International News and Nation Image:
exploring audience effects in the transnational media sphere.
Master’s Thesis Sabrina Argoub
12024309
Master’s program: Communication Science Political Communication and Journalism
Graduate School of Communication Science University of Amsterdam
Damian Trilling
Acknowledgments
I acknowledge that the non-normative nature of this academic paper does not express all my solidarity to Carola Rackete, the Sea Watch team and the 49 migrants whose courage should not be diminished by political instrumentalization in any national, transnational, or international sphere.
You can work through me
You can say what you need in my mind I'll be your vessel
I'll do it every time
Abstract
This study investigates how international news media portrayal of a nation image can influence
the agenda setting of said nation. In a media landscape where audiences are no longer tied to
only the media provided within the national sphere, the role international news plays in
influencing the public agenda and the attitudes of citizens in terms of nationalism and
cosmopolitanism can be relevant. Building upon the insights offered by studies of the CNN effect,
and audience fragmentation as well as social identity theories, this study experiment reveals how
international news can affect the agenda setting and citizens nationalistic and cosmopolitan
In times of globalization, population and media content constant movements raise a challenge to the traditional boundaries of the local and the global, and of the public and the private sphere.
The Pew Research Center has demonstrated how online media, in particular social media, has surpassed traditional media in terms of news consumption with international news outlets being the most followed online ( Pew Research Media Use Report , 2016). It suggests that audiences are no longer tied to uniquely nation state news media.
In such a setting, the mobility of individuals and digital content allows for varied choices of different media, different languages, different programs and different representational spaces, bringing together different spaces of belonging. Media are simultaneously global, transnational, national, ethnically-specific, regional, and local, as well as provide frameworks for identity and community that goes beyond the monolithic national sphere. Debates around this phenomenon have focused around the role of media institutions that attract audiences on a transnational or global scale and how they can reflect informational power struggles or “virtual public diplomacy” between nation-states and foreign publics (Rai and Cottle 2007; Seib, 2010). Global communication systems can thus challenge the narrowness of public opinion, historically confined within the nation sphere, and instead develop a cosmopolitan orientation in the public sphere and form an international community.
At the same time, however, the political scenery tells a different story. Over the past years, the rise of nationalism is evident (Bremmer, 2017) throughout various countries: from the United Kingdom withdrawing from the European Union - where UK prime minister Theresa May declared: “If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere” - to Donald Trump winning the U.S presidential elections to the Indian prime minister Modi advancing nationalistic policies.
Meanwhile, while political actors within domestic politics try to gather citizens to rally around the flag, and distance/defend themselves from supranational institutions they also seek international prestige. Therefore, international media narrative has been considered an external influence and a tool of public diplomacy (Seib, 2010). Global reputations can reach and affect national politics. For example, as Viktor Orbán’s reputation in global media worsens, his image as the ‘protector’ of Hungary only strengthens. Similarly, the more Matteo Salvini is quoted, the further his narrative is strengthened. Is this the influence of foreign journalists or a predictable outcome of radicalized and polarized political states? Can global transnational journalism act as an antidote, and can journalists’ role of watchdog be relevant beyond borders? To investigate these notions, this paper researches the influence of international news media on national policies by looking at how citizens feel about nationalism as opposed to globalization-led cosmopolitanism.
Though many countries face this, this study chooses to focus on The Netherlands. Its nationalistic wave has not (yet) consolidated, and the issue of mass migrations has affected the global public sphere and been the principal motive in nationalist parties’ agendas. For that reason, we will investigate how international news frames on Dutch migration policies affects the agenda setting of Dutch citizens and their attitudes towards nationalism and cosmopolitanism.
RQ: How does the exposure to positive or negative frames of Dutch migration policies in
international news affect citizens agenda setting attitudes on nationalism and
cosmopolitanism?
Theoretical framework
Research in the field of media effects across and between nations and cultures has developed mainly in terms of comparative studies (Livingstone, 2003), most commonly comparing media use and news consumption between different countries. The empirical insights within these researches are then explained in terms of media systems, relying on the typology offered by
Hallin & Manicini (2004), and in terms of political systems. However, as Bonfandelli (2016) notices, these types of studies cannot be taken into consideration to investigate the real effects and influences “between” and “across” countries since they merely compare results and findings established within nation-state borders.
In such an emerging transnational field, the increase in exchange of information and ideas across borders, national boundaries are rapidly becoming an impediment rather than an aid to the understanding of public spheres opening to a transnational arena. The academic work in this area, besides the aforementioned comparative approach, still mainly relies on the cultural imperialism paradigm. It focuses on the “one way flow” in which formats and content is exported from hegemonic Anglo-American news sources or investigates the opposite local appropriation and developing counter flows (Crane, 2018). Recent studies have moved beyond this model and instead investigate practices, intermediaries, and organizational structures in the global media field, offering a more nuanced view of power relations and dependencies (Bielby & Harrington, 2015). However, studies that investigate media effects on the perception of citizens’ own nations remain very rare (e.g. Waisanen and Durlak, 1967). Scholars have widely researched how
perceptions of foreign countries are influenced by nationally produced “foreign news”. However, in the current media landscape it is not unusual for other countries foreign news to reach citizens of the covered country. Therefore, a nation image is no longer advanced only by the nation itself, redefining the role of international news in its ability to influence audiences of different countries. This motivates the aim of this study, which recognizes the research gap in this field, that has been pointed out by scholars that have stressed the need for further research on the topic (Bonfandelli, 2016; Bielby & Harrington, 2008; Havens, 2006; Steemers, 2004).
By referencing Reese and Shoemaker’s (2016) Hierarchy of Influences Model, it can be said that at this point the research within the field of media effects across countries has mainly covered the external macro levels of the model: the Social System, Social Institutions, and,
according to more recent studies, the Organizational Level. Given that the aim of this paper is to explore audience effects, and how exposure to international media can affect nation-state
audiences within their domestic public spheres, the focus leans more towards the micro levels of the model, with particular interest in the Individual level.
To assess this, the study primarily builds upon the theory of agenda setting and the role of international and transnational media as a public diplomacy tool. Moreover, in order to
investigate media effects on citizen attitudes, it will also touch upon social identity theories, hostile media bias and then proceed to define the concept of audiences’ fragmentation and its role in the polarization of nationalistic attitude versus cosmopolitan ones.
Agenda setting
The shortcomings of contemporary research’s understanding of the comprehensive role of communication within the international lenses can be explained by the dominance of the
traditional realism approach (Le, 2006) in International Relations studies. Within this approach, the state is considered the sole actor in the international arena and foreign policy is free of the influence of extraneous factors such as news media. In this tradition, foreign policies reflect national interest and, therefore, are only driven by internal government decisions.
(Mermin,1999:147). However, these classical realist assumptions are constantly challenged by the pluralized powers of the space-transcending new media and advances in media technology. The first clear example of this phenomenon has been widely discussed as the “CNN effect”in 1990, when the international broadcaster shielded a light on the Gulf War and mobilized audiences across the globe. Ever since, global media has recognized the power of media messages in the international arena and stakeholders have then tried to influence audiences’ perception of conflict for its own aims independent of traditional international actors. This has been used to foster solidarity, create international virtual communities, and or to achieve international prestige.
Governments, institutions, NGO’s, and international actors have acknowledged the role of communication as a power source and made it a common practice to rely on new media to set their agenda within international relations. In this regard, the development of agenda setting theory ( Weaver, 2008) has highlighted the role of foreign countries’ perceptions and how it can be evaluated through multilevel agenda-setting theory. The causal relationship that exists between one’s (or the imagined international community (Reid &Anderson,1985) perception of a nation and the agenda setting within said nation, has been supported by findings (Anholt, 2008) that claim that the news media as a diplomatic device can be just as powerful as formal policy statements. Other studies, although focusing on the agenda setting effects of exposure to news and information of foreign countries, confirm the interdependence between the media across borders, mainly in terms of a nation’s visibility – also known as priming effect - propelling certain countries in the media spotlight. This is translated in the public and political arena where statesmen are aware of the performance in international politics and the successful effect of foreign policy on the popularity of the leaders and their re-election chances in domestic politics. This confirms that the image of a state, propagated in the eyes of global audiences, has an influence on its voters (Coban, 2016). This motivates the following sub- research question.
RQ (1) How does the exposure to Dutch migration policies (image of nation) in international news affect citizens agenda setting?
From an information processing point of view, previous research investigating the cognitive mechanisms of agenda-setting has shown that negative information generates stronger effects than positive information. Some scholars have argued that content characteristics (e.g., valence) were the primary moderators of agenda-setting effects (Weaver, 2008). This study will therefore investigate the role tone of the news coverage plays in the perceived image of the nation. As tone can have an influence on attitudes towards a topic, the reception of a positively
valenced article is likely to be less strong than the article with a negative valence (Brunken, 2006).
Suggested reasons for ranking an issue’s importance in the political agenda are: (a) the imposed threat, (b) the potential consequences, and (c) the perceived neglect of the issue (Carter, Stamm, and Heintz-Knowles, 1992). These reasons support the assumption that negative
information and negative events are more effective in the agenda setting process than attention and affective responses are triggered. The latter reason – perceived neglect of the issue – is of particular relevance for the aim of this study as the focus is on the international image of a nation state, in this case The Netherlands.
Given that most of the international media content are widespread throughout the Internet, and the power social withholds in distributing news content, incidental political information encountered through social media holds the potential to inform both interested and the uninterested , resulting in different perceptions of issue-salience between individuals. In this regard, according to Bulkow et al.(2013, 59), the agenda-setting effect should be most prominent among those who report having lower levels of political interest and, therefore, a higher need for orientation. This leads to the following hypotheses:
H1: Participants exposed to an image of a nation in international news are more likely to identify the issues to be important.
H1a: Participants exposed to a negative image of a nation in international news are more likely to identify the issues to be important.
H1b: The agenda setting effect is stronger among politically uninterested participants than among politically interested participants.
Moving over to the second part of our research question and taking the micro levels of the Hierarchy of Influences model (Reese and Shoemaker, 2016) into consideration, we will now focus on the Individual Level in terms of how international media influences audiences political
behavior. If, within the context of globalization, national image has become unprecedentedly crucial for governments of countries and cities (Anholt, 2008), how does this influence citizens’ political behavior and the public arena of a country? Additionally, how does exposure to self-enhancing national media coexist with the exposure to contrasting international media that does not serve national reputational purposes?
Audience fragmentation and polarization
Although political and media institutions remain largely tied to the nation-state, the public sphere is not immune to globalization. Current developments carry both promises and dangers for democracy in relation to public discussion of governance in international relations. Differentiation of news media sources carries the danger of a fragmented public sphere. On the one hand,
transnational and specialist news media increasingly serve a well- educated elite (Hall, 2013). On the other hand, national and local media increasingly cater to the taste of disempowered social groups for whom globalization only poses a threat (Hall, 2013; Cunningham, 2016), namely the tendency to develop very domestic, and in some cases even aggressive, nationalistic perspectives on global affairs (Thorham et al., 2009).
In this stance, when considering audience effect research, the insights of McQuail (2000, p.72) could help in understanding the reasons behind this phenomenon. On a social-cultural level, media can provoke centrifugal effects, which are individualism and freedom but also
fragmentation, or it could have the opposite effect and cause social unity, cohesion and integration, which are identified as centripetal effects.
These effects can both be seen from an optimistic and pessimistic perspective. From the optimistic perspective, centrifugal effects can be a proxy for freedom and diversity in information content and in terms of social construction of reality, and centripetal effects allow for integration and participation through online media, allowing for audience deliberation (Bonfadelli, 2016).
From the pessimistic perspective, centrifugal effects are the cause of fragmentation and exclusion, creating a divide within the society, and it is reinforced by centripetal effects, such as uniformity and dominance. This in turn advances processes of stereotyping, discrimination, and media malaise phenomenon (McQuail, 2000), which translates into audience polarization within the national and supranational (Zhang, 2012).
Audiences are either heavily exposed to partisan and national media or are accustomed to diverse media content from both domestic and international sources, this divide increases
polarization in societies (Webster, 2005;). Building upon these insights, following the purpose of this paper to research the national public sphere, t as a consequence of the negative centrifugal and centripetal effects, audiences fragmentation and polarization feeds the rise of nationalistic attitudes (Bonfandelli, 2016). In order to define citizen’s nationalistic attitudes, this paper looks into the process of national identy formation and its reinforcement through media practices. Empirical evidence from content analysis of different news context supports the assumption that exposure to domestic media coverage contributes to strong national identity building and
encourages identification with the nation (Suzuki, 2015 ; Hall, 2000) . When considering Billing’s the notion of Banal Nationalism (1995), everyday representation of the nation builds a shared sense of belonging to the nation that is reinforced by media stereotyping and claims of external threat that advances xenophobia. These assumptions strongly relate to empirical findings from group psychology. The mechanism observed in communicating in-group/out-group biases (Hamilton and Trolier, 1986; Struch and Schwartz, 1989) is functional for social groups as well, allowing the assumption that the same phenomenon can be observable for larger social groups (e.g. nations). Against this background, it can be expected that media coverage on own and other nations also implicitly and/or explicitly contains such biased evaluations and, thus, not only contributes to an isolated national identity building, but also to the delimitation of own and other nations. This motivates the following sub-research question:
RQ (2) How does the exposure to positive or negative frames of Dutch migration policies in international news affect citizens’ nationalistic attitudes ?
National identities are constantly reconstituted by strategies on inclusion and exclusion or in the face of perceived threat from without and within national borders (Schlesinger 1991). From what social identity theory (SIT) suggests, in situations where a particular in-group identity becomes salient, , as a cognitive and behavioral pattern, individuals will seek to maintain,
protect, or enhance that group identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). More recently, researchers have applied SIT principles directly to the real-world arena of international relations (Mercer, 1995) and news coverage of international affairs (Rivenburgh, 2010).
When the nation is the salient in-group, Bloom (1990) draws from the social identification theory and finds that the tendency to protect or maintain national identity is the national identity dynamic. He suggests that this could be seen most blatantly in outbursts of patriotism, or yellow-ribbon tying during war, or rallying around the flag behind the success of an Olympic sports team, and, more subtly, in daily media accounts of international affairs. As Katz (2006) stated: “The national in-group becomes highly relevant in the world created by mass media […] The sense of national identity is aroused by perceived matters of national interest and national security in relation to other nations,” (p. 366). National identity can be regarded as an element of a person’s social identity (Tajfel and Turner, 1986). Social identity research has shown that an essential part of collective identity formation lies within the establishment of social borders between the own and other social groups (Hamilton and Trolier, 1986; Tajfel et al., 1971) through social
comparison processes (Festinger, 1962). These insights underline the importance of social identity attachment to the country in this framework. For this, the following hypothesis can be concluded:
H2a: Participants exposed to an image of a nation in international news are more likely to indicated nationalistic attitudes.
H2b: Nationalistic attitudes will be stronger for participants who indicated strong social identity attachment to the nation when exposed to an image of a nation in international
news.
As scholars have demonstrated (Marxs, 2002; Zubrzycki, 2015), antagonism reinforces a dominant representation of nationhood. We rely on the findings of Hostile Media Bias (HMB) to investigate how negative coverage of international news can predict nationalistic attitudes.
Perceived hostility occurs when reading media messages (but not other messages). When partisan audiences are exposed to news coverage that affects a topic they are involved in, they process it in a defensive manner (Gunther & Liebhart, 2007). The HMP has the potential to polarize public opinion because those who care the most about any issue become convinced that the media are against them. If we consider this within the Slater model of reinforcing spirals (Slater, 2007)— which argues that partisan content makes people more partisan, which in turn makes them even more likely to consume partisan content—, it fuels a spiraling process of polarization and justifies the following hypothesis:
H2c Participants exposed to negative image of nation in international news are more likely to indicated nationalistic attitudes.
If instead we focus on the previously mentioned optimistic vision of both centripetal and centrifugal audience effects, the role of transnational and international media functions as a catalyst for conversations and reflection in a global outlook, valuing diversity and inclusion. One of the first approaches to international news media has been through the notion of ‘global village’ (McLuhan, 1964). According to this concept, we can point to changes in the way citizens of states view themselves and others. The media supply information, and at the same time shape people’s learning process about the world, thus, mass media have correspondingly large influence on an individuals’ picture of the world. Moreover, the role the Internet plays in facilitating a sense of connection to the international community at the individual level is highly relevant.
Findings demonstrate that the Internet matters for international engagement. According to Kwak (2012), the Internet connects individuals to the international community by helping them increase their knowledge of the world, facilitating their sense of belonging to the greater world, and motivating them to participate in international events and foreign volunteer opportunities.
Furthermore, findings suggest that younger users of the Internet tended to benefit more from reading international news on the Internet than older users with respect to international political knowledge and international participation (Kwak, 2012). This allows for the following hypothesis:
H3a Participants exposed to an image of a nation in international news are more likely to indicated cosmopolitan attitudes.
H3b Cosmopolitan attitudes will be stronger for younger participants exposed to an image of a nation in international news.
When considering media effect across cultures, audience research has often focused on migration research and investigated the media diet of migrants and its role in the integration process. Studies have been conducted in France, (Hargreaves & Mahdjoub, 1997), the United Kingdom (Georgiou, 2001), and the United States (Jeffres, 2000), of which all findings conclude different of integration and effects of the use of media from either or all of the home, the host country. However, most of the studies lead to believe that people with a migration background exposed to different media content and public sphere, develop hybrid identities and are used to adapting to different media sources not linked to specific national cultures. This motives the following hypothesis:
H3c Cosmopolitan attitudes will be stronger for participants with a migration background when exposed to images of nation in international news.
Design
In order to answer this study’s main and sub-questions, an online survey-embedded experiment will be conducted. A Gpower analysis was conducted a priori to assess the effect size, and it indicated that a sample size of 150 would be large enough to include the covariates of a 2x2 factorial design in which the recruited sample had to be randomly assigned to the following conditions: 2x International news article vs National news article and - 2 x Positive tone vs Negative tone. The topic of the news article reflected the issue of immigration that is currently under heavy debate. Social identity attachment will be considered as a mediator whereas place of residency (urban, suburban or rural) and whether the participants hold a migration background will be considered as moderators as well as age, media diet and party affiliation.
Sample
The participants were recruited in The Netherlands through academic and personal contacts of the researcher. Furthermore, to gain a broader range of participants and reach the sample suggested by the effect size test, participants were also recruited through the platform mTurk. Given that this source is predominately used by citizens of the United States and not yet as popular across the Dutch population, we only gathered 18 participants, which were added to the 173 recruited via convenience sampling. In total, 191 participants were recruited. However, taking into consideration missing data and respondent not fulfilling the attention test (see manipulation check session below), the final sample consisted of 179 respondents. The participants made up a diverse sample across many features. The final sample included Dutch adults between the ages of 18-89 (M=27.55) of which the majority was female 49.7% (only one participant indicated themselves as non-binary). Participants came from a range of educational levels, although most completed a higher education degree (61,3%), indicating either having completed a HBO or WO university program. On the political placement scale (1=Left,
5=Neutral, 10=Right), there was a slight bias towards the Left side (M= 4.39, SD= 1.9), with a total of 66,1% of respondents placing themselves between the Left and Neutral mark. The sample also seemed to be politically aware and interested: on a scale of 1 (not at all interested) to 7 (a great deal interested), 72.8% of participants placed themselves on or above the middle value (M=4.98, SD= 1.69). News consumption in the Netherlands is traditionally very high (Tenscher, 2008) and this was confirmed by this sample since a majority of participants indicated
consuming the national news content 2-3 times per week (mode) from traditional media (i.e. TV, print news) and 4-6 times per week on new media (i.e. Online news outlets, social media). This difference seemed of even more relevance in regard to international news consumption where the divide between traditional media and Internet based content was bigger, as accessibility to
international news content is facilitated mainly through online media.
Randomization check
Within this research a randomization check was performed to assess that the participants recruited via convenience sampling and via the MTurk platform indicated no pre-experimental biases as well as to assess that all respondents were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions. The randomization process was successful since no statistically significant differences (p < .05) among the four groups in terms of age, gender and educational and political background. Therefore, any difference that can be found across the groups after the exposure to the condition, can be considered as an effect and a result of the respondents’ exposure to the articles..
Procedure
The experiment was conducted online, participants were first asked to complete the procedure of informed consent. Upon agreement, they completed a pretest asking for
demographics, the items for moderating variables and control variables. The question “do you hold a Dutch citizenship?” was used as a filter question, in order to screen out participants who were not Dutch. Next, participants were randomly allocated to one of the experimental conditions and read an online newspaper article. After reading this article, participants completed a post-test questionnaire, measuring the following dependent variables: nationalistic attitudes and
cosmopolitan attitudes.
Independent Variables and Stimulus Materials
The stimuli material consisted of an online newspaper article on the Netherlands receiving refugees and asylum seekers saved at sea. The articles presented the events around the debate within European countries, - mainly The Netherlands and Italy - on the responsibility towards the refugees saved by the Dutch NGO Sea Watch 3 in the Mediterranean Sea. As the issue of
immigration is salient to the Dutch public and political debates as well as in the international public sphere (Google Trends) and since immigration is one of the most argued issue discussed by nationalistic parties in Europe (Bieber, 2018), the topic provides an externally valid case to evaluate what effect exposure to national and international news has on sentiment of nationalism, patriotism and cosmopolitanism. The article was framed in four different ways, two were written in Dutch and two in English to mimic an international outlet news article and in order to control the effect of tone, the articles were then written differently with a positive or negative valence. All versions of the article are included in Appendix A.
As Müller (2013) assessed, news media coverage plays an important role for national identity building and exposure to both national and foreign news coverage contains multiple evaluations of own and other nations, depending on the frames and tone conveyed in the
messages; positive or negative tones can serve a national self-enhancement purpose. Therefore, the experimental conditions all dealt with the same story with only small changes in the tone of
the article; the news articles presented either a positive or negative tone in regards of The Netherlands as a country and its responsibilities.
All experimental groups were confronted with the same visuals (i.e. an image of the Sea Watch 3 boat) to increase validity in order to ensure that the only thing manipulated respondents was the tone of the story. All experimental conditions had the same introduction and only small changes. In the positive story the title is: “Dutch discuss Italian request to accept 47 migrants on a rescue ship “and in the negative story, the word ‘discuss’ was substituted with the word
‘refuse’. Both stories were also equal in length in order to make sure that respondents arrived the follow-up questions after a similar level of time and thought.
The stimuli material were based on previously published newspaper articles retrieved from the online versions of three Dutch newspapers (Volkskrant, de Telegraaf, NRC.next) and three international newspapers (The Guardian, Al Jazeera and The New York Times), in order to increase the external validity of the study. The layout, and style of the content of the stimuli was intended to match existing online newspaper articles. Therefore, the articles were presented with the header and layout of The New York Times and for the national Dutch articles the Volkskrant. These two news outlets were chosen as they fit both the criteria of credibility and are considered as established international and national newspapers.
Manipulation Checks
Following the stimulus material, respondents were asked whether they had read the story and what it was about in order to assess the validity of the experiment. The perception of the tone of the news story was also tested as respondents were asked to give a positivity and negativity score in regard of the story they had read as well as whether The Netherlands as a country and its responsibility was portrayed negatively or positively. Moreover, participants were asked to
remember the name of the boat “Sea Watch 3” that the article mentions to test participants’ reception and attention to the stimulus they were presented with. 11 participants did not identify the right name of the boat mentioned in the article, they were therefore dropped out of the study.
The remaining respondents identified all conditions as negative or positive as intended, interestingly enough, National Positive condition ( M= 2.19 S.E=0.8) scored lower on negativity than the International Positive condition (M= 2.75, SE =1.0). Both results do indicate that
participants recognise the positive tone of the article, given the hypothesis focus on the role of the negatively valenced article, the results will be treated and interpreted with caution, but accepted.
Dependent Variables
Nationalism (DV)
Berglez (2013) has noted how the hegemonic national identity in the news media, includes some citizens and makes them feel at home . He also addressed, in accordance with the notion of ‘banal nationalism’, how it represses transnational identities carried by ethnic minority groups within and outside the national borders. Nationalism as a phenomenon is hard to measure or explain quantitatively because of its emotional and psychological nature. Literature offers us methods of operationalization of this concept: although it is a single-item indicator, researchers use it as a proxy for complex concepts, such as patriotism and nationalism. This key dependent variable was measured following previous studies (see, e.g. Coenders 2001; Blank and Schmidt 2003) and ISPP surveys’ measure of “nationalism”. The participants were presented with the following items (1) “The world would be a better place if people from other countries were more like Dutch people” (M = 3.73, SD =1.6, min =1, max = 7), and (2) “Generally speaking, the Netherlands are a better country than most other countries” (M = 4.83, SD = 1.4, min = 1, max = 7). The responses were measured on a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7
(strongly agree). However, in order to assure that the nuance within the sentiment of nationalism included what Davidov (2009) describes as Constructive Patriotism (CP), meaning that the country is not idealized but critically evaluated (positively), participants were also presented with other items. These were also based on ISSP measures: (1) “I am proud of the way democracy works in The Netherlands” (M = 4.77, SD = 1.5, min = 1, max = 7). (2) “I am proud in the social security system of The Netherlands” (M = 5.4, SD = 1.3, min = 1, max = 7). (3) “I am proud of The Netherlands in their fair and equal treatment of all groups in society” (M = 4.39, SD = 1.6, min = 1, max = 7). In this case, as well as the responses, were measured on a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree). There items were then run through a confirmatory factor analysis and combined into one scale measuring “Nationalistic Attitude”. The items all loaded on one factor and the reliability of the scale was considered acceptable
(Eigenvalue = 2.4; Cronbach’s α = .74).
Cosmopolitanism (DV)
The concept of Cosmopolitanism is gaining significance due to increased levels of globalization, leading to cross-border transactions. Research in various disciplines have investigated the conditions that enable and disable cosmopolitan hospitality in a society, and they found that
media frames are one of the conditions (Ong, 2009). Building upon how cosmopolitanism has been measured in previous research, in this study the cosmopolitanism scale was developed following Earle and Cvetkovich (1997) scale that they apply in a risk management context, considering the domain of culture, community, identity. However, given the nature of this study and the focus on the role of international news, the shortcoming of this scales pointed out by Saran and Kalliny (2012) and argue that the scale disregards the various aspects of expressing Cosmopolitanism in content consumption. Thus, this was taken into account, as well as the lack of
cosmopolitanism are the following: (1) “I think it’s good to spend time with people who are willing to talk and learn about other cultures” (M = 6.00, SD = 1.3, min = 1, max = 7). (2) “I think I respect others’ culture the way I respect mine” (M = 5.68, SD = 1.3, min = 1, max = 7). (3) “I think reading about world events is worthwhile” (M = 6.06, SD = 1.2, min = 1, max = 7).(4) “I think to be successful, one needs to be able to use the materials, information, knowledge, etc. from other cultures” (M = 5.34, SD = 1.5, min = 1, max = 7). (5) “I think political
discussions beyond the narrow concerns of culture, nation, and self are valuable” (M = 5.65, SD = 1.3, min = 1, max = 7) (6) “I think it would be good if I could absorb as many culturally varied experiences as possible” (M = 5.75, SD = 1.3, min = 1, max = 7). The responses were measured on a seven-point scale as the aforementioned variables. To be noted, previous scales measuring cosmopolitanism consisted of more than 10 items presented to the participants, but in order to avoid survey fatigue, we chose to present them with 6 items, which exemplify the concept as it is intended to be studied in this research. There items were then run through a factor analysis to form a scale measuring Cosmopolitan attitude. The items all loaded on one factor and the reliability of the scale was considered strong (Eigenvalue = 3.5; Cronbach’s α = .86).
In order to test whether the different experimental conditions, as in exposure to foreign/national news articles, could have an effect in the public agenda-setting, a third set of dependent variable was constructed. Respondents were presented with the traditional ranking scale “most
important problem” (MIP) question, both in the pretest and the posttest: the participants were asked to rank in order of most important and relevant issues the following items: Climate Change (1), Political polarization (2), Terrorism (3), Immigration (4) Jobs & Economy (5) and Foreign
policy (6).
The item that will be used to carry the analysis in regards to agenda setting will be Immigration , as the content of the stimuli focuses on this issue.
Mediator
Social identity Attachment to the Netherlands
In order to test the hypotheses, moderators such as Identity attachment was used in the pretest. The participants were presented with a three-item scales to measure Social Identity Attachment constructed on measures used by Boomgaarden, Schuck, Elenbaas, and de Vreese (2011): (1) “I am proud to be a Dutch citizen” (M = 5.13, SD = 1.3, min = 1, max = 7). (2) “I feel attached to the Dutch identity” (M = 5.07, SD = 1.4, min = 1, max = 7). (3) “I feel attached to a shared Dutch culture” (M = 4.91, SD = 1.4, min = 1, max = 7). The items all loaded on one factor and added forming a strong reliable scale for Social Identity (Eigenvalue = 2.4; Cronbach’s α = .89).
Results
To test (H1a), whether exposure to image of nation in international news would predict priming effect of the issue, in this case Immigration, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. Taking into account that Levene's Test for Equality of Variances (F (11, 693) = 4.20, p = .10) is not significant, equality of variances can be supposed. The results demonstrate that no significant
effect of international portrayal of nation image on citizen perceived Agenda Setting can be found (F(1, 179) = 3.64, p =.06) meaning that no significant difference can be found between
participants that exposed to international news as opposed to national news. However, when considering the group presented with a negative international news article manipulation (H1b), the evaluation of the issue of immigration changes and a positive significant effect is found (F(1, 179) = 5.54, p =.02). Between the groups, the found differences show that the mean score for Immigration in the International News manipulation with Negative Tone (M= 4.63, SD=1.35) was higher than and the mean score for the item Immigration in the pretest (M=3.93, SD = 1.48) for participants presented with the same manipulation. In the posttest the International News article with Positive Tone ( M= 4.00, SD= 1.37), the National News with Negative Tone ( M=4.09, SD=1.23) and with Positive Tone (M= 4,12, SD=1.56), all presented a lower mean score which can be observed in Table 1.
Table 1
Moreover, the model shows that Interest in politics yields a significant positive main effect on citizens’ perceived agenda setting (H1c) (F (1, 142) =2.24, p = .04), although with a very weak effect(η2 =.09). Contrary to what was expected, this result shows that the agenda setting effect is stronger among politically interested participants. However no significant effect was found between exposure to international News image of nation and interest in politics on perceived agenda setting, (F (6, 142) = 0.64, p = .69, η2 = .03). 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Positive Negative Positive Negative
International National
To test the second sub- research question on nationalistic attitudes, the focus was on the
“Negative International News” and “Positive International News” conditions. When considering the different values of nationalistic attitude, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) reveals no
significant differences between the groups, F(1, 142)= 1.86, p= .78, η2 = .02). A significant effect was found for Social Identity on nationalistic attitudes, F (1,142)= 5.52, p < .001, η2 = .49), and this positive effect was strong. However, no significant mediation effect between the conditions and social identity was found.
A Bonferroni post-hoc test revealed that individuals who were exposed to the International news article with postive tone indicated a stronger nationalistic attitude (M= 11.35, SE =0.35), as well as those who were presented with the international news with negative tone, who demonstrated a slightly stronger nationalistic attitude (M= 11.76, SE=0.28).
Finally, in order to investigate (H3a,b,c) whether international news yields cosmopolitan attitudes a multiple regression analysis was conducted. The results of the regression model significantly explained 38.5 % of the variance (R2=.385, F(2,145)=5.31, p<.000). It was found that exposure to international news does not significantly predict cosmopolitan attitudes (β = .24, p=.43), and neither did age (β = .26, p=.23). Having a migration background instead can be considered a predictor for cosmopolitan attitudes (β = 2.26, p=.040). As for the hypothesized interaction effect, exposure to international news and age (β = -2.34, p= .01) significantly predict
Cosmopolitanism as well as the interaction between international news and education (β = 1.67, p= .04). The younger the participant, the more his/her cosmopolitan attitudes were predicted by exposure to International News.
Discussion and Conclusion
This study investigated to what extent international news can affect the national public sphere with a focus on audience effects. Firstly, focusing on priming and agenda setting effects, then on how international news can play a role in citizen’s nationalistic and cosmopolitan attitudes.
The importance of nation image in media and its role in the international arena had been established by previous studies (Coban, 2016; Zhang 2015). In this paper the focus was on how
the international image of a country - The Netherlands - was perceived by citizen of said country and how it would affect their perceived agenda and nationalistic and cosmopolitan attitude.
When looking at agenda setting effects, the results of the analysis did not confirm the hypothesis (H1) that participants exposed to international news would evaluate the issue presented in the article as more relevant. However, when the International article was presented with negative tone respondents would perceive Immigration as more pressing issue in the agenda in the posttest (H1a) than the pre-test phase. and then the respondent which instead were
presented with the national news articles or the positive international news article. No significant interaction effect was found between International News and Interest in politics, however a main effect demonstrated that politically interested participants evaluated Immigration as a more relevant issue, contrary to what we had hypothesized (H1b).
The interdependence of countries and their media constitutes a big challenge for media research, the CNN effect has demonstrated how the power of media can influence the public opinion across the globe. However, these findings suggest that this powerful role media plays should not be confined to only situations of conflicts and public diplomacy. The more the word is
interconnected the more we are faced with transnational issues (e.g. environmental crisis, the refugee crisis, etc.) that challenge national governance and call for mutual accountability across countries. Future studies should focus on the reception of international news media and how it affects audiences and influences their political behavior which is inevitably tied to the nation state. Moreover, research should shield a light on the consumption of news media across
countries, studies often focus on the role of foreign news (Golan and Wanta, 2004), not realizing that the space transcendence characteristic of online media allows audiences are presented with national issues presented in the foreign news section of foreign outlet (mainly Anglo-American). Berglez (2018) offers a first approach to this paradigm by investigating to what extent Swedish citizens consume international news media.
This study proceeds to investigate how international news influences citizens’ nationalistic attitudes. No significant results were found to support the hypothesis (H2a) that audiences exposed to International News with Negative Tone would be more likely to show nationalistic attitudes. Moreover, Social Identity Attachment predictably indicated a main positive effect on nationalistic attitude. The findings cannot support the hypothesis, this can be explained for the limitations of the methods used. Nationalism, because of its psychological and emotional nature, is hard to measure through quantitative methods, qualitative analysis would have suited the aim of this study better and provided with more insights on how nationalistic attitude can be fueled by negatively or positively valanced international news articles. Moreover, language barriers limit the notion of “International News” to mainly British and American sources, which are as well the most followed on online platforms and evaluated with higher credibility. This does not allow for this finding to be generalized as their validity is challenged by these features: the effects cannot be fully attributed to International News as a coherent entity. These limitations explain the research gap found on this topic (Steemers, 2004, 2016), however its relevance calls for future research.
Finally, this study investigates whether exposure to International news yields cosmopolitan attitudes. The results do not support the main hypothesis, that International News can predict cosmopolitan attitudes, however an interaction effect between exposure to international news and age indicates that for younger respondents International News can predict cosmopolitan attitudes. Moreover, as hypothesized having a migration background also predicts Cosmopolitanism. The latter finding is of particular interest as it is in line with Hall (2012) notions of “cosmopolitanism of the low” in which he argues that as a consequence of globalization, communalities can be found between the so called “cosmopolitan elite” - the typical class of frequent travellers provided with the opportunity to study and travel and be exposed to transnational activities - the
part of society that is forced to travel - migrate - for necessity. For both these groups media rituals do not rely on the nation.
Furthermore, a limitation to be noted is that during the research process, the debate around the case of the Sea Watch 3 - which was used in the news article presented in the manipulations - grew exponentially in the international and national (Italian and Dutch) public sphere. This may have affected the validity of the results of this study seeing as participants could have been exposed to extensive news messages around the issue, creating biases that interfered with the manipulations.
In conclusion, the rising interdependence of countries constitutes a profoundly new historical moment, that calls for a universal vision of media, politics and power, within and without of academic research, to assess in what terms such a global outlook is practically and potentially possible. As for now, the reality is the opposite, the interconnectedness has been translated into a structural definition of power in which differences override the interdepencies, fostering
polarization. (Hall, 2012).
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