A comparative study of the media framing of the Western Sahara dispute in the
French, Spanish and British media.
Sara Anne O’Neill SN° 12085456 Master’s Thesis
Graduate School of Communication Master’s programme Communication Science
Thesis Supervisor: Penny Sheets Due date: 31 January 2020
Abstract
This paper investigated the use of peace and war frames in the coverage of the Western Sahara dispute. We compared the coverage done by three countries, two of which are intervening in the conflict, France and Spain. They also happen to be previous colonizers of the region. Thirdly, we will compare this with the coverage made by the BBC which originates from England, a country not intervening in the conflict. We based our hypotheses on Lee and Malsog’s findings that intervening countries tend to use more war frames than non-intervening countries. This study employed content analysis methods and our results show that this is indeed the case, however the score for the adoption of war frames remain low. Additionally, the BBC did not have a tendency to adopt peace frames but rather reported in a manner which scored closer to the neutral category.
Introduction
The case of the Western Sahara dispute has been referred to by some as the last case for decolonization in Africa. Regardless of this conflict’s lengthy duration and unresolved status, generally little is known and currently sparsely reported by the mainstream media.
Intrigued by the lack of development in this conflict and the limited discussion that are occurring on the topic, this paper hopes to apply Galtung’s operationalization of war and peace frames in order to investigate the type of journalistic frames used to report the Western Sahara dispute to try and understand the potential the reporting may have had in hindering the development of a resolution. The notion of conflicts can often times be reduced to the simplified image of them that are presented to us through the media. But the reality of it is a far more complex one. It has become a growing area of study how the media now holds a responsibility in the conflicts they are reporting as it will influence the public opinion which
can then impact the measures taken by international actor to help resolve the conflict. (Cachalia, 2011)
This research investigates the extent to which peace and war frames are used in different publications of countries with differing levels of involvement in the conflict. Each of the publications were chosen based on the dynamics that the country of publication has in the conflict. Based on Lee and Maslog’s hypothesis that intervening countries will use a higher proportion of war frames (2005), this study tries to elucidate whether this can be applied to the western Sahara conflict which has so far had a complex process of decolonization, and for which the UN has been unable to find a solution for decades.
In order to add a new dimension to the exploration of these framing practices, we conducted a study comparing the coverage of the ex-colonial powers to that of an international source which we assume would have a more neutral stance in the conflict. This resulted in the exploration and comparison of the presence of peace and war frames for the French newspaper Le Monde, the Spanish newspaper El País and the British source BBC International. France was a colonial power in Morocco and Spain in parts of Morocco as well as the Western Sahara Desert. The BBC was chosen as the more neutral source due to its minimal involvement over the history of Morocco’s colonial days and throughout the Western Sahara conflict.
The scientific relevance of this paper lies in contributing to the pool of study on peace and war frames for which Galtung was the forefather. Additionally, in further exploring Lee and Maslog’s hypothesis that countries involved in a war frame will more likely adopt war frames by applying it to a new case with particularly complex social, political and economic dynamics.
The overall research question for this thesis is “To what extent does Spain and France’s colonial past in Morocco affect the media framing of the Western Sahara land dispute? How does it compare to international sources’ way of reporting the dispute?”
Our hypotheses are the following:
H1: Spain will tend to adopt more war frames H2: France will tend to adopt more war frames H3: The UK will tend to adopt more peace frames
The second research question we will try to answer is what are the dominant indicator(s) of peace or war journalism for each publication?
Theoretical Framework
The concept of framing is one that aims to explain how certain characteristics of media coverage influences audiences’ interpretation of the events (Scheufele,1999). Due to its likeness with the agenda setting theory, this phenomenon was described as an extension of it by McCombs, Shaw and Weaver (1997) and has also been referred to as second level agenda-setting which puts focuses on indicator salience showing how the media tells news audiences how to think about a news piece. (Lee, 2010) According to Entman, news frames exist at two levels, they can occur as “mentally stored principles” that will determine the way information is processed and interpreted, but also, more similarly to Schefeule’s understanding they exist as characteristics of a news text which encourage the audience to adopt a specific interpretation of the events. (Entman,1993) Such notions need to be defined and understood under theories of social constructivism. Ruigrok describes this as a reconstruction of discourse, which implies that no absolute versions of truth exist. (2008) Theories of social constructivism suggest the malleability of our understanding of world events through the adoption of specific mechanisms of interpretation. Which in turn implies that it would serve
to influence the impact of the measures of response adopted. Edelman stated that “authorities and pressure groups categorize beliefs in a way that marshals support and opposition to their interests”. (1977:15) Such theories presupposing a certain subjectivity from the part of journalist were furthered by Herman and Chomsky who claimed in their paper that national interests sometimes take the precedence over journalists’ professional norms. (2002)
This is particularly relevant and important when it comes to conflict reporting as the frames adopted will play a role in how people will perceive the conflict. Furthermore, it will have an impact on the responses whether it be at the national level or from the international community. Ruigrok illustrated this in his paper on the role Dutch media played in painting a simplified picture of the Bosnian conflict with their reporting and as a result impacted the efforts the Dutch government made in the international context. (2008)
Overall, framing as a theoretical concept is characterized by a lack of a common definition and dispersed conceptualizations. (Schefeule,1999) Therefore, this paper chose to focus on the specific frames Peace and War. The notion of peace journalism was introduced by Johan Galtung in the 1970s and puts forth the idea that there exists a bias for violence and sensationalism in our media when it comes to conflict reporting. (2002) Therefore, peace journalism emerged as a critique of conflict reporting which were observed to have a bias for vehemence. (Lee, 2010) This stems from the notion that conflict is perceived as a news value, and thus made more sensational to attract the audience (Galtung, 2000) Therefore, as a
reaction peace journalism rejects the idea that conflict should be considered as a news value. (Lee, 2010) The three most common traits of war journalism according to Lee and Maslog are the focus on the here and now, an elite orientation as well as the dichotomization of good and bad. (2005) Other use traits are the emphasis on violence and physical losses with no
mention of the emotional traumas that result from conflict, as well as military triumphantist language. (Lee, 2010)
Overview of the conflict:
The Western Sahara conflict is one of the lesser known land disputes despite being one of the most drawn out conflict in the history of the United Nations. (Hasnaoui,2018)
The Western Sahara, a sparsely populated territory half the size of France was previously colonized by Spain for the time period of 1884 to 1976, after the UN had requested Spain to decolonize. (Theolophilou,2014) With additional pressure from the United States, Spain handed the Western Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania, which disrupted an appropriate decolonization process. The Frente Popular para la liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Rio de Oro (Frente Polisario) which was formed in 1973 to resist against Spanish colonialism and is supported in a big way diplomatically and militarily by Algeria had to redirect their efforts to fight off the new occupying powers. (Mundir, 2004)
Eventually, Mauritania backed out and Morocco expanded into the territories previously occupied by it. Morocco took initiative to claim the territory as its own on the basis, that some of the tribes living on the land had allegiances with the Kingdom of Morocco previous to the Spanish colonization era. However, the UN spoke against it by stating that the International Court of Justice had deliberated on the 16th of October 1975 that it was not ground enough to negate the principle of self-determination of the Saharawi people. (Hasnaoui, 2018) Subsequently, Morocco ignored the ICJ’s statement and proceeded to send troops and regular citizens to occupy parts to the Sahara Desert that had just been decolonized. The UN has now been actively involved in the Western Sahara since 1988 and the situation is still at a stand-by with efforts for referendums for self-determination for the area having fallen through. (Zoubir and Pazzanita, 1995, Mundir, 2004) Initially, the UN
mission attempted to settle the conflict by setting up a referendum for the population living on the territory, but due to the Sisyphean nature of the dispute, the logistics of setting up the electorate could not be settled on in a decade. (Mundir, 2004) This drawn out effort was given up on in the early 2000s.
Kofi Annan, in his statement on the stagnancy of the situation said that amongst a host of other reasons, the zero-sum game nature of the conflict which is approached by the parties through a strict independence or integration narrative has been one of the bigger obstacles to moving forward towards a solution. (Mundir, 2004) France, under whose protectorate Morocco was for a while is one of Morocco’s main ally in this conflict, backing them openly in this conflict and continuously using its veto power in the UN for resolution which may harm Morocco’s position. (Boloppion,2010) France has had a unique colonization history in that it consideres its colonies to be a fundamental part of its country. (Lang, 2002) Even after the decolonization process France maintains close relations politically, culturally and economically with its ex-colonies and often marshals in their favour in international affairs. This particular relation France has with Morocco is a contributing factor to the complexity of this conflict.
Today, the situation remains at a stand-still, we are now in a situation where this dispute has dragged on for 28 years. The UN security council has failed over this period of time to find a solution for what is referred to as the last case of colonization in Africa. The peace keeping mission keeps on getting extended with no real outcome.
Profile of the News publications:
Below is a profile publication to present any bias that these publications may hold in their reporting, as no journalism is truly objective.
(source:voxeurope)
(source: bbcwatch)
(source: el pais archives) Political stance: Centre-left Political stance: Centre Political stance: Centre-left Founded in 1944.
One of France’s most read newspapers.
Partly state funded, which has sometimes been a cause of concern for its
independence. (source:
integrersciencepo.fr)
Founded in 1922.
Public service broadcaster, the biggest in the UK and the largest broadcaster in the world.
Largely believed to be impartial, but received criticism for occasional liberal bias in their reporting.
(source: Britannica encyclopedia)
Founded in 1976.
Spain’s most widely read and internationally
acknowledged newspaper. Highest circulation daily newspaper.
Mainly presents factual information bt has been accused of using more sensationalist phrasings. (source:
mediabiasfactcheck)
Methods
This research investigates the extent to which peace and war frames are used in different publications of countries with differing levels of involvement in the conflict. Each of the publication were chosen based on the dynamics that the country of publication has in the conflict. Based on Lee and Maslog’s hypothesis that intervening countries will use a higher proportion of war frames. Thus, this paper hopes to analyse the implementation of peace and war frames by the French publication Le Monde, the Spanish publication El País and the British publication BBC international in the coverage of the Western Sahara conflict. A content analysis was conducted for which the unit of analysis was individual articles. Due
to the more limited coverage of this conflict and its lack of resolution of the years, the articles were selected over an extent period of time, from the beginning of the conflict in the 1980’s to its more recent publications in 2019. The articles were randomly selected and were retrieved from the academic database for research Nexis Uni, a total of 315 articles were coded. (see appendix A. for complete codebook)
N=315.
Our independent variable was ‘News Outlet’, which was a categorial variable containing the options of the ‘BBC’, ‘Le Monde’ and ‘El País’.
Our dependent variables were the peace and war frames as developed by Galtung (see appendix B. for operationalization table). These can be split into two categories; the approach and the language frames. The approach frames are the following: (1) Reactivity/Proactivity, (2) Visibility of the effects of war, (3) Elite orientation versus people orientation, (4) Focuses on the here and now versus the causes and consequences of the conflict, (5) Focuses on differences rather than agreements, (6) Two-party versus multiparty orientation, (6) Win-win orientation versus zero-sum game.
The language frames are the following (7) Use of victimizing language, (8) Use of emotive language.
Inter-Coder reliability
For the inter-coder reliability test, a subsample of 10% of our overall sample was made to be coded by two coders individually. The Krippendorff’s alpha was then calculated (Lombard et al., 2002). Three variables had a Krippendorff’s alpha that was too low and as a
result had to be dropped from the analysis1. This left us with eight variables for the peace and war frames, whose Krippendorff’s alpha can be observed in the table below:
Table 2. Inter-coder Reliability results
Variable Krippendorff’s Alpha
Reactive vs Proactive .70
Elite vs People .69
Agreement vs disagreement .66
Here/now vs Causes/consequences .79
Two-party vs multiparty .69
Win-win vs Zero-sum game .73
Victimising language .75
Emotive language .72
Results
All analyses conducted in this research were done using SPSS. Part 1: Analysis of the frequency of use of each frames
An analysis of the frequency of the use of each frame was calculated for each frame, for which a mean was then calculated, a score can be seen in the table below for the use of each frame. The score was calculated on a scale from -2 to 2, with 0 being a neutral/balanced stance.
1 The “visible vs invisible”, “partisan vs non-partisan” and “use of demonising language” all had to be excluded from the analysis due to their Krippendorff’s alpha being too low.
Table 1. Mean scores per frame for each publication
Frames El País BBC Le Monde
Use of emotive words -1.52 -1.61 -1.50
Use of victimising language -1.62 -1.90 -1.78 Win-win vs zero-sum game .40 .38 1.14 Two-party vs multiparty orientation .19 -.16 -.14 Here/now vs causes/consequences .91 1.01 .96 Focuses on differences/agreements 1.22 .97 1.25 Elite vs people orientation 1.15 1.63 .98 Reactive vs proactive -.01 .17 .34
An overall mean for each publication was also calculated for each publication, Le Monde had the highest score with a .15 meaning it has the most tendency for war frames. El País scored the second highest with a .09. Lastly, the BBC scored the lowest on the war frame scale with a .06. Below is a bar chart for a visual representation of the rankings of the publications.
0 0,05 0,1 0,15 0,2 El País Le Monde BBC
Peace/war score
These results confirm our first and second hypotheses which stated that France and Spain would have a tendency to adopt more war frames compared to the UK, even though the differences were not so major. However, our third hypotheses that the BBC would adopt more peace framing tendencies is refuted because in spite of scoring low on the war scale its score is still above the neutral stance.
Table 1. answers our second RQ which looked into the most dominant indicators of war and peace journalism for each publication, we can see from the table that the most used war frame for Le Monde and El País is the same and it is the tendency to focus on differences rather than agreements (Le Monde scored 1.25 and El País 1.22). Although the BBC had an overall lower war frame score, it has the highest score than any other publication for the frame focusing on elite orientation with a score of 1.63. The results also show us that the BBC scored the highest peace score than other publications for the variable concerning the use of victimizing language with a -1.90. For Le Monde and El País this was also their most commonly use indicator of peace journalism with a scoring -1.78 and -1.62 respectively.
A series of other analysis were conducted to further explore the relation between the frames and the news outlets, as well as their evolution over time.
Part 2: One-Way Anovas
A series of one-way anovas were conducted to measure the effect of the news outlets on the use of peace and war frames for each publication: Le Monde, El País and BBC international.
There was a marginally significant effect of news outlet on the Differences vs Agreements news frame at the p<0.1 level for the three conditions F(2,243)= 2.54, p= 0.08. Post hoc comparison using the Tukey HSD test indicated no significant difference for the use of win-win vs zero sum game frame between El País (M= 1.221, SD= .90), Le Monde (M=1.25, SD=.86) and the BBC (M=.97, SD=.93).
News outlets were shown to have a non-significant effect on the use of the Here and Now vs Causes and Consequences frame at the p<0.1 level for the three conditions F(2,304)= .24, p=.79.
There was a marginally significant effect of news outlets on the use of the Two party vs Multiparty at the p<0.1 level for the three conditions F(2,311)= 2.43, p=.09). However, a Tukey post hoc test revealed the mean of the two-party vs multiparty frame was not statistically different between any of the outlets.
The analysis did show a significant effect of news outlets on the use of win-win vs zero sum game frame at the p<.001 level for the three conditions F(2,264)= 12.68, p< .001). Post hoc comparison using the Tukey HSD showed a statistical significance for the win-win vs zero sum frame between the Spanish publication El País (M=.40, SD= 1.12) and the French publication Le Monde (M= 1.14, SD=1.01, p<0.001). However, it showed no significant difference for this frame between the BBC (M=.38, SD= 1.08) and El País. For Le Monde, results also showed a significant difference with the BBC (M=.38, SD= 1.08).
Furthermore, there was a marginally significant effect of news outlets on the use of victimising language at the p<0.1 level for the three conditions F(2,311)= 4.27, p= .015. A Tukey post hoc test revealed a significant difference for the use of victimizing language between El País (M= -1.62, SD= .91) and the BBC (M=-1.900, SD= .506). However, Le Monde did not appear to have any significant differences with the other outlets. Taken
together, these results suggest there is a significant difference between El País’ higher use of victimizing language compared to the BBC.
There was a non-significant effect of news outlets on the use of emotive words at the p<0.1 level for the three conditions F(2,312)= .35, p= .70.
The independent variable news outlet was also shown to have no significant effect on the use of reactive vs proactive frame at the p<0.1 level for the three conditions F(2,310)= 1.79, p= .17.
There is a significant effect of news outlet on the use of elite vs people orientated frame at the level p<0.1 level for the three conditions F(2,310)=10.01, p<.001. A Tukey post hoc test revealed there was a significant difference for the use of the Elite vs people orientated frame between El País (M=1.15, SD=1.23) and the BBC (M=1.63, SD=.78). It showed no significant difference between El País and Le Monde. However, there was a significant difference between Le Monde (M=.98, SD= 1.22) and the BBC (M=1.63, SD= .78). Taken together, these results suggest a higher use of elite orientated frames by the BBC compared to El País and Le Monde.
Part 2: Correlation matrix for an inter-frame and date exploration
A correlation matrix was done for each news publication individually to find out whether there existed a correlation between certain frames as well as to see whether there is a correlation between some frames and the date they were published.
Results for Le Monde indicated non-significant relationship between each of the frames and time. This suggests that, Le Monde’s use of peace and war frame does not vary in a significant manner over time. Results showed that the use emotive words frame is weakly correlated with the reactive vs proactive frame, r=.35, p<.01.
We can also observe that the use of emotive words frame has a weak inverse correlation with the elite vs people orientated frame, r=-.25, p=.01. This suggests, that when the use of emotive words increase, the article tends to be more people orientated. Additionally, the use of emotive words moderately correlated positively with the use of victimising language,
r=.58, p<.01. This suggests, suggest that when the use of emotive words increases so does the
use of victimising language. The reactive vs proactive frame showed a moderate positive correlation with the difference vs agreements frame, r=.45, p<.01. This suggests that adopting more of a reactive frame would entail a focus on the differences between the groups rather than agreements.
There is also a weak positive correlation with the here and now vs causes and consequences frame, r=.35, p<001. Which suggests that adopting a more reactive frame would go along with focusing on the here and now rather than delving into the causes and consequences of the conflict. A weak positive correlation with the two-party vs multiparty orientation was also observed, r=.27, p<.01. This suggests that a more reactive frame is usually used alongside with a two-party orientation. Another weak positive correlation observed for this frame was observed with the zero-sum game vs win-win orientation frame with r=.39, p<.01. This entails that when a more reactive frame is adopted with a zero-sum game orientation. The Elite vs people orientated frame showed a moderately inversely correlated relation with the use of victimising language, r=-.41, p<.01. This suggests that articles which were more people orientated also presented the use of victimising language. The differences vs agreements frame showed up as moderately correlated with the win-win vs zero-sum orientation, r= .42, p<.001. This suggests that articles focusing more on differences rather than agreements between groups tended to adopt a zero-sum orientation. The here and now vs causes and consequences is also weakly positively correlated with the two-party vs multiparty frame, r=.30, p=.004. This suggests that a focus on the here and now tends to be
used in conjunction with a two-party frame. The two-party vs multiparty orientation is also weakly correlated with the win-win vs zero-sum orientation, r=.26, p=0.25.
For the BBC, results show that the use of emotive words is weakly correlated with the use of a reactive vs proactive frame, r=.32, p=.001. This suggests that the adoption of a more reactive frame tends to go along with a higher use of emotive words. It is also weakly correlated to the use of differences vs agreements frame, r=.27, p=.01. Which suggests that an article which focuses on disagreements between the parties involved will tend to use more emotive words. The use of emotive words is also weakly related to the win-win vs zero sum orientation frame, r=.24, p=.015. This implies that adopting a zero-sum orientation also goes along with a higher use of emotive words. Besides, a moderate correlation is observed with the use of victimising language, r=.51, p<.01. This suggests that a stronger use of victimising language is accompanied by a stronger use of emotive words. The reactive vs proactive frame and the differences vs agreements frame are also moderately related, r= .47, p<.01. This suggests that an article with a stronger reactive frame will likely focus more on the differences between groups. The reactive vs proactive is weakly related to the here and now vs causes and consequences, r= .20, p= .03, implying that more reactive frames are present in articles that tend to focus on the here and now. A moderate correlation that can be observed with this frame is the win-win vs zero sum orientation frame, r=.52, p<.01, which suggests that more reactive frames also tend to be present in articles presenting a more zero-sum game orientation.
The elite vs people orientated frame only showed a weak inverse correlation with the use of victimising language, r=-.21, p=.03. Similarly to the case of Le Monde this shows than when an article adopts more of a people orientation it also includes more victimizing language.
As for the differences vs agreements frame, it showed strong correlation with the win-win vs zero-sum orientation, r= .63, p<.01. Much like with Le Monde, a focus on differences between groups is strongly related to adopting a zero-sum game orientation. The two-party vs multi-party orientation shows no significant relation with any other frame.
The date of publication does not show any significant relation with any of the frames either, which implies that the use the of war and peace frames does not vary in a significant manner over the duration of the conflict.
As for the Spanish publication El País, we can see it is the only publication where there is a relation between the date of publication and some of the frames. This is the case for the elite vs people orientation where there is a weak inverse correlation with date, r=-.21,
p=.03. This implies that over time El País shifted to a more people orientated frame. There is
also a moderate positive correlation with the differences vs agreements frame, r=.41, p<.01. This suggests that as time goes on El País tended to focus more on disagreements. The use of emotive words showed a weak positive correlation with a reactive vs proactive frame, r=.28,
p=.003, which suggests a tendency to adopt emotive language relates to the adoption of a
more reactive frame. The use of emotive words also correlates negatively with the elite vs people orientated frame, r= -.49, p<.01. This suggests that the use of emotive words related to a more people orientated frame. Furthermore, there is a weak positive relation for the emotive language use is with the here and differences vs agreements frame, r=.33, p=.003, which suggests that the use of emotive words is done in conjunction with a focus on the differences between groups. A weak negative correlation was observed between the use of emotive words and the here and now vs causes and consequences frame, r=-.30, p=.002. This suggests that a tendency to use emotive words occurs in conjunction with a focus on the causes and consequences. As for the relation between the use of emotive words and win-win vs zero sum
orientation, results show a weak positive correlation, r=.30, p=.004, which suggests that a stronger presence of emotive words is related to adopting a zero-sum orientation. The use of emotive words is also strongly related to the use of victimizing language, r=.67, p<.01, which implies that a higher use of emotive words is associated with a higher use of victimizing language. The reactive vs proactive frame is moderately positively correlated with the differences and agreements, r=.45, p<.01. Which implies that the adoption of a more reactive frame for El País correlated with a higher focus on differences between groups. There is also a moderate positive correlation between the reactive vs proactive frame and the win-win vs zero sum orientation frame, r=.48, p<.01. This suggests a reactive frame is adopted in conjunction with a zero-sum orientation frame. We can also observe a weak positive correlation between the reactive vs proactive frame with the use of victimizing language,
r=.34, p<.01, thus suggesting a more reactive frame is related to a higher use of victimising
language. The use of elite vs people orientated frames showed a weak negative correlation with a win-win vs zero sum orientation, r=-.28, p=.007, implying a more elite orientated article is likely to be one focusing on a win-win orientation. The elite vs people orientated frames is also negatively correlated to the use of victimizing language, r=-.43, p<.01, similarly to what occurred for the other publications, this suggests that the adoption of a more people orientated frame is related to a related to a stronger use of victimizing language. Results show a strong positive correlation between the difference vs agreements frame and the win-win vs zero-sum orientation, r=.76, p<.01, suggesting a heightened focus on the differences between groups occurs in relation to the adoption of a zero-sum game orientation. The differences vs agreements showed a weak correlation with the use of victimizing language, r=.30, p=.007. This shows us that BBC articles focusing on the differences between groups also showed stronger use for victimizing language. However, the two-party vs multiparty orientation shows no significant correlation with any of the other frames.
Lastly, there was a weak correlation between the use of win-win vs zero-sum orientation frames and the use of victimising language, r=.28, p=.006, implicating that a zero-sum orientation is usually used along with victimizing language.
Conclusion
With this thesis we hoped to contribute to the pool of studies done on the use of peace and war frame, more specifically since there can be different categories of intervening countries, we focused on trying to understand whether if an intervening country was previously a colonizing power affects the type of reporting they do. As stated in our introduction, the basis of our study was Lee and Maslog’s hypotheses that intervening countries will adopt more war frames in their reporting of a conflict. The results of the analysis do indeed confirm the hypotheses stating that intervening countries opt for more war frames. However, El País and Le Monde did not show any drastic adoption of war frames and were in fact not far-off from the neutral categorization. And the BBC which was expected to opt for more peace frames did not exactly do so, results showed it was just off of the neutral mark but towards the war frame side of the scale. Even though our results showed no great contrast between each of the publications, further analysis showed interesting results when it came to exploring the relation between the frames and the publication which tells us that similar score does not mean these publications can be lumped together in the same category.
Overall, our eight variables meant to give an indication of the type of journalism practice adopted were used differently by each publication. Most notably, the BBC scored remarkably high when it comes to having an elite orientated focus in their articles and neglecting the people perspective of the conflict. Le Monde and El País’ had the same most frequently used war frame which was a focus on the differences between the groups rather than potential agreements. All three publications were most responsible when it came to the
type of language they used, they each scored substantially high on the peace scale for the use of emotive words and the use of victimizing language.
Additionally, an interesting result to be noted was the weak inverse correlation that was found for the BBC between the people-elite orientation and the win-win vs zero sum game orientation, we saw that overall the BBC was highly focused on elite and neglected the people’s perspective but interestingly enough, they still had a tendency towards a win-win orientation which we did not observe for the other publications. This means that the articles by the BBC generally talked about leader negotiations but still presented this situation as one where diverse actors could benefit. Unfortunately, we could not use in our analysis some key frame such as partisanship and the dichotomization between good guys and bad guys as well as others, the results might have been different if that was not the case, which is a limitation for our study.
Overall, the reporting of the western Sahara conflict is an area of study that deserves a lot more attention. Different aspects should be taken into account in future research such as the sources that each publication uses for their coverage. Like in many other conflict areas, the Western Sahara is an area that is fairly difficult to access and even more difficult to get stories from people due to the high level of surveillance and the risk of authorities intervening. It has been referred to by Reporters without Borders as a news blackhole. (RSF, 2019) Which could be a factor contributing to the low score for each country’s poor inclusion of people orientated articles.
What we can conclude from this is that more than intervening countries adopting more war frames does not imply that non-intervening countries will sway on the other side of the spectrum by truly adopting peace frame but in reality, may simply adopt less war frames. This shows us that there is still a predisposition in our media to adopt a bias for war frames,
and that we still have quite a way to go in making effort for conscious reporting which does not paint conflict in a simplified manner.
Total Word count: 5,512
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Appendix A. Codebook
Research Question:
“To what extent do Spain and France, who have colonial history in Morocco, report differently than international sources on the Western Sahara land dispute?”
V1 Coder:
0. Sara O’Neill
V2: Date:
The date the article was published will be found under the heading of each news articles that was retrieved from nexisuni.
It should be logged in under the following format: DD-MM-YYYY
V3: Length of the news story:
The total number of words in the online or offline news article, the information will be given by nexisuni and can be found below the title of each article.
V4: News outlet: 0. BBC 1. El País 2. Le Monde
0. English 1. Spanish 2. French
Presence of peace and war frames:
V6: Reactive-Proactive
Did the author choose to adopt a reactive narrative where the story is told with a focus on a war about to break out, waiting to break out before reporting on the conflict. Overall, is the article one which focuses on how to manage a crisis that is occurring or about to occur? It will be an article which puts more emphasis on the worse being about to happen, rather than communicating steps to steer the conflict in a better direction.
1.entirely proactive 2.mostly proactive 3. balanced/neutral
4. mostly reactive/ more reactive than balanced 5.entirely reactive
99. no relevant discussion of this frame
V7: Reports principally on the visible effects of war- Reports the invisible effects of war Did the author choose to focus on the more tangible effects of war such as the casualties, the dead and wounded, damage to property.
An example of an article formulated in such a way is the following: “In a statement on
Friday, it said more than 4,500 had been wounded and more than 2,000 people arrested, the AFP news agency reported.”
Articles can contain statements on the visible as well as the invisible effects of war (emotional trauma, a scarred society).
1. Entirely reports on the invisible effects of war 2. Mostly reports on the invisible effects of war 3. Balanced/neutral
4. Mostly reports on the visible effects/more visible than balanced 5. Solely reports on the visible effects
99. no relevant discussion of this frame
V9: Is the reporting of the conflict done in a manner that is elite orientated-People-oriented Does the angle of the story present the stakeholders interaction as being between leaders and elites as the main actors and sources of information? Does the article come across as unbalanced in that it focuses mainly of the perspectives of elites?
An article more Elite oriented article might contain many sentences in the same style as the following: “Omar Hilale, the Moroccan Ambassador to the U.N., denied the accusations of
human-rights abuses in the territory and blamed incidents of violence on unlawful protests
1. Entirely people-orientated 2. Mostly people orientated 3. Balanced/neutral
4. Mostly elite-orientated 5. Entirely elite-orientated
99. no relevant discussion of this frame
V10: Focusing mainly on the differences that led to the conflict-Reports the areas of agreement that might lead to a solution to the conflict
To code higher on the war scale would imply that the article focuses more on the areas of discord rather than of agreement between the differing parties. For example, if an article would focus of the wrongdoings of the parties and put extremely little effort in finding areas of resolution between the parties, then it can be coded “4” or “5” depending on whether the text also presents areas of agreements.
1. Focuses entirely on agreements 2. Focuses mostly on agreements 3. Balanced/ neutral
4. Focuses mostly on differences 5. Focuses entirely on differences 99. No relevant discussion on this frame
V11: Focusing mainly on the here and now-Reports causes and consequences of the conflict Does the article focus on the present happenings of the conflict with minimal foresight on how things may pan out in the longer run and no regard for the deeper long-term consequences of the conflict in different aspects?
1. Focuses entirely on the causes and consequences of the conflict 2. Focuses mostly on the causes and consequence of the conflict 3. Balanced/neutral
4. Focuses mostly on the here and now 5. Focuses entirely on the here and now 99. No relevant discussion on this frame
V12: Does the article adopt a two-party orientation- Or rather a Multiparty orientation
Overall, is the article written in a way where a voice is given to more than two parties involved in the conflict?
The following statement can be an example of this, as it includes different parties take on the conflict: “Polisario officials, for their part, have welcomed the renewed U.S engagement.
Trump and other world leaders, they say, would create good will in the Arab world if they broker a peace settlement. European governments have also demonstrated interest in resolving the dispute”
1. Entirely adopts a multiparty orientation 2. Mostly adopts a multiparty orientation 3. Balanced/neutral
4. Mostly adopts a two-party orientation 5. Entirely adopts a two-party orientation 99. No relevant discussion on this frame
This refers to whether, overall, does the article take a stance where it clearly supports one party over the other?
e.g: “The population lives under the daily threat of suffering abuses at the hands of the Moroccan authorities and of the Polisario,” the rights group said.”
e.g: “Amnesty International has expressed concern over the fact that neither the Moroccan government nor the Polisario Front allows outside observers to investigate allegations of human rights abuses in the disputed region and refugee camps respectively.”
1. Entirely non-partisan 2. Mostly non-partisan 3. Balanced/neutral 4. Mostly partisan 5. Entirely partisan
99. No relevant discussion on this frame
V14: The article adopts principally a win-win orientation- or rather a zero-sum game orientation
The story is written in a way where it presents the conflict as having many goals and issues as opposed to presenting the conflict as a zero-sum game. The author might use a solution-orientated approach.
1. Entirely win-win orientation 2. Mostly win-win orientation 3. Balanced/neutral
5. Entirely zero-sum game orientation 99. No relevant discussion on this frame
V15: Use of victimizing language-avoids victimizing language, reports what has been done and could be done by people, and how they are coping
Does the article use victimizing language to describe a party in the conflict which tells us only what has been done to people? Examples of these words are: destitute, devastated, defenceless, pathetic, tragic, demoralized.
e.g: “The marginalized and impoverished of Saharawi people, whether during the Spanish colonial era or during the Moroccan colonial period.”
1. Entirely avoids victimizing language 2. Mostly avoids victimizing language 3. Balanced/neutral
4. Mostly uses victimizing language 5. Entirely uses victimizing language 99. No relevant discussion on this frame
V16: Use of demonizing language
Examples of these words are: vicious, cruel, barbaric, inhuman, tyrant, savage, ruthless, terrorist, extremist. This variable can be coded as “yes” if the use of demonizing language to describe one of the parties/ individuals involved in the conflict comes up at least once in the article.
2. Mostly avoids victimizing language 3. Balanced/neutral
4. Mostly uses demonizing language 5. Entirely uses demonizing language 99. No relevant discussion on this frame
V17: Use of emotive words- chooses to be objective and moderate
Examples of these words are genocide, assassination, massacre, systematic (as in systematic raping or forcing people from their homes). This variable can be coded as on the war frame, if the use of such emotive words appear at least once in the article.
1. Entirely objective and moderate (avoids using emotive words) 2. Mostly objective and moderate (avoids using emotive words) 3. Balanced/neutral
4. Mostly uses emotive words 5. Entirely uses emotive words
99. No relevant discussion on this frame
