Publication
Title
The discursive construction of a news event : access and legitimation in the media framing of an escalated anti-asylum protest in Belgium
Author
Abstract
In October 2019, the Belgian government announced the opening of an asylum center in a former retirement home, leading to civic and political protest that escalated into arson. We examine the construction of the events before, on, and after the arson by analyzing 135 articles from Flemish newspapers, the public broadcaster's news website, and alternative media between October 25 and November 30, 2019 using qualitative content analysis. Our analysis emphasizes journalists' role as gatekeepers, deciding which actors get access and legitimation in media coverage. Focus is on the dynamic process of how events become discursively constructed through the interventions of journalists and their sources attempting to gain primary definer status. Our analysis confirms that institutional sources remain more likely to achieve primary definer status in legacy news media. Alternative media perform similar discursive interventions as legacy news media but utilize them to provide access and legitimacy to different actors and standpoints. In the first days of news coverage, in particular, the narratives developed in right-leaning alternative media seemed to spread in legacy news media. In the following days, governmental actors and experts, through their interventions in legacy news media, were able to steer the discourse in a different direction.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Communications : the European journal of communication research / Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kommunikationsforschung [Köln]; Association Allemande de Recherche pour la Communication [Cologne] - Sankt Augustin, 1976, currens
Publication
Berlin : De gruyter mouton , 2023
ISSN
0341-2059 [print]
1613-4087 [online]
DOI
10.1515/COMMUN-2022-0109
Volume/pages
(2023) , 19 p.
ISI
001113942200001
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 09.01.2024
Last edited 19.01.2024
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