Open Access"A Comparative Analysis of the Framing of Terrorism in Online News Under the George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama Administrations: from Clash to Dialogue?"
Author(s) -
Zachary Devereaux
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
stream
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1916-5897
DOI - 10.21810/strm.v4i1.54
Subject(s) - terrorism , framing (construction) , dignity , politics , political science , media studies , rhetoric , news media , content analysis , the internet , sociology , law , history , social science , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , world wide web
The significant and reciprocal link between Terrorism and News Media reportage was identified in the 1990s by the convergence of security and media studies (Picard, 1993). Working in the tradition of content analysis early studies examined the way Terrorism was framed in major news accounts with implications for the Huntington-Fukuyama hypothesis (Nacos, 2002). However these early studies mainly pre-dated both the War on Terror and the rise of the Internet as a major (political) news source. This paper reinvigorates this early framing research on Terrorism by examining key frames over time in online news media via software-assisted media mapping. Key frames identified in the 1990s are examined in the online news environment under the George W. Bush administration (2005) and the current Barak Hussein Obama administration (2009). The resulting news mapping allows for a comparative analysis of the way frames, such as "insurgent" have changed (if at all) over time in the most significant stories freely available online. The comparison contributes to understanding of the potential for a shift from the rhetoric of a "clash of civilizations" towards discourse networks of the "dignity of difference" by rendering visible shifts in frames associated with Terrorism that arguably are necessary for the advancement of the new paradigm.