Strategic Framing and Cultural Values in COVID-19 Public News Messages: A Comparative Study of The Netherlands and Spain.
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2022-06-24
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en
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Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2019, governments and media outlets have had the vital task of communicating the virus’ developments, risks, and consequences. To convey these messages strategically, frames are used. Moreover, literature shows that cultural values seem to be indispensable in crisis communication. Therefore, the current study analyses the influence of cultural values and the usage of frames for messages about COVID-19 in news media. To find out what frames were the most dominant during the first wave of the pandemic, and to determine the relationship between cultural values and the usage of frames, a content analysis was conducted based articles about the coronavirus from dominant public news media outlets in the Netherlands and Spain. To measure differences in cultural values, this study focusses on power distance and individualism-collectivism. In this analysis, gain-loss frames as well as the following news frames were studied: economic consequences, conflict, morality, human interest, attribution of responsibility, and fear/scaremongering. Results showed differing dominant news frames for both countries. Moreover, power distance was more frequently present than absent for the Spanish articles, which was the other way around for the Netherlands. In addition, both countries showed a significant relationship between power distance and the type of news frame used. Furthermore, the Dutch articles demonstrated a relation between power distance and the usage of a gain-loss frame. The individualism-collectivism dimension had a meaningful relation with the usage of a gain-loss frame for both countries, and it showed a relationship with the type of news frame used for the Netherlands.
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Faculteit der Letteren