconomicissues.

InviewoftherelationshipbetweenKoreaandtheUS,therearecleardifferencesofan

amicable standing and a critical stance in Korean reports of the US based on the ideological

tendenciesofthemediacorporation(Kang,W.T.,2005;Kim,K.H.,Roh,K.Y.,2011;Seol,W.T.,

2012; Shim,H. S., 2013). However, it is difficult to categorize the issue ofDonald Trump and

Bernie Sanders based solely on the dual ideologies of conservative versus progressive. For

Sanders in particular, he is an unprecedented character that poses as a socialist in modern

America, the spiritualhomeof capitalism. It isdetermined thatdiffering tendencieswouldbe

displayed, contrary to existing reports, because Sanders is a character that carries both

conservative and progressive values, in that he is an American politician that has left-wing

tendencies,ratherthanastrongcandidateintheUSpresidentialelections.Thus,thisstudyaims

to examine how the Korean press report on the American presidential candidates ‘Donald

Trump’ and ‘Bernie Sanders’, and to investigate the differences on reports based on the

ideological tendencies of the media corporations. Furthermore, this study will examine the

reports from a social context and the structure of the semantic network using the ‘semantic

network analysis’ method. The semantic network analysis is suitable for apprehending and

understandingtheentresemanticstructurebyexaminingtheconnectiverelationshipbetween

thekeywordswithoutthesubjectiveinterferenceoftheresearcher(Park,H.W.&LLeydesdorff,

2004).Itwasthusdeterminedtobesuitableforachievingtheobjectiveofthisstudy.

2. Method

Chosun Ilbo and Donga Ilbo were categorized as the conservative press and Hankyoreh and

KyunghyangShinmunwerecategorizedastheprogressivepress.Theperiodofanalysiswasset

fromthepointthatthetwocandidatesdeclaredcandidacyuntilthecurrentdate.Thus,articles

fromApril2015toApril2016onBernieSandersandarticles fromJune2015to June2016on

DonaldTrumpwere collected. ‘Trump’and ‘Sanders’wereusedas the search terms, andany

articlesthatdidnotfocusonthesetwocandidateswereexcludedfromthesubjectofanalysis.

The collected articles were analyzed using the semantic network analysis method. After the

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filtering process of removing insignificant postpositions, endings, punctuationmarks, articles,

conjunctions,suffixes,andnumbers ineacharticle,andthekeywordswereextracted,focused

mainly on ‘nouns’. Furthermore, synonyms and termswith similar contexts were substituted

withonesinglekeyword.Thefinaldataobtainedthroughthisprocessoffiltrationwasusedto

extractthemainkeywordsthroughKrKwic,andvisualizedthroughanetworkanalysisprogram

calledUCINET.

3. Results

First, upon review of the analysis results on Donald Trump, the difference between the

conservativepressandtheprogressivepresswasnotclear.Inviewoftheorderofthefrequency

ofthetermsusedinthereportsrelatedtoTrumpaspublishedbyeachmediaorganization,the

terms ‘Korea’, ‘US Armed Forces in Korea’, ‘defense cost’, ‘allied country’, ‘China’ and ‘North

Korea’werethemostfrequentlyused,andthesetermsalsodisplayedahighleveloffrequency

inthesemanticnetworkanalysisresults,alongwiththeterms,‘diplomacy’,‘security’,‘Muslims’

and ‘terror’. This demonstrates that the Korean press reports a significant amount on issues

related to the remarks made by Trump, who asserts American imperialism - particularly

concerning issues related to Korea, such as defense costs in Asian allied countries, and the

withdrawaloftheUSArmedForcesinKorea.

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Table1.WordFrequencyAnalysisResult–Trump

Furthermore, therewasa connectivitybetween the terms ‘biting remarks’, ‘blunt statements’

and‘criticism’inthesemanticstructure,anditwasdisplayedthattheKoreanpressreportedon

Trump from a negative perspective. Similar reporting tendencies were seen in all media

organizations irrelevant to the ideological tendencies of the media organizations. That is,

notwithstanding ‘Trump’ being a character that displays conservative values as an extreme-

rightist American presidential candidate, the Korean press did not exhibit such ideological

conflicts.

ChosunIlbo DongaIlbo Hankyoreh KyunghyangShinmun

Korea 81 Korea 70 Korea 50 China 37

USArmedForcesinKorea 58 China 30 Mainstream 36 Japan 30

Japan 41 Japan 28 USArmedForcesinKorea 32 Muslims 23

DefenseCost 28 Muslims 26 China 24 NorthKorea 23

NorthKorea 27 USArmedForcesinKorea 23 DefenseCost 23 Mainstream 23

China 26 Terror 23 Muslims 22 Korea 22

AlliedCountry 22 Conservative 22 AlliedCountry 21 EntryintoaCountry 19

Withdraw 20 NorthKorea 22 Outsider 21 Hispanic 14

ShareofExpenses 19 DefenseCost 21 Japan 20 KimJong-Un 13

NuclearArmament 19 White 20 NorthKorea 17 AlliedCountry 12

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Figure1.SemanticNetworkAnalysisResult–Trump

ChosunIlbo ①Muslims

②criticism

③Trump

④NuclearArmament

⑤NorthKorea

⑥Korea

⑦terror

⑧USArmedForcesinKorea

⑨DefenseCost

⑩Diplomacy

DongaIlbo

①America

②China

③diplomacy

④Muslims

⑤Terror

⑥USArmedForcesinKorea

⑦NuclearArmament

⑧Bitingremarks

⑨DefenseCost

⑩Diplomacy

Hankyoreh ①DefenseCost

②USArmedForcesinKorea

③Nuclear

④Diplomacy

⑤terror

⑥Muslims

⑦AlliedCountry

⑧Bitingremarks

⑨China

⑩NorthKorea

KyunghyangShinmun

①NuclearArmament

②DefenseCost

③Japan

④Korea

⑤Nuclear

⑥NorthKorea

⑦Terror

⑧Muslims

⑨Bluntstatements

⑩Bitingremarks

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Meanwhile,thereportsoftheKoreanpressonBernieSandersdisplayedadifferenceaccording

toideologicaltendencies.First,therewasanoticeabledifferenceintheamountofreports.The

DongaIlboinparticularhadfewerarticlesfocusedonBernieSanders. Incontrast,Kyunghyang

Shinmunrecordedthehighestnumberofarticles,whereaspotlightwasonhispoliticalmoves

duringthepointofhisdeclarationforcandidacy. Incontrast,reportsonSandersinDongaIlbo

surfacedfromthepointofhisfirstcaucusvictory,whichdisplayedasignificantdifferenceinthe

semantic composition by merely delivering the existing reports on mainstream US press

(WashingtonPost,NewYorkTimes,etc.).

The ideological differences in the press can be well-presented on reports concerning

Bernie Sanders, as a character that carries both the conservative value of ‘America’ and the

progressivevalueofthe‘reliefofinequality’.Uponcomparisonoftheorderoffrequencyinthe

conservativepressandtheprogressivepress,theconservativepressused‘victory’and‘support’

as themain keywords, followed by ‘socialist’ and ‘African-American’. Theword ‘socialist’was

high in the ranks in Donga Ilbo; however, it displayed a low level concerning the semantic

networkandcentrality.Thiscanbeunderstoodashavingtheintentionofimprintingtheimage

of Sanders as a socialist on its audience, even though the word ‘socialist’ did not perform a

centralroleintheentirecontext.

Table2.WordFrequencyAnalysisResult-Sanders

ChosunIlbo DongaIlbo Hankyoreh KyunghyangShinmun

Victory 62 WallStreet 43 Support 73 Support 146

Support 27 Socialist 40 Victory 57 Leftwing 65

YoungClass 25 Jews 27 Outsider 32 African-American 58

African-American 24 Pledge 22 Problem 25 We/Us 53

Policy 23 PoliticalRevolution 16 Socialist 25 Problem 52

EstablishedPolitics 18 Victory 15 Inequality 24 WallStreet 51

Socialist 17 African-American 15 EstablishedPolitics 23 Inequality 50

Craze 15 Support 14 Policy 22 Korea 50

Inequality 13 Criticism 11 Craze 21 Victory 49

Anger 12 Democratic 10 MiddleClass 21 Change 48

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The progressive press displayed a high frequency of using the words ‘victory’ and ‘support’,

followed by ‘inequality’ and ‘problem’. This demonstrates that the reports focus on the

messages and pledges made by Bernie Sanders. Furthermore, this displayed a tendency of

reportingtheproblemsoftheAmericanproblemsindicatedbySandersinconnectionwiththe

problemsoftheKoreansociety.

Althoughnotagreatweightwasputonthesubject,themediaorganizations,whichhad

varyingideologicaltendenciesregardingthereportingonBernieSanders,displayedadifference

intermsoftheselectionofkeywordsandthesemanticcomposition.ParticularlyinChosunIlbo

andKyunghyangShinmun,‘Korea’appearedasakeyword,whereKyunghyangShinmunformed

a semantic structure through theword ‘Korea’, andChosun Ilbo formed a semantic structure

throughtheterms‘Korea’,‘TheMinjooParty’and‘AhnCheol-Soo’.Thisdemonstratesthatthe

two different types of press operations composed their news by combining issues related to

BernieSanderswithKorea’ssocialphenomenaandproblems.

However, having differing ideologies, the two different types of press displayed

completelydifferentsemanticcompositionwiththesameword‘Korea’.Theprogressivepress,

KyunghyangShinmun,emphasizedthattheproblemsinAmericansocietyasindicatedbyBernie

SandersarenotdifferentfromthoseofKorea.Theythenarguedfortheneedofaprogressive

wind and change in Korea as the progressive craze in the US, which is expanding around

Sanders. Unlike Kyunghyang Shinmun, the conservative publication Chosun Ilbo, criticized

specificpartiesandpoliticiansbyconnectingtheword‘Korea’with‘TheMinjooParty’and‘Ahn

Cheol-Soo’.Thisillustratesthenegativeperspectiveoftheopposingparty’spathofattempting

to connect themovement of the American youth on the problems of income inequality and

social polarization as indicated by Sanders with the problems of the Korean society.

Furthermore, certain politicians that consider themselves resembling Sanders were criticized

with blatant expressions. This demonstrates the difference in tendencies of reporting from

completelydifferentperspectivesandcontextsdespitetheuseofthesameterms,andthatthe

semantic composition of different media organizations displays clear differences on certain

issuesbasedontheirideologicaltendencies.

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Figure2.SemanticNetworkAnalysisResult–Sanders

ChosunIlbo

①Policy

②Socialist

③AhnCheol-Soo

④TheMinjooParty

⑤Inequality

⑥Sanders

⑦Korea

⑧African-American

⑨Anger

⑩YoungClass

DongaIlbo

①Selfproclaimed

②Problem

③WallStreet

④Pledge

⑤MiddleClass

⑥SandersSyndrome

⑦Sanders

⑧Craze

⑨Victory

⑩Jews

Hankyoreh

①PoliticalRevolution

②EstablishedPolitics

③We/Us

④Outsider

⑤Sanders

⑥YoungClass

⑦WallStreet

⑧Inequality

⑨Craze

⑩MiddleClass

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KyunghyangShinmun

①Support

②Inequality

③Victory

④Sanders

⑤Socialist

⑥WallStreet

⑦Korea

⑧Leftwing

⑨Change

⑩Reality

4. Discussion

TheoutsidercrazedisplayedduringtheAmericanpresidentialelectionprocessandtheKorean

media has reported on this topic. Reports on ‘Donald Trump’, the conservatively disposed

candidate,and‘BernieSanders’,theprogressivelydisposedcandidate,canbeanalyzedbasedon

the resultsofexisting studies claiming that reporting framesvaryaccording to the ideological

disposition of Korean media sources. Based on the ideological disposition of organizations,

Chosun Ilbo and DongA Ilbo were classified as ‘conservative press’ while Hankyoreh and

Kyunghyang Shinmun as ‘progressive press’. Upon analyzing Trump, there was no significant

differencebetweenconservativepressorprogressivepress.Asignificantportionof the issues

reported were related directly to Korea, such as the defense cost for Asian allies, and the

termination or removal of US forces. This demonstrates that the korean press applies a

significantweight to issues related toTrump’sdiplomaticpolicies,And then theKoreanpress

oftenreportsnegativelyonTrumpknownforrealestatemillionaire.Suchareportingdisposition

was similar in all forms of press regardless of any predetermined ideological disposition.

Although ‘Trump’ espouses conservative values as an extreme right American Presidential

candidate, there was no ideological conflict.Meanwhile, the reports by the Korean press on

Sandersdisplaydifferencesbasedon ideologicaldispositions. ‘Sanders’promotesconservative

values of ‘Americana’ as well as the progressive values of ‘relieving inequality’, and thus,

perhaps he is a subject onwhich ideological differences between the press can bemanifest.

Upon comparison of the priority of frequency, conservative press used the expressions,

‘socialist’, whereas the progressive press used the expressions,‘inequality’. progressive press

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aimedtoexpressthecriticismofsocialproblemsandestablishedpolitics identifiedbySanders

concerning the ‘Korean’ society, whereas conservative press criticized the blunt expressions

specifically naming Korean politician like Sanders. A different disposition of reports from

different perspectives and contextwas ascertained, regardless of the use of the same terms.

Thus, thesemanticcompositionof thepressonaspecific issuedisplayssignificantdifferences

accordingtotheirideologicaldisposition.

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ReconstructingRwanda:HowRwandanreportersuseconstructivejournalismtopromotepeace

KarenMcIntyreVirginiaCommonwealthUniversity,USAkemcintyre@vcu.eduMeghanSobelRegisUniversity,USAmsobel@regis.eduABSTRACTThenewsmediahavebeenremarkably influential inRwanda,acountrywhere literacy is lowand trust in themedia is high. Reporters used this power for evil 22 years agowhen state-runmediahouses perpetrated genocide through so-called hate media. Since then, however, Rwanda’s medialandscapehaschangeddramaticallyandthecountryhasseentremendoussocialandeconomicprogress.Buildingonthetenetsofsocialresponsibilityandframingtheoriesandonliteratureregardingjournalisticrolefunctions,thisstudysetouttodiscoverhowjournalistsinRwandaviewtheirrolestodayandwhetherthey have contributed to the reconstruction and recovery of the country by practicing constructivejournalism,which,inkeepingwiththesocialresponsibilitytheoryofthepress,callsforthenewsmediatobe an active participant in enhancing societal well-being. In-depth interviewswere conductedwith 24RwandanjournalistsinMayandJune2016.ResultsrevealedthatwhilejournalistsinRwandaaimtofulfilltraditionalroles like informingandeducatingthepublic, theyvalueauniqueroletopromoteunityandreconciliation.Theycarryoutthisrolebyregularlypracticingconstructivejournalismtechniques,suchassolutions journalism and restorative narrative, which involve reporting on stories that foster hope,healing, and resilience, and they strongly believe that this style of reporting has contributed to thecountry’srecoveryandreconstructionsincethegenocide.KEYWORDSConstructiveJournalism,SolutionsJournalism,RestorativeNarrative,Rwanda

1. Introduction

TheHutchinsCommissiondeclared70yearsago that thenewsmediahavea responsibility to

considersociety’sbestinterestwhenmakingjournalisticdecisions(HutchinsCommission,1947).

Over the decades, journalists have considered this responsibility to varying degrees, with

neutral,detached journalistsunconcernedabouttheeffectsoftheirstoriesononeendofthe

spectrum andmore active, participatory reporterswho aim to improve society through their

workontheotherend(Bro,2008;Cohen,1963;Johnstone,Slawski,&Bowman,1972).Inrecent

years, several forms of news reporting have emerged under the umbrella of “constructive

journalism,”which, in keepingwith the social responsibility theory of the press, calls for the

newsmediatobeanactiveparticipantinenhancingsocietalwell-being(Gyldensted,2015).

Perhapsnowhereintheworldhassocietalwell-beingincreasedasdramaticallyasithas

inRwandathepasttwodecades,sincethesub-SaharanAfricancountrylostupto70percentof

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itsTutsipopulationtogenocide(Taylor,1999).Actingasapuppetforthegovernment,thenews

mediaplayedanundeniableroleinperpetuatingthemasskillings(Bromley,2007;Kayumba&

Kimonyo, 2006; Kellow& Steeves, 1998). Since then, however, Rwandahas seen tremendous

social and economic growth, and its media landscape has changed dramatically (Kayumba &

Kimonyo,2006).

Thepurposeofthisstudy—aseriesofin-depthinterviewswithRwandanjournalists—

wastodeterminewhetherthemediaplayedaroleinthecountry’srecoveryandredevelopment

sincethegenocide.Specifically,weaskedhowjournalistsinRwandaviewtheirrolesin2016and

if theyuseconstructive journalismtechniques inanongoingeffort toseekpeace inacountry

wherethemediaoncepromotedwar.

2. Literaturereview

In 1994, Rwanda underwent a government-led genocide. In roughly 100 days, from April

through July1994,Hutu residents rapedand slaughtered their Tutsineighborswithmachetes

andanythingelsethatcouldbeusedasaweapon.Womenandchildrenwerenotspared.The

killingwassenselessandirrational.ThegenocideendedwhentheRwandanPatrioticFront,led

by Rwanda’s current president, Paul Kagame, defeated the government-backed militias that

spearheaded the killings. In the end, between 500,000 and one million individuals were

murdered. Inaddition, twomillion fledand livedas refugees inneighboringcountries (Taylor,

1999).

Idoremember.Iwas7.Ilostuncles.Mydadwasattacked,yeah,verybad.Andweleft

thecountrywiththehelpofsomefriends.WefledtoDRCongo.Westayedtheretwo

yearsandcamebackwithnothing.Housesweredown.Yeah, I do remember. I didn’t

losemybrothersorsister,mymom,theyarestillthere,butIlostsomanyofmyfamily

members. Isurvived,assomanyRwandans,butatthetime, itwashorrible.Wedon’t

want to see thatagain. Itwashorrible. (EliséeMpirwa,personal communication,May

30,2016)

Rwandahadbeenengagedinacivilwarsince1990.Thesocietywasnotstable,but instability

turned intomassmurderwhen then-President JuvenalHabyarimana’splanewasmysteriously

shotdown.Thatincidentsparkedthekillings,butmanyblamethemediaforfullyperpetrating

thegenocide(Bromley,2007;Kayumba&Kimonyo,2006;Kellow&Steeves,1998).

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State-runmedia houses exacerbated the genocide through so-called hatemedia. The

most infamous instigator was the government-controlled Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille

Collines (RTLM), whose reporters used cultural and religious symbols to effectively spread

messagesofhate(Kellow&Steeves,1998).JournalistsexplicitlycalledfortheTutsistobekilled,

andtheyaidedthehuntbyexposingthehidingplacesofindividualsorgroups.Atthetime,the

literacyrateinRwandawasbelow50%(TheWorldFactbook)andtrustinthemediawashigh—

so high that some individuals viewed the voice over the airwaves as a message from God

(personal communication, 2016). The journalists, who were not formally trained, inspired

averagecitizens to savagelykill the friendsandneighbors theypreviously livedwith inpeace.

Somejournaliststhemselvestookpartinthekilling.Themediacampaignwassoinfluentialthat

somebelievethegenocidewouldnothaveoccurredwithoutit(Kellow&Steeves,1998).

It’salmostunfathomabletobelievetheprogressinthecountryjusttwodecadeslater.

RwandahasthehighestprimaryschoolenrollmentratesinAfrica(UNICEF),ahigherpercentage

ofwomeninparliament(64%)thananycountryintheworld(Inter-ParliamentaryUnion),anda

soaring GDP rate (African Development Bank Group). Additionally, literacy has increased by

morethan20percentagepointssincethegenocide,to70.5%(TheWorldFactbook).

The media landscape has also developed. The number of media houses skyrocketed

after the genocide, thanks to help from international donors, andmany local journalists now

receive formal training at the National University of Rwanda’s School of Journalism and

Communication, which launched in 1995 with support from UNESCO (Kayumba & Kimonyo,

2006).In2016,theroleofajournalistinRwandaisverydifferentthanitwas22yearsago.

2.1. Journalists’roles

Ahalfcenturyago,Cohen(1963)identifiedadichotomousclassificationofjournalists-neutrals

andparticipants.Onedecadelater,Johnstone,Slawski,andBowman(1972)conductedthefirst

of the “American Journalist” surveys,wherehe sought todeterminewhat journalists thought

werethemostimportantaspectsoftheirjobs.Again,theyidentifiedthetwoideologicaltypes,

or functions: “Neutrals” preferred detachment and objectivity, while “Participants” favored

involvementandadvocacy.

Another way to think of “Neutral” journalists is as passive, whereas “Participant”

journalistsaremoreactive.PeterBro(2008)suggestedthepassivejournalistisconcernedwith

disseminating stories regardless of their effects and thus is concernedwithwhat information

16

precededthenewsreport.Contrarily,theactivejournalistservesmorefullyasaparticipantin

interpretingthestoryandthusisconcernedabouttheeffectofthenewsorwhathappensafter

thereport.Bro(2008)arguesthatthereisadesireformoreactivejournalism,wherereporters

trytohelpcommunitymembersactuponproblemsratherthansimplylearnaboutthem.

Ofcoursejournalisticroleconceptionsaremorenuancedthanthesimplepassive-active

dichotomy.Inthepastfewdecades,manystudieshaveidentifiedmorespecificrolesandlooked

athow journalists invariouscountriesperceive those roles.Weaverandhiscolleagues (2007)

suggest that American journalists, for example, identify with the roles of adversary,

disseminator, interpreter,andpopulistmobilizer.Atthetimeofthecurrentstudy, itappeared

no academic articles had been published examining the roles of journalists in modern-day

Rwanda. However, studies that examined the roles of journalists in other countries indicated

thatreportersseemtoprioritizesomeofthesamefunctions.Specifically,journalistsaroundthe

worldseemedtobecommittedtoprovidingthepublicwithfactual, impartial informationand

investigatinggovernmentmisdeeds(Hanitzschetal.,2011;Herscovitz,2004;Ramaprasad,2001;

Weaveretal.,2007).Recently,McIntyre,Dahmen,&Abdenour(Inpress)identifiedanewrole

amongAmericanjournalists—theContextualist,asociallyresponsiblejournalistwhoaimstogo

beyond the basic facts by providing context and considering society’s well-being during the

newsmakingprocess.This typeof journalistwould fall into themoreactive,participatory role

classification.

Interestingly, research has shown that journalists in non-western countries, including

somenationsinAfrica,valuedmoreactive,interventionistrolesthantheirwesterncounterparts

(Hanitzschet al., 2011;Ramaprasad,2001).Hanitzschet al. (2011)defined interventionismas

“the active support of particular values, positions, groups and social change” (280). They

concluded: “A tendency towards interventionism can be found among journalists from

developing societies and transitionaldemocracies. It comesasno surprise that journalists are

mostwillingtopromotesocialchangeincontextswheresuchtransformationrapidlyoccurs—

orwhereitseemsneeded”(281).Giventherapidsocialandeconomicchangethathasoccurred

inRwanda inthepast22years, itwouldbereasonabletobelieve journalists theremight lean

towardaninterventionistrole.

That said, it’s important to note that journalistic roles are not mutually exclusive.

Weaver et al. (2007) said amajority of journalists identifywithmore than one role function.

Ward (2009) found that most journalists see themselves as a “combination of informer,

17

interpreter, andadvocate” (p.299), andeven themostactivist reportersusuallyembrace the

traditionalvalueoffactualaccuracy.

2.2. Constructivejournalism

An active, participatory, interventionist style of news reporting, where journalists feel an

obligation to improve society, is not a new idea. Lasswell, in 1927, suggested that instead of

mobilizing individuals’ anger or conflict, communication techniques (in this context,

propaganda)couldbeusedtomobilizepeaceefforts.

Letus,therefore,reasontogether…andfindthegood,andwhenwehavefoundit,let

usfindouthowtomakeupthepublicmindtoacceptit.Inform,cajole,bamboozleand

seduceinthenameofthepublicgood.(p.5)

Twentyyears later, theHutchinsCommissiondeclared that journalistshavea responsibility to

consider society's best interestwhenmaking journalistic decisions. Shortly afterward, Siebert,

Peterson, and Schramm (1956) formally acknowledged the social responsibility theory of the

press,which asserted that publishers operate theirmedia “with some concern for the public

good”(p.77).

In the 1990s, after witnessing the ubiquity of negative and conflict-driven news,

newscasterMartynLewispubliclyarguedformorenewsthatpromotedthepublicgood:

WhatIamarguingisthis:thatwhenwecometodecidetheeditorialprioritiesforeach

day’snewsweshouldbemoreprepared thanwehavebeen in thepast toweigh the

positivestories–notartificiallycreated,butastheynaturallyoccurinthenewsagenda,

onthesamesetofjournalisticscalesonwhichweweighthenegativestories.(Lewis&

Rowe,1994,p.34)

ThestyleofjournalismLewiscalledforhassincebeenpracticedinseveralformsintheindustry,

but under many different terms, a few of which are discussed below. A cohesive body of

academic research surrounding these styles of reporting is lacking. Until more research is

publishedthatconceptualizesandlinksthevariousformsofsociallyresponsiblejournalism,one

might consider framing,which refers to theway journalists craft amessage so that a certain

meaningishighlighted,asarelevanttheoreticalexplanation(Entman,1993).

Toframeistoselectsomeaspectsofaperceivedrealityandmakethemmoresalientin

a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition,

18

causalinterpretation,moralevaluation,and/ortreatmentrecommendationfortheitem

described[emphasisinoriginal](p.52).

Wewillbrieflydiscussselectformsofnewsframingthatemphasizeajournalist’sdedicationto

the public good. These news forms can be considered under the umbrella term, constructive

journalism.

Constructive journalism has been defined as an emerging form of journalism that

involves applying positive psychology and other behavioral science techniques to news

processes and production in an effort to createmore productive and engaging stories, while

remainingcommittedtojournalism’scorefunctions(McIntyre,2015;McIntyre&Gyldensted,In

press).Gyldensted(2015),whopublishedabookonthetopic,describedconstructivejournalism

asamorecomprehensiveformofjournalismthataccuratelyportraystheworldbycoveringnot

onlystoriesaboutconflictanddestruction,butstoriesaboutcollaborationandprogressaswell

(p.42).Althoughithasrootsinolder,similarmovementssuchascivicjournalism,constructive

journalism isdistinct in itsapproach (McIntyre&Gyldensted, Inpress). It is also important to

notethatconstructivejournalismshouldnotbeconfusedwithpositivenews.Thelatterinvolves

“fluff,” or feel-good stories that are cute and entertaining but lack widespread social

significance, whereas the former involves “rigorous, compelling reporting that empowers

audiences to respond constructively, presenting a fuller picture of truth while upholding

journalism’scorefunctionsandethics”(FAQ).

This styleofnewshasbeengainingmomentum in the industry throughout theworld,

including various nations in Africa. It has been recently covered in popular media and trade

journalssuchasTheGuardian,HuffingtonPost,andColumbiaJournalismReview(DaganWood,

2015; Gyldensted, 2014; Hollis, 2015). And in some form, constructive journalism is being

practicedoneverycontinent(Gyldensted,2015).InSouthAfrica,constructivejournalismleader

CathrineGyldenstedconductedtrainingsforjournalistsemployedbypublicationsownedbythe

large media company Times Media Group (Pilane, 2014). In addition to being practiced by

journalistsinAfrica,constructivejournalismhasbeenpracticedinwesternnationsaboutAfrica.

Forexample,SwedishNationalTelevisionhasbeenconstructivelycoveringAfricasinceitshead

offoreignnewslearnedfromasurveythatSwedishresidentsheldviewsofAfricathatwere30

to 40 years outdated. The more constructive coverage is intended to inform viewers of the

progressmanyAfricannationshavemadeintermsofdemocraticelectionsandlivingconditions

(Gyldensted, 2015). Other, more specific, forms of journalism share an overarching goal of

19

contributing to society’s well-being and therefore fit under the umbrella of constructive

journalism(McIntyre&Gyldensted,Inpress).Threesuchbranchesarediscussedbelow—peace

journalism, solutions journalism, and restorative narrative. It is important to note that the

followinggenresarenotmutuallyexclusiveandcertainlyoverlapintheiroverarchinggoals.

Similarly tohow themediahavehistorically contributed to violent conflict, themedia

have,inmanyinstances,contributedtopeacefulresolutionstoconflict(Bratić,2008).So-called

peacejournalismoccurs“wheneditorsandreportersmakechoices–aboutwhattoreport,and

howto report it– thatcreateopportunities for societyat large toconsiderand tovaluenon-

violentresponsestoconflict”(Lynch&McGoldrick,2005,p.5).Peace journalismhasprimarily

been studied in the contextof national or international conflict andhasbeen regardedas an

opposite of war journalism (Galtung, 2002). Although some scholars have criticized peace

journalism for its non-specific application among other things (Hanitzsch, 2007; Lynch, 2007),

effortstoconceptualizethepracticehavebeenontherise(Bratić,2008;Lynch,2007;Nohrstedt

&Ottosen,2015).Bratić(2008), inaculminationofpracticalcasestudies,specificallyusedthe

exampleof Studio Ijambo (Kirundi for “WiseWords”)—amediaorganization inBurundi that

producedprogramsintendedtopromotepeaceaftertheRwandangenocideandthathassince

servedasapeacejournalismmodelforotherconflictsthroughoutthecontinent.

Solutions journalism, another formof constructive news, can sometimes overlapwith

peace journalismbut ismorespecificallydefinedas“rigorousreportingabouthowpeopleare

respondingtoproblems”(SolutionsJournalismNetwork,2016).Thesestoriesthoroughlyreport

conflictsorotherproblems,but they focus their framingonpossible responses to such social

problemsinanattemptto“engagereaders,offerablueprintforchange,andalterthetoneof

publicdiscourse”(Thier,2016,p.330).Solutions-basedreportingisnotnew;itwasdiscussedin

a Columbia Journalism Review article in 1998 (Benesch, 1998). However, it has blossomed in

popularity since the 2013 launch of the Solutions Journalism Network, an independent,

nonprofit U.S.-based organization that promotes the practice worldwide. The Solutions

JournalismNetworkcompiledadatabaseof1,459newsstoriesthatshowcasesolutions-based

reportinginvolving95countries,includingseveralcountriesinsub-SaharanAfrica.

Restorativenarrativeisafinalformofconstructivenewsrelevanttothecurrentstudy.

Dahmen (2016) said this style of news reporting “intends to cover the story beyond the

immediacy of the breaking news and in doing so, to help individuals and communitiesmove

forward in thewake of large-impact events” (p. 94). Images& Voices of Hope (ivoh), a non-

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profit media group that aims to “strengthen themedia’s role as an agent of world benefit,”

further defines the practice as a form of journalism that involves stories of “recovery,

restoration and resilience in the aftermath, or midst of, difficult times” (Tenore, 2016, n.p.).

Restorativenarrativeproponents lament that traditional news stories areoften “confined” to

the facts of a tragedy and should be broadened to include stories of recovery and resilience

(Tenore,2016).

Given their emphases on national conflict, a search for solutions, and sustained

coverageof the restorationprocessafteracrisis, these formsofconstructive journalismaptly

applytonewscoverageinpost-genocideRwanda.

3. Researchquestions

Building on the tenets of social responsibility and framing theory and on literature regarding

journalisticrolefunctions,thefollowingresearchquestionsareposedtounderstandmorefully

how journalists inRwandaviewtheir roles in2016—22yearsafter journalists in thecountry

helpedperpetrateagenocide.

RQ1:WhichprofessionalrolesdoRwandanjournalistsvaluein2016?

RQ2: Do Rwandan journalists in 2016 tend to embrace a more active or passive

journalisticrolefunction?

RQ3:Do Rwandan journalists in 2016 use constructive journalism techniques, such as

peace journalism, solutions journalism and restorative narrative techniques, to

contributetothecountry’spost-genocidedevelopment?

4. Method

In-depth interviews have been called “one of the most powerful methods” in qualitative

researchbecausetheyenableresearchersto“stepintothemindofanotherperson,toseeand

experience the world as they do themselves” (McCracken, 1988, p. 9). Through interviews,

journalists’opinionscanbeexaminedas indicatorsof theirprofessionalvalues (Cassidy,2005;

Willnat & Weaver, 2014). This study included interviews with current and former Rwandan

journalists,whoprovideduniqueinsightsintotheroles,opportunitiesandchallengesofworking

inthemedia industryduringthepost-genocidereconstructionofRwanda.AccordingtoBesley

and Roberts (2010), “journalists represent excellent candidates for qualitative interview

projects” (p. 70) because, due to their profession, they should be able to articulate their

21

experiences clearly and effectively (Lindlof& Taylor, 2002). Journalists have a long history of

beinginterviewedforacademicresearchprojects(see,forexample,Besley&McComas,2007;

Gingras&Carrier,1996;Tuchman,1972).Withthegrowthofblogsandsocialmedia,itcanbe

difficulttodistinguishwhoshouldbeconsidereda“journalist.”Forthepurposesofthisstudy,a

journalistwasdefinedassomeonewhoearnsthemajorityofhisorherincomebyworkingfor

anestablishednewsorganization,eitherinprint,broadcastoronline.Bloggerswhomaintaina

self-runblogbutdonotalsopublishstoriesinrecognizednewspaperswereexcluded.

4.1. Samplingframe

Initially, journalistswere identifiedbyconductingsearchesofRwandannewsoutlets’websites

for journalist contact information. A later search of social media sites relating to Rwandan

journalists was used to contact more reporters and editors. After initial journalists were

contacted, a snowball samplewas used— the initial journalistswere asked to suggest other

journalistswhomightbeinterestedinparticipating.SeeTable1forlistofjournalistsincludedin

thesample.

Table1.

Intervieweename,jobtitleandemployer.

Participant JobTitle Employer

AllyUwizeye Radio/TVPresenter VoiceofAfrica

Namewithheld ChiefEditor Radio/TV10

JanvierNshimyumukiza OnlineNewsEditor IzubaRirashe

MikeKarangwa SeniorProducer Radio/TV10

SamMandela Formerjournalist Organizationwithheld

ThemistocleMutijima Editor/Reporter/Presenter RadioIsangoStar

IvanMugisha Reporter Organizationwithheld

RodriqueRwirahira Reporter TheNewTimes

StanleyGatera Editor Umusingi

SambaUmusekeCyuzuzo Cofounder Umuseke.rw

Ashante Journalist RoyalFM

FredericByumvuhore Reporter TheNewTimes

JanvierKwizera Editor Gusenga.org

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EliséeMpirwa SeniorReporter IzubaRirashe

OswaldOswakim Reporter CityRadio

JuliusBizimungu Freelancer TheNewTimes

BernaNamata NewsEditor TheEastAfrican

IgnatiusSsuuna Reporter AssociatedPress

DónatienNiyonzima Formerjournalist Organizationwithheld

EugéneHagabimana Director RadioSalus

JeanBaptisteMicomyiza Reporter RadioSalus

MarieClaireJoyeuse Reporter KigaliToday(KTRadio)

RobertMugabe Owner GreatLakesVoice

Anitha Editor KigaliToday

4.2. Interviewing

Twenty-four in-depth interviews were conducted. All interviews were conducted at locations

chosen by the interviewee.Most interviews took place at the office of the interviewee or a

nearby coffee shop,butweredeterminedat thediscretionof the interviewee.One interview

wasconductedoverthephoneandtheremaining23interviewstookplaceinKigaliandButare,

Rwanda.One interviewwasconducted inEnglishandFrench,withone interviewertranslating

andallremaininginterviewswereconductedinEnglish.Eachinterviewbeganwithasummary

of the study and an informed consent protocol, followed by demographic questions. All

interviewswereaudiorecordedwithpermissionfromtheinterviewees.Fulltranscriptionswere

createdfromtherecordings.

The interviews were semistructured (Creswell, 2003) and consisted of open-ended

questions as well as some demographic questions. Semistructured interviews were selected

because of the flexibility they allowwith regard to allowing for new ideas to be brought up

during the interview should worthwhile focuses surface, but are guided by a predetermined

interviewmap(Leech,2002;Poe,2012).Journalistswereaskedtoreflectontheirownstories,

their role in society and talk about the challenges they faced in navigating the post-genocide

societallandscape.

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4.3. Analysis

Forthe24interviewsthatwereconducted,verbatimtranscriptionswerecreatedfromtheaudio

recordingsofthe interviews,whichgenerated194pagesoftranscripts.Theshortest interview

was 12 minutes and the longest was one hour and 49 minutes, with the average interview

lengthbeingapproximately45.5minutes.Uponcompletionofthetranscriptions,eachtranscript

anditsaccompanyingfieldnoteswerereadmultipletimestopulloutcentralthemes,phrases,

referencesorterminologyinordertomakemeaningofthediverseperspectives.Whilereading

andrereadingthetranscripts,theauthorsengagedinwhatBaxterandBabbie(2003)refertoas

the“iterativecycle”ofdevelopingcodesby“eachtimerevisingthecodingcategoriesuntilthey

capture all” of the relevant data (p. 367). Themes and trends were identified through this

iterativeprocess,whichallowedformajoremergentcategoriestobedeveloped.

Afteran initial setofcategoriesemergedwhichallowedthedata tobeorganized ina

logicalandusefulway,transcriptionsoftheinterviewswereimportedastextfilesintoDedoose,

a collaborative, cross-platform application for the management, integration, and analysis of

qualitative data (Lieber & Weisner, 2013) to further analyze how frequently and in what

capacities those themes, ideas and phrases were used. A combination of the data being

analyzedbyrealpeopleandcomputer-supportedanalysissoftwareenabledtheinterviewstobe

organizedandcategorizedbythemesandterminologyusedaswellaccountfortiming/spacing,

toneandbodylanguage.

5. Findingsanddiscussion

Analysis of the transcripts yielded 1,207 applications of 53 codes and subcodes in Dedoose,

someofwhichwereusedinotherpapersresultingfromthisdata.Afteranalyzingthetranscripts

andthe frequencyofeachcoderelevant to this study, fourkey themesemergedthatdirectly

addressedtheproposedresearchquestions.ThefirstthemerevealedRwandanreporters’focus

ontraditionaljournalisticvaluessuchasinformingandeducatingthepublic.Thesecondtheme

focused on the active role that Rwandan journalists take in reporting. The third theme that

emerged highlighted the unique role that reporters in Rwanda play; in addition to striving to

meet traditional journalism ideals, reporters aim to promote unity and reconciliation in the

country.ThefourththemethatmaterializedfromtheinterviewswasthatRwandanjournalists

useconstructive journalismtechniquesandbelievethatthesetacticshavepositive impactson

individualsandsociety.

24

5.1. Rwandanjournalistsvaluetraditionalroles

The first research question askedhowRwandan journalists view their roles in 2016, 22 years

after theRwandanmediahelpedperpetratethegenocide.Onethemethatemergedfromthe

datarevealedthatjournalistsinpost-genocideRwandaviewtheirrolesassimilartotherolesof

journalists inothercountries:“It’snodifferentfromanywhereelse–public interest,reporting

in the public interest,” said Berna Namata, news editor at The East African (Personal

communication, June 1, 2016). Mike Karangwa, senior producer at Radio/Tv10, agreed.

“Journalism everywhere in the world is just a watchdog, a voice for the voiceless ... even in

Rwanda our role is like that” (Personal communication,May 28, 2016). Eugéne Hagabimana,

directorofRadioSalus,similarlysaid:“Ithinktheroleofajournalistallovertheworldarethe

same.Despitesometimesconditionsandenvironment,theroleshouldbethesame...It’sasif

you askmewhat is the role of a physician in the hospital, the role is the same as if you are

workingintheUSorRwandaorEurope”(Personalcommunication,June2,2016).

In many ways, the roles Rwandan journalists valued were indeed not unique.

Specifically, journalists said their roles were to inform, educate, be a voice for the voiceless,

entertain,serveasawatchdog,andactasabridgebetweenthegovernmentandthepublic.

Journalists unequivocally agreed that they have a duty to inform the public. Reporter

IvanMugisha spoke of the importance of this role in his country. “The role of a journalist in

Rwanda is to firstofall informthepublic.Wedon’thave lotsof,adevelopedmediaplatform

likeyouguyshaveintheUSA.It’sprettymuchstillsmallsopeopleneeds(sic)toknowwhat’s

goingoninthecountry”(Personalcommunication,May29,2016).Manyjournalistsechoedthis

sentimentandexpandedon itbysayingtheynotonlyhaveaduty to inform,but theyhavea

specialresponsibilitytoeducateindividualsgiventhecountry’shistory.

Yousee,ourcountryhadaverydarkpast.Andthenthistime,asajournalist,wehavea

(sic)veryhardworkofeducatingpeople,notonly informingthemofwhat isgoingon

aroundtheworldbutalsoeducatingthem–newtrends,what isgoingon,howtoget

money,how to studyhard,how to live,how to leavepoverty, thosekindsof issues –

that’s themain role ofmedia now days becausewe ... want people to learn how to

prosper. That’s our main role right now.” (Elisée Mpirwa, senior reporter at Izuba

Rirashe,Personalcommunication,May30,2016)

25

The traditional idea that journalists should serve the public continued to prevail. About a

quarterofintervieweesspokespecificallyaboutservingasavoiceforthevoiceless:“Iwritemy

stories to speak for thosepeoplewho are not able to speak for themselves, so I approached

them asking them, ‘How are you living?What are your problems? How the situation in your

village?’ And then I speak for them.” (Frederic Byumvuhore, reporter for The New Times,

Personalcommunication,May30,2016)

In addition to informing and educating the public and speaking for those who are

underserved, Rwandan journalists also acknowledged that they serve to entertain. But even

when talking about entertainment media, journalists considered the well-being of their

audiences.AllyUwizeye,ajournalistatVoiceofAmericaandmediapersonality,discussedhow

entertainmentmediacanservethegreatergood.

That’sthejournalismItell—Celebrities,theyaremakingmoney...theycanchangethe

lives of other people, they are creating jobs, they are creating the context that gives

peoplejobs,theyaregettingsomecontractsfrombigcompaniesinthecountry.Soyou

know, we are even the entertainment but we have something we want to give the

society.(Personalcommunication,May21,2016)

Further, many of the Rwandan journalists we interviewed said they play a watchdog role,

holdingpoweraccountable.

Ithinkthefirstrolethatwedoistoinform,andto,secondly,ensurethatwekeepour

publicservantsincheckaswell.Becauseanythingthatcomesupwehavetoreportit.If

it’saboutcorruption,ifit’saboutanythingthat’snotsupposedtobedoneandsomeone

hasdone,wehavetoreportthat.SoIthinkwealsodothatroleofmakingsurepeople

are in check, both private and public. (IvanMugisha, reporter, organizationwithheld,

Personalcommunication,May29,2016)

RobertMugabe,ownerofGreatLakesVoice,wentasfarastosayholdingpowertoaccountis

“themainpurposeofthepress”(Personalcommunication,June5,2016).MarieClaireJoyeuse,

areporterforKigaliToday,explainedhowgovernmentofficialsarereceptivetothisrole:

I think thatwhen a journalist show (sic)mistakesmade by some people or from the

government, I think that can make changes. Because sometimes there are some

mistakes shown by journalists that the government didn’t know. That’swhy they are

every time reading what we are writing (sic) … we can showwhat is wrong and the

governmentcanuseittocorrectit.(Personalcommunication,June2,2016)

26

ManyRwandan journalists said they felt like they serveasawatchdogongovernment,which

seems inconsistent with the fact that journalists in Rwanda have been jailed for reporting

negatively about the government (Rwandan Journalists, 2011) and that Reporters Without

Borders ranked Rwanda 161 out of 180 countries on the 2016 World Press Freedom Index

(ReportersWithout Borders, 2016, para.1). Additionally, the Committee to Protect Journalists

publishedanin-depthspecialreportregardingmediarestrictionsthatremaininthecountryasa

result of the genocide (Harber, n.d.). It is clear that reporters in Rwandadonot, and cannot,

serveasagovernmentwatchdoginthesamewaythatWesternjournalistsservethatrole.1

Some journalists who were interviewed described their relationship with the

governmentinamorenuancedway,sayingtheyserveasabridgebetweenthegovernmentand

thepeople.“All journalists’role isbeingabridgebetweenpolicymakers,governmentandthe

citizens,” said Janvier Nshimyumukiza, online news editor for Izuba Rirashe (Personal

communication,May27,2016).OswaldOswakim,areporter forCityRadio,explainedhowhe

serves that role: “For example,whenwe invite aminister in a live show to interactwith the

callers, I think that’s an area our society needs” (Personal communication, May 31, 2016).

Anitha,aneditorforKigaliToday,describedthisrelationshipinawaythat’smoresupportiveof

governmentthatskepticalof it:“Sometimeswetalkabouttheirprogramsforthegovernment

and to help them. It’s like we have reach for government and people. So if the government

wants to say something we can be a bridge, we are a bridge for government and people”

(Personalcommunication,June5,2016).

5.2. Rwandanreportersmoreactivethanpassive

Another theme that emerged from the data clearly addressed RQ2, which asked whether

Rwandanjournaliststendedtotakeamoreactiveorpassiveapproach.Nomatterwhetherthey

were serving as educators, entertainers, or watchdogs, Rwandan journalists valued themore

active,participatorystyleofreporting.

RobertMugabe, owner ofGreat Lakes Voice, said it is unrealistic to think journalists

shouldbedetachedobservers.“Idon’tbelieveinthisjournalistfromthebooks,fromwhichyou

happentoaskquestionsandtojustbelike—Icallthemtextbookjournalists,whoarekindof

1Throughtheseinterviews,itbecameclearthatRwandanjournalistshaveacomplexrelationshipwiththegovernment.Thisrelationshipisbeyondthescopeofthispaper.SeeSobelandMcIntyre(Underreview)forafullerunderstanding.

27

likemachines,” he said, describing the typical passive journalistwho sees himor herself as a

mirror,simplyreflectingtheworld’sfactsontosociety(Personalcommunication,June5,2016).

Many journalists talked about creating social change through their work, while

remaining dedicated to their traditional roles. Janvier Kwizera, an editor atGusenga.org, said

the stories athisnewsoutlet “aim to change somebody’smind/spirit at the same time tobe

informed”(Personalcommunication,May30,2016).Similarly,MarieClaireJoyeuse,areporter

forKigaliToday,saidsheaimstoexposeandeducate,butalsotowriteforchange.Themistocle

Mutijima,a journalist forRadio IsangoStar,discussedhowhesimultaneouslyseekstoplayan

activerolewhilemaintainingtraditionaljournalisticstandards:

Theroleofthemedia,firstofallistoinformpeople.Tomakethemawareofthingsor

issuesthatarenottrue,thattheydon’thaveknowledgeabout...Andthentheotheris

the advocate. I like this one - advocating for people. It is a very interesting thing.

Advocatingmakeschange through themediaeven thoughwehadnotyetachieved it

here inRwanda,butwearedoing ingreat (sic) in timesofadvocating for change,we

havenotyetgetwhereIthinkwecouldbe.ButIlikeit,advocating.Itisanotherroleof

themedia.(Personalcommunication,May29,2016)

These findingsareconsistentwithHanitzschetal. (2011),who found that the interventionist-

stylejournalistismorecommonthantheso-calledneutraljournalistindevelopingsocietiesand

societiesinpoliticaltransitions.Journalistsaremorewillingtopromotechangeinplaceswhere

changeisneeded,Hanitzschetal.(2011)said,andthisassertionwassupportedinthecurrent

study.JanvierKwizera,theGusenga.orgeditor,putitclearly:“InRwanda,journalismisatoolto

changethemindofpeople(sic)”(Personalcommunication,May30,2016).

5.3. Auniquerole:Rwandanreporterspromoteunityandreconciliation

In keeping with their more participatory, active mindset, and in addition to their traditional

roles,RwandanjournalistshighlightedoneroletheyvaluethatisatypicalinWesterncountries:

Everyintervieweesaiditisajournalist’sdutytopromoteunityandreconciliation.

“Our first responsibility is to unite people andmake surewhatmedia did during the

genocideneverhappens again,” said a reporter forRadio/TV10,who requestedhis namebe

withheld (Personal communication, May 27, 2016). Samba Umuseke Cyuzuzo, cofounder of

Umuseke.rw, agreed. “As a media house we always try to participate in the unity and

reconciliation,andweareverysensitiveaboutthat”(Personalcommunication,May30,2016).

28

Sensitive, he said, because this role is a direct result of the country’s history. “One of the

biggest,Ithink,objectivesformostofthenewspapersaretomakesurethesocietygetunited,

likemaybeHutu and Tutsi,” said Ignatius Suunna, reporter for theAssociated Press (Personal

communication, June1). EugéneHagabimana,directorofRadioSalus, reiterated that it is the

missionofeveryjournalist,andeveryRwandancitizen,topromoteunityandreconciliation.

Wehavearesponsibilitytobuildandtorebuildaunitedsociety,aforwardsociety,even

if we lost a big number of our citizen (sic). But our responsibility is just promoting

everythingwhichcanmakeourcountryforward,notbecomereturning(sic)wherewe

were22or25yearsago.(Personalcommunication,June2)

Journalistsexpandedonwhytheyfeltsuchastrongobligationtopromoteunity.Theirreasons

ranged frompractical topersonal.OswaldOswakim,a reporter forCityRadio,broughtupthe

social responsibility theory of the press — the idea that the media has a responsibility to

considersociety’sbestinterest.Healsoacknowledgedafinancialreasontopromoteunityand

reconciliation:

We work for the society, and if we are a commercial radio, so we are attracting

advertisers–wherearewegoingtogetadvertiserswhenthesocietyisnotwell,when

the economy is not good? You see, we promote unity and reconciliation so as to

develop the country and when the country is developed you are going to get more

adverts,yousee,soit’sourrole,andit’soursociety.Eventhoughwearejournalists,we

arepartofsociety.Andwehavethemostpowerful tool topromotereconciliation,so

weusethattooltorebuildthenation.”(Personalcommunication,May31,2016)

SamMandela, a former journalist, talkedabout theneed to change themedia’s image in the

minds of the public. “People seeingwhat themedia’s rolewas in the genocide, they kind of

mistrustedthemedia,so itwasourroleas,again, journaliststokindofbringbacktheirtrust”

(Personal communication,May 28, 2016).Mandela alsomentioned that a unified community

wouldbenefitheandhisfamily.

Somepeoplethinkmediaorjournalists,theyarealiens...Idon’tthinkso.Wearepart

ofthecommunity…So,whenit[astory]issomethingtodowithgenocideideology,ifI

promote it, it produces, it culminates into, like, as you know, a conflict. I will

automatically be affected with my family. I have my kids, I have my daughters back

home.So...asamediapractitioner,I’dalwayswantsomethingthatwouldcontributeto

29

the well-being of, you know, the community where I live. (Personal communication,

May28,2016)

BernaNamata,newseditoratTheEastAfrican,said“Wefeelwehaveasecondchanceatlife,

you know, to build a new country. So, somehow in everythingwedo– it doesn’t have to be

written somewhere – you just feel that your role is to promote peace and reconciliation”

(Personal communication, June 1, 2016). Indeed, journalists mentioned this role more often

than any other role. See Figure 1 for a word cloud of journalistic roles valued by Rwandan

journalists.

Figure1.

AwordcloudofthejournalisticrolesRwandanjournalistsmentionedduringtheirinterviews.

5.4. Rwandanreportersuseconstructivejournalismtechniques

To fulfill their duty to promoteunity and reconciliation, journalists overwhelmingly employed

constructive journalismtechniques, startingsoonaftergenocideandcontinuing today.“When

westartedourapproachwasadifferentone,justlikemostofthecountry,sowhatwefocused

30

on was now development journalism ... bringing back the hope.” (Sam Mandela, personal

communication, May 28, 2016). Ally Uwizeye, radio and TV presenter for Voice of America,

agreedtherewasaneedformoreconstructivereportingimmediatelyafterthegenocide.

We listen to the radio – what is going to happen -- and we want to hear the good

message.Wewanttolistentosomethingnew.Somethingthatcanbringpeaceinyour

heartbecausewe,peoplelivedwithhatred,peoplewanttogetrevenge,peoplewantto

kill,soweneededanewmessage.Themessagethattheyheard[duringthegenocide]

was to kill – ‘hey, kill these guys! Kill these guys! Kill this one!’ So after, just like one

month,everythingchangedandtheradiocamebackand itwassaying ‘hey,youcan’t

kill anybody. Killing is bad. Hey, you need to support the victims.’ All of those radio

shows I think helped a lot in Rwanda reconciliation to bring peace today. (Personal

communication,May21,2016)

Rwandan journalists continue topublishmessagesofhopeandpeace in2016.Responding to

RQ3,whileRwandanjournalistsrarelyusedthetermspeacejournalism,solutionsjournalismor

restorative narrative, many of the techniques they described using would fall into those

categories. In particular, numerous journalistic techniques used by Rwandan reporters and

editorscanbeseenasexamplesofsolutionsjournalismandrestorativenarrativeatplay.

5.4.1.Solutionsjournalism

Solutionsjournalism,again,isdefinedas“rigorousreportingabouthowpeopleareresponding

toproblems”(SolutionsJournalismNetwork,2016).Itincludesstoriesaboutconflict,butframes

thediscussion in termsofpossible solutions.AlthoughRwandan reportersdon’tuse the term

“solutionsjournalism,”theydescribedthepractice.FredericByumvuhore,reporterforTheNew

Times, said “Journalists can be the promoters of peace. Whenever they report problems or

disputesamong in thesociety, theycanalso ... includesomeexamplesofhowthoseconflicts

canbesolved”(Personalcommunication,May30,2016).

Journalists consistently described ways that they practiced solutions-based news

reporting.BernaNamata,newseditoratTheEastAfrican,saidthedaypriortoourinterviewher

newsorganizationhostedthechairpersonoftheNationalUnityandReconciliationCommission

todiscussongoing issues surrounding theCatholicChurch’s role in the genocide. Someargue

that priests who were arrested for participating in the genocide should be stripped of their

titles. Additionally, the country demanded an apology from the Church, and no apology had

31

beengiven.But insteadofsolely focusingontheconflict,Namatatalkedabouthowhernews

outlet shifted to amore forward-looking, solutions-oriented debate: “Sowhen you invite the

gueststodiscussthat,youexplore,‘Ok,isthereawaythatyoucanlivewiththeChurchtoday

despite, you know, the past? What lessons can we take from the past?’” (Personal

communication,June1,2016).Inthisway,shesaid,themediacanhelppushsocietyforwardby

encouragingaproductivediscussion.

SambaUmusekeCyuzuzo,cofounderofUmuseke.rw,alsoprovidedexamplesofhowhe

has practiced constructive, solutions-focused news reporting. He said during the 20th

anniversaryofthegenocide,forexample,hisnewsoutletpublishedaseriesofabout15stories

covering people who did not succumb to the pressure tomurder their neighbors during the

genocide,butrathercourageouslyhidvictims.“Weshowedhowthosepeopleareheroic,what

they did, how they saved thousands of people. So by doing this, you’re also changing some

mindsets”(Personalcommunication,May30,2016).

Cyuzuzofurtherprovidedanexampleofactualchangethatoccurredinearly2016,after

hisorganizationcoveredasolutions-orientedstoryaboutawomanwhohidaround400people

duringthegenocideinanefforttosavetheirlives.

Shegotanationalmedal,like10yearsagoIthink,butthenshewaslikeforgotten.She’s

old,shedoesn’thaveanyonetotakecareofher,andshewentbackinpoverty.Andshe

washavingthemedalalwayswithher,andshewasreallylivingaterriblelife.Sowhen

wecoverherback,webringheragainonthesurface,sonowthey[thegovernment]are

buildingahouse in southernRwanda. So they say, ‘wow, it’s amazing’ and she,when

they toldher shecried,because she’sgettinggoodhouse.” (Personal communication,

May30,2016)

Anothercommonwayinwhichjournalistsattemptedtocoverthereconstructionofthecountry

in a solutions-basedwaywas by reporting the stories of genocide survivors and perpetrators

living together successfully. Oswald Oswakim, reporter for City Radio, talked about how the

media cover stories about genocide perpetrators who have been released from jail and are

livingpeacefullyinsociety.

You see on TVs, you hear on radio stations people giving testimonies on how they

managetoreconcile,howtheymanagetolivetogether,andwhattheydo–theylivein

thesamecooperative,yousee,theymakeprofittogether.That’sasexystory.Youcan’t

32

missittoair.AndIthinkwhenwebringthosekindofsexystoriesout,theyhelpothers.

(Personalcommunication,May31,2016)

5.4.2.Restorativenarrative

RestorativenarrativeisanothertechniqueRwandanjournalistscommonlyuseintheireffortto

aidinthecountry’sredevelopment.Thistechnique,whichcanoverlapwithsolutionsjournalism,

focuses on reporting the restoration process long after the immediate impact of a tragedy.

Decadesafterthegenocide,Rwandanjournalistsareregularlydoingjustthat.

“Storiesabout the recoveryand reconstructionor resilienceof thegenocide, theyare

still being reported,” said Frederic Byumvuhore, reporter for The New Times. Most often,

journalistsengageinthispracticeduringgenocidecommemoration—theannual100-day-long

anniversaryof the tragedy,whichoverlappedwith thetimethese interviewswereconducted.

“Most of stories during and after commemoration period are about resilience of genocide

survivors, mentioning their problems and even what they have achieved after genocide”

(Personal communication, May 30, 2016). Berna Namata, news editor for The East African,

echoed this practice. “During genocide commemoration – actually we are still [in the

commemoration period now], because it’s 100 days, until July – we have programs around

reconciliation, talkingabouthowcanyouhelp survivors.On theprint sidewhatwedo is find

survivors, talk about their stories, how are they surviving, look at their welfare, do articles

around the welfare of genocide survivors” (Personal communication, June 1, 2016). For

example, a two-page spread published in The New Times during the period these interviews

were conducted was titled “Mothers and children born of rape: The agonizing struggle for

acceptance”andfeaturedwomenworkingtoovercomethestruggleandshameofbeingraped

duringthegenocideandhavingtheirchildrenthereforenotacceptedinsociety.SeeFigure2.

33

Figure2.

AstoryusingrestorativenarrativetechniquespublishedinTheNewTimesinJune,2016.

IvanMugisha,anotherreporter,furtherexplainedthatmediatellthestoriesofgenocide

survivorsinanefforttopromoteunityandreconciliation.

Most of the media now, they talk about the genocide, talking about togetherness,

talkingabouthowweareallRwandan,talkingabout,‘let’sgovisitasurvivorfamily,find

outhowaretheydoing,givethemsomefood,buildthemahouse.’Soyeah,journalists

talkabouttheplatformtogivesurvivorstocomeandtalkabouttheir lifestories,how

they managed to cope since the genocide, what government has done in rebuilding

theirlives,whatthecivilsocietyhasdone,yeah,andwhatdifferentprivatepeopleare

doingonbehalftohelpsurvivors.Sothat’sourrolenow.That’swhatwedo.”(Personal

communication,May29,2016)

Givingpeople a platform to tell their genocide stories helpedothers to feel like theyweren’t

alone, said Mike Karangwa, senior producer at Radio/Tv10. And the reporters maintained

balanceinthiseffort.Inadditiontotellingthestoriesofgenocidesurvivors,Rwandanreporters

34

also talked about how they tell the stories of genocide perpetrators. For example, Eugéne

Hagabimana, director of Radio Salus, said his station collaborates with a local NGO that

promotesunityandreconciliationtoairaweeklyprogramcalled“Healing.”“Insuchprogram,

we have some example asking pardon for those who are convicted for genocide and giving

forgiveness,”hesaid.ThemistocleMutijima,a journalistforRadioIsangoStar,agreedthatthe

mediaoffersaplaceforpeople,bothgenocideperpetratorsandsurvivors,toaskforpeaceor

redemption.

People managed to ask for mercy through the influence of the media. The media

providedaplatform for somepeoplewhocomeandgive their testimony-howthey

managed to getback together, how they arenow intermarrying to the family. Then,

others would feel bad for that one who lost maybe 10 family members [and] has

managedtocohabitatewithhisneighbors;‘whycan’tI,ifI’velost3or4,whycan’tI?’

And this is how it worked. Yeah, people asked for mercy and they were forgiven.”

(Personalcommunication,May29,2016)

Another theme that emerged was how journalists highlighted stories about genocide

perpetratorsandsurvivorsmakingpeacewitheachother.

In the Southern Province you have some cooperative for thosewhohave come from

prison, convicted of genocide, and victim of, survivors from genocide. If they are

workingtogetherandtheyhaveonecooperativeandwebroadcastsuchprogram,it is

justouroneexampleofunityandreconciliation.Ifyoucanfindforexampleagroupora

cooperativewiththeenemybecauseifoneisaformerkiller,anotherisasurvivor,and

they are working together, it’s a good example. (Eugéne Hagabimana, Personal

communication,May28,2016)

By publishing stories about forgiveness, resilience and collaboration, the media inspired

individuals to forgive. These restorative narratives remain a powerful way that themedia in

Rwandahelpindividualsrecoverandhelpsocietyredevelop.

Mediaplayedabigrole,yeah.Theycouldgiveplatformtoreligiouspeople,youknow,

tothesurvivorsandthecriminalstogivetheirtestimoniesbecausehereinRwandawe

havesurvivors livingtogetherwiththecriminals–thosewhokilledtheirpeople inthe

genocide.Sotheycould,youknow,goandvisitthosefamiliesandyoufollowradioand,

you know, you hear that kind of testimony, and even you can change your behavior.

(JeanBaptisteMicomyiza,Personalcommunication,June2,2016)

35

5.5. Constructivejournalismimpactsindividualsandsociety

Journalists interviewed in this study overwhelmingly believed that the media have played a

majorroleintherecoveryandreconstructionofthecountrysincethegenocide.“Peoplewere

still sad[after thegenocide]…wedon’thavea future,wedon’thaveparents,”saidAshante,a

journalistatRoyalFM.“Butnoweveryone ishappy, thinkingthere isanothermood.Theyare

thinking positively, thinking that after this there is a future.” Janvier Kwizera, editor at

Gusenga.org,agreed.“Manypeoplearereconciliated,manypeopleareinagoodcondition;we

haveagoodatmosphere,theyareunified”(Personalcommunication,May30,2016).

Thiscurrentmoodthat journalistsdescribed isdifferent, theysaid, than itwasshortly

afterthegenocide.“Peoplewouldmeetothersandnotgreetthem,andofcourseitwasobvious

wecouldnotgreetsomeonewhohadmaybekilledmembersofthefamilyandyouhavebeen

left alone. How could it be? It was very difficult,” said ThemistocleMutijima, a journalist for

Radio IsangoStar (Personal communication,May29,2016).But themedia, and specific radio

programs that somecalled “radiodramas,” changedpeople’s lives, according to reporter Ivan

Mugisha(Personalcommunication,May29,2016).Mutijimaagreed.

Radio dramahas been very important toolwhichworkedor contributed to unity and

reconciliation. It worked in terms of bringing back the people who had exited the

countries…IcanremembertheVoiceofAmericaandtheBBCcontributedverymuchin

thebringingbackofthosepeople.(Personalcommunication,May29,2016)

Through radiodramasand throughnewsstoriesdocumenting the livesof thosewhosurvived

thegenocideandthosewholearnedtoliveproductivelywithindividualswhokilledtheirfamily

members and friends, themediamade a difference. Samba Umuseke Cyuzuzo, cofounder of

Umuseke.rw, talked about the impact of one story he covered — the wedding of a couple

whereby one came from a family of genocide victims and the other came from a family of

genocide perpetrators. “By showing this, the society started to see that it can happen, it can

happenthatpeoplecanbeunitedagain”(Personalcommunication,May30,2016).

Journaliststalkedabouthowthesetypesofconstructivestoriesaffectednotonlytheir

audiences,butthempersonally.“Thenewspapersplayedabigrole.Iusedtoreadsomearticles

fromthenewspapersandtheyinspiredme.Theyinspiredmehowtoforgivemyenemies.They

showed me, ‘oh wow, this guy did this? Why not me? I can do it, me too’” (Ally Uwizeye,

36

Personal communication,May 21, 2016). Janvier Kwizera, editor atGusenga.org, echoed this

sentiment.

AftertheRwandangenocide,Ihadmindtorevengeortohateextremelysomeonewho

triedtokillmyfamilymembersormyfather,andrightnowIamtellingyouthetruth

thatweareingoodatmosphere,wearechanged,wearereconciliated.Therearefewof

themwhoarenotyetchanged,butmanypeoplearechangedbecauseofjournalismor

becauseofthatmassmedia.(Personalcommunication,May30,2016)

6. Conclusion

This studyshowed that journalists inmodern-dayRwandavaluemanyof the same traditional

rolesvaluedbyjournalistsinWesterncountries,suchastoinform,educate,andentertain,with

one major exception — Rwandan journalists feel a strong obligation to promote unity and

reconciliation. And since the genocide, reporters have been fulfilling that duty by practicing

constructive journalism. They have employed solutions journalism and restorative narrative

techniques,regularlycoveringstoriesthatinspireandfosterforgiveness,andtheybelievethese

storieshavehelpedindividualsrecoverandhavehelpedrestoreapeacefulsociety.

“In the post-genocide Rwanda, that is our journalism, you know, that is our attitude

generally toward journalism … So if you look at our coverage over time it’s been trying to

reemphasizethatthere’shope,there’sresilience,”saidBernaNamata,newseditorforTheEast

African.

The journalisticduty topromotepeace inRwanda isnot idealistic; it’s vital, given the

county’spast. Therefore this roleoften supersedes traditional role functions. “As a result, for

mostpeoplethere isnomediafreedominRwanda–that ishowpeopleperceive it–because

wedon’tfocusonthenegative,whichisthetraditionalWesternwayof,youknow,themedia”

(BernaNamata,Personalcommunication,June1,2016).Itisverydifficulttoplaythewatchdog

roleinRwanda,Namatasaid.Thestakesaretoohigh.

I can understandwhy somebody elsewould look at it and say, ‘but this is not really

professional journalism,youknow,becauseyou’re supposed tobe thewatchdogand,

youknow,focusoncriticismasopposedto,youknow,justpointingout,thisisworking,

thisisworking,thisisworking.’ButIthink,forme,comingtothatconclusionwouldsort

of not take into account the history of the country. (Berna Namata, Personal

communication,June1,2016)

37

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(Non)constructiveframesfordiseaseandageinginpopularsciencejournalism1

KatarzynaMolek-KozakowskaUniversityofOpole,Polandmolekk@uni.opole.plABSTRACTThispapercharacterizes thedominant frames inpopularscience-orientedreportsdevotedtodiseaseandageing.Inpopularsciencejournalism,framingoftenconsistsinthediscursiveconstructionofnewsworthiness,i.e.,foregroundingfeaturesofevents/issuesconsideredbyscienceeditorstoberelevantorattractiveforaudiences,despitethealienatingnatureofsometypesofnews.Asampleofmost-readhealth-relatedarticlesfromNewScientist (2013-2015)issubjectedtocontentanalysis,keynessanalysis,concordanceanalysisandnewsvalueanalysistodemonstratehowbiosciencetendstobeframedthroughconsistentandstrategiclinguisticchoices.Theanalysesrevealthatmostframesfordiseaseandageinginpopularsciencecoverageworkasvehiclesforthecelebrationofmedicalscienceasadomainofreporting,andthusforwardthemediaoutlet’smarket-drivenagendaratherthandiscussthedeeperimplicationsofbioscientificfindings.KEYWORDS Framing, Science journalism, Newsworthiness, Popularity, Public understanding ofscience1.Introduction

The concept of framing is used to highlight “persistent selection, emphasis and exclusion” in

communication (Gitlin,1980,p.7).While framingsocial realitypeoplecomprehend,negotiate

and manage it. Frames are also sometimes defined as “cognitive windows” through which

readers follow stories (Pan& Kosicki, 1993, p. 59) or “maps”which they usewhile travelling

through multiple realities (Gamson, 1992, p. 117). According to Kitzinger (2007, p. 133),

“framingreferstotheprocesswherebyweorganizereality(…).Thetermisusedtorefertohow

weinterpretoureverydayencounterswiththeworldaroundus.Itisalsousedtorefertohow

(…) a newspaper frames a story.” Framing analysis can be seen as part of critical discourse

analysis,asitreveals“thewayinwhichcontentofthetextispresentedtoitsaudience,andthe

sort of perspective, angle and slant thewriter or speaker is taking. Related to this iswhat is

foregrounded and what is backgrounded in the text; that is, what the author has chosen to

emphasizeorde-emphasize”(Paltridge,2013,p.100).

Media framing is a process that leads news readers to accept one meaning over

another,orprovidesaconsistent,eventhoughsimplifiedorbiased,understandingofanissue.

Also science journalism has become a discursive domain where science-related content is

1This is a draft version of paper presented at the conference Constructed/Constructive Journalism(InstituteforJournalismStudies,Brussels,8-9December2016)

42

expressed in ways that are accessible to a broader public rather than to a narrow elite. In

popular journalism, framingoftenconsists in foregroundingperspectivesor featuresofevents

consideredbyscienceeditorstobeattractiveforaudiences.Studiesshowthatthestylisticshift

towards tabloid-like forms of journalism in the market-driven environment has involved

discursive strategies aimed at presenting news as newsworthy, relevant and entertaining

(Conboy, 2006; Bednarek & Caple, 2012). It is claimed here that the construction of

newsworthiness in science journalismmay also be realized in framing science-related events

throughstrategicallychosenlanguagetoforegroundaparticularaspectortotakeananglethat

islikelytoengagethetargetreaders.

This paper aims to characterize the dominant frames in science-oriented reports

devoted todiseaseandageingby identifying thedevicesused toengage readers,despite the

alienatingnatureofsuchtopics.Thechoiceofthisthematicdomainisnotincidental:biomedical

coverage has displaced other domains of reporting when it comes to attracting readers’

attention, as medical progress has speeded up in unprecedented ways while the developed

societieshavegrownmorehealth-aware(Weitkamp,2003).Recentresearchonscience-related

coverage indicates a gradual reorientation away from physics, astrophysics, chemistry and

engineering(popularatthetimeofnuclearproliferation,armsraceandspaceexplorationinthe

1960s and 1970s) towards biology,medicine and biotechnology by the end of the twentieth

century (Bauer, 1998; Calsamiglia & van Dijk, 2004; Bucci & Mazzolini, 2007). Especially

prominent have been stories involving news onAIDS andother epidemics, sequencing of the

genome,advancesinneuroscienceandstemcellresearch,andthedevelopmentofgenetically

modified organisms. Many mainstream news outlets have started to feature a regular

“biomedicine/health” column or supplement and evenmade scientific news items appear in

front pages (Bucci & Mazzolini, 2007). Biomedical issues are regarded as being of rising

relevancetonewsconsumersandoftenareframedintermsof“must-know”informationthat

willguaranteesufficientawarenessofmedicaladvances,andhealth-orientedlifestylechoices.

Theapproachapplied in this study isanadaptationof thenewsworthiness framework

that has been applied in news discourse studies (cf. Bednarek & Caple, 2012; Molek-

Kozakowska,forthcoming).Thematerialsubjectedtoacriticalframinganalysisisacollectionof

54 most-read articles (according to online traffic) sampled from the website of the popular

international science magazine New Scientist between 2013 and mid-2015. The texts are

subjected to content analysis, keyness analysis, concordance analysis and newsworthiness

43

analysis in order to identify the discursive strategies that function as framing devices, which

highlight the relevanceof thecoverageaddingapinchofentertainment (drama,mysteryand

speculation). The analyses reveal that some frames for disease and ageing in popular science

coverageworkasvehiclesforthecelebrationofmedicalscienceasadomainofreporting,and

thusforwardtheoutlet’smarket-drivenagenda.Inthissensetheymightbecounterproductive

ornon-constructive, since they fail toenhance thepublicunderstandingofbiotechnologyand

medicine.

2.Discursiveconventionsofpopularsciencejournalism

Journalism, at any point in time, can be perceived as a set of dominant conventions and

inheritedtraditionsforrelatinginformationwithinaparticularinstitutionalframeworkandwith

the aid of available technologies of mediation. Driven by technical and social developments,

journalistic practices have been constantly evolving (Conboy, 2011, p. 109-124). That is why

contemporaryscholarsneedtoproblematizeanypreconceptionsaboutthecurrentstateofthe

news media, acknowledging the complex constellation of economic factors, technological

developments, political influences and cultural expectations that have oriented journalism

towardsapopular,mass-appealmedium.2

Given this, the study explores the discursive aspects of the trend towards the

naturalizationof“the ideologyofnewsworthiness” insciencereporting (cf.Bednarek&Caple,

2014).Indeed,althoughpopularjournalismisviewedasaresultoftheshiftincontentandfocus

of presented news items towards more human-interest entertaining soft news, scandal and

drama(McLachlan&Golding,2000),therehasalsobeenasignificantchangeofstyle(Conboy,

2006). It can be noted, for example, that popular journalism involves not only shorter texts,

more visuals and emotional headlines, but also more consumerism-oriented features, more

personalization of reporting and domestication of abstract issues,more dialogical formats, as

well as more “negative, journalist dominated points of view” (instead of expert or witness

accounts) (Conboy, 2011, p. 119). However, strictlydiscursive facets of popular reporting had

not been systematically explored until recently (cf. Bell, 1991;Montgomery, 2007; Bednarek

&Caple,2012),andrarelydidtheyconcernpopularsciencereportinginparticular.Yet,science

journalism can no longer be claimed to have remained untouched by this stylistic shift: first

2Forotheraccountsofnewsvaluescf.Bell,1991;Montgomery,2007.

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indignantat the trivializationandsimplificationofnews, sciencewritersdistanced themselves

from popular coverage, before finally incorporating some of its features (Bowler 2009; Broks

2006).Thesenewfeaturesincludelookingfor“sellablestories,”selectionandframingofscience

news,aswellasbrevityandcolorinreporting(cf.Bauer&Gregory,2007).

Tobear relevancetoaudiences,andtosell,news itemshaveto fulfill somecriteriaof

newsworthiness.Althoughtheconceptofnewsworthiness(newsvalue)hassofarbeenapplied

to offer a systematic account ofmainstream news discourse, it is productive in the study of

science journalism too, as it enables looking at howmarket-driven agendas ofmedia outlets

influence the professional practices and outcomes of science journalism (Molek-Kozakowska,

2016).Drawingon the varied literatureonnews values, Bednarek andCaple (2012, p. 41-44)

postulate the following typology of news values: negativity (i.e., negative aspects of events),

timeliness (i.e., temporal relevance), proximity (i.e., geographical/cultural nearness),

prominence(i.e.,status/eliteness),consonance(i.e.,alignmentwithexpectations/stereotypes),

impact (i.e., effects), novelty (i.e., newness/unexpectedness), superlativeness (i.e., large

scale/scope/intensity), and personalization (i.e., human aspects), and demonstrate how these

values are realized through the choices in language and image, rather than being inherent

attributesofevents.3

Asnegativityseemstobeimportanttocreatenewsworthiness,thereissomeevidence

thatmainstreamnewsmedia have framedmedical and biotechnological topics in critical and

challenging ways, often accusing scientists of unethical and harmful activities. The negative

framings of science in themedia can be divided into fivemajor types, according to Fjaestad

(2007,p.127)

Firstly,scientistssometimescreatedangerousknowledgeandproducts(e.g.,weapons,

toxins, genetic engineering). Secondly, scientists sometimes usemethods that can be

unethicaloreven illegal (e.g.,painfulexperimentsonanimals,humansasguineapigs,

researchonabortedfetuses,integrity-threateningregistersofindividuals,alsoaccepting

financing from questionable partisan organizations, and instances of self-enrichment

anddownrightfraud).Thirdly,scientistssometimeswastepublicfundsonmeaningless

projects. Fourthly, scientists sometimes express opposite opinions on important

3Thenotationofidentifiedframesinitalicizedcapitalsisdesignedtohelpdistinguishthemfromkeyterms.

45

matters;eachofthemclaimstoberightandontheotherhand,dissidentscientistsare

sometimes stigmatized by mainstream scientists. And finally, scientists sometimes

withholdandrepressinformationthatoughttobemadepublic.

Onecaninferthattheseframingsinthemainstreamnewsoutletscangivebiomedicalcoverage

an aura of negativity and controversy that attracts attention. This, however, would not be

productive in a science-exclusive outlet, since it could decrease readers’ appreciation and

engagement. By contrast, popular science journalism,with less demanding content andmore

positive,celebratorystyleseemstobeanalternativeforaudiencesyearningforbreakthroughs

and more certainty in health-related issues. However, only celebrating science may foster

uncriticalattitudestowardssciencefundingpoliciesandatendencytolegitimizescience-related

activitieswithoutdueconsiderationofthemerits.

Finally,sciencenewsworthinessmayalsoberooted inadiscursiveoscillationbetween

“therhetoricofhope”and“therhetoricoffear”(Kitzinger&Williams,2005).Arguably,itmight

be claimed that vocabularies, metaphors and images that both highlight risks and celebrate

benefits in science reporting represent what Jensen terms “a framing device that science

journalistsusetothedetrimentofaclearandcoherentpresentationofacontroversialscientific

developmentanditsrealisticimplications”(2012,p.44).Theyseemtobestrategicallydesigned

tomotivatecontinuousengagementswiththeoutlet.Asconfusionbreedsuncertainty,readers

mightbedrawntoanoutletonlytocalmtheirfears,whichfits inwellwiththemarket-driven

interests of media outlets (McManus, 1994). Unless confronted critically, such frames

representingbiosciencecouldfurtherfeedintotheoverallsenseofuncontrollabilityandanxiety

characteristicofpostindustrialrisksocieties(Beck,1992).

3.Framesinthecoverageofbio-medicalresearch

Extant studies on themediated representations of biotechnological research explore, among

others, the coverage of the new pandemics, human genome, nanotechnology, genetically

modified organisms, neuroscience, cancer research, and embryo stem cell research or

therapeutic cloning. Some studies reveal how the knowledge of the given issue is shaped for

public understanding and acceptance through discursive devices and discuss the possible

implicationsofsuchportrayals.Forexample,CalsamigliaandvanDijk(2004)demonstratehow

the representation of the human genome is shaped in the popularizations available in the

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Spanish press. By referring to epistemic universals, common-sense schemas, and tangible

metaphors,reportersframethesequencingofthehumangenomeasaprocessof“decodinga

hiddenmessage,”whichresultsingeneticistsbeingfinallyableto“readitlikeatext.”Withthis

semi-technical and culturally acceptable metaphorical representation, it is possible to elicit

public acclaim not only for the project but also for genetics as a discipline and genetic

engineering as a therapeutic solution. However, according to a different study on a televised

documentary on cancer therapies in the UK (Potter, Wetherell & Chitty,1991), public

expectations as regards advances in cancer research may well be inflated by charity

organizations,whichhavetojustifycollectingmoneyfortheircauses.Theuseofquantification

rhetorictoframecancerresearchasadvancing(despitethelackofnewavailabletherapies)has

beenexposedinthestudy.

Through a study on the levels of acceptance of medical and agricultural GM

technologies in Denmark,Mielby, Sandoe and Lassen (2012) have found that for the publics

whoselevelofknowledgeandeducationishigher,acceptancecorrelateswiththejudgmentsof

relative risks and benefits of a given technology. Meanwhile, receivers with lower levels of

knowledgeoftheissuetendtoexpresstheiracceptancedependingontheirperceptionofhow

“natural”or“unnatural”agivenbiotechnologyispresented.Itseemsthatthemorethepublic

knowsabout thebiotechnology themorecomplex frameswouldbeneeded todiscuss it. Ina

similar vein, positive attitudes towards nanotechnologies have taken root in Germany, as

reporters tended to frame the scientists’ inventions in terms of possible benefits rather than

risks,andwhentheyassociatedthemwithcommonlyheldbeliefsandcherishedvalues,suchas

progressandwelfare(GuentherandRuhrmann2013).Theworkofthescientistsisalsolikelyto

be celebratedwithin the coverageof epidemics, particularly if thepopular representationsof

diseasesmetaphorically frame themas fightingviral “adversaries,” “attackers,” “criminals,”or

“murderers,”orastheoneswhotrytostopthe“flood”or“interceptdangerousviralparcels,”

aswasdocumentedbyDobrićandWeder(2015)inthecaseofthemediatedconceptualizations

offlupandemicswithin1990-2010.

The uptake of science journalism as regards the key bio-controversies needs to be

closelymonitored. Inareviewarticleonhowneuroscienceinfluencescommonconceptionsof

personhoodandhumanagency,O’ConnorandJoffe(2013)showthatthepublicawarenessof

neuroscience is relatively low (even thoughmedia framesofneuroscientific advancespresent

themas a revolutionary transition frompsychological tobiological understandingof the self),

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andtheideasthathappentobeassimilatedtendtoreinforceoldfolk-psychologicalconceptions

ratherthanchallengethem.Whatthisstudyalsoshowsisthattheproliferationoftheimagesof

brainscans in themedia ismotivatedbytheirperceived“truthvalue”and isusedtoenhance

the credibility of journalism (O’Connor& Joffe, 2013). Also, the public is shown to bemostly

interested in everyday applications of neuroscience (e.g., criminal uses for lie detection,

applications in marketing and public policy), whichmeans that to engage audiences, science

newsitemsshouldbeframedasofferingconcretesolutions(eventhoughavailableonlyinthe

future)andnotasanunresolvedscholarlydebate.

Bycontrast,whenthepublicdoespayattentiontosciencenews,thereportingcando

some deeply ideological work. Kitzinger andWilliams (2005) use frame analysis and detailed

linguisticanalysistoillustratehowtheframingofembryostemcellresearchinBritishnational

press and televised reports in 2000 helped to mitigate doubts about this controversial

biotechnologicalprocedure(alsoknownastherapeuticcloning).Themediamaterialsabounded

inhypeframesthatheraldedinnovationandbreakthrough,authorityappealsforegroundingthe

approvingcollectiveopinionofthescientificcommunity,andemotionalappealsonbehalfofthe

patients with incurable diseases, who would profit the most from the future possibilities of

organ replacement. The authors point to the fact that the stem cell regulations ultimately

accepted by the government were compatible with the dominant frames and assessments

foregroundedinthemainstreammedia.

In summary, it can be observed that biomedical research tends to be conventionally

framedinarangeofways:theadvancesinbiotechnologyandmedicinecanberepresentedas

BENEFIT3 or RISK, as BREAKTHROUGH or FAILURE, and as REVOLUTION or in terms of

CONTINUITY. At the same time the state of knowledge in a particular field can be framed as

unresolvedDEBATEor,moreoften,asadvancingtowardsAPPLICATIONinaforeseeablefuture.

As regards guiding public acceptance, useful frames involve (UN)NATURALNESS or

(UN)DESIRABILITY of specific inventions. These typicallyoccurring frameswill be traced in the

samplematerialinthefollowingsections;atthesametime,evidenceforotherframingswillalso

besought.

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4.Framingdiseaseandageing

4.1.Material

The sample for this analysis of the dominant frames of disease, ageing and death in popular

science journalismhadbeen collected for 22months (between2013andmid-2015) from the

online version of one of the most widely circulated international science magazines - New

Scientist (NS henceforth).4The main selection criterion was that the text should have been

popularwithreadersandgeneratedtheirengagement.Thus,insteadofarandomsamplefrom

thehealthcolumn,thecorpuswascreatedbydownloadingarticleseveryweekfromthelistof

five “most read” articles as listed on the NSwebsite. Sometimes the list did not feature any

medicine-oriented items, sometimes there were a few articles, sometimes the same article

persistedinthelistforafewweeks(butwasincludedonlyonce).Thetextwasincludedinthe

sampleifitsheadlineincludedsuchtermsasdisease(oraspecifictermforadisease),ageing(or

death). Articles on drugs, therapies, discoveries and experiments related to treating diseases

andimprovinghealthwerealsoincluded.Thesampleisthusmadeupof54articles(listedinthe

appendix)withthetotalwordcountofover26,700.

4.2.Contentanalysis

The first step in the analysis was to code all articles (whole texts) with respect to dominant

contentcategories.Thetotalsample(n=54)hasbeenshownasinclusiveofonelargecategoryof

content, namely “announcingnewdrugs/therapies” (n=30) andone smaller content category,

namely“explainingcausesofdiseases/designingdiagnostictools”(n=17).Thisdivisioncouldbe

roughlymappedontothedistinctionbetweentwoframes:APPLICATIONandDEBATE,withthe

numberofformertwiceaslargeasofthelatter.ThisindicatestheNSreaders’preferencesfor

learning about actual solutions to health problems when it comes to selecting news, and

confirms the role of the APPLICATION frame as regards forging engagement. The remaining

articles(n=7)consistofmiscellaneouscontent,suchas“discussingpsychological/socialaspects

of illness,or relating individual’sstoriesofdealingwithdisease.”Thearticleswerealsocoded

4In2014,theAuditBureauofCirculationsestimatedNS’sglobalprintcirculationat129,585anditsreadershipat807,388,whileaccordingtoAdobeReports&Analytics,itsonlineversionwassubjecttoover8millionpageimpressionswithover3.6millionuniquevisitors.NSwaslistedasoneofthetoptenscience-relatedperiodicalsinAustralia,theUKandtheUSandofferedanonlinedatabaseofover100,000articles.Onsocialmedia,NShad1.47m+Twitterfollowers,2.3m+Facebooklikesand365,000+Google+followersasofJanuary2015(cf.http://mediacentre.newscientist.com/audience-and-brand).

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for the prevalent evaluation of the subject, thus yielding the following distribution: positive

news (BREAKTHROUGH) – 33 items, neutral news – 11 items, negative news (FAILURE) – 10

items (validatedby twocoders). Importantly, thedominantevaluativestancecouldbeusually

determinedalreadyat the levelofheadline/lead,whichconfirms thesignificanceofheadlines

forframingthereceptionofpopularscientificnews(cf.Molek-Kozakowska,2016).

Also, according to the currently held evidence-based model of medicine, medical

discoursedistinguishesbetweendisease and illness.Disease is a term that denotes a stateof

presenceofmanifestations indicatinga givenpathological changeat various levelsofmedical

description (e.g.,wholepatient, partof thebody, system,organ, tissue, cell,molecule),while

illnessisdefinedasasubjectiveperceptionofthestatebythepatient.Thismodelprivilegesthe

discursiverepresentationofdisease(ratherthanillness)andisnotedforthe“evacuation”ofthe

patient as a person from presentations of medical cases, mainly by focusing on organs,

symptoms,proceduresandoutcomes(cf.Murawska,2011,p.191-192).Theconductedcontent

analysisconfirmsthatNS’scoverageofmedicalissuesreproducesthemodel,asitalsofocuses

ondiseasesratherthanpeoplewhoareaffectedbythem(withonlyahandfuloftextsdealing

with individuals experiencing illness in a peculiarway, e.g., (15) and (43)).Many articles also

foreground the activity and agency of scientistswho are shown to relentlessly and creatively

manipulatedata and substances, and conduct experiments tobe able todiagnose, control or

eradicatediseases,slowageingandsavelives(cf.CONTINUITY,DESIRABILITYframes).

4.3.Keynessanalysis

Keynessisaparameteroftherelativesalienceofaterminagivensamplevis-à-visareference

corpus (RC)–here theBritishNationalCorpus.Table1 illustrates the50 firstkeywords in the

sample sorted in the order of decreasing positive keyness value (last column). The baseline

frequency included was 10 occurrences in the sample to exclude cases when multiple

occurrencesoftheterminonearticlecouldskewtheresults.Thisensuresashorterbutmore

representativelistofitemsthatcharacterizethesample.

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Table1.KeynessvaluesforNSsample(WordSmithTools4.0)

Word Freq. % RCFreq. RC% Keyness(+)

1. CELLS 88 0,5146 7646 565,96

2. BLOOD 67 0,3918 9767 363,14

3. BRAIN 55 0,3216 4580 358,2

4. VIRUS 32 0,1871 1492 244,78

5. SAYS 78 0,4561 39363 0,0396 239,05

6. DRUG 39 0,2281 4987 221,27

7. CANCER 35 0,2047 4212 202,7

8. ALZHEIMER'S 19 0,1111 197 200,85

9. DIABETES 23 0,1345 652 198,36

10. CANNABIS 18 0,1053 414 162,58

11. PEOPLE 99 0,5789 116196 0,1168 159,17

12. DRUGS 30 0,1754 5304 151,32

13. DISEASE 33 0,193 8869 139,92

14. FAT 27 0,1579 4491 139,37

15. MICE 18 0,1053 1020 130,78

16. RESEARCHERS 21 0,1228 2496 122,12

17. SYMPTOMS 22 0,1286 3119 120,38

18. FATS 13 0,076 276 119,44

19. VIRUSES 14 0,0819 486 115,18

20. TISSUE 19 0,1111 2043 114,2

21. IMMUNE 16 0,0936 968 114,2

22. BODY 40 0,2339 24211 0,0243 109,37

23. UNIVERSITY 34 0,1988 15780 0,0159 109,35

24. AGEING 16 0,0936 1254 106,07

25. STEM 16 0,0936 1258 105,97

26. FATIGUE 12 0,0702 485 95,145

27. TRANSPLANT 12 0,0702 493 94,76

28. INFLAMMATION 11 0,0643 456 86,669

29. CELL 20 0,117 5418 84,484

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30. ANTIBODIES 12 0,0702 777 84,045

31. GLUCOSE 11 0,0643 602 80,671

32. SURGERY 15 0,0877 2636 75,822

33. DNA 16 0,0936 3369 75,299

34. TREATMENT 24 0,1403 12124 0,0122 73,447

35. TRIAL 19 0,1111 6381 72,531

36. FATTY 10 0,0585 585 72,028

37. INSULIN 10 0,0585 631 70,543

38. CALIFORNIA 13 0,076 2070 68,194

39. BREAST 12 0,0702 1621 66,782

40. PROTEIN 14 0,0819 2898 66,344

41. MUSCLE 12 0,0702 1740 65,128

42. TREATMENTS 10 0,0585 868 64,289

43. DAMAGE 19 0,1111 8313 63,156

44. HUMAN 26 0,152 19275 0,0194 61,749

45. CHRONIC 11 0,0643 1689 58,477

46. CONDITION 18 0,1053 8312 58,042

47. SYNDROME 10 0,0585 1222 57,603

48. COGNITIVE 10 0,0585 1226 57,539

49. STUDY 25 0,1462 21844 0,022 52,298

50. TEAM 23 0,1345 18307 0,0184 51,785

The analysis of keyness values in the sample reveals the marked salience of medical and

biological terminology, which, nevertheless, is part of general science literacy, rather than

experts’jargon.Apartfrombiomedicalregister,withtermsdenotingpartsofthehumanbody,

pathogens, conditions and treatments, there are also words typical of journalistic discourse

(e.g., attribution of sourceswith says), aswell as items that describe scientists’ activities and

pertain todoing research (researchers, study, team). Thekeynessvaluesof thewordsdisease

and ageing are high (139,92 and 106,07 respectively). These andmany other key termsmay

have negative valence because they denote UNDESIRABLE or UNNATURAL processes or

conditions;however,whencomparedwiththeresultsofcontentanalysis(above),manyarticles

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in factuse themto framescientific findings inopposition to theseandshowhowresearchers

anddoctorsworktohelppatientscountertheseundesirableconditions.

4.4.Concordanceanalysis

Concordance analysis enables a less atomized and decontextualized analysis of “semantic

prosody” of selected terms. It can point to salient meanings and strategic evaluation-laden

collocationsandmayevenrevealtheprevalentideologicalstancesbehindtheroutineusagesof

salientterms.Forexample,inthecaseifthewordageing(n=16)themostcommoncollocations

withverbs includeslowdown,explain, tackle andcontribute to. Thisdemonstrates thatmany

articlesonagingareactuallydevotedtoelucidating thebiological/biochemicalmechanismsof

aging in order to intervene in them to counter ageing. Ageing is represented negatively: it is

either pathologized as a collection of diseases, or simply seen as an unwanted process that

scientistsshouldstrivetounderstandtoasufficientdegreetobeabletosloworstopit.Ageing,

framedasanUNDESIRABLEphenomenontobefirstexplainedandthenmanaged, isdiscussed

in NS both in the context of DEBATE (free radicals theory of ageing) and in terms of

APPLICATION (longevity drugs that can fix oxidative damage, exercises that prevent muscle

atrophyandthusmetabolicdegeneration).

Concordance analysis of the term disease (n=33) demonstrates a variety of common

pre-modifications (heart, liver, skin,autoimmune,Alzheimer’s, incurable, rare), aswell as such

positivecollocationsastreating,alleviating,diagnosing,managing,slowingtheprogressionof.

Such collocates constitute frames that mostly inspire optimism and hope for the ability of

bioscientists to control or eradicate some diseases (BENEFIT, BREAKTHROUGH frames).

However,theworddisease isoftenarelativelyabstracthypernym,andmoreattentionshould

bepaidtohowparticulardiseasesarerepresentedinthesample.Asaresult,concordancesof

diabetes(n=23),Alzheimer’s(n=19)andcancer(n=35)havealsobeenstudied.

The term diabetes occurs in common collocations describing diabetes’ types, drugs,

medication, risksand causes.One article ventures to claim a symptomatic similarity between

diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease and discusses how the doctors’ knowledge of diabetes

management and medication can be used to diagnose early onsets of Alzheimer’s (7). As

diabetesisacomplexconditionthataffectsthewholebodyandthatcannotbecured,itislikely

thatthemostcommoncollocationsofdiabeteswithverbsaremanaging,assisting,controlling

andpreventing.Inonearticleabreakthroughstudyisannouncedwithinformationthatdiabetes

53

can be fought with light (2). Here, one can find the only instances of collocates such as

healing/fighting diabetes (in mice). One more article – Bionic pancreas frees people from

shacklesofdiabetes(24)–usesanelaboratemetaphoricalconstructiontosuggestthatpeople

canbecuredofdiabetes,whichoncloserreadingturnsouttobeaboutfreeingthemonlyfrom

the exhausting regimeof glucose levelmonitoring, and thus realizesCONTINUITY rather than

REVOLUTION frame. It canbeconcluded that thegradualprogress in thestudiesondiabetes,

which is a prevalent but relatively undramatic condition, is framed as newsworthy through

strategicallyappliedcollocationsandrhetoricaldevices.

As with diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease is relatively often featured in the sample. The

medical progress on Alzheimer’s diagnosis and treatment (which is tightly related to ageing

processesofthehumanbrain)isreportedwithintimationsofsuccessfulexperimentaltherapies.

ItmaybestrikingtonotethatthetermAlzheimer’sappearsinonesentencewithyoungblood

transfusion,rejuvenationandorgandonation.Thisframesbiomedicalresearchasgoingtogreat

lengths to try out various exceptional measures to slow down the progressive degenerative

process resulting in Alzheimer’s and invokes APPLICATION and REVOLUTION frames slightly

misleadingly.

Although the word cancer scores the highest frequencies in the sample, it is worth

rememberingthatitrelatestovariousconditions,asthefollowingmostcommonpre-modifiers

demonstrate:breast,blood,bone,brain,fattissue.Apparently,cancerresearchreportedinNSis

mostly related to studies of biochemical and genetic character. Thus frequent collocations

involve cancer cells, genes, chromosomes, or scanning for cancer (spreading). Attention is

devoted to uncovering the cellular mechanisms within tumors and manipulating genes

responsible for cell/tissue functioning to stop or hinder the growth of tumors. Thus the

expressionbeatingcancerorametaphoricalformulationthatcancermeetsitsnemesisislinked

lesstocancersurgeryorchemotherapy,andmoretogeneticengineering(REVOLUTION frame

intertwined with RISK and BENEFIT frames). This seems to indicate that cancer research is

framedascutting-edgedisciplineofgeneticscienceandthatbiotechnologistsarelearninghow

toreprogramourcellstostopturningtumorous(cf.Cancermeetsitsnemesisinreprogrammed

bloodcells(6)).

In addition, the term death (n=22) appears in various collocations when diseases,

ageing, infections, adverse effects or terminal conditions are discussed, aswell aswhen risks

andlifestylesthatresultindeatharereportedon(smokingcannabis)(cf.RISKframe).Inthese

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contexts, theword isusedtomagnifyunwantedconsequences to legitimatescientists’efforts

and funding to study a given phenomenon. For example, studying the effects of cannabis or

plasticsurgery,ordiscussingdepressionislegitimizedwhenincidentaldeathsarementionedto

dramatizetheissues(cf.UNDESIRABILITYframe).

4.5.Newsworthinessanalysis

Theabovequantitativefindingsconfirmthatavarietyofframescanbeusedtoengagereaders.

Thisqualitativepartoftheanalysisofthetextsverifiestheobservationswithattentiontonews

valuesthatfunctionasframestoconstructeventsdiscursivelyasworthreaders’engagement.A

close reading of the sample reveals that articles on diseases build newsworthiness through

novelty,timelinessorsuperlativeness.

Novelty issignaledrelativelyearly inthetexts,and it isveryprominent inthesample.

Onecouldevenconcludethatthemainrationaleforthechoiceofpublishing/readinganitemis

tounderstanditasnovel,wide-rangingandsuccessful(allemphasesmine):

(1)Forthefirsttime,newhumanhairshavebeencoaxedintogrowingfromspecializedskincells

thatcanbemultipliedinnumber.(1)

(2) The discovery is the first evidence that itmay be possible to revert the humanbrain to a

childlikestate,enablingustotreatdisordersandunlockskillsthataredifficult,ifnotimpossible,

toacquirebeyondacertainage.(9)

(3)Theworld’sfirstbloodtesttopredictAlzheimer’sdiseasebeforesymptomsoccurhasbeen

developed.(14)

(4)Vaginasgrownina labfromtherecipients’owncellshavebeensuccessfully transferredto

thebodyforthefirsttime.(20)

(5) A novel scanning technique is enabling researchers to pinpoint where in the body HIV is

lurking.(42)

Onecouldarguethateachscientificactivity/study/publication isnovel insomeway;however,

novelty in biomedical coverage is framedasmore significant, as it carries a promiseof saved

55

lives and cured populations. This is how such a study can eventually be framed as a

BREAKTHROUGH. Signaling noveltymeans introducing audiences to cutting-edge science that

solves health-related problems large or small, and, even though the coverage only intimates

futurepossibilities, itcanbereadasacelebrationoftheideathathumanswillcontroldisease

(BENEFIT).Someofthedevelopmentsareadditionallyframedasunexpectedandthusscientific

researchisoverlaidwiththeauraofMYSTERY.

(6)Havingtype2diabetesmaymeanyouarealreadyonthepathtoAlzheimer’s.Thisstartling

claimcomesfromastudylinkingthetwodiseasesmoreintimatelythaneverbefore.(5)

(7) Itwas asunexpectedas itwas tragic: children in northern Europewho got oneparticular

vaccine against the 2009 swine flu pandemic were at a much higher risk of developing

narcolepsy.(18)

Another common newsworthiness cue in the coverage of disease is realized through

representationsoftimeliness(recenteventsorfuturedevelopments).

(8)Lightcannowbeusedtohealdiabetesinmice.(3)

(9) Intwomonths'time,agroupofprofoundlydeafpeoplecouldbeabletohearagain,thanks

totheworld'sfirstgenetherapytrialfordeafness.(21)

(10)Takingthedrugscouldbecounterproductive,especiallyforolderpeople,suggestsastudy

publishedyesterday.(26)

Thisdiscursivestrategyisimportanttoshowhowdistantissuesoflabexperimentationmaybe

relevant to larger publics.5It has a potential of framing biomedical progress as radical and

speedy (REVOLUTION) and its products as available and ready to take advantage of

(APPLICATION),which inmanycases isquestionable,asthereportsconcernearlyfindingsand

onlyspeculateaboutfutureapplications.

Superlativeness has been demonstrated as a prominent news value of popular

journalism, which thrives on exaggeration and sensationalism (Barnett 2008). The NS sample

5Amaneuveralsocalled‘temporalproximization’inMolek-Kozakowska(2015).

56

features words and phrases that represent extremity or project a sense of unusualness that

bordersonDRAMA:

(11) Five peoplewith a type of blood cancer […]were in remission following treatmentwith

geneticallyengineeredimmunecellsfromtheirownblood.Oneperson’stumorsdisappearedin

justeightdays.(6)

(12)Extraordinarystemcellmethodtestedinhumantissue.(10)

(13) It’s neuroscience’s final frontier. Tiny bubbleswill open the blood-brain barrier to sneak

drugs into tumors […]If successful, the method would be a huge step in the treatment of

perniciousbraindiseasessuchascancer,Parkinson’sandAlzheimer’s.(25)

(14)When chromosomes shatter, they sometimes reform intogiant circularmonsters. These

beastsgobbleupcancergenes, incorporatethemintotheirDNA,andseedaggressivetumors.

(38)

Superlativenessismostlyconstructedinthearticlesonnewdiagnostictoolsornewlydeveloped

therapies.Although theusefulness andpotential for applicationof these findings is yet to be

determined,theintensifiers,adjectivesandemotivenominals,sometimescollocatedwithverbs

that vividly describe (threatening) physical activities (shatter, seed, sneak, gobble up) rather

than abstract processes, introduce the imagery of scientific progress that exceeds our

expectations and that should leave us in awe of the discoveries (REVOLUTION,

BREAKTHROUGH).

Such impression is also createdwith the framingof bioscientific advances ashaving a

large,evenglobal,scaleandsignificantconsequencesformillionsofprospectivepatients:

(15)Lastweek,thescientificworldwasbowledoverbyastudyinNatureshowingthatanacidic

environmentturnedadultmousecellsinto‘totipotent’stemcells–whichcanturnintoanycell

inthebodyorplacenta.(10)

(16)Tinybugs[…]maybecausinganancientskindiseasethatisestimatedtoaffectbetween5

and20percentofpeopleworldwide,and16millionintheUSalone.(16)

57

(17)Damiano,abiomedicalengineer,decidedtocreateadevicethatwouldhelphischildand

millionsofothersbettermanagetheirdisease.(24)

Whatischaracteristicoftheframesforthescopeandscaleofbiotechnologicaladvancementsis

the fact that such formulationsareoftenmitigatedwithepistemicmodality (note theusesof

modalverbscan,mayorwouldorverbsthathavetentativemeaning–show,estimate,help)to

appearascredibleatsuchapreliminarystageofresearch.Nevertheless,theyenableeditorsto

frame science as relevant (DESIRABILITY) to a large proportion of readers or the whole

humanity.

If disease coverage is constructed as newsworthy with the construction of novelty,

timelinessandsuperlativeness,thenageingisoftenrepresentedwiththeframesthatengender

either consonance (18, 19, 20 below) or impact (21, 22, 23 below). The former anchor the

reportinginthecommonknowledgeaboutthebodyandtheageingprocesses(NATURALNESS),

whilethatlatteroffernewsonnewmeanstobetriedouttocounterthemand“rejuvenate”the

humanorganism.

(18)Breasts typicallyagemorequicklythantherestofthefemalebody.Sosuggestsasystem

thatmay be themost accurate way yet of identifying a person’s age from a blood or tissue

sample.(2)

(19)Itcouldbethebiggestkilleryou’veneverheardof:theweakeningandlossofmusclethat

happens as we get older. However, the mechanisms behind muscle ageing are still poorly

understood–althoughnewresearchsuggestsitinvolvesdamagefromfreeradicals.(32)

(20)Thenumberofeggsinawoman’sovariescouldtellalotmorethanjusthowfertilesheis.It

may provide a window onto how fast her cells are ageing and her risk of developing heart

disease.(33)

(21) So suggestsadiscovery thathighlydilutedhouseholdbleach inhibits inflammation in the

skin […] might help protect skin from sun exposure, radiation therapy and even the natural

ageingprocess.(4)

58

(22)Itsoundslikethedarkplotofavampiremovie.InOctober,peoplewithAlzheimer’sdisease

will be injected with the blood of young people in the hope that it will reverse some of the

damagecausedbythecondition.(30)

(23)Pillofsuper-protective ‘heavy’ fatmaybekeytoeternalyouth […]Forthefirst timenext

month,fatsdesignedtoreinforceourcellsagainstage-relateddamagewillbegiventopeople

ina clinical trial.Theparticipantshavea raregeneticdisorder,but if the treatmentworks for

them,itcouldeventuallyhelpusalllivelonger,moreyouthfullives.(47)

Althoughitislessconspicuousinthesample,thecoverageofnewsitemsrelatedtoageinghasa

widespreadtargetappeal–allpeoplegetoldwhereasnotallgetallthediseasescoveredbyNS.

However,thenumberofarticlesinthemost-readsampleisnotsubstantial,whichindicatesthat

thereadersmaynotfeelthatthetopicmeritstoomuchattentionorisrelevantforthematthe

moment.TheframingofageingthatcanbedetectedinNStendstorepresent itassomething

thatisrelativelypoorlyunderstoodintermsofpracticalwaysofslowingitdown(DEBATE).Such

framingdoesnot inspirehopeorenthusiasmfor science,whichperhapsexplains its relatively

lowuptake.Oneexceptionto this rule is theovertoneofhype in (23)whereseveral linguistic

choices (super-protective, eternal youth, for the first time, eventually) seem to misleadingly

framethefindingasaBREAKTHROUGH.

One more aspect should be mentioned while analyzing newsworthiness, namely the

potential to use the terminology related to death in reporting. Mentioning death alongside

diseaseorageingisoftenaimedtodramatizeandsensationalizethecoverage,sinceallnewsof

spreadingepidemics,lethalsubstancesordeadlypathogensguaranteereadership.Inbioscience

journalism some types of research may be framed as more significant (news value of

prominence)iftheydirectlypreventdeathorsavelives,asin

(24)Neitherdeadoralive,knife-woundorgunshotvictimswillbecooleddownandplaced in

suspendedanimationlaterthismonth,asagroundbreakingemergencytechnique istestedout

forthefirsttime.(18)

However,deathisalsoframedintermsoftheunknown:aMYSTERYthatjustifiesbioscienceas

anongoingprojectandensuresitselitenessasadomainofscientificinquiry.

59

(25)Death istheonecertainty in life–apioneeringanalysisofbloodfromoneoftheworld’s

oldestandhealthiestwomenhasgivencluestowhyithappens.(23)

(26)Thefirstfullpost-mortemsofpeoplewhodiedaftersmokingcannabissuggestthatthedrug

cankillunaided.Cannabishasbeenknowntocausedeathwhenlacedwithothersubstances,by

triggering a heart condition or by causing respiratory cancers. But whether it can be directly

lethalhasremainedunclear.(12)

In these contexts, theworddeath is used tomagnify unwanted consequences of the lack of

knowledge (UNDESIRABILITY), to celebrate scientists’ laudable efforts (CONTINUITY) and,

indirectly,tolegitimatethecostlyenterprisestostudyparticularconditionsorprocesseshoping

foramajorBREAKTHROUGH.

5.Conclusion

Science ingeneralandmedical science inparticular constituteprestigiousdomains inmodern

societies.Substantial funding ischanneledtobiomedical researchandtheroleofexperiments

andinnovationshasincreased(Gunnarsson,2013,p.186).Asmedicalscientistshavebecomea

specialistdiscoursecommunity, thepopularizationofmedical findingshasbeentakenoverby

trained journalists,whohave tomitigate the “scientificality”of academicmedicalwriting and

make it fit inwith the palatable templates of popular journalism. Sciencewriters and editors

take some responsibility to relate newdevelopments to increase the public understanding of

bioscience and make readers more aware of the newest recommendations in health-related

research.At thesametime,commercialmediaoutletsarehard-pressed toensure readership,

loyaltyandcontinuousengagementofthepublicwiththeiroutput.Itisagainstsuchadynamic

institutional, professional and social background that this study aims to explore the current

framesinpopularsciencereportingondisease,ageinganddeath.

The paper reviews some of the available research on how biomedicine tends to be

conventionally represented in themedia in termsof threedominantapproaches: (1)negative

and critical assessments expressed by some quality publishers, which are on the wane as

expensive investigative science journalism is reduced (2) positive, even celebratory tones of

somepopularoutletsthatuncriticallyfollowsciencePRandpressreleases,and(3)ambivalent

or sensationalist representations that engender uncertainty and are designed to motivate

readers to keep consuming science-related coverage. Then, a sample of most-read health-

60

relatedarticlesdevotedtodisease,ageinganddeathfromNewScientistissubjectedtocontent

analysis,keynessanalysisandconcordanceanalysistograsphowbiosciencetendstobeframed

withsalientandstrategiclinguisticchoices.Theanalysesrevealthedominanceoffairlypositive

evaluations (DESIRABILITY, BENEFIT) despite the alienating nature of the subject matter, of

celebratory frames (BREAKTHROUGH, REVOLUTION, APPLICATION), and representations of

findings that rarelyproblematize the issuesor foster reflectiveor critical attitudesamong the

readingpublicwithfewRISKorUNNATURALNESSframes.Onthecontrary,someframesoverlay

the coveragewith the senseofuncertainty (MYSTERY) thatonlymoreeffortonbehalf of the

scientistsandmorefundingforexperimentscanhelpdispel(CONTINUITY).

Specifically,diseasecoverageismadenewsworthywithreferencetonovelty,timeliness

and superlativeness of thebiomedical findings reported (BREAKTHROUGH). Articles on ageing

frame the scientists’ discoveries as consonant with folk knowledge and focused on

impact/effects(NATURALNESS,BENEFIT).Asregardsthearticlesthatmakereferencestodeath,

itisapparentthattheycapitalizeontheprominenceofthesubjectandresultinhighlightingthe

specialstatusandacclaimaccruedtobiotechnologyandmedicalsciences.Theanalysisreveals

thatmostframesfordisease,ageinganddeathinpopularsciencecoverageworkasvehiclesfor

thecelebrationofmedicalscienceasadomainofreporting,andthusforwardthemediaoutlet’s

market-driven agenda rather than discuss the deeper implications of scientific findings. The

moral,social,economicandpoliticalconsequencesofbioscientificprogressarerarelytakenup.

The coverage fails to position the reader as someone to be empowered to deliberate on the

issue;rathertheaudienceistoembraceandcelebratebioscience.

The study follows the assumption that “media frames have a demonstrable, although

not deterministic, impact on the public” (Kitzinger & Williams, 2005, p. 731), and aims to

critically interrogatethedominantframingsofbiomedicineinpopularsciencejournalism.Asit

waslimitedtooneestablishedpopularizationoutletandtoitsmost-readarticlesonly,itwasto

provide a close analysis of the discursive strategies used to construct the newsworthiness of

scientificreportsthroughframing,andadiscussionofimplicationsofsuchprevalentframingsof

bioscience. Itdoesnotsuggest that theseare theonly framingsandtrends inpopularscience

journalism. Likewise, it does not suggest that all the audiences are prone to accepting such

framingsunreflectively.Infact,thisisastartingpointtodesigningreceptionstudiesthatcould

verify if popular sciencewriting indeed fosters readers’ understanding of science and creates

61

informedattitudes,orifitmerelylegitimizesscienceasadomainofsocialactivityandusesnon-

constructiveframesinordertoentrenchitsownmarketposition.

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1. BraindamageinAmericanfootballlinkedtoheadtrauma17October20132. Cyborggelimplantfightsdiabeteswithlight20October20133. 3Ddropsraisehopesofcureforbaldness21October20134. Women'sbreastsagefasterthantherestoftheirbody22October20135. Vastlydilutedbleachmayhaveprotectiveeffectonskin15November20136. Cancermeetsitsnemesisinreprogrammedbloodcells25November20137. AreAlzheimer'sanddiabetesthesamedisease?28November20138. Fluvaccinehelpsunravelcomplexcausesofnarcolepsy19December20139. Replacementartificialheartkeepsfirstpatientalive31December201310. High-fibredietmayprotectagainstallergicasthma06January201411. Learningdrugsreawakengrown-upbrain'sinnerchild08January201412. Extraordinarystemcellmethodtestedinhumantissue05February201413. Cureforlove:Chemicalcuresforthelovesick12February201414. Cannabiscankillwithouttheinfluenceofotherdrugs20February201415. Bionicarmgivescyborgdrummersuperhumanskills06March201416. FirsttesttopredictAlzheimer'syearsinadvance09March201417. Thetherapypill:Forgetyourphobiainfastforward13March201418. Gunshotvictimstobesuspendedbetweenlifeanddeath26March201419. Rosaceamaybecausedbymitefaecesinyourpores30March201420. Engineeredvaginasgrowninwomenforthefirsttime10April201421. Deafpeoplegetgenetweaktorestorenaturalhearing23April201422. Proteinthatshrinksdepressedbrainsidentified23April201423. Bloodofworld'soldestwomanhintsatlimitsoflife23April201424. Bionicpancreasfreespeoplefromshacklesofdiabetes16June201425. Humanbrain'sultimatebarriertoopenforfirsttime18June201426. Diabetesdrugsmaysometimesdomoreharmthangood01July201427. Stemcelltreatmentcausesnasalgrowthinwoman'sback08July201428. Nerveimplantretrainsyourbraintostoptinnitus24July201429. Revealed:HowEbolaparalysestheimmunesystem13August201430. Youngbloodtobeusedinultimaterejuvenationtrial20August201431. Artificialsweetenerslinkedtoglucoseintolerance17September201432. Exercisemaybethebestanti-ageingpill10October201433. Numberofeggsawomanhaspredictsheartattackrisk20October201434. BiologicallitmuspaperdetectsEbolastrains24October201435. Guzzlingmilkmightboostyourriskofbreakingbones28October201436. Arachnophobiachoppedoutofaman'sbrain31October201437. Breastmilkstemcellsmaybeincorporatedintobaby03November201438. MonstercancerchromosomeismadefromshatteredDNA10November201439. Celebrateyourfat–it’sfightingoffinfection06January201540. Chronicfatiguesyndromegetsyetanothername10February201541. Mydrug-fillednanosphereshealatthespeedoflight25February201542. HIV’shidingplacesatlastrevealedbysimplescan09March2015

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Traveljournalism:AconstructiveapproachtotourismreportingBryanPirolliLondonCollegeofCommunication/UniversityoftheArtsLondon,UKb.pirolli@lcc.arts.ac.ukABSTRACT Often overlooked by academia, travel journalism presents an interesting case for exploringnotionsof constructive journalism.Researchers suggest travel journalism requiresmoreattention inanincreasingly globalized world as the tourism industry continues to grow. Travel journalism involvesexploring cultures aswell as offering practical information, rooted in a history of travel narratives anddifferent genres that spans centuries. Recent research on this niche journalistic form address itsrelationship with consumerism, entertainment, critical perspectives, cosmopolitanism, and ethicalconsiderationsthatsetitapartfromothertypesofreporting.Cantraveljournalism,however,besituatedwithin a constructive context, focusing on more positive or empowering subjects? This newerinterpretation of journalism as constructive involves identifying a path forward, stressing a socialimportanceforastory.How,then,canthesepracticesapplytojournalismthatservesanaudiencewhoisplanningatrip,asopposedtoanaudiencecomposedofcitizensparticipating inademocracy?Throughqualitative interviewswith a sample of travel journalists in Paris, aswell as a content analysis of theirwork, this study explores the possibility of taking a constructive approach to this niche media.Professionalssharehowtheydoinfactaspiretoconstructiveidealsbyremainingpositiveintheirstories,byputtingtheiraudiencesfirst,andbyemboldeningtheirreaderstopushfurtherintheirtravels.Theseresults help illustrate to what extent travel journalism can be considered as a form of constructivejournalismandopensuppathsforfurtherresearchandinterpretationwithinnichemedia.KEYWORDSTravel,Journalism,Constructive,Lifestyle

1. Introduction

Lifestyle journalism continues to be an underdog of journalism studies while more serious

journalismfocusingonpoliticalandcivicissuesremainsintheforegroundofacademicresearch

(Hanusch, 2012a). Journalism’s core functions do revolve around informing an electorate and

makingsenseofworldaffairs,yes,butlifestylejournalismoffersaudiencesdifferentinformation

that is useful in other ways. Travel journalism, as a type of lifestyle journalism, is just one

example of such reporting that academia largely ignores. Its role in a major global market,

however, is arguably more important than ever. The United Nations World Tourism

Organization, justoneofmanymonitors, tracks continuedgrown in international travelwhile

reporting$1.5 trillion inearnings in2015. TheWorldTravel andTourismCouncil reports that

tourism makes up about 10% of the world’s GDP, accounting one out of every eleven jobs

worldwide.Betweenthisboommarketandtheconsumerswhoparticipateinit,themediaplays

akeyroleinbringingthetwotogether.Whilenotseekingtoreducetraveljournalismtoatype

ofadvertising,it’sjustoneexampleofthepotentialpowerthatthisformofjournalismcanhave

intheworld.

66

Scholarlywork in this field is limited at themoment,with fewnotable texts available

(see Hanusch and Fürsich, 2014). This recent research, however, argues more and more for

critical analysis and discussion surrounding travel journalism, especially in an increasingly

globalizedworld.Whiletravelisoftenseenasfrivolousandentertainment-based,travelmedia

scholarsarguethatitplaysamoresignificantrole(Hanusch,2009).Thispaperseekstopropose

situating travel journalism within a constructivist framework, examining how it can work to

solveproblemsandpromoteopportunitiesforitsreaderswhoareorganizingandplanningtheir

own travel experiences (Gyldensted, 2015, 132). The two fields, as far as this research could

identify, have never been put into conversation,whichmeans that this attempt is just a first

stepinunderstandinghowtraveljournalismmaybeaconstructivepractice.

2. Constructivejournalisminfocus

Tosuggestwaysofinterpretingtraveljournalismasconstructivejournalism,bothtermsrequire

definition. First, constructive journalism, a relatively new interpretation of journalism, is not

altogethernovel.Chalmersevokestheideaofconstructivismwhendiscussingthemuckrakersin

theUnited States, describinghow theybelieved theybelieved “theywere contributing to the

progress of society” (1959, p. 304). Nico Drok and Liesberth Hermans when discussing slow

journalism, suggest that it “should not only be investigative, but inclusive, co-operative and

constructiveaswell”(2016,p.551).Atitscore,constructivejournalismasweidentifyittodayis

about offering stories that aremost positive and uplifting, butmore than simple “feel-good”

anecdotes – though it should not be confused with positive news, advocacy journalism, or

solutions journalism. AsGyldensted proposes, “a newpotential in journalism is to facilitate a

more future-oriented debate on social issues” (2015, 1638). Applied to news reporting, the

relationshipisstraightforward.Whereasthepressoftenfocussesonnegativeanglesandstories,

constructivejournalism,accordingtoHaagerup,offersanalternativeapproach:

Theconsequencesofmediafocusonthingsthatdonotwork,onthemaladjusted,and

onthenegative,arecomprehensive,notonlytodroppingcirculationfigures,advertising

revenuesanddeclining reach. It also changes themental condition for thosewhoget

theirpictureofrealitythroughthepress.Itdefocusespoliticsandpreventsthechanges

and theprogress,whichshouldhavebeento thebenefitof society.Thedevelopment

threatensthepoliticalprocessanddemocracyitself.(Haagerup,2014,p.14)

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Constructive journalism, however, seeks to empower readers, to raise the bar and create

knowledgeandnotjustawareness.Itspractitionersaskthebasicquestions–who,what,where,

when, andwhy – aswell as a sixth “w,” “what now?” In thismanner, the reporter seeks “to

identifyapathforwardinsteadofleavingreaderswithadead-endstreetnarrative”(Gyldensted,

2015,1784).

Themediahas responded favorably to constructive journalism,withamagazine titled

“PositiveNews”appearingasearlyas1993.EvenheHuffingtonPost initiateda“GoodNews”

section that focusses on more uplifting stories. In April 2016, the UN called for a more

constructiveapproachtojournalismtoaddressthosewhofelt“disempowered”bythenews,as

TheGuardian reported (Jackson,25April 2016).Anarticle in theColumbia JournalismReview

pointsout,however,thatcriticsarewaryoffocusingtooheavilyonpositivereporting,andthat

itisnotthesolutionto“bad-newsfatigue”thatplaguesjournalismtoday(Sillsen,2014).

Constructive journalism, however, goes beyond simply reporting feel-good stories.

GyldenstedproposesapplyingSeligman’sfiveelementsofwell-beingtoreportingtoarriveata

constructiveangleforastory.Theseelementsincludepositiveemotions,butalsoengagement,

relationships,meaning,andaccomplishment(2015,820).Gyldenstedsuggestsasking,“what is

thesocietalimportanceofyourstoryidea?”tosteerawayformasimpleupbeatstorytocreate

moreconstructivejournalism(2015,855).Howcansuchframeworksbeusedtointerpretniche

journalism, such as travel journalism, which does not necessarily work under the same

constraintsorwiththesameaudiences?

3. Zoomingout:Traveljournalism

Inpolitically-orientedorhardnewsreporting,suchconstructiveeffortsareeasyto identify. In

lifestylemedia,theconnectionsbecomelessstraightforward.Lifestylejournalism,accordingto

Hanusch,involvesastrongmarket-orientation,withreadersfinding“newsyoucanuse”intheir

own lives (2012a, p. 4). Because there is so little academic work on the topic, definitions of

lifestylejournalismarenotwell-defined,anditcanrefertofashion,food,andofcoursetravel.

While seemingly frivolous or entertainment-oriented, travel journalism does in fact serve

serious purposes, especially in the 21st century. Historically, travel journalism had little to do

withthelongtraditionoftravelnarrativesandwritingthatcanbetracedbacktotheEgyptians

(Blanton,1997).Originallyameanstoaddressandguidethegrowingpopulationofcommercial

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travelersinthe19thand20thcenturywiththeriseofsteamengines,automobiles,andeventually

airlines, travel journalismhas takenonother roles (Bertho-Lavenir,1999).At thebeginningof

the 21st century, however, booking a flight to cross the world has become easier than ever,

whiletechnologyandglobalizationhaveallowedculturesandideastomixatanever-increasing

rate,andjournalistshelpmakesenseofitall.

While guides, thenmagazinesandnewspaper sections,providedpractical information

to its readers, they also play a pivotal role in helping travelers decide where to spend their

money, fulfilling the consumer function described by Hanusch (2012b). Defining travel

journalism,likelifestylejournalism,hasnotbeenthefocusofmuchacademicattention,butthe

most recent definitionof travel journalism includes consumerismas a defining feature of the

medium. Whereas journalism traditionally treats its audiences in relation to political affairs,

what Schudson calls “the part of journalism with the strongest claim to public importance,”

traveljournalismtreatsitsaudienceasapotentialtravelerandconsumeroftravelexperiences

(2011,p.7).Recentworkintotraveljournalism’simpactandproductionhaveyieldedaworking

definitionthat,whilearguablyimperfect,offersanoverviewofthekeycharacteristicsoftravel

journalism

as factual accounts that address audiences as consumers of travel or tourism

experiences,byprovidinginformationandentertainment,butalsocriticalperspectives.

Travel journalism operates within the broader ethical framework of professional

journalistbutwithspecificconstraintsbroughtonbytheeconomicenvironmentof its

production(HanuschandFürsich2014p11).

Thismixof considerations– fromentertainment toethics– sharplynuances travel journalism

from traditional views of journalism as a fourth estate or government watchdog. Instead, it

seekstoinformaudiencesparticipatingwithinatravelsphere,insteadofthepublicspheremore

generally, and requires researchers to think more acutely of what this means. This question

becomesallthemoreimportantinadigitalagewheretraveljournalismfacesnewcompetition

togainthereaders’attention.Asthetourismindustryadaptstotheinternet,travelmediahas

alsobeenmigratingtotheweboverthepastdecadeorso(Vermal,Stock,&McCarthy,2012).

Withtheonsetofblogs in theearly21stcenturyandthedevelopmentofsocialmedia

and user generated content like TripAdvisor, professionally-produced travel journalism has

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takenabackseat (Pirolli 2015).Research showshow travelersare increasingly looking to sites

likeTripAdvisortogetinformationandreviewsabouttheirtrips(Gretzel,Yoo,&Purifoy,2007).

Likewise,blogshavebecomecompetitors for journalists seekingcooperationwith the tourism

industryasresourcesarenowdividedovera largerpoolofpeople (Gant,2007;Carson,2008;

Akehurst,2009).Amajorchallengetotheseuser-generatedsites,however, isthe lackoftrust

onuser generated sites andotherdigitalmedia (O’Connor, 2008.Blöbaum,2014). Journalism

has responded, according to some researchers, to account for this user-generated content.

Somemainstream journalists position themselves against user-generated content, suggesting

that it cannot produce the same content as professionals can (Witschge, 2013, p. 166). Sue

Robinson (2011), however discusses how user generated content can work alongside

professionals in her study on a local American newspaper. She describes that asmany news

readersmoveawayfromtraditionalsources,journalismfunctionsasaprocess,sharedbetween

professionalsandnon-professionals,whereby“newsisconsideredtobeunfinishedand–more

importantlyperhapsfor journalists–ownedbynooneentityor individual(Robinson,2011,p.

200).

Travel media reflects this idea of process, with no one ultimate authority on travel

amongtheblogs,guides,publications,andreviewsites.Whileglossymagazinesandguidesstill

exist, they are no longer the sole purveyors of travel information and, as Duffy states, the

internetwillimpactthejournalistsofthefuture,“whohavenotcomeofagebackpackingwitha

well-thumbedcopyoftheRoughGuide,butjourneyinsteadwiththeopinionsofmillionsonthe

Internetattheirfingertips”(Duffy,2014,p.99).

WhileresearcherslikeDuffyexamineitsproduction,otherstudieslookattheimpactof

travel journalism in society and on the industry. Journalism responds to questions of

multiculturalism, according to Deuze (2005), addressing three major questions including

“knowledge of journalists about different cultures and ethnicities, issues of representation

(pluriformityordiversity),andperceivedsocialresponsibilitiesofjournalistsinademocraticand

multiculturalsociety(Deuze,2005,p.453).PutFocusingmorespecificallyontraveljournalismin

thiscontext,recentstudieshavediscussedhowtogenreintheframeworkofcosmopolitanism,

describinghow it plays a role in culturalmediation (Fürsich andKavoori, 2001; Fürsich, 2010;

Schoon,2014).BenCockingdemonstrateshowUKmediaframeandrepresentMiddleEastern

cultures, contributing to “othering” of foreign people (2009). Travel journalism can also be

studied within the context of place branding, as Lynn McGaurr discusses, which leads to

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questions of how both public relations and government institutionsworkwith – or control –

journalistsintimesofpoliticalorenvironmentalcrisis,forexample.“Intourismpublicrelations,

governmentsplayperhapsanevenlargerrolethanbusiness,atleastintermsofpromotingthe

destinationinitsentirety,”McGaurrsuggests(2015,p.57).

These few but varied studies demonstrate to what extent travel journalism deserves

more legitimate attention. By understanding its aims and its audiences, we can further the

conversationtolookattraveljournalismasaformofconstructivejournalism.Whileembracing

entertainmentbutalsocriticalperspectives,traveljournalistsdomorethansimplyprovidefeel-

goodpieces.Thispaperseekstoillustratehowtraveljournalismcanbeconstructivebyengaging

withitsactorsandunderstandingwhatmotivatestheirwork.

4. Methods

Tobegintoexplorethis topic, Iassembledaresearchproject thatwouldconsistof interviews

and content analysis across different travel media, including bloggers, TripAdvisor, among

others.Thisprojectwasa larger studyon the roleof individual contentcreators in theonline

travelmedia environment. In this paper, however, Iwill bepresenting a sampleof the larger

project to focuson the journalists interviewed tounderstandhow theyact in a constructivist

manner. Based off the above questions surrounding constructive journalism, I propose three

researchquestionstoorganizethestudy:

RQ1:Towhatextentaretraveljournalistspositiveintheircoverage?WhileGyldensted

(2015) describes that positive reporting is not the only goal of constructive journalism, it

remainsacomponent.Howthen,dotravel journalistsembracethispositivitytowardsworking

inamoreconstructivedirection?

RQ2: How to journalists incorporate constructed journalistic practices in their work?

Deuze(2005)outlinesbasicvaluesrelatedtoobjectivity,autonomy,andimmediacy,describing

how practices need to adapt as journalism changes “in an increasingly complex and liquid

modernsociety”(p.455).Dobasicpracticesoutlinedinjournalismmanualsandbypractitioners

stillapplytotoday’stravelmedia?

RQ3: Perhaps too simplistically,why do these travel journalistswrite?What are their

goals for their publications? While guided by ideologies related to public service (Kovach &

Rosenstiel, 2007;Deuze, 2005), how to travel journalists articulate their personalmotivations

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fortravel?Withvaryingtastesandexperiences,aretheyseekingtodomorethanjustproduce

accuratestories?

To answer these questions, I conducted semi-directive interviews with 12 English-

speaking journalists inParis in 2014and2015. I culled these journalists formmyprofessional

network, but mostly by snowball sampling, tapping into the network and finding potential

candidates. The expat journalist community in Paris is a relatively small pool of professionals

andmanyof theprofessionalsknoworareat leastawareof theothersworking in their field.

Theyweremostlyfreelancers,workingprimarilywithonlinemedia,reflectingtherealitiesofthe

travelmedia todaywhereby fewpublications canafford to send journalists abroad (McGaurr,

2015). I conducted interviews in Parisian cafés, recorded them, and transcribed them, each

lasting between one and two hours. Interviewees are identified by their gender and age

throughoutthefollowingsections.Atthesametime,Itookasampleofthemostrecentarticles

availableonlinewrittenbytheseprofessionals,resultingin69articlespublishedbetween2011

and 2014. The articles appeared in travel publications and travel sections including The New

YorkTimes,CondéNastTraveler,USAToday,TimeOutParis,Fodor’s,andTheSundayTimes. I

coded the articles to identify some very general and basic journalistic practices including

introducing facts, giving a newsworthy context, and citing any sources (Kovach & Rosenstiel,

2007;Wahl-Jorgensen&Hanitzsch,2009)

5. Results:Constructivisttraveljournalismareality

Theresultsoftheinterviewsrevealedseveralinterestingpointsthatcouldleadtoaconstructive

interpretationoftraveljournalismifwecanbeflexiblewithitsinitialdefinition.Whilenottrying

to informtheirreadersasacitizenry,travel journalistsdoperceivetheiraudiencesasneeding

guidanceandassistancenavigatingthroughthetourismindustry.Inthisway,aswe’llsee,travel

journalistsarefulfillingaconstructivistrolebypushingtheirreadersforwardthroughthetravel

process and helping them solve their problems, rarely dwelling on the negative or

uncomfortable aspects of travel. The interviewees revealed a strong sense of professional

identity,but they fall shortofmirroring themorepolitical andhardnews journalists. Instead,

they have their own set of ideals and practices based off their particular audiences and the

specificconditionsunderwhichtraveljournalismisproduced(Hanusch2010).

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5.1. Stayingpositive

OnemajorresultthatrespondstoRQ1isthethatjournalistsaregenerallypositiveintheirwork.

Theyarekeenlyawarethatreaderswanttoknowwhattheyshoulddoandwhattheyshouldsee

whentheytravel,anddwellingonnegativeaspectsdoesnotpushtheirstoriesforward.Thisisa

keyunderpinningof constructive journalism,according toGyldensted (2015,528).Partof this

positivity is due to a lackof space inmagazines andnewspapers towastewordsonnegative

commentary,butpartofit isalsosimplyunderstandingthesubjectivenatureoftravel.Asone

journalist,40yearsold,discussed,thereisalwaysapositivespintoputonatopic.“IfIdon’tlike

something, there are people who will like it. Somebody likes it, so why?” she said. Another

journalist,36yearsold,alsodiscussedwritingaboutexperiencesthatmaynothavebeentoher

taste. She said, however, that her goal is always “sticking to the truth butmaking that truth

beautifultoread.”

One journalist, 46 years old, was critical of how remaining positive can sometimes

hinderthelocationandthereaders’perceptionofit.Inhermind,remainingpositiverelatesto

projectingthetruthaboutaplaceandcombattingstereotypes:

In the travel and features pages you have this perfect vision of Paris. In the same

newspaper, in thenewspages, it’salmostxenophobicwheretheyshowtheFrenchas

arrogantandstupid.Youdon’thavetodothefairycakethingtopleaseyourreadersIf

you’reworkingforanewspaperormagazine,it’stheeditorswhoareatfault.Youneed

tochangethem.

Thisdesiretobepositivebutalsotopromotethetruthisfundamentaltotraveljournalism,and

contributes to a constructivist interpretation. In this example, the journalist wants to push

forward and break from the simplistically positive view of Paris to amore realistic view that

contextualizes and nuances the people who are stereotypes. The journalists, as we see, go

beyond simple positive statements that lack societal significance that Gyldensted requires of

constructivejournalism(2015,198).

A larger look at travel media, however, can better situate travel journalism as

constructive, especially with online review sites. While the positivity of journalists – and

bloggers, as our further research has also demonstrated – are appreciated by readers, these

writers are the ying to the yang of review sites like TripAdvisor. Never before have somany

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individualsbeenabletovoicetheiropinionsaspublicallyabouttheirexperiences.Asresearch

shows, TripAdvisor’s website has the “capacity to give ‘voice’ to the authentic opinion of

independent travelers” (Jeacle,2011,p.31).Theseopinions,however,are largely critical, and

oftenwantonlynegative,asina2010studyoncomplaintsonTripAdvisor(Vásquez).Numerous

reviewsseektoassess the impactof thesereviewsontravelersand,moreover,onbusinesses

withinthetourismcommunity,tosee iftheycanactuallyalterperspectives(seeVermeulen&

Seegers, 2009). While the debates continue over TripAdvisor’s impact, it is interesting to

consider travel journalism’s role as a potential watchdog of these siteswhich are growing in

prominence.Thepositivityand truthembracedby journalismseems tocounter thenegativity

andopinionofreviewsites–thoughwecaneasilyargueforthenecessityofbothwhenmaking

travel decisions. These multiple viewpoints echo Robinsons ideas on journalism as process,

whereby individualpostsorarticlesmaynotbeverifiedortrustworthyontheirown,“butthe

processitselfcanachievethejournalisticgoalofinformationalempowerment”(2011,p.190).

5.2. Embracingjournalism,toacertainextent

Another key result, relating to RQ2, is that travel journalists do incorporate some basic

journalistic constructs in their work. While the content analysis revealed a relatively weak

representationofpractices, the interviews revealedhow travel journalistsembrace their role.

Mostnotablytheyreinforcetheirdutytowritefortheirreaders.AsKovachandRosenstielstate,

“Thenotionthatthosewhoreportthenewsarenotobstructedfromdiggingupandtellingthe

truth–evenattheexpenseoftheowners’otherfinancialinterests–isaprerequisiteoftelling

the news not only accurately but also persuasively” (2007, p. 52-53). The responses in the

interviews overwhelmingly responded this dedication to the readers.One journalist, 47 years

old, summed it up by saying, “That’s all you’re doing. I’m writing this material to serve an

audience, it’s not for pleasure or for myself or for the editors. It’s for a specific audience.”

Another,52yearsold, alsoaffirmedher roleasa travel journalistbykeepingheraudience in

mind and asking herself, “how are they going to have the best experience during their two

weekshere?”

Thejournalistsrecognizethatthis istheroleofnotonlytheindividualwriters,butthe

publicationstheyworkforaswell.Asone37year-oldjournalistdescribed,herentiremissionis

to give travelers the tools to find a unique experience. “We’re trying to show a different

approachandgivepeopleuseful,practical information that’sgoing to setusapart.That’s the

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objective,” she said. Another journalist, 40 years old, also stated that travel journalists – as

opposed tobloggersor non-professional reviewers – can give their audiences something that

thoseothergroupsmightnotbeableto,atleastassystematically.Sheexplained,“That’swhat

makesyouvaluable,notthatyouknowsomethingisbetterbutthatyoucantellsomeonewhy.”

Therefore, shesuggests thatbeingable tocontextualize, justify,andexplain toanaudience is

themost important thing that travel journalistsdo.All of this isdependentona relationship,

howeverdistant, between the journalist and the audience, and realizing that they serve their

readersbeforetheinterestsoftheirpublicationsorthetourismindustry.

While travel journalists fulfil this key journalistic role, others are less rigorously

implemented. For example, the content analysis revealed that only 29%of articles contained

external sources and only 55 actually contained any news hooks or newsworthy information.

Theconceptofnews,however,doesn’tnecessarilymeanthesamethingforatravelaudienceas

opposed to a political or current events reader. As one 40 year-old journalist said, “In travel

writingit’snotreallythatusefultobewritingaboutthehottest,trendiestrestaurants.Travelers

haven’tbeentoanyrestaurantsyet,sowhydotheycarewhat’snew?”Thejournalistssuggest

that topics not thoughtof traditionally as news can still benewsworthy for travelers.One37

year-oldjournalistarguesthateveryarticleshouldtheoreticallyhaveanewshookinit,relating

tocurrentevents,butperennialstoriesarealsoastapleofthetravelmedia.Sheexplainedthat

a story “can exist as a perennial. I did a story on the Paris [flea markets], that’s perennial.

There’s always interest in vintage shopping at the flea markets.” While not striking

newsworthiness from the criteria of travel journalism, it would be interesting to study how

notions of news vary between different types of journalism and to vary professional

expectationsaccordingly.

Furtherresearchintotheideologyoftraveljournalistsrevealsvariousinterpretationsof

their profession, including questions surrounding ethics, transparency, objectivity, and new

technologies.Ananalysisof travel journalists’ viewson theirownprofession (Pirolli,2016),as

comparedtomorenormativevisionsofjournalisminacurrenteventscontext,revealthatthese

professionals are struggling to adapt to newmedia and competition onlinewhilemaintaining

theideologydescribedbyDeuze(2005).

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5.3. Empowerandembolden

Where travel journalists appear to embrace constructive journalism is in their desire to

empowerandtoemboldentheirreadersduringtheirtravels.Whilethemotivationsvariedfrom

journalistto journalist–somewriteformoney,someforthemselves–manyjournalistsevoke

thattheyarewritingfortheiraudiences,butmoreoverthattheywanttoinspireandempower

them. This is a key element of travel that recognizes as well that all readers are not active

tourists–somearecalled“armchairtravelers”andmaybemovedtotravelbasedonthemedia

theyconsume(Damkjoer&Waade,2014).

Thetraveljournalistsinterviewedwerekeenlyawareofthispotential.Onejournalist,37

yearsold,saidhermotivationtobecomeatravel journalistwasaltruistictothiseffect.“Being

up to speed, being able to share news and information. I think that is probably the main

motivation and to get people excited to travel,” she said. In a similar fashion, a 41 year-old

journalist I said that she wants to help readers discover something new. “In general, in

journalism, it’stobringsomething interestingornewthatpeopledidn’tknowof.Evenif it’sa

topicthat’sgenerallyknownbuttobringoutapartthatpeopledidn’tknowabout,”shesaid.

One journalist, 37 years old, said, “[My motivation is] a good combination of being

helpful and not just giving tips for the secret entrance…but also helping people discover

something lesser known or really unique about the city. And giving them the courage to do

that.”Thisfinalstatementisattheheartofconstructivejournalism,atleastinatravelcontext.

Whilenot seeking social changeor trying tomakesocietybetter, travelaudiencescan stillbe

moved forward. Such results could include booking their first international trip, filing for a

passport,orgoingsomewheretheyhaveneverheardofbefore.WhiletheUNWTOprojectsthat

1.8 billion people will be traveling international by 2030, many people are still inhibited by

travel. Developing countries like China and Brazil are sending increasing amounts of tourists

worldwide,butat the same time recent terrorevents inmajordestinations suchasParis and

Nice have also hurt growth. Travel journalists mediate between these events and travelers,

helping to encourage them to travel and to reassure them, playing the role of “first aid,” a

journalisticroledescribedbyMorgensen(2008).

Whatthesestatementsalsoreveal isthattravel journalistsholdtheirworktoahigher

standardthanmaybethenorm.Forexample,severaljournalistspointtothetrendfortopten

listsandothersuchformatspopularlyusedintravelmedia.McGaurrdiscussesthepopularityof

lists inherbook,stating,“thetendencyoftravel journalismliststocondenseplace image into

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onephotographanda singleparagraphofbrand-aligned text, togetherwith their very strong

propensity to be shared on socialmedia,makes them exceptionally valuable branding tools”

(2015,p.167).Journalists interviewed,however,arenotallcontentwithsimplyprovidinglists

totheirreaders.Onejournalist,52yearsold,suggestedthat journalismcanbemorethanjust

reductive lists,saying,“Ithinktravelwritingcanbe[inspiring] likethat, insteadof justthetop

ten list, andwhere the flock is goingnext.”Another journalist, 40yearsold, criticizes lists for

failingto justifyanyassertionswhatsoever.Shesaid,“Travelwriting issoeasytouseclichés–

butwhycan’tyouleavePariswithoutdoingthisthing?YoucangetFrenchfoodanywhere,why

doyouneedtogetithere?”Thevolitionofthesejournaliststogobeyondthelists,togivetheir

readersmore,isanotherexampleofhowtheyareadoptingconstructiveideals.Thesefunctions

are pushing the reader forward, as Gyldensted (2015) suggests, albeit in a very specific way

relatingtotravelandtourism.

6. Conclusion

Whatthispaperattemptstopointoutisthatconstructivejournalismcanexistbeyondcurrent

affairs, and can deal with audiences other than a democratic citizenry. At the heart of

journalism,asKovachandRosenstiel(2007)pointout,theelementsofwhatallprofessionalsdo

is the same.Thecontext,however, inwhich journalistsperform theseduties,how theydo it,

andforwhomtheydoit,issusceptibletochangedependingonthespecificconditions.Travel,

in this case, is one such condition.As shownabove, in a limitedbut coherent fashion, is that

traveljournalistsarelivinguptoconstructivistidealsinasense,thoughnotuniversally.Theyare

awareofremainingpositive,andnotjustbypublishingfeel-goodstoriesbutbyprovidingtruth

andcontextforlargerissues.Theyareawareoftheirjournalisticdutytowritefortheirreaders

and not for the invested interests of their publishers. Finally, they are pushing forward, as

Gyldensted suggests, motivating and inspiring their readers to do more and to push further

afield.

Such actions may seem trivial but they are important in a digital era when travel

journalism is faced with challenges from user-generated content like TripAdvisor where

questionsoftrustarerife.Traveljournalists,workingforestablishedandoftentrustedbrands,

are able to provide trusted consumer-oriented information with a constructivist angle when

needed. Naturally, not all works of journalism will be pushing travelers forward, looking for

somegreatergood.Still,thattraveljournalistsunderstandtheirroleinthetravelmediaandthe

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potential theyhave for stimulating changeeither among readers or even among the industry

actorsisanimportantrealization.

This study, limited in scope, is just the first step in discussing lifestyle journalism in a

more constructivistmanner. The small number of journalists and the fact that they all live in

Pariscouldskewtheresults.Furtherresearchcouldimagineastudyonamoreheterogeneous

population,perhapslocatedinmorediverseregions–cities,smalltowns,resortislands,etc.A

morein-depthcontentanalysisoftheiractualstorieswillalsorevealmoreastowhatkindsof

subjects and angles they are actually taking. For the moment, this paper seeks simply to

introduce the possibility of looking at travel journalism through a constructivist lens, and

realizingthepotentialofthisgenretoopenitselfituptonewinterpretations.

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Smallislands,bigimpact:ConstructivejournalismpracticesinSt.MaartenandCuraçaoSanneRotmeijerLeidenUniversity/RoyalNetherlandsInstituteofSoutheastAsianandCaribbeanStudies(KITLV),TheNetherlandsrotmeijer@kitlv.nlABSTRACTCurrentresearchinJournalismStudiesshowshowincreasingvulnerabilityoflocalnewsmediato (in)direct commercial and political interference is reflected in editorial bias towardsmore uncriticalpositiveandsoftnews(i.a.Nielsen2015),alsointheCaribbean(Storr2016).However,lookingfromtheperspective of constructive journalism (Gyldensted 2015; McIntyre 2015) an editorial focus on morepositivenews itemsandconstructivestoryframingcanalsobetheresultofdeliberatechoicesbasedontheideathatjournalistscanandshouldcontributetosocialchange.Thispaperaddressesthisconstructivejournalism perspective in the small-scale media landscapes of two Caribbean islands, Curaçao and St.Maarten, both in the middle of a postcolonial nation-building process as they became autonomouscountrieswithintheKingdomoftheNetherlandsin2010whileretainingtheirnon-sovereignstatus.Basedon ten months of fieldwork and more than forty interviews with local journalists in Curaçao and St.Maarten, this studyof four concreteprint and social newsmedia vignettes shows that local journalistsaspiringtocontributetonation-buildingimplementconstructiveelementsintheirnewsstories.Indeed,Iarguethatpositivenewsselectionandconstructivestoryframingoftenresultfromidealstostrengthenlocal communities and contribute to nation-building. By closely examining concrete vignettes ofconstructive journalism in two island nations, this paper sheds new light on constructive journalismpracticesinlocalmedialandscapesinsmall-scalepostcolonialsocieties.KEYWORDSConstructiveJournalism;Caribbeanmedia;LocalNews;JournalismPractice

1. Introduction

Thechallengesfacingtoday’slocalnewsmediahavebeenwidelydebatedinJournalismStudies.

Carson et al. (2016), Firmstone (2016), Franklin (2006), and Nielsen (2015) have argued that

worldwideeconomicand technological changeshave increased thevulnerabilityof localnews

mediato(in)directcommercialandpoliticalinterference,limitingtheirpracticeasindependent

“watchdogs” and increasing their dependence on sponsored content and official sources

without independentverification.Papoutsaki&SundarHarris (2008),Puppis (2009),andStorr

(2014,2016)haveshownthatnewsmedialandscapesinislandcommunities,respectivelyinthe

Pacific and in the Caribbean, share local journalism’s vulnerability to political and economic

pressures due to the small-scale of the islands: news media often is politically affiliated,

dependent on advertisers, and they lack trained and professional journalists. Moreover,

journalists on these islands face additional constraints often rooted in colonial history and its

legacies.Storr(2014)argues,forexample,that“Caribbeangovernmentsareverysecretive”,like

theirformercolonies(188).Theyarenotwillingtoshareinformationaboutpoliticalprocesses

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behinddoorswiththepublic,while theyactivelysupport“positive”anduncriticalnewsabout

theirpoliticalaccomplishments.“Inthesesmall,secretivesocieties,mediasystemsareplagued

bypartisanpolitics,whichpresentsitselfinavarietyofwaysandinfluencestheperformancesof

journalists”(Storr2016:167).

While these studies offer valuable insights for understanding howeconomic, political,

and social challenges contribute to uncritical and biased positive local news in small-scale

postcolonial societies, little research has been done on the active and perhaps more

independent role local journalists and newsrooms play in framing the news. How do they

understandtheirpositioninthesesmallcommunities?Whatdotheywanttoachievewiththeir

work?Andhowdonews stories reflect these ideals? Theanswers to thesequestions arenot

only interesting, theyalsoarenecessary to focuson in smallCaribbeansocieties “thathavea

predilection for secrecy, silence, and authoritarian governance”, which may require that

journaliststakeonamoreradicalroleto“bringaboutchangeandreform”(Storr2016:97).The

recently developed concept of “constructive journalism” (Gyldensted 2015a; McIntyre 2015)

touches upon these questions and sheds a different light on the reasons journalists focus on

morepositivenewsitemsandstoryframing.Indeed,whileconstraintsonlocalnewsmediamay

lead touncriticalpositivenews,Gyldensted (2015a)andMcIntyre (2015)argue thatpositively

constructednewscanalsobetheresultofdeliberatechoicesbasedontheideathatjournalists

canandshouldcontributetosocialchange.

Thispaperaddresses this constructive journalismperspective in the small-scalemedia

landscapes of two Caribbean islands, Curaçao and St. Maarten, that became autonomous

countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands through a constitutional reform in 2010.

Currently,theislands’communitieslookbackonthepoliticalchangesandhowitaffectedthem

inlightofongoingnation-buildingprocesses.Inthemiddleofthesocialchangetakingplaceon

the islands, local journalismplays anessential role in reflecting and shaping thepast, current

public debates, and the future of the newnations. Based on tenmonths of fieldwork on the

islands,duringwhichIdidparticipantobservationatthreedifferentnewsroomsandconducted

more than forty interviews with local journalists, editors and news bloggers, I selected four

concrete vignettes of constructive journalism practices in print and in online news media in

small-scalepostcolonialsocieties.Bycloselyexaminingthesevignettes,Idemonstratehowlocal

journaliststopromotesocialchangeinthesmallnewnations,andhowtheyaspiretocontribute

tonation-buildingbyimplementingconstructiveelementsintheirnewsstories.

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Sofar,researchintheemergingfieldofconstructivejournalismhasmainlyfocusedon

examiningdistinctelements,suchaspositiveemotionsandsolutioninformation,inthefulltext

ofanewsstory.Therefore,McIntyre suggests that further research inconstructive journalism

shouldinclude“theuseoftheseconstructiveelementsinotheraspectsofnewsstoriessuchas

headlinesand images” (2015:81), and recognizes the fact “that technology todayencourages

informationquantity,notquality, throughplatformssuchasTwitterandon-the-gonewsapps

such as Flipboard, which was designed to allow users to quickly flip through news content”

(2015: 82).With the four vignettes presented in this paper, I demonstrate a wide variety of

constructivejournalismpractices,rangingfromre-formulatingnewspaperheadlines,tocreating

apositiveimageofthenationonsocialmediaplatforms.Moreover,Inotonlyfocusonthenews

textsandimages,butbylookingatinterviewmaterial,Ialsoexaminetheconstructiveelements

inhow individual journalists reflecton thesocial contributionof theirnewswork. Inaddition,

research inconstructive journalismhasbeen largely focusedonEuropeanandUSnewsmedia

landscapes. By looking at examples of constructive journalism in two Caribbean islands, this

paperextendsthegeographicalscopeofresearchinthisfield,whileprovidingnewinsightson

the use of constructive elements in local journalism within small-scale communities in the

middleofapostcolonialnation-buildingprocess.

More specifically, by analyzing various practices of constructive journalism in Curaçao

andSt.Maarten, Ishowthatpositivenewsselectionandconstructivestoryframingcanresult

fromjournalists’idealstogrowawareness,and,thereby,canstrengthenlocalcommunitiesand

contribute to critical nation-building. These insights deepen our knowledge of how, in the

context of local news media landscapes, constructive journalism in small-scale postcolonial

communities empowers local journalists in constructing social change and increases their

impact.

2. Constructiveversuspositivejournalism

The roots of “constructive journalism” can be found in the work of journalist, investigative

reporter,andforeigncorrespondent,CathrineGyldensted.Workingonreportsandnewspaper

articles,shebecameawarethatnewsstoriesoverallportrayaone-sidednegativeimageofthe

worldwelivein.“Drawingonmyexperienceseekingandreportingonthetruth,itseemstome

that the ‘truth’ we are reporting is solely a pathological version of the world, which hardly

qualifies as being the only ‘truth’” (Gyldensted 2015a: 9). According to Gyldensted, news

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journalistshavebecomefixatedontheirimportant“watchdog”function;controllingtheonesin

power and informing the public about threats resulting from the abuse of power. Whereas

beingthe“watchdog”isacorefunctionofjournalists,fixationonitexplainswhymostnewshas

becomeinherentlynegative(Gyldensted2015a:60).Gyldenstedarguesthatnegativenewsnot

only is undesirable, causing destructive images and worldviews among the public, it is also

inaccurate. Therefore, she proposes and experiments with applying positive psychology

techniquestobreakwiththenegativefixationthatunderliescurrentnewsmedia.

Gyldensted’sideashaveresonatedwithnewsworkpractitionersthroughoutEurope(i.a.

Haagerup 2014) leading to joint initiatives, such as the Constructive Journalism Project

(Constructive Journalism Project 2016), Constructive Voices (Green 2016), and a Constructive

JournalismresearchpillarattheUniversityofAppliedSciencesWindesheiminTheNetherlands

(Windesheim2016).Whereasconstructivejournalismhasbeenawell-knownmovementamong

practitioners, Karen McIntyre recently anchored the concept of “constructive journalism” in

academicresearch.Shedefinesconstructivejournalismas“anemergingformofjournalismthat

involves applying positive psychology techniques to news work in an effort to create more

productive,engagingstorieswhileholdingtruetojournalism’scorefunctions”(McIntyre2015:

9). These functions include informing people about “potential threats”, and serving as a

watchdogoverthegovernment(McIntyre2015:15).Withthisdescription,McIntyreemphasizes

the inherent distinction between constructive journalism and so-called “positive journalism”,

terms that are frequentlymixed up.Many practitioners of constructive journalism, however,

contest the presumed overlap. Positive journalism has “strong, emotional value, but lacks

societalsignificance”(Gyldensted2015a:13).Moreover,asMcIntyreargues,“becausepositive

journalists,who aremostly aggregators, aim to share good deeds and show readers that the

worldisabetterplacethanmainstreammediareflect,theymaynottendtopublishstoriesthat

maintain journalism’score functions (…)” (McIntyre2015:15).Constructive journalism,onthe

other hand, is not only and exclusively focused on positive news items, nor about creating a

romanticized image of theworld. “Constructive journalism recognizes that faults, failure, and

abuse exist in the world; however, it maintains that simultaneously there is always

development, growth, and opportunity” (Gyldensted 2015a: 7). In contrast to positive

journalism that aims to oppose the negative fixation in today’s news by focusing on positive

news, constructive journalism concentrates on informing people more accurately by

constructing stories from multiple angles. In the words of the media practitioners of the

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Constructive Journalism Project: “Constructive journalism is an approach; it is more

abouthowwereport–whateverit iswe’rereportingon–ratherthanwhatwereport”(Batist

2015). It focuses on comprehensive reporting on reality, it emphasizes possible solutions for

problems, innovative collective ideas, and examples of how people overcome crises.

“Practitionersofconstructivejournalismaimtomotivateindividualstocontributetoproductive

socialchange”(McIntyre2015:35).

3. Constructivejournalisminpractice

Constructivejournalismstartswithacritical,butopenconstructivemindsettowardspeopleand

theworld. Derived from insights of positive psychology, constructive journalism focuses on a

well-beingmodelof theworldandapproachespeopleashavingstrengths (Gyldensted2015a:

25). This constructive mindset is something that can either be individually cultivated by the

journalistor rather (andsimultaneously)embeddedandencouraged in thenewsroom.During

editorial meetings, for example, constructive editors(-in-chief) can give preference to more

constructivestoryitemsandcoverageovermoresensational,negativebreakingnews.

Constructive journalistsareawareofthe impactnewsmediahaveonsociety.“Instead

of having a faulty belief around objectivity, we should strive for being fair, balanced, and

accountable”, says Gyldensted (2015a: 51). Constructive journalism considers the perspective

and interpretation given to stories and takes a problem-solving approach. Constructive

journalists acknowledge that not only those in power can have an impact. Moreover, they

approachtheonesinpowernotinaadversarialway,butbyaddingnuances.“Weaddquestions

of a constructivenature.We focusondocumentinghowwell powerholders collaboratewith

others to solve societal challenges. We facilitate a debate about future visions” (Gyldensted

2015a: 172). Gathering the news, constructive journalists often make use of future-oriented

interviewing“facilitatingapublicdebatemoreaboutvisionsandfutureperspectivesforsociety”

(Gyldensted2015a:107).

Constructivejournalismpromotespositivestoryframing,whenconsideringwritingand

presentingthenews.First,thisisreflectedinapositiveexplanatorystylebythewriter.“People

with a negative explanatory style typically attribute negative outcomes to internal, stable, or

global causes. (…) In contrast, people with a positive explanatory style typically attribute

negativeoutcomestoexternal,temporary,specificcauses”(Gyldensted2015a:19-20).Second,

positive story framing is mirrored in the construction of texts. An example of a constructive

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story frame is a silver liningnews story “that highlights positiveoutcomes fromanotherwise

negativetopic(…)”(Gyldensted2015b).Notonlydothesesilverliningstoriespromoteideason

solutions, innovation, and change, previous researchpointsout that readers remember these

ideas “from silver lining news than from either positive or negative news reports” better

(Gyldensted2015b).

Overall,constructivejournalismisaratherpragmaticapproach,notonlyconcentrating

on itspositivemessage,butalsoonwhatworks. Inorderwords, it is concernedwithhow its

message is received, shared and remembered by its readers. According toGyldensted, this is

particularly true for online newsdevelopments. “Weneed to understandwhatmakes people

share stories tomake sure journalistic content gets the attention it deserves in the vast and

growingseaofinformation”(Gyldensted2015a:7).

4. Receptionofconstructivejournalism

Despite the fact that theconceptof constructive journalismhas just recentlybeendeveloped

andanchoredinacademia,itiscloselyrelatedtootherjournalismparadigms.Probablythemost

closely related field is “solutions journalism,” which the in 2013 US-founded Solutions

Journalism Network defines as “rigorous, compelling reporting about responses to social

problems” (Bansal&Martin2015).Compared to constructive journalism, solutions journalism

“isa specificpractice,notabroadmovement. It’s a toolany reporter canadopt tousewhen

appropriate” (Rosenberg 2016). As stated above, it can be seen that constructive journalists

often use solution-focused news formats and future-oriented interviewing as tools in their

journalismpractices.Otherfieldsrelatedtoconstructivejournalismincludepeaceandadvocacy

journalism, (hyper)local journalism, and civic journalism.While there canbeoverlapbetween

the very practices of these approaches, McIntyre stresses that “constructive journalism is

distinct in its intentions, methods, training, and commitment to journalism’s core functions,

whicharereflectedinallpartsofthenewsprocess,fromstorygenerationtonewsgatheringto

production”(2015:10).

Whereasthefoundersandpioneersofconstructivejournalismcontinuouslydistinguish

the concept from uncritical positive news, critique has been directed primarily towards the

blurreddistinctionbetweenpositiveandconstructive journalismand thepitfalls accompanied

byit.Somecriticshavestatedthatby“tryingtobepositiveattheexpenseoftellingthetruth,

[constructivejournalism]riskswateringdownnewsandundercuttingtheaccountabilityroleof

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journalists” (World Editors Forum 2016). Within academia several media scholars have

challenged the approach of constructive journalism while studying the role of Chinese news

media on the African continent and its presumed parallels with constructive journalism.

ProfessorofMediaStudiesattheUniversityofCapeTown,HermanWasserman,explains:“On

theonehand, this alternative approach [of constructive journalism] canprovidenewwaysof

journalisminandaboutAfrica,butontheotherithasalsoraisedconcerns”(2017:196).Oneof

these concerns has been that constructive journalism “avoids politically controversial stories

andfocusesonmorepositivenarratives”(Yanqiu&Matingwina2016:94).AccordingtoAnton

Harber, Caxton Professor of Journalism atWitsUniversity, however, it is exactly reporting on

controversialstoriesandbeing“disruptiveanddiscomfiting,particularlyforthepowerful"that

makes great journalism (World Editors Forum 2014). “The rest is necessary, routine and

soporific.Itisonlyconstructiveifyouwantasleepy,complacentsociety,notifyouwantactive,

engagedcitizens”,asHarbersays(Idem).

Inadditiontoconcernsraisedaboutjournalisticquality,theSouthAfricanscholarshave

questionedthevariousintereststhatmayunderlieconstructivejournalism.Lookingatthestate

owned Chinese newsmedia in Africa, for example,Wasserman argues that both the Chinese

stateandlocalAfricangovernments“haveavestedinterestinportrayingChina-Africarelations

ascordialandbeneficial,andAfricanstatesasworthyof investment”(Wasserman2017:196).

According toWasserman, these underlying interests are particularly prevalent in postcolonial

societies indevelopment,where vulnerable governments stand to gainpositive anduncritical

mediarepresentation.Inordertocurtailtheriskofgovernmentalmediacontrolandrepression,

Wassermanarguesthatitisessentialtoclearlyseparateconstructivejournalismfromuncritical

positivejournalism,“especiallyincontextslikenewdemocracies(…),wheregovernmentsoften

makedemandsforthemediatosupportratherthancriticisethem"(WorldEditorsForum2014).

Besidesunderliningthedifferencebetweenconstructive journalismandpositivenews,

practitioners of constructive journalism have repeatedly pointed out that constructive

journalism must be distinguished from “government influenced ‘development journalism’”

(ConstructiveJournalismProject2016).

5. St.MaartenandCuraçao:Laboratoriesforconstructivejournalism

Localandregionalmediahavealwaysbeen importantnewssourcesforCaribbeanpeopleand

recentmedia research conducted inCuraçaoand, to a lesser extent, in St.Maarten, showan

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extensive media landscape (Curconsult 2014; De Wit 2015; Pin et al. 2016). As both islands

recently experienced far-reaching changes in their social-political landscapes, accompaniedby

media-mediateddebatesonwheretheislandcommunitiescurrentlystandandshouldgoto,the

newsmediaontheislandsserveasinterestinglabstostudytheroleofjournalistsinmirroring

andconstructingthechangingsocieties.Inthecontextofabroadercriticaldiscourseanalysisof

the role of Curaçaoan and St. Maarten newspapers, news websites, and social media in

reflecting,shapingandcommemoratingnational identities, Ididtenmonthsoffieldworkfrom

August 2015 to June 2016 to attain a better understanding of the islands’ news media

landscapes. In addition to participant observation at the newsrooms of three different

newspapers;TheDailyHeraldinSt.Maarten,theÈxtraandAntilliaansDagbladinCuraçao,Idid

in-depthinterviewsofninetyminutesonaveragewithmorethanfortyjournalists,editors,and

news bloggers. In the conversations I had with journalists I came across a number of cases

where journalists showedmehow they implement constructiveelements in theirnewswork,

oftenonthebasisofidealstostrengthenthelocalcommunitiesintransitionandcontributeto

nation-buildingontheislands.Becauseconstructivejournalismisaninnovativeandyoungfield

in journalism studies, the concept of “constructive journalism” was never mentioned by the

journalists as such. Indeed, “many reporters have never heard of the term ‘constructive

journalism,’ yet theymight unknowingly incorporate constructive techniques in their stories”

(McIntyre2015:9).

InthisarticleIzoominonfourexampleswhereCuraçaoanandSt.Maartenjournalists

deliberately implement constructive elements in news stories, as well as in headlines, and

images. Curaçao, as the largest Dutch Caribbean island, served as the administrational and

governmentalcenterofthein2010dismantled“NetherlandsAntilles”1,soitsmedialandscape

is considerably bigger than that of St. Maarten. Therefore, three of the four vignettes are

derivedfromthefieldworkinCuraçao.Thefirstvignette,though,isbasedonaninterviewwitha

journalist at The Daily Herald, the biggest English-language newspaper of St. Maarten. The

insightsfromtheconversations Ihadwiththeeditor-in-chiefandthepublishergiveadditional

contextualinformation.ThesecondexamplestemsfrominterviewsattheAntilliaansDagblad,a

smallDutch-languagenewspaperinCuraçao.Heretoo,theconversationsIhadwiththeowner,

1The“NetherlandsAntilles”istheconstitutionalconstructionthatheldsix,andlaterfive,DutchCaribbeanislandstogethersince1954.In2010thisconstructionwasdismantled.CuraçaoandSt.Maartenbecame,afterArubain1986,autonomouscountrieswithintheKingdomoftheNetherlands.Bonaire,St.EustatiusandSaba(BES-islands)wereintegratedintheNetherlandsasso-calledopenbarelichamen.

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whoatthesametimeisthepublisherandeditor-in-chief,serveasadditionalinformation.Third,

IfocusonthebiggestPapiamentu(alocalCreole-language)newspaper,Èxtra. Interviewswith

its editor-in-chief and the co-publisher lead this vignette. The fourth one is based on a

journalisticblogconnectedtoanInstagramandFacebookaccountofayoungnewsbloggerand

photographerinCuraçao.Thislastvignettegivesinsightsintotheidealsofayoungergeneration

ontheislands,andtheopportunitiesonlinemediacreateforconstructivejournalism.

TheanalysisIpresentinthisarticleispartofabroadercriticaldiscourseanalysisofnews

articles,interviewsandfieldnotesobtainedbetweenAugust2015andJune2016.Inthisarticle,

however,IusetheinterviewsIhadwithjournalistsandexamplesoftheirnewswork,whenever

theyreferredtoitduringtheseinterviews,as illustrationsofconstructivejournalismpractices.

In each vignette, I briefly describe the particular newsmedia context as well as the broader

medialandscapesinordertounderstandtheconstructivejournalismpracticesinthecontextof

thesmall-scalepostcolonialcommunities.

5.1.“Wordsthatwork”

TogetherwiththeFrenchcollectivityofSaintMartininthenorth,thesouthernpartSt.Maarten

formsanislandlocatedinthenorth-easternpartoftheCaribbean.Itsbi-nationalstatusreflects

thecolonialhistoryoftheisland,andits legacies intoday’scommunitywhereinequalityalong

linesofraceandclassstillprevails.PeoplelivingonbothsidesoftheislandpreferspeakingSt.

Maarteners’ English. On the French side, however, children are expected to learn French at

school,whileon the southern side,EnglishandDutchare theofficial languages, although the

latter isexclusivelywrittenandspoken inofficialgovernmentaland jurisdictionalsettings.The

southern part St. Maarten became an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the

Netherlandsin2010,maintaininganon-sovereignstatus.Since2010theislandhasseenmuch

political instability due to governmental crises and cases of corruption. St. Maarten is still

developing. Inapproximately30years theofficialpopulationhasgrown from4,000 to40,000

people.However,itissaidthatthisnumberdoubleswhenunregisteredworkingmigrantsliving

ontheislandareconsidered.Inadditionarethemillioncruiseandyachttouriststhatpassthe

islandeveryyear.Thesetouristsformthemaineconomicpillaroftheislandanditspeople,and

in thepastdecennia thegrowing tourism industryhasattractedmanyworkingmigrants from

thesurroundingislandsandthebroaderregion.Thishascausedarapidgrowthinnumber,but

alsoindiversityofthepopulationoftheisland.Somethingthatisnotonlyreflectedinthenow

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morethan120nationalitiesontheisland,butalsointhediversityofpeopleworkinginthelocal

press.

This vignette presents the visions andwork of a journalist whowas born in Guyana.

MorethanfifteenyearsagoshecametoSt.MaartentoapplyforajobatToday,oneofthetwo

newspapersontheisland.Inthemeantime,shehasmovedtoTheDailyHerald,knownas“the

leadingnewspaperforSt.MaartenandtheNortheastCaribbean”(TheDailyHerald2016).The

Herald, as localpeople call themorningpaper, is anewsmediabusinessof approximately80

employees in total, founded in the mid-nineties and run by a family with roots in Curaçao.

Accordingtothecurrentpublisher,arelativeofthefounderofTheHeraldwho, inthedistant

past,wastheeditor-inchiefoftheoldestDutchlanguagenewspaperofCuraçao(Amigoe),the

newspaperfollowsanAmericannewsmodel.Inhiswordsthismeansthattheyasanewspaper

“are not left or right from the outset, nor directly meddle with political parties” (personal

communication,March3,2016)2.Moreover,accordingtotheeditor-in-chief,TheHeraldtriesto

support positive initiatives in St.Maarten and beyond, for example by publishing about local

start-ups, charity events, and youth role models. In this way, The Herald “aims to positively

impactthelocalcommunity”(personalcommunication,March23,2016).

IntheinterviewsIconductedwiththereportersofTheHerald,theyallseemtobewell

awareoftheirroleandresponsibilityasjournalistsinthelocalcommunity.HereIhighlightthe

visionsofMona3,oneoftheeightjournalistsworkinginthenewsroomofTheHerald.Although

she iswell integratedon the island, calling itherhome, “inmyheart I amstill an immigrant”

(personal communication, March 22, 2016). Mona explains that her immigrant background

makes her more sensitive to the issues effecting immigrants, but also more aware of how

immigrantsperceivethenews:

Theimmigrantpopulationhereishuge.It'sthebiggestpartofthepopulation.AndIfind

that,unlikeme,a lotofpeoplearenotinvolvedin thecommunity. (…) And thereare

two reasons for that. The first one is: they don't feel part of the community. Second

2QuotesarederivedfromverbatimtranscriptionsImadeoftheinterviewsIconductedwithjournalists,editors,andnewsbloggers,allreferredtoas“personalcommunication”plusthedateIhadtheparticularinterview.QuotesaretranslatedfromconversationscontainingDutch-,Papiamentu-andEnglish-language.Intranslatingthequotes,Ihavetriedtostayascloseaspossibletotheoriginaltranscription,whilebearinginmindthereadabilityofthetext.3Allnamesofjournalists,editors,andnewsbloggersinthisarticlearepseudonyms.

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reason is: they'retoldthey are not part of the community. And I want to make an

impacttotellthem:thisaffectsyou4(personalcommunication,March22,2016).

When I asked her how shewants to addressmigrant people, and how that affects her news

work,shetells:

Everysingletimetheword“citizen”comesup,Ichangeitto“resident.”(…)Iknowit's

only a small, a small definition, but itmakes an impact.When somebody says “I'm a

citizen of St. Maarten,” automatically [people think]: “Oh that person has a Dutch

nationality.”That'sthemindset.Butwhenyousay:“I'maresident,”thenthequestion

comesup:“Ohwherethehelldidyoucame[from]?Youlivehere.”Rightawaythereisa

differentmindset, so I changed it. I said: that'smy little revolutionby itself. (…) I use

words thatwork tobringaboutan inclusivemindset (personal communication,March

22,2016).

Monaclarifiesthatbyusingtheword“resident”insteadof“citizen,”morepeopleidentifywith

thenews.Inthisway,sheaimstoprovidemoreinclusivenewsthatresonatesthroughpeople’s

minds. She also fights differentiation when it is not necessary because it creates social

differentiation. For this reason, she does not like the word “local,” either in referring to a

person’snationalitywhenitdoesnotaddanythingtoaparticularnewsfact.Hergoal,however,

in avoiding and changing particular words is not only in striving towards inclusion and less

differentiation.Intheinterviewshestressesthatshewantsmorepeopletotakeaction.Indeed,

byusing“wordsthatwork”sheaimstopromotetheactivecontributionofpeoplelivingonSt.

Maarteninthelocalcommunity.ThisapproachandtheidealsbehinditrefertowhatMcIntyre

saysabouttheaimofconstructivejournalists,namelyto“motivateindividualstocontributeto

productivesocialchange”(McIntyre2015:35).Regardingthis,shealsostoppedusingtheword

“victim,” for example when reporting on a crime, while referring to (possibly constructive)

developmentsinjournalismworldwide:

4Wordsthatrespondentsemphasizeduringtheinterviewsarewritteninitalicsinthequotesreferredtointhisarticle.

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Thereisasmallmovementintheworldofjournalismatthemoment,tostopusingthe

word“victim”, refrain from it, anduse theword“survivor.”Becausehow longarewe

goingtomakethatpersonavictim?(personalcommunication,March22,2016).

Calling it her “own revolution,”Mona stresses that theeditorial roomofTheHeraldhasnow

takenoverthechangesinaddressingpeopleby“residents”and“survivors”andonlymentioning

someone’snationalitywhenitaddsnecessaryinformationtoanewsfact.Thesechangesshow

that not onlyMona, on an individual level, but also the newsroomofTheHeraldas awhole

understandshowthenewstheyprovideasthebiggestnewspaperonSt.Maartenimpactsthe

cultureandbehaviorofpeople.Thus,bypromotingan inclusivemindsetandseeingpeopleas

having strengths, the newsroom of The Herald acknowledges that with constructive textual

changestheycanfulfilameaningfulroleforthedevelopmentofthesocietyofSt.Maarten.

5.2.“Towardsapositivemindset”

Whereas Curaçao and St. Maarten share a colonial history and have an autonomous status

within the Kingdom of the Netherlands since 2010, they differ in geography, culture,

demographics, economy, language, and their position within the Kingdom and the region.

CuraçaoisthebiggestislandofthesixDutchCaribbeanislands.TheislandispartoftheLeeward

Antilles,situatedoff thecoastofVenezuela.Dueto its location,the islandanditscommunity

hasbeenhighlyinfluencedbyLatinAmericanculture.Dutchculture,too,hashadabigimpact

on Curaçao, as the island, due to its central role in the Netherlands Antilles, traditionally

functionedas the connectionbetweenTheNetherlandsand theCaribbean islands. The island

houses a large number of European-Dutch people together with more than 140 other

nationalities. The biggest part of the Curaçaoan population, however, is the group of people

whowere born and/or raised in Curaçao or who identify with the island as their home. The

discussion of who belongs to this group, oftenmarked by the term “Yu di Kòrsou” (literally:

“Child of Curaçao”), has been contested and complex during the past decades and is deeply

intertwinedwiththeongoingdifferencesandinequalitiesontheislandalonglinesofclass,race

andlanguage(i.a.Oostindie2015;Allen&Guadeloupe2016).Themainspokenlanguageisthe

local Creole “Papiamentu” although Dutch is also commonly used, particularly by the more

highlyeducatedpeopleontheisland,andthepoliticalandeconomicelite.Thisdistinctionisalso

reflectedintheCuraçaoannewsmedialandscape,whichcontains,consideringitssmallareaof

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distribution,ahighnumberofnewsmediaoutletsandagrowingonlinepress.Thenewsmedia

landscapeofCuraçaoisalsohighlydiverseandmulti-lingual,withDutchandPapiamentumedia

existingnexttoeachotherandservingdifferentreaderships.

This first Curaçaoan vignette represents the ideas and practices of the Antilliaans

Dagblad(AD).ThisDutch-languagenewspaper isarelativenewcomertothe localnewsmedia

landscape.Foundedin2003,tobreathefreshlifeintheformerAlgemeenDagblad,thismorning

paper serves a more educated public. Its market share is tiny, yet its influence on decision

makerswithintheKingdomissaidtobesubstantial.Inthewordsofthepublisher,talkingabout

the role of the newspaper: “You set the agenda, you determine what will be discussed”

(personal communication,October21,2015).Thepublisher’sbackground is, similar to thatof

the owners of The Daily Herald in St. Maarten, at the Amigoe, the oldest Dutch-language

newspaperofCuraçao.Hehasbeen theownerof theAD since2008,whilealsoservingas its

editor-in-chiefandpublisher.Wearingmultiplehatsishighlyquestionablefromanindependent

journalisticperspective,howeveritisquitecommoninthesmalllocalmedialandscapesofthe

islandswherequalifiedpeoplearescarceasarethefinancialmeanstoinvestinqualifiedstaff.

The AD as well as other media outlets on both islands are well aware of these and other

structural constraints.During interviews I didwith journalists,many expressed their concerns

withreferencetodifficultprofessionalcircumstancessuchastheimpactoftheunstablepolitical

climate, the commercialization of news, and the few resources available to support good

journalism.InoneoftheinterviewswiththeowneroftheADontheroleofjournalismonthe

island,hestatedthatthesechallenges,however,shouldnotkeepjournalistsfromfulfillingtheir

importantconstructiveroleinlocalsociety.Indeed,heargues:

JournalismonCuraçaoisalsoacertainkindofmission,becauseyouoftenhavetowork

reallyhardfor lowwageandyoutakeupahighresponsibility(…). Ibeliefyouhaveto

haveadriving force somewhere tocontribute to thedevelopmentof thecountry. (…)

But this is something that you regularly see in countries in development (…) that

journalistswhoworkindevelopingcountriesmoreoftenhavethefeelingthattheyhave

to contribute to the improvement of (…) the country where you work, in this case

Curaçao(personalcommunication,October21,2015).

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When I askedwhat this contribution to the improvementof the country concretely entails in

newswork,particularly in thecontextof thepoliticalchangessince2010,hestated“Ibelieve

that in general we are a bit too pessimistic and often focusing on things that don’t work.

However, more attention should be paid to the things that do succeed” (personal

communication,October21,2015).

Thevisionoftheownerisreflectedoverallintheperceptionsandworkofthejournalists

workingattheAD.OneofthemisBirgit,whowasbornandraisedontheisland,whilehavinga

universityeducationalbackgroundinTheNetherlandsandinCuraçao.Shehasaclearvisionon

the local community and the roleof thepress in it. In an interviewwithher,Birgit illustrates

howsheimplementsthisvisionwhiletakingitastepfurtherbyreframingheadlinesinorderto

achieveamorepositivemindsetontheisland:

WhatIwanttosayisthat-whatIdotryistogetabitofapositivemindset.Forexample,

today the story about the Capriles clinic5, then Capriles clinic says- it also was my

headlineat first:“Caprilesclinichitsbottom.”TheyhaveadebtofmillionsandIknow

howmuch-butnowImadeofit:“Caprilesclinicneedshelp.”Thatisaratherdifferent

take,isn’tit?(personalcommunication,October23,2015).

Birgit explains that people on the island generally do things “pa loko” (Papiamentu, literally

translated:“haphazardly”).Moreover,“itisalwayscallingdownoneachotherandInoticethis

onalllevelsinsociety-frommychildrenatschooltopolitics”(personalcommunication,October

23,2015).Byframingtheheadlinesofstoriesmoreconstructively,shebelievesthatjournalism

can have an impact in changing the often negative mindset among people on the island.

Reframingheadlines insuchwaythat theyshowthatsolutionsarepossible, in thiscase if the

clinic gets help, is one example of how Birgit implements a more constructive journalism

perspectivewithinstoriesinordertocontributetoamorepositivemindsetontheisland.This

practiceisinlinewiththeidealsoftheowneroftheADforcontributingtothedevelopmentof

Curaçaowithhisnewspaper.

5ThegeneralpsychiatrichospitalofCuraçao.

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5.3.“Goodnewsforthepeople”

AstheDutch-languagenewsmediaonlyhaveatinymarketshareandarepreliminarydirected

towards more highly educated people on the island, with this third vignette I focus on the

constructive practices of the biggest newspaper of Curaçao, the Èxtra. On the island this

Papiamentu-languagemorningpaperisknownas“ekorantdipueblo”(literally:“thenewspaper

of thepeople”).However, according to a relativeof thepublisher,who shares thepublishing

taskwithhisfamilymember,“thepeople”shouldnotonlybeassociatedonlywiththeworking-

classmassontheisland:“No,itisallclasses,alllevels,thebusiness-men,itiseverywhere.But

indeed, ‘the people’ grabbed the paper and have never let go” (personal communication,

January1,2016).Havingmorethantwothirdsofthelocalprintmediamarketshare,thisfamily-

owned multi-media business used to control three newspapers and the biggest printing

companyontheisland.Today,thebusinessconcentratesontheÈxtraandtheprintingofficein

theneighboringbuildingwheremostofthenewspapersoftheislandarestillprinted.40Years

ago, in 1976, the Èxtra was founded with the goal of providing news for the Papiamentu-

speakingpopulation,andeducatingpeopleinreadingandwritinginthislocalCreolelanguage.

Whereasatthebeginningofitsexistence,sensationalcontentwasusedtoattractreadersand

advertisers, a tendency that can be observed to differing degrees among the five other

Papiamentu-languagenewspapersinCuraçao,todayitiscommonlyknownthattheÈxtraisone

ofthemoresolidnewspapersontheisland.TheeducationalprincipleoftheÈxtra,however,is

stillclear.Inresponsetomyquestionaboutwhathethinksisthemostimportantelementofhis

newswork,theco-publisherexplains:“ThatIcanplayapartintheformationofmycommunity

[inadditionto]informthecommunity”(personalcommunication,January1,2016).

In staying true to the newspaper’s ideal in relation to its readership, the Curaçaoan

people, thenewspaperpublishesmany small and very local news items.According to the co-

publisher, journalistscanonlytrulyfulfilaconstructiveroleandengagetheirreadersbygoing

backtothepeople,whosedaily livesareunfoldingaroundday-to-daysmallandbigeventson

theisland.ManyjournalistsattheÈxtrahaveworkedatthenewspaperfordecadesandlearned

their journalistic skills on the street. In conversations with them, they all expressed the

responsibilitytheyfeeltocontributetotheformationofCuraçaoandthestrongtiestheyhave

withtheislandanditspeople.Inconversationwiththe(deputy)editor-in-chief,forexample,his

answertomyquestionaboutwhathewantstoachievewithhisworkis:“Wellimportanttome

as a journalist is to furnish good news. In a sense you provide information, you inform your

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readership.Yougiveacontributiontothecommunitysothattheyaregoodinformed(personal

communication, December 11, 2015). When I ask him what good news means to him, he

answers:

Goodnewsdoesn’thavetobepositive.Butgoodnewsinthesensethatitisinformation

whichgivesthecommunityabetter-orapparentlybetter-understandingforwhatever

theproblemis.(…)wellinvestigated,(…)ithastoleadto-orabetterunderstandingof

theproblem,ortheproblemcanbetreated,ortheproblemcanbesolved.Thusithas

to lead to something better. That is good news. For me (personal communication,

December11,2015)

Thisexplanationofthemeaningofgoodnewsillustratesasolution-focusedvisionontheroleof

journalism.The(deputy)editor-in-chiefoftheÈxtraemphasizesthat,inhisopinion,goodnews

isnotsomuchaboutpositivenewsitems,butmoreaboutconstructivelyframingthenewsand

working towards more understanding in the community on problem-solving and giving

informationaboutpotentialsolutions.

5.4.“Itsmellslikechange”

Since thebeginningof the 21st century the Internet andnew technologies have changed the

practice and profession of journalists in the Caribbean (Storr 2014). Digital technologies have

pushedalmostallCuraçaoanandSt.Maartennewspapers, radio,andbroadcastingstationsto

integrateonlinemediaintotheiroperations.Also,“localjournalists(…)startedtouseFacebook

tosharenewsandcommentsonthenews”(Pinetal.2016:22).Inadditiontotheopportunities

theInternethascreatedforestablishednewsmedia, ithasprovidedayoungergenerationthe

opportunitytoexplorenewformsofjournalismandtoseeknewaudiences.

AlthoughIhavespokenwithmanynewswebsitesowners,newsbloggersandjournalists

using Facebook on both Caribbean islands, this vignette focuses on a youngwoman, Tiffany,

who has started a journalistic blog. Shewas awarded aUNESCO Young Talent Scholarship to

participateintheMediaMasterClassesinCuraçao,atrainingprogramtoimprovethequalityof

Curaçaoannewsmediain2014.Duringthisprogramshewasputintouchwithvariouskindsof

journalism, in addition toworking as a reporter for a newspaper, and she decided to start a

journalisticblogabout thearea she lives in, aneighborhood inCuraçaoan capitalWillemstad.

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While wandering this neighborhood, she takes pictures with her iPhone and posts them on

Instagram and Facebook. According to Tiffany, many people in Curaçao have negative

associations about the particular neighborhood she is reporting on: it is said to be an unsafe

areawhereillegalmigrantsanddrugsaddictslivewhostealandbreakintohouses.Incontrast

tothisgeneralnegativeimage,Tiffany’sexperienceslivingintheneighborhoodaredifferent.In

aninterviewwithher,sheexplainstome:

(…)Everywhereissomethingnegative.Thereisnoparadise,arealpureparadise.Idon’t

belief such thingexists. It’s the goodwith thebad. Precisely so. I justwantpeople to

know that everywhere in Curaçao, there are so many people and things. (…) I came

acrossthatstreet[whereIoftentakepicturesofGraffiti]withafriendofmine,andhe

said: “Lookat thismess, theyhave topaint thisblahblahblah.”But I stood still and in

tiny letterswaswritten:“Artchanges.”And I thought:“whenhewouldstandstilland

read what was written on the wall, what would he think?” So I took a picture and I

postedit.Andthatsameguysentmeamessagethatevening:“Wherehaveyoutaken

that picture today?!” And I said: “You have to open your eyes” (personal

communication,October30,2015).

Tiffanystartedherjournalisticblogtopositivelyinfluencepeople.Notbypostingsolelypositive

itemsabouttheareasheis livesin,butbyopeningpeople’seyestodifferentsidesofCuraçao

andtocreateamorenuancedimageandattitude.Shetoldhowthefirsttopicshepostedabout

wasthegroupofpeoplewhoislivingbeneathaviaductclosetoherownstreet:

One week, one week I spent beneath the viaduct, every day all day. That’s all I did.

Talkingwithpeople,listeningtopeople.Takingpictures,recordingvideos.Justtalkwith

them,like:“Butwhatexactlyisitthatyouaredoingbeneaththeviaduct?BecauseIsee

youeveryday.”Anddoyouknowwhatwasfunny?Everyonewassaying,like:“Butwhy

do youwant to know?” I said: “Sir, I am living in the [nearby street].” And for some

reason,becauseIamlivingin[neighborhood],theytellmetheirlifestory.AndIedited

theirstoriesandpostedthem.Peoplereactedbysendingmemessages, like:“Whydid

youwritetheirstoriessodecently,whiletheyarenot?”AndthenIrealizedthatthisis

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such a typical Curaçaoan mindset. Because people here think: “Yes, of course [the

peoplebeneaththeviaduct]arenegative”(personalcommunication,October30,2015).

Tiffanyexplainedthatshetries tochangethisoverallnegativeattitudeby focusingonwhat is

changing for the better in her neighborhood. In relation to the life stories she has posted of

peoplelivingbeneaththeviaduct,shehasshownpeoplewhatishappeningandchanginginthe

neighborhood in terms of revamping constructions, rehabilitation of buildings, and overhaul

projects. Figure 1 shows one of her posts about the viaduct getting painted. The post is

accompanied by the text: “Some of you have probably already noticed that there’s a lot

happening in [neighborhood] lately. Lotsof construction,updatingandmovement.#[Nameof

neighborhood, blog], #viaduct, #streetphotography, #citylife, #curacao, #islandlife, #revamp,

#update,‘sniffsniff’Itsmellslikechange!JWe.are.Willemstad.”

Figure1.PictureonInstagram-accountofTiffany’sjournalisticblogabouttheoverhaulviaduct6

6InordertoconfidentiallyusetheinformationTiffanyshared,Iremoveddetailsthatmightmakeheridentifiabletoothers,suchasthenameoftheblogandtheneighborhoodsheisliving.

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This example shows that Tiffany focuseson subjects that one contrasts to theoftennegative

perceptions of her neighborhood and Curaçao in general. According to Tiffany, her goal is to

openpeoples’ eyes to themultiple facesand stories in theneighborhood. “Insteadofwriting

somethinglike:‘Curaçaostinksanditwillneverchangeforthebetter,(…)IfeellikeIhavetobe

some sort of eye-opener, so that other people know what is all out there” (personal

communication,October30, 2015). She tries to inspirepeople to stand still, to reflecton the

issuesCuraçao faces, and to engagewithhumanbeings and their personal stories,which are

oftenreflectedinthebuildingsandthewallsshecaptureswithheriPhone.

6. Discussionandconclusion

The four vignettes presented in this paper show a wide variety of constructive journalism

elements in journalistic practices in Curaçao and St. Maarten. Whereas Mona, working as a

journalistatTheDailyHerald,strivestowardsamoreinclusionaryvocabularyinordertoengage

themanymigrantsincollaborativecontributionstothecommunityofSt.Maarten,theeditors(-

in-chief)fromAntilliaansDagbladaimtopositivelyshifttheoftennegativemindsetinCuraçao

by constructively reframing headlines. Based on the ideal of cultivating knowledge and

awareness at all levels in the local community, newsworkers at theÈxtra focus on providing

newsthatleadstobetterunderstandingandsolutionstoproblems.Lastly,withherjournalistic

blogTiffanyshowstheambitionsandpracticesofayoungnewsbloggerwhopostspicturesand

storiesinordertoopenpeople’seyestodifferentsidesof,anddevelopmentsin,Curaçao.

Lookingbackathowthefoundersofconstructivejournalismunderstandthisconcept,it

canbe seen that theydistinguish various elements reflected in all parts of thenewsprocess.

Indeed, constructive journalism is reflected in the intentions and ideals of journalists, their

methods ofworking, and the news products they publish or post, varying fromnews stories,

headlinesandpictures. Inthispaper Istartedwiththe interviewsIconductedwith journalists,

news bloggers and media owners, and the way they express their ideals and intentions

regarding constructive journalistic practices. Someof the interviewees, such as the editors of

TheDailyHerald,andAntilliaansDagbladaswellasbloggerTiffany,alsoconcretelyreferredto

particular journalistic practices. These examples have been shown to be particularly useful in

studyingconstructivejournalismpracticesastheyenabledmetoanalyzedifferentstagesofthe

newsproductionprocessmoreholistically,fromjournalists’ intentionstotheactualnewsthey

produce, and the connection between these stages. Future research should take this holistic

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approach into account in studying practices of constructive journalism. Also, because by

illustrating how journalists implement constructive journalistic practices through different

stages of their work, instead of only focusing onwhat they publish, the distinction between

constructivejournalismandpositivejournalismbecomesmoreclear.Indeed,thevignettesshow

that constructive journalism does not always result in positive news. Looking at the case of

Birgit, for example, the clinic she is reporting on still needs help. And Tiffany doesn’t portray

Curaçao as if it is a paradise, “I don’t believe such thing exists. It’s the good with the bad”

(personal communication, October 30, 2015). Clearly distinguishing constructive journalism

from other more uncritical approaches is essential, particularly in postcolonial developing

countries,assomecriticshavestressedinreactiontoconstructivejournalism.

Forexample,GyldenstedandMcIntyrealsopointoutthenecessityofacommitmentto

journalism’scorefunctionswhilepracticingconstructivejournalism.Indeed,holdingtruetothe

coreethicalbasicsof journalism,suchasbeing independentandfunctioningasawatchdog, is

an essential precondition for constructive journalism. As stated in the very beginning of this

paper, previous research on local journalism in small-scale islands societies demonstrates

various constraints on local journalists that are often rooted in the smallness of the local

communities and in colonialhistoryand its legacies.While it is difficult to know the concrete

immediateimpactof,forexample,advertisersandpoliticians,manyjournalistsIhavespokento

inCuraçaoandSt.Maartenconfirmthatjournalistsarechallengedbycommercialandpolitical

pressures. The Daily Herald, for instance, is very cautious about accidentally offending

individuals,intervieweeshavetoldmethatthenewspaper,becausepeopleallknoweachother

andabadnameisnoteasilyfixed.Someofthem,therefore,arguethatTheHeraldbelongsto

the category of “sugarcoated” media, and lacks a real critical approach. In Curaçao similar

concerns about the influence of advertisers on the news are expressed by journalists I have

spokenwith,andwasinvestigatedbyarecentlyconductedmediaassessmentontheisland(Pin

et al. 2016).Among journalists on the island, different, and sometimesopposing, perceptions

existonwhat journalism isandshouldbe,rangingfrommoretraditional“watchdog”viewsto

newandalternativeformsofjournalism.

Thevignettespresentedinthispaperdonotnecessarilycounterstructuralconcernsfor

localnewsmedia,nordotheyconfirmthatthejournalistsIhavespokenwitharetiedtoeither

commercial businesses or political parties, although it is important to stress that none of the

media outlets presented are government owned.What they do show, however, is how local

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journalists andnewsrooms, in the contextof the challenges linked to small-scalenewsmedia

landscapes, reflect on their role in the island communities and aim to contribute to the

development of the relatively new nations. The four vignettes demonstrate the spaces

individual journalists and news workers search and often find in which to make their

constructiveidealsconcreteintheirjournalisticpractices.Andwhereasthesepractices,suchas

more inclusively describing the community, constructively reframing headlines, and providing

more balanced reporting on things thatwork (or not),might seem insignificant at first sight,

they have a big impact in the small-scale postcolonial societies of Curacao and St. Maarten.

Indeed,as theownerofAntilliaansDagbladstated inoneof theconversationswehad,while

thecircumstancesof local small-scale islandcommunitiesmay restrict theworkof journalists,

theysimultaneouslymakelocaljournalistsmoreawareoftheimportantroletheyoftencan,and

should,play in thedevelopmentof the country.Anawarenessof thismayempower them to

facethechallengestheyareconfrontedwithinsmall-scalepostcolonialsocieties.

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Therepresentationofmigrantsindigitalmedia:InvestigatingwebsitesofselectedmediainstitutionsHeleneSchmolzUniversityofPassau,GermanyHelene.Schmolz@uni-passau.deABSTRACTThispaperinvestigateslanguageuseofnewsarticlesaddressingmigration.Aftershowingthatmigration isaglobalphenomenonandthecurrentmigrationstreamtoEuropeonlyoneofmanyothermigration flows, the importance of online newspapers for the formation of public opinion is stressed.Exemplarily,articlesdealingwithmigrationhavebeenchosenfromtwonewspapersofEnglish-speakingcountries,TheGuardianandtheSydneyMorningHerald.Thesearticleshavebeenanalysedmanually intermsoftopicsaddressed,andautomaticallybyusingtheAntConctoolforthefrequencyandclustersofvariouswordsthatseemrelevanttomigration.KEYWORDSCorpuslinguistics,Migration,OnlineNewspapers,Refugees,LanguageUseintheMedia1.Introduction

2015 goes down in history as a year dominated by an unprecedentedwave of refugees and

othermigrantscomingalsotothenorthernpartsoftheEuropeanUnion.Thefavoureddestiny

ofalotofthemseemstobeGermanyandtheScandinaviancountries.Handinhandwiththat

development, reports about thesemigrants arriving inGermany, for instance, dominated the

newsaroundtheworld.

Media institutions, in particular online newspapers, play an important role in

communicating these events to people. They select which information is dispersed, they can

chooseaneutralormorepositiveornegativepointofview,andcontributetotheformationof

public opinion. Above all, media can decide on the amount of information devoted to each

event, storyand topic.Migrationand refugees inparticularare therefore interesting research

targets,notonly for linguists,as their representations inmediacanofferenlightening insights

intomediapractices.

2.Migration

2.1.Migrationdefined

Therearevariousdefinitionsofandtermsassociatedwithmigration.Forexample,internaland

internationalmigration can be distinguished. The first covers all thosemovements of people

within one country, the second denotes movements across country borders. Focusing on

internationalmigration, thetwoperspectivesof leavingthecountryoforigin (emigration)and

104

arrivinginthedestinationcountry(immigration)aredifferentiated(Mavroudi&Nagel2016:4-

5).

More variation exists in the terms used formigrating people. Among them,migrant,

refugee andasylum seeker areprobably themostwell-known. Theexact definition, however,

varies according to the organisation cited. The United Nations, for example, provide the

followingdefinitionofa‘migrant’:“Apersonwhomovestoacountryotherthanthatofhisor

herusualresidenceforaperiodofatleastayear(12months),sothatthecountryofdestination

effectivelybecomeshisorhernewcountryofusualresidence”(UNStatisticsDivisionn.d.).As

forthetermrefugee,theUNrefugeeagencyUNHCRspeaksofaperson“fleeingarmedconflict

orpersecution”(UNHCR2016).Withthatitdistinguishesrefugeesfrom‘migrants’,who

choosetomovenotbecauseofadirectthreatofpersecutionordeath,but

mainlytoimprovetheirlivesbyfindingwork,orinsomecasesforeducation,

family reunion, or other reasons.Unlike refugeeswho cannot safely return

home,migrantsfacenosuchimpedimenttoreturn.(UNHCR2016)

In this definition, migrants and refugees are clearly distinguished by the criterion whether

people choose freely (economicmigration)orare forced (politicalmigration) tomove.Within

themigration flowsof the recent years, surelybothof these groupshavebeenpresent,with

refugeesbeinginthemajority.

Aninfluentialandmoregeneraldefinitionofrefugee isgivenbylegaldocuments,such

as the 1951Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol.What is seen as a ‘refugee’ in these

documentscanbesummarisedaccordingtoGoodwin-Gillas

anypersonwhoisoutsidetheircountryororiginandunableorunwillingto

returnthereortoavail themselvesof itsprotection,owingtowell-founded

fearofpersecutionforreasonsofrace,religion,nationality,membershipofa

particularsocialgroup[...],orpoliticalopinion.Statelesspersonsmayalsobe

refugeesinthissense,wherecountryoforigin(citizenship)isunderstoodas

‘countryofformerhabitualresidence’.(Goodwin-Gill2016:38)

Despite the definition in these influential documents, definitions vary from state to state,

especiallyifthedesireistolimitrefugeenumbers(Gibney2016:49-50;Goodwin-Gill2016:38).

Furthermore,thetendencytospeakof“migrantsandrefugees”inordertoaddressbothgroups

is only a recent development. In the past,migrant was a neutral term, but objections to its

neutralitygainedmomentumayearortwoago,withmediaorganisationsbeingcriticisedforits

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use(Ruz2015).Still,thenounmigrationseemstobesomewhatacovertermforboth,probably

becauseoftheinfrequentuseandmostlyunknownnounofrefugeeism(Merriam-Webstern.d.).

In this paper,migration andmigrants are also understood neutrally first of all, referring to

refugeesaswell.

Apartfromtheseterms,asylumseeker(withorwithoutahypheninbetween)isfound

andtiedtolegallanguage.TheInternationalOrganisationofMigration(IOM),forexample,uses

asdefinition“personsseekingtobeadmittedintoacountryasrefugeesandawaitingdecision

on their application for refugee status” (IOM 2004: 8). Among other terms, we encounter

immigrant (defined abovewith immigration) ordisplacedperson,who is a “personwho flees

his/herStateorcommunityduetofearordangersotherthanthosewhichwouldmakehim/her

a refugee.Adisplacedperson isoften forced to fleebecauseof internal conflictornaturalor

man-madedisasters”(IOM2004:19-20).

ThetermalienisespeciallycommonintheUSA,denotinga“personwhoisnotnational

ofagivenState”(IOM2004:6),althoughitisincreasinglyseenasderogatory(YuHsiLee2015).

As such it is closely related to foreigner, non-national, foreign-national and foreign-born. A

protectedpersonissimilartoa‘refugee’asitisapersonwhoiseitherseenasrefugeeaccording

tothe1951Conventionorneedsprotectionduetoothercircumstancesthandescribed inthe

Convention (CanadianCouncil forRefugees2010).Finally,anunaccompaniedminor addresses

children and teenagers as refugees, who are “under the age of majority who are not

accompanied by a parent, guardian, or other adult who by law or custom is responsible for

them”(IOM2004:67).

2.2.Migrationinfacts

Migrations flowsarebynomeansaphenomenonof the lastdecades.Historically, therehave

beenamplemovementsofgroupsofpeople,sometimestheyaffectedmorepeople,sometimes

less.Asof2015,theUnitedNationsestimatesthetotalnumberofinternationalmigrants,who

areseenasequivalenttoforeign-borns,asencompassing244millionpeople.Thisisabout3.3%

of theworld’spopulation.About15 to20millioncountas refugees,witheachof thembeing

witnessoftraumaticanddeeplylife-changingevents(UnitedNations2016a:1;UnitedNations

2016b:1-2). Theseare large figures, and theyhave continued to increase considerablyduring

the last fifteen years. But they do not support the assumption which many people share,

namely,thatallpeopleareapparentlyheadingtoEurope.TheUNnumberofmigrantshasbeen

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criticizedinthatitdoesnotsayalotaboutcurrentmigration.Thenumberof244millionpeople

includes anyone as migrant who has once migrated and is still alive, e.g. a German student

marryinganAustriangirltwentyyearsagoandlivinginAustriasincethenispartofitaswellasa

Syrian refugee having recently arrived in Germany. Considering the five years from 2010 to

2015,onlyapercentageof0.5oftheworld’spopulationaccountsforrefugees.Thispercentage

hasremainedstableforthelast50years,andevenshowsaslightdeclineifconsideringonlythe

lastfiveyears(Mingels2016).

For Europe, the lastmigration flowshavebeena challenge, but thinkingof theworld

apartfromEurope,evenlargerflowsofmigratingpeoplecanbediscerned.Inreality,Europeis

notpartofthetenlargestmigrationsflowsacrosscountrieswithinthefiveyearsfrom2010to

2015.ThebiggeststreamconcernspeoplefromSyriamigratingtoTurkey.Withinthelargestfive

flowsarealsomovementsfromSyriatoLebanon,MexicoandIndiatotheUSA,andBangladesh

to India. This also means that the biggest migration flows take place within continents, not

across them. For example, more migrants move around within Europe than from Africa to

Europe(Mingels2016).Withthesefiguresinminditbecomesclearthatthemigrationflowsto

Europearecomparativelylow.ButwhataboutthoseflowsthatdocometoEurope?

As to themigration into the EuropeanUnion, by farmost asylum seekers come from

Syria, the second and third place take Afghanistan and Iraq in the years 2015 and the first

quarterof2016 (BBC2016;MigrationPolicy Institute2016).Thecountriesmostpreferredare

Germanywithmostapplicationsin2015,followedbyHungary.Takingnotthetotalnumberinto

accountbuttherelationofapplicationstothecountry’spopulation,Hungarytakestheleading

position,followedbySwedenandAustria.TheroutemostchooseforgettingtoEuropewasby

sea in 2015. It is estimated that only about threeper cent cameby land (BBC2016).Despite

thesefigures,migrationflowshavebeendominatingthenews,especiallysince2015.

Research about language use in the news, also regarding migration from different

angles,hasbeenanissueforamplestudies.Mediahasrecentlybeencriticisedforcontributing

to a negative attitude towards migration in society, the language being described as

‘dehumanising’ (Balch 2015). Another popular example concerns terms used for the people

who aremigrating. For instance, TheMigration Observatory conducted a study in 2013 with

British national newspapers and their language use towardsmigrating people (TheMigration

Observatory 2013). Australian newspapers and their language are, for example, covered by

Parker (2015). Finally, the influence of media language on the identity and integration of

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migrantsandrefugeeshasbeendiscussed(Geißler&Pöttker2005).Beforelookingmoreclosely

at the representationofmigrants in the news in the present study, the importanceof online

newspapersfortheformationofpublicopinionisdiscussed.

3.Onlinenewspapers

3.1.Thestatusofonlinenewspapers

Accessing news digitally, even before push notifications of news onto smartphones were

available, has become the norm. Printed newspapers, on the other hand, are losing ground.

According to a study, themost used newsmedium forGermans aged from14 to 64 years is

televisionin2015,althoughitisonthedeclinecomparedtopreviousyears.Onsecondposition

is already the Internet, followed closely by printed newspapers. The radio is relatively

unimportant. Online newspapers and online journalism in general are considered part of the

category‘Internet’.Ifonlythegroupagedfrom14to19andonlyacademicsfrom20to39years

areconsidered,thentheInternetisseenasthemostimportantnewsmedium,lyingevenahead

ofTV.Ifweconsidertheimportanceofeachmediumandtheroleitplaysfortheformationof

publicopinion,wegeta similar ranking.Again, the Internet is considered themost important

meansofinformationforthe14to19yearoldsandtheacademicsagedfrom20to29(Schmidt

2015).

AsfortheInternetitself,variousareasareofferedforgettingnews.Themostusedare

online newspapers via websites or apps, which 44 % name as the medium which is most

important for their opinion formation. Facebook is mentioned by 38 %, and Wikipedia, for

instance, by 27 % (Schmidt 2015). Although traditional media are often said to become less

influential, statistics here actually show that online newspapers are regarded as the most

importantsourceforopinionformation.Consequently,theroleofonlinenewspapersmustnot

beunderestimated,andthetopicstheychoosetodiscussaswellasthelanguageusedbecome

decisiveforpublicopinion.

3.2.OnlinenewspapersoftheBritishIsles,theUSAandAustralia

FromEnglish-speakingcountries,newspapersfromtheBritishIsles,theUSAandAustraliahave

been the focusof the research.GreatBritainhasoncebeenan important coloniser,with the

British Empire stretchingmoreor less around thewholeworld.BothBritain and Irelandhave

been regionswhere a lot of peoplemigrated to various, now former, colonies. The USA and

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Australia,however,havebeenregionswherelotsofmigrantsarrived,fromtheBritishIslesand

fromothercountriesaswell.SowecansaythattheUSAandAustraliahavebecomesettledby

masses of Europeans, until they declared their independence from their mother country.

Historically, so, theUSAandAustraliaare immigrationcountries,gaining theirvastpopulation

byimmigration(Schneider2011).Theirrole,andtherolemediataketheretowardsimmigration

today,isthereforeespeciallyinteresting.

Selecting media institutions and newspapers is always influenced by a number of

variables.Forexample,thenewspapersbeingreadthemostcanbeconsidered.Thegoal is to

have a look at those newspapers that have a large readership, taking the most recent data

available.However,whichnewspapers,beitprinted,online,orboth,arereadmostfrequentlyis

difficult to determine. Of course, different counts are available and yield different lists.

Nevertheless,newspapersthatarementionedfrequentlyonthefirstplacesindifferentrankings

canbefoundbyconsideringvarioussources.

For Great Britain, this means that the Daily Mail is often found to be on the first

position,followedbyTheGuardianandTheTelegraph.Thisrankingisthesamefortheprinted

as well as the digital version (PressGazette n.d.). The Sun is not among the first five listings,

althoughthismightbeabitsurprising.TurningtotheUSA,USAtoday isprobablyleading,and

theWallStreetJournalandTheNewYorkTimesbeingonsecondandthirdposition,basedonly

on digital circulation (MediaMiser n.d.). For Australia, the list is mostly led by the Sydney

MorningHerald,followedbytheDailyTelegraphandtheHeraldSun.ItisbasedonRoyMorgan

Research, which combines printed and digital newspaper circulation for the ranking (Roy

Morgan Research n.d.). Irish newspaperswith a print and digital figure combined encompass

number one, the Irish Independent, followed by The Irish Times and the Sunday World

(NewsBrandsIrelandn.d.).Amongothers,thefollowingresourceshavealsobeenconsultedfor

determiningleadingnewspapers:thejournalismandmediadatafromthePewResearchCenter,

andheretheStateoftheNewsMedia2015(PewResearchCentern.d.),websitetraffic listedin

Journalistics (Porter 2010), web ranking of newspapers through 4International Media &

Newspaper(4InternationalMedia&Newspapern.d.)andStatista(Statistan.d.).Generally,the

DailyMail,theDailyTelegraph,theHeraldSunandtheSundayWorldaremoreassociatedwith

tabloidsfromallthenewspaperslistedhere.

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4.Analysis

4.1.Method

As tabloids typically make use of different language, results of their analysis should not be

mergedwithnewspapersbeingknownmoreasbroadsheets.Anotherfactorwasfreeaccessto

mostarticles,whichalsoguaranteesanevenhigherreadershipasmightbecaughtbystatistics.

Exemplarily, twomore broadsheet newspapers have been chosen for analysing the language

and topics of news first of all. These are the SydneyMorning Herald from Australia and The

GuardianwiththeheadquartersinLondon.

In eachof them, the intention is to collect all articles that covermigration, albeit the

exacttopicdoesnotneedtofocusonmigrationinthefirstplace.Thetimeperiodwassetatone

month,fromthe1sttothe31stofAugust,2016.Thismeansadatasetwhichisstillmanageable,

butalsolargeenoughtoinfersometendencies.

Asthesearchfacilitiesonthenewspaper’swebsitelackedfine-tuningofsearchresults,

especially in terms of showing only articles fromAugust 2016, the decisionwasmade to use

Google’ssearchengineasanalternative.Here,theresultscanbelimitedtoapre-definedtime

spanandspecificwebaddress,sothatthesearchcouldbemadeforarticlesonlyofthespecific

newspaper. To findarticles containingmigration issues, aquery containing various termswas

formulated.Thisquerycontainsanarrayofdifferenttermsusedinthecontextofmigration,to

make surenot tomiss substantial articles. It contains the following search terms:migration /

migrant /migrate, immigration / immigrant / immigrate,asylumseeker /asylum-seeker (asa

spelling variant) / asylum / asylee, unaccompanied minor, displaced person / displacement,

foreigner/foreign-born/foreignnational/non-national/protectedperson/alien.Atleastone

ofthesetermshastooccuronawebsiteinordertobereturnedasresult.

ThesearchontheSydneyMorningHeraldyielded540,onTheGuardian510hits.From

those, all relevant results had to be selected manually. Sometimes, a general website for

navigationwasreturnedasresult,thewebsiteonlycontainedavideo,oneormoresearchterms

wereonlyfoundatthemarginwheretheylinkedtootherarticles,orthesitewaslistedtwice.In

othercases,thearticlediscussedmigrationfromotherperspectives,mainlyabiologicalone,or

it was used metaphorically. After sorting out irrelevant hits, 191 articles were left with the

SydneyMorningHerald, and328withTheGuardian.We can so find far less articleswith the

SydneyMorning Herald and this might go back to the size of the media organisation, being

locatedregionallyinSydney,whereasTheGuardianworksinternationally.Therelevantarticles

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oftheSydneyMorningHeraldproduceacorpuswithabout140,000words.ForTheGuardian,

thecorpusamountstoapproximately327,000words.

These corpora have been investigated in terms of a manual analysis of the topics

addressed. Furthermore, the frequency of words and patterns has been examined using the

corpus linguistic tool AntConc (AntConc 2016). AntConc is freely available and a standalone

software,sothatitdoesnotneedtobeinstalledonthecomputer(Froehlich2015).Itcomprises

severaltools,suchasconcordancing,clustering,word listsorcollocations.Especiallyusefulfor

the analysis of the corpora here are two tools: the concordancer tool, which lists all the

occurrencesofaparticularwordandtheirleftandrightneighbours,andtheclusterstool,which

“allowsyoutosearchforawordorpatternand[to]group(cluster)theresultstogetherwiththe

wordsimmediatelytotheleftorrightofthesearchterm”(Anthony2014).

4.2.Analysingthetopicsaddressed

Thearticlescannowbeanalysedaccordingtothetopiceachaddresses.Ofcourse,wecando

that on different levels, analysing aspects of migration, countries or specific migrants

mentioned. The intention for the collected articles was to investigate which countries are

covered.Dothenewspapersfocusonspecificcountriesmorethanothers,andifso,isthisthe

homecountryordoesthefocuslieonaparticularcontinent?

TheresultsforTheGuardianareasfollows:Mostcommonlydiscussedarearticleswith

relationtoAustraliafirstofall(100articlesor30%ofallarticles),followedbytheUSA(74;23

%), and Great Britain (50; 15%). This is no surprise as The Guardian has, apart from an

international edition, local editions in the UK, the USA and Australia. Relatively

underrepresentedEnglish-speakingcountriesare Ireland(1),Canada(1),andNewZealand(4).

Much discussed in the articles of Great Britain are the refugees in Calais. The presidential

electionof2016,andhereespeciallyDonaldTrump,dominatedthenewsaboutmigrationinthe

USA.Australiannewsconcentratedpredominantlyonthescandalsaroundthedetentioncentres

of Australian immigrants on Nauru in the Central Pacific and the islandManu of Papua New

Guinea.OthercountriesareparticularlyEuropeancountries(apartfromtheUK),suchasFrance

(10) andGermany (9), Greece (5), Italy (4), Hungary (2), Island (1), or the EU in general (11).

African countries make up eight articles in sum, with Libya (3), Uganda (2), Ethiopia (1) and

Mauretania(1).ThreearticlesfocusonCentralAmerica(CostaRica,CubaandGuatemala).Asia

is represented 12 times, covering Turkey (2), Iraq (2), Jordan (2), and one article each of

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Afghanistan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East, Russia and India. Finally, 37

articlesdonotfocusonaspecificcountryorregion,butratheraddressmigrationfromageneral

pointofview,suchaseducation,arts,ortheOlympicgames.

As for topics in the Sydney Morning Herald, the largest proportion falls on issues of

Australia (114 articles or 60 % of all articles). Topics vary from politics, the immigration

department, general immigration, the scandals in Nauru and Manu, to refugees and asylum

seekersinAustralia.SecondmostrepresentedistheUSA(26;14%).TheUKtakesaminorrole

withthreearticles.OtherEuropeancountriesareaddressedninetimes,amongthemGermany

(3), France (3), andone article eachofAustria, BelgiumandHungary. The rest of the articles

coverimmigrationfromageneralperspectiveordiscussissuesrelatedtoarts.Interestingly,no

articlefocusesonAfricancountries.

4.3.Analysingthefrequencyofwordsandtheirpatternsinselectedareas

WiththeAntConctool,thefrequencyofwordsineachcorpuscanbedetected.Forexample,if

wecomparethetermsusedforpeoplewhomigrate,wefindthatasylumseeker(s)occursmost

frequently(401hits).Thespellingvariantwithahyphenaccountsonlyforsevenwithinthe401

hits. After that we findmigrant(s) with 275 and immigrant(s) with 180 hits.Unaccompanied

minor(s)showonly24hits,foreigner(s)13,displacedpersonordisplacedpeople9(twoofthese

account for internallydisplacedpeople), thedisplaced (1),aliens (denoting immigrants)5hits.

Thenounsforeignbornandforeignnationaldonotoccur,buttheiradjectivesdowithsevenand

one hits respectively. The terms emigrant(s) and non national(s) do not occur. These words

denotinghumanscanalsobeanalysedintermsofclusters,i.e.whichwordsimmediatelyoccur

inaleftorrightposition.Frequentexpressionssoweremigrantworker(s)(17),undocumented

migrants (25),undocumented immigrants (46), illegal immigrants (14)andchildasylumseeker

(13).

Astotheconceptsofmigration, thenouns immigration(s)with671hitsandasylum(s)

(573,whichalsoincludesasylumseekerandasylumseekers)leadtheranking.Farlessfrequent

are migration(s) (151), displacement (18) and emigration (4). Interesting clusters are

immigration minister (64), immigration detention (63), immigration department (39),

immigrationpolicy(22), illegalimmigration(16)andoffshoreimmigration(16).Forasylum,we

findseekingasylum(25)andasylumclaim(s).Verbsofthesenounsareratheruncommoninthe

corpus.Weencounterdisplace/displacing/displacedwith17hits(notcountingdisplacedasan

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adjective),emigrate/emigrating(11),migrate(d)/migrating(10),andimmigrate/immigrated

(2).Apartfromthat,foreignwith92hitsisrelativelyfrequent.

Aninterestingfindingisthattermsdenotinghumansareaddressedchieflyingroups,so

the plural is muchmore frequent. Out of 1,140 hits concerning terms such asmigrant(s) or

displaced person/people, 79 % are plural forms, 21 % singular forms. On the other hand, if

conceptssuchasmigrationareaddressed,theymostlyoccurinthesingularform.Only4outof

1,016hitsoccurintheplural.Asimilarpictureconcerningthedistributionofsingularandplural

formscanbefoundwiththeSydneyMorningHeraldaswell.Asforclusters,childasylumseeker

and internally displaced people can each be found only once.Other clusters concernmigrant

workers(9hits)andmigrantcrisis(7)outof32hitsformigrant,undocumentedmigrants(5)and

illegalmigrants(4)outof74hitsformigrants.For immigrant(7),thederivativeadjectiveanti-

immigrant is striking with four hits, and 13 hits fall on illegal immigrants (out of 33 hits for

immigrants).

Another issue thatcanbeexamined in thenewsarticles is the frequencyof individual

countries.Thearticleshavebeensortedaccordingtothetopicthatisgenerallyaddressedinthe

articles, but looking for anyoccurrenceof thenameof a countrymight alsoprovide insights.

Looking exemplarily at The Guardian, the EU is mentioned 325 times, European Union 23,

Europe 174, European 107 (without European Union). Other continents, such as Africa /

African(s)show106occurrences.Ofthese,NorthAfrica/NorthAfrican,however,showonlya

marginal number (3).Asia / Asian(s)occur 16 times,Middle East /Middle Eastern 30,Arab /

Arabic20times.

Investigating individual countries and nationalities, English-speaking countries are

representedinTheGuardianasfollows:USA(7),America(108),American(167)Americans(68),

thusmaking 350 hits in sum. Furthermore,Canada / Canadian(s) (44) occur, aswell as Latin

Americancountries suchasMexico /Mexican /Mexicans (117). For theBritish Isles,wehave

Britain (269),British (139),UnitedKingdom (13),UK (405), Ireland (9), Irish (16),England (35),

Wales(10),Welsh(2),Scotland(21),Scottish(12),producing931hitsintotal;English(43)isnot

distinguishinghere.As toAustralia,we findAustralia (729),Australian (362),Australians (20),

Aussie(3),summingupto1.093hits.Consequently,intermsofEnglish-speakingcountriesand

nationalities theAustralian continent is representedmost often, followedby the British Isles,

andtheUSA.This,however,mightbeduetothedetentioncentresandthediscussionaround

them,asdiscussedintheprevioussection.

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FromtheAfricancontinent,allcountriesarerelativelyunderrepresentedandonlyshow

afewhits,suchasAlgeria/Algerian(s)with14occurrences.AstotheAsiancontinent,Syria/

Syrian(s)with179hits is leading,Turkey/Turkish/Turks141, Iraq/ Iraqi(s)99,Afghanistan/

Afghan(s)show81occurrences,Libya(n)47,Pakistan/Pakistani(s)21,Jordan/Jordanian20.

AsthemigrationstreamissometimesreducedtoaninfluxofMuslimpeopletoEurope,

and hereby stressing the ‘different’ religion, itmight beworth examining religion as another

topic. In this context,Muslim(s) occurswith 83 hitsmost frequently inTheGuardian, Islam /

Islamicshows49occurrences,mosque1,Christian(s)22,Catholic12,Anglican2,church(es)41,

priest3.Moregeneral terms includereligionwith17and religiouswith19.Althoughreligious

termsarementioned,theydonotseemtobeoccurringinahighnumber,giventhesizeofthe

corpus.Furthermore,theIslamicreligionisnotrepresentedwithmoreoccurrencesifcompared

totermsfortheChristianreligion.

5.Conclusion

The analysis of news coverage in the selected digital newspapers showed that migration is

primarilyaddressedfromone’sowncountry.The largestmigrationflowsarenot includedand

hardlyanyarticlereportsaboutSyria itself, itsneighboursandthemigrationhappeningthere.

However,theflowstoEuropearerepresented,andthenationalitiesofSyriaorAfghanistan,for

example, mentioned most frequently, fitting to the main migration streams to Europe.

Nevertheless, theseoccurrencesdonotcomeclose toanymentionof thenationalitiesof the

UK,USAandofAustralia.

Astotermsusedformigratingpeople,asylumseeker(s)ismostcommonlyusedandthe

plural denoting a groupof people rather than stressing the individual ismuchmore frequent

thanthesingularform.Conceptsaboutmigration,ontheotherhand,showthatimmigration(s)

istheformusedmostoften. It isevenfarmorefrequentthanmigration(s).Here,thesingular

formiscommonlyused,thepluralbeingrathertheexception.Insum,however,conceptsoccur

moreoftenthantermsdenotingmigratinghumanbeings.

Forthenamesofcountriesandcontinents,Europeismuchmorefrequentlyrepresented

thanAfrica,forinstance.DuetothedevelopmentsinGermanyontheNewYear’sEveof2015,

we could expect a highmention of North Africa, whichwas, however, not validated. Rather,

Australiaascountryandcontinentappearedmostfrequently,followedbytheUKandtheUSAin

TheGuardian.Thereasonwhyspecificcountriesarerepresentedmoremight,ofcourse,come

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withthelatestbreakingnews.Apartfromthat,firsttendenciesasjustoutlinedcanbeseenin

the corpora, but should still be compared to other newspapers. In general, though, it is

importantnot to lookat individual figuresblindly,butalways to consider thecontextaswell.

This was achieved in this survey by combining amanual and automatic text analysis. So, for

example,couldbeshownthatarelativelyhighuseofSyria/Syrian(s)comparedtootherAsian

orMiddleEasterncountriesdoesnotimplythatnewsarticlesactuallycovertheregionintheir

text.

Allinall,mediacoveragesurelyinfluenceswhichtermsareinuse,andwhichfalloutof

use. So, for instance, unaccompanied minor(s) is rather infrequent, but child asylum seeker,

which you cannot find in lists about how to addressmigrating people,might be a compound

with a future. As a conclusion we can probably say that media do both, they represent the

opinionofpeople,buttheysurelyinfluenceitaswell(NeuedeutscheMedienmacher2013:4).

Andthisseemsalsotobetrueforlanguageuse.

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