‘Voordat de bom valt’: How the written press shaped the transatlantic debate during the nuclear missile crisis in the Netherlands
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2022-08-15
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en
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The academic consensus that the role of the press drastically changed after the Cold War has impacted analyses of the development of transatlantic relations during the latter half of the 20th century. The power of the press in shaping public transatlantic debates is often overlooked. This thesis puts the paradigm of the CNN-effect – news media’s ability to affect public debates – back in time by looking at press coverage of the nuclear missile crisis and the peace movements in the Netherlands in the 1980s.
At the core of this thesis stands the idea that framing, as an essential means by which news media can influence the public, is a process. How a frame receives its meaning is in constant movement between frame building, or their creation, and frame setting, or how the public receives them.
By first providing the frames five notable newspapers applied during the Dutch nuclear missile crisis of the 1980s, a foundation is built that establishes that news media took positions in this transatlantic debate. Oral histories by three journalists working in the period look into the frame building process, showing that the journalistic ideal of objectivity was also changing. After a look into frame setting during the election of 1982, this thesis then concludes that the written press indeed shaped the public debate about the placement of nuclear missiles in the Netherlands rather effectively. To say they had an active role in the process, though, is a step too far.
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Faculteit der Letteren