Dutch newspapers and the nuclear arms debate. The representation of nuclear weapons in Dutch newspapers and its influence on the public opinion

Abstract

The largest demonstration ever held in the Netherlands was a demonstration against cruise missiles and nuclear warheads (1980s). Nowadays, the anti-nuclear arms movement is way smaller. The Netherlands thereby have the lowest percentage of citizens against the nuclear sharing task, compared to the other nuclear-sharing states. This research tries to find an explanation for this by looking at the representation of nuclear arms in Dutch newspapers, on the basis of the five generic frames of Semetko & Valkenburg (2000); conflict, human interest, responsibility, economic consequences, and morality frame. - Mehtod: S&V: asking questions to the text. Iyengar: counting. Also open inductive qualitative coding - Results: conflict and responsibility most dominant - Responsibility at the government, seems as a problem which is too big to have influence on.