To solve or not to solve?
From finger-pointing to financial supporting
A content analysis of news frames and an experiment on how emotions mediate framing effects on citizen support for Greece
Name: Maikel Mocking
Number: 10247254
Program: Political Communication Science Supervisor: Claes de Vreese
Date: 30-01-2015
Thesis type: Research Master Thesis Institution: University of Amsterdam
To solve or not to solve | 2
To solve or not to solve?
From finger-pointing to financial supporting
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Abstract. Framing studies usually focus on cognitive effects of framing. The current study
contributes to a better understanding of how discrete emotions work in relation to frames in the news. Based on a content analysis of news messages regarding the Greek financial situation, an experiment was conducted to find out to what extent these frames lead to certain emotions. These emotions could subsequently affect the level of financial support participants are willing to contribute in order to save Greece. This relation is specified by including character traits of the participants and their personal political ideology. The results show that frame type (prognostic versus diagnostic) matters over time - the media use these frames to get their message across about (1) a country in need of help due to their own problems and it needs support to (2) a country in need that could be dangerous for our own financial situation. However, the valence of the frame was most important in the experiment. Even then, positive frames only influenced the level of happiness and sadness. The amount of financial support for Greece is influenced by anger but the level of anger was not triggered by the frames. All in all, the frames in this study were not able to influence the support for Greece.
Keywords: emotions, EU, mediators, content analysis, financial support, Greece, experiment
Introduction
In communication science we are increasingly interested in the non-cognitive side of communication (Gross, 2008). However, the role of specific emotions has yet to be fully investigated (Lecheler, Schuck & de Vreese, 2013). The main interest of this study is to see to what extent European citizens would financially support new measures for Greece with an emphasis on frame type and frame valence. This opinion relates to the Dutch share of 'paying the bill' of the southern European member states. The purpose is to measure if, and in what way, emotions affect this opinion formation. The scientific goal lies in the assessment of the frame’s capacity to influence citizens opinions through emotion and to contribute to theory about frame moderators. In particular to the moderating role of political ideology and character traits and the mediating role of emotion. Therefore, the main research question is: To what extent do frames, through emotions and with a moderating role for political ideology and character traits, influence support for Greece? The financial situation of Greece is used as a case study; The European crisis seems to weaken its magnitude now that the Greek forecast a return to growth (New York Times, 2013) though the January 2015 elections cast new doubts on this development.
To solve or not to solve | 3 What if it would be necessary to help Greece once more? What feelings do we have towards sending more financial aid to Greece in order to prevent bankruptcy? This political crisis is that of the support for financially unstable members of the European Union. This topic shows the sympathy and solidarity we have towards fellow Europeans. The case of the European Union suits the purpose of this study; decisions made on new rules of giving help to a country means every citizen should contribute to the solution, in terms of giving money through taxes. This study analyzes the last negotiations (end of 2012) about financial support for Greece.
Frame type vs. frame valence
"Research on framing is characterized by theoretical and empirical vagueness" (Scheufele, 1999, p. 103). This statement is not very beneficial for framing research. Therefore, the current study has a more practical approach. This practical approach follows the impactful work of Entman (1993) where he notes that framing "[...] essentially involves selection and salience" (Entman, 1993, p.52). These two concepts are used as a framework in this study to come to an own translation of general frames to specific frames. I will do so by focusing on two aspects of framing. On the one hand, there is frame type which includes the content of a frame. Later on the content analysis shows what is present is the news regarding the financial situation of Greece. Here, the content of the frame is important. On the other hand there is frame valence which indicates a positive version of a story versus a negative version of a story. Both positive and negative sides of the content are used in the experiment. Also, the direct effect of framing on opinion will be accounted for. The following sections will provide more insight on these topics. First, the leading questions in this study are:
Main: To what extent do frames, through emotions and with a moderating role for
political ideology and character traits, influence support for Greece?
RQ1: What is the main effect of framing on opinion?
FRAME TYPE. In a general sense two major frame types relate to the focus of this study; episodic frames and thematic frames. Episodic frames focus on the individual (Gross, 2008; Iyengar, 1996). Episodic frames present an issue by using specific examples or a case study. Or, as Iyengar (1996) notes, these frames are used by media to illustrate certain events. This illustration focuses on individual or specific aspects of the said event (Iyengar, 1996). Episodic frames are assumed to be more emotionally engaging. They also operate via both affective and cognitive routes. Thematic frames place issues into a broader context and they are less emotionally engaging. In a study carried out by Gross (2008) the results showed that episodic frames - unlike thematic frames - were able to generate less opposition against certain policies. In the end, both kind of frames have an underlying societal relevance; episodic frames resemble
To solve or not to solve | 4 core values like individualism and work ethic whereas thematic frames focus on societal responsibility issues like poverty or gender differences (Iyengar, 1996).
Both episodic and thematic frames have a generic nature. In order to use them for the current study a few adjustments had to be made. A first translation of episodic and thematic frames can be found in the work of Semetko and Valkenburg (2000). Their frames resemble the focus on the individual, such as the human interest frame, and a broad societal context, such as a responsibility frame and an economic consequences frame. These frames are therefore suitable to use in the current study. Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) tested their frames for differences in the frequency of appearance in popular and qualitative newspapers. The result was that the type of newspaper - together with the type of topic - is determing for the type of frame that is used. Quality newspapers, for example, use a responsibility frame and popular newspaper use a human interest frame (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). These frames, together with the economic consequences frame, are most relevant for the content analysis of the current study:
H1: Qualitative newspapers use a responsibility theme to frame a story and popular
outlets use a human interest theme to frame a story.
One might notice that a sense of blame is present in a responsibility frame, that the aspect of emotion is present in a human interest frame, and that a broader context of the case study is provided by an economic consequences frame. However, to be able to get the complete picture of the portrayal of the Greek crisis, issue-specific news frames should be taken into account as well (de Vreese, 2005). Therefore, a second set of frames is used to assess a more specific role of framing in the Greek case study. A study by Snow, Vliegenthart and Brown (2007) on diagnostic and prognostic frames serves as a basis for the Greek case. Diagnostic frames contain diagnoses of an event as troublesome and in need of change. Prognostic frames contain a solution for the troublesome event (Snow, et al., 2007). These two types of frames were used in a case study for 2005 French riots but they can also be applied to the Greek case study. For instance, items for the diagnostic frame that were found in the French case are 'Failure of minority incorporation' and 'Ethnic and religious minority groups'. The former item can be translated into 'A perceived failure of the incorporation of every Greek citizen into Greek society'
and the latter into 'Being in a financial crisis is the result of the character of Greek culture'. An item for the prognostic frame that was used in the French case was 'Raise and educate children in the suburbs to be more responsible citizens' and this item is directly applicable to the Greek situation (also see Appendix IV). Snow, et al. (2007) were able to establish the presence of a diagnostic and prognostic frame, which corresponds with the goal of the current study. However, I am also interested in the aspect of time. Therefore the second research question is:
RQ2: Which aspects of diagnostic and prognostic frames were present in the media
To solve or not to solve | 5
RQ3: To what extent does the type of a frame affects emotion?
FRAME VALENCE. A frame's valence includes the positive or negative aspects of a story. It might
serve as a strong trigger for emotion or for the effect on opinion. A study carried out by Levin, Schneider and Gaeth (1998) shows that positive frames are able to produce stronger primes compared to negative frames. When people come across negative frames they tend to avoid loss. However, when people realize what they might miss out on by not acting, they motivated to act (Levin, et al., 1998). This means that, applied to the Greek situation, a negative frame would make it less likely for people to financially support Greece. However, if these people feel that there might be direct negative consequences for them when not doing anything at all, they might act anyway.
RQ4: To what extent does the valance of a news frame affects emotion?
Emotions
As mentioned before, emotion in politics remains largely non-researched. A few studies, however, did find substantive outcomes for certain discrete emotions. Before discussing these studies it is important to note that two main theories dominate the conceptualization of emotion: appraisal theory and affective intelligence theory. In appraisal theory an appraisal forms the link between experiencing a certain event and feeling a certain emotion. This appraisal then serves as an in-between-step (like feeling personally benefited or harmed). After this step a transition into an actual emotion is made (Lazarus, 1991). The affective intelligence theory, on the other hand, places emotion in a decision making process. That means that this theory also acknowledges a cognitive side to emotion, although it is more strongly related to cognition and reasoning (Marcus, Neuman & MacKuen, 2000). This theory largely leans on the disposition system; a part of the brain that manages the execution of previously learned behavior and attitudes and leads to the portion that manages feedback and awareness. In exploring this theory Marcus, et al. (2000) found that anxiety and enthusiasm cause certain reasoning. When emotions are able to cause reasoning these emotions might also affect opinion formation. This is an important part of my study and I search for effects of frames on emotion and the subsequent effect on opinion. In other words, I intend to investigate:
RQ5: To what extent do emotions influence opinion?
I should also take into account that certain discrete emotions are known to generate certain actions. One of these actions is the ability of emotions to mobilize individuals. This particular action is important for the current study since it is closely related to providing support. In a study based on the above discussed affective intelligence theory Dillard and Peck (2006) found that anger (more than anxiety or enthusiasm) is able to mobilize individuals.
To solve or not to solve | 6 On the other hand, immobilization was related to feelings of contentment (Dillard & Peck, 2006). Another action that is based on emotion is reinforcement of the dispositional system. Apparently, when goals are being met a feeling of enthusiasm arises in an individual (Valentino, Brader, Gorenendyk, Gregorowicz, & Hutchings, 2011). This emotion subsequently leads to reinforcing existing behaviour and attitudes. On the opposite, when new stimuli are presented to an individual a feeling of anxiety is triggered within an individual. This emotion subsequently leads to attention to the environment and it disrupts trust on the dispositional system (Valentino et al., 2011). A final consequence of certain emotions is the intensity of information processing. Kim and Cameron (2011) showed that participants exposed to anger-inducing crisis news read the news less closely. They also showed a higher level of negative attitudes compared to participants exposed to sadness-inducing news. This is also what Turner (2007) found in his study concerning the role of anger. It seemed that message-induced anger leads to more attention and to a higher level of information processing (Turner, 2007). This same feeling of anger is used by elites to facilitate rejection of an issue (Lecheler, Schuck & de Vreese (2013). On the other hand elites try to gain support for an issue by appealing to a feeling of enthusiasm. All in all, Lecheler et al. (2013) found that elites emphasize positive or negative aspects of a message to manipulate emotion.
The concept of emotions might be a field that deserves a more substantial body of research, but there are multiple (valid) ways to assess an individual's level of emotion. One method is to use the self-assessment manikin (Bradley & Lang, 1994). It is used to assess levels of valence, arousal and dominance of emotions. However, I am looking for a more to-the-point measurement which is in line with the measurement of character traits (discussed in later section). A scale in which just the domination of a discrete emotion is measured therefore suits the study better. Based on the affect-related emotional states, I selected the emotions within each dimension1 as suggested by Seo and Barret (2007). These emotions are: happiness, anger,
surprised, contentment, enthusiastic, sadness, anxiousness, frustration, and calm. Seo and Barret (2007) used their scales in a study that measured emotions related to the European Union. These scales also suit the purpose of the current study. Although we know that certain discrete emotions play a role in certain kinds of behaviour we can still ask ourselves which other actions are based on which emotions. Therefore, RQ5 contributes to the understanding of emotions in
political science as they measure the effect of different emotions on opinion. In the next section I describe a potential mediator for emotion - the need for affect. This concept is about avoiding and approaching emotions, which might underlie the relationship between emotion and opinion.
1Pleasant feelings (“happy” and “satisfied”), pleasant, “activated” feelings (“excited,” “joyful,” “enthusiastic,” “proud,” and
“interested”), activated feelings (“aroused” and “surprised”), unpleasant, activated feelings (“irritated,” “afraid,” “angry,” “nervous,” and “frustrated”), unpleasant feelings (“sad” and “disappointed”), unpleasant, “deactivated” feelings (“depressed” and “tired”), deactivated feelings (“quiet” and “still”), and pleasant, deactivated feelings (“calm” and “relaxed”)
To solve or not to solve | 7
Mediator for emotion
NEED FOR AFFECT. A need for affect is the motivation to approach or avoid emotion-inducing situations (Maio & Esses, 2001). In general, individuals with a high level of need for affect (people who approach their emotions) are more likely to posses extreme (emotional) attitudes across multiple issues compared to people who avoid their emotions. They also tend to choose emotional movies and they easily become involved in emotion-induced events (Maio & Esses, 2001). These results have lead me to believe that people who experience a high intensity of emotion will have a more extreme attitude towards support for Greece. So, dependent on the emotion (positive vs. negative) a person with a high need for affect in a positive emotional state will feel more obliged to support Greece whereas a person in a negative emotional state will feel more obliged not to:
H2: Need for affect mediates the effect of emotion on one's financial support for Greece.
Moderators for emotion
POLITICAL IDEOLOGY. Little effort is made in framing research to investigate the conditions under which framing effects occur (Druckman, 2004). I focus in particular on political ideology in this study. This concept does not just includes choosing between left-wing or right-wing politics. Instead, it is about one's place in the political spectrum. However, only a small body of research is devoted to investigate the role of the European political spectrum in relation to framing and emotion. The studies that do take ones place in the political spectrum into account usually focus on American politics (democrats vs. republicans). We do know that in the American political system, political ideology - in this case left-wing politics - closely relates to sensitivity for disgust (Inbar, Pizaro, Iyer & Haid, 2011). In a more general sense, political ideology can be connected to psychological predispositions (Dodd, Balzer, Jacobs, et al., 2012). So, ones political standpoint in the political spectrum might very well matter in relation to framing or opinion. Due to the scarce literature on this topic - and its rare applicability to the European political system I use two research questions to see if and in what way political ideology acts as a moderator in this study:
RQ6: To what extent does political ideology moderate the effect of frame on emotion?
RQ7: To what extent does political ideology moderate the effect of emotion on
opinion?
CHARACTER TRAITS. Character traits are closely related to emotions and to need for affect. Confirming their relevance to the central concept of this study, emotion, character traits are introduced to this study as a moderator. Character traits originate from the Five Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI). This inventory is a tool which analyses a person's position in the big
To solve or not to solve | 8 five factors. The scale is internally valid and tested on a general public (which corresponds with the target group for the current study). An FFPI list of items with the highest factor loadings (Hendriks, Hofstee & de Raad, 1999) is used as a shortlist to analyze respondent's position towards the big five dimensions. This means that the top two items per dimensions were used in this study as indicators for the big five factors: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and autonomy. The Personal Inventory outperforms other measurement tools in reliability and validity. It also is an understandable and objective assessment of a person's characteristics. For these reasons the FFPI is applied to the current study.
Different character traits could lead to different results in behavior. Emotional unstable individuals 'tend to surface act' (Petersen, Jordan & Soutar, 2011, p. 47). This means that individuals who are emotional instable are less likely to alter their feelings to match the emotion they show to the outside world. The opposite is true for agreeable and extraverted individuals who are engaged in more deep acting. This kind of acting subsequently led to a positive association with self-reported citizenship behaviors (Petersen, et al., 2011). For the Greek case this means that individuals with higher levels of emotional instability will not be less motivated to support Greece. On the other hand, agreeable and extraverted persons are expected to financially support Greece to a great extent. These notions are tested in the current study and the following hypothesis is used:
H3: Character traits moderate the relationship between emotion and opinion such that
emotionally stable, agreeable or extravert people financially support Greece more compared to conscientious and open people.
Opinion
Besides the already discussed ability of certain discrete emotions to influence opinion it is also important to note that I am asking for an opinion on a financial matter. Although emotion might play an important role when it comes to the European Union and reception of news the focus lies on donating money. In a study about donating for charity it was found that when people are triggered, through framing, to think about their decision to donate money then these people have a more powerful emotional response towards an identifiable victim. Feeling-based thought did not improve the appeal of a statistical victim. This means that if a person would be sensitive to proportions (amount of people that are harmed in relation to total population) instead of exact statistics (only mentioning the amount of victims) a stronger emotional reaction is present (Small, Loewenstein & Slovic, 2007). It is uncertain what this exactly means for the Greek case. However, due to a wide media coverage of the Greece financial situation it is likely that people came into contact with economic frames in news coverage. Their opinion might therefore be established and it might be hard to see in what way my experimental frames affect participants.
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Method
A limited content analysis provides insight into the presence of news frames in the coverage of the financial situation of Greece. Additionally, an online experiment revealed the kind of emotions participants felt after reading the stimulus and the subsequent effect on the opinion to financially support a country in need.
Content analysis
SAMPLING FRAME. The current study covers Dutch quality and popular newspapers across time. The newspapers were selected for their circulation and representation of the political spectrum - both left-wing and right-wing. These criteria led to the selection of 'de Volkskrant' and 'NRC Handelsblad', which are quality newspapers, and 'De Telegraaf', which is a popular newspaper (Broersma & Graham, 2012). In terms of time, the study covers the period between January 2010 until the end of 2013; Since November 2008 the Euro zone was subject to a financial crisis. A small economical recovery in 2009 brought a positive feeling back to European citizens. However, in the course of 2010 it seemed that Southern-European countries coped with vast sovereign debts. To counter these debts a European emergency fund was set up in the same year (Europa-nu, 2013). So, ever since 2010, the media wrote about the financial situation of the Euro zone in general and about the role of the Southern countries, and thus Greece. The keywords "Griekenland" AND "steunpakket" OR "steun" were used to retrieve the population of news articles from Lexis Nexis. In total, 213 news articles were coded from which 114 articles are suited for analysis2. See Appendix III for an overview of the randomly selected news articles for
coding.
PROCEDURE AND CODEBOOK. The content analysis was used to measure the presence of frames. Each element of the frame was coded for its presence [yes/no], so that every score of the indicators is clear. See Appendix I for the codebook and Appendix II for the changes that were made after coding a small pre-test of 12 news articles3. In addition, the between-coder reliability
was measured by using the Krippendorf's alpha test. This method accounts for coincidences and is able to process every level of measurement and any number of coders (Hayes & Krippendorf,
2 A news article is coded in reference to the recent financial Greek crisis when:
The news article appeared in one of newspapers of interest and between January 2010 until December 2013.
The news articles has the financial situation in Greece as main topic and at least two-third of the news article should cover the financial situation in Greece. A mere reference to this situation will not suffice. It is also not sufficient when the financial situation in Greece is used as a (brief) example or comparison with another financial issue.
The former should be clear from reading the first two paragraphs. If not, the article will be coded as not relevant.
3 The following was concluded from the pretest: Question 7B and 7D both need additional fields to fill out who is named
responsible for the crisis. Question 7E needs a more thorough definition of 'urgent'. Not only will this be true in cases when limited time is addressed, but also when the problem is described as being very impactful or in great need of a solution. Question 11ABCEF refer to Greek solutions, 11D refers to a solution form a different country. To measure support from other countries better, item 11G is added: 'Other European countries should support Greece or are planning to support Greece'.
To solve or not to solve | 10 2007). An additional coder recoded a small random sample. The between coder reliability varied between .125 (insufficient reliability) and 1 (perfect reliability). The items that scored badly (supervise financial market, need of change, and economic consequences) each originate from a different frame. In addition, the majority of items scored .53 on the KALPHA reliability scale, which is also insufficient. Especially the responsibility frame and the prognostic frame scored low on reliability (also see Appendix II). A list of randomly selected articles is presented in Appendix III.
FRAME CONSTRUCTION. The frames tested by Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) form a reliable scale. However, the current study adapted these frames for a more specific situation (i.e. into prognostic and diagnostic frames). Therefore, a Principle Component Factor Analysis (PCA) proved the validity of these scales. Also, a reliability analysis based on Cronbach's Alpha showed to what extent these items form a reliable scale. In Table 1 the resulting scales and items are presented. In Appendix IV and VII a short description of the frame construction is included. The frames from Table 1 are used for further analysis. The separate items (that cannot be included in the scales) are also used to get an indication of how the Greek financial situation is portrayed in the newspapers.
Experiment
PARTICIPANTS. The selection of participants for the experiment was done by PanelClix. During December 2013 the participants were invited and the data was gathered. This experiment had no intention to search for effects in specific target groups. For this reason, every member of the PanelClix database was able to join as long as they were above the age of 16. A balanced sample was achieved on the basis of gender (50,4% male), age (Mage = 46, SDage = 16,63) and education (36,9% lower, 34,4% middle and 28,7% higher education). The subjects were randomized across the experimental conditions automatically, with a minimum of 100 participants per group. In total, 502 participants joined the experiment. The experiment aimed for an equal distribution of subjects across gender, age and education like in a stratified sample.
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND STIMULUS. A 2 (Framing: prognostic vs. diagnostic) x 2 (Valence:
positive vs. negative) factorial between subjects design was employed. This yields four conditions: diagnostic frame with positive evaluation (n = 100), diagnostic frame with negative evaluation (n = 100) , prognostic frame with positive evaluation (n = 100), prognostic frame with negative evaluation (n = 101). In addition, a neutral condition was added (n = 101). The stimulus material consisted of five different news messages. These materials were based upon issue-specific frames from the content analysis.
To solve or not to solve | 11 Table 1. Scale items and reliability
Original frame Items forming a frame New frame α
Responsibility (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000) (1) (2) (1) (2)
Does the story suggest that some level of government has the ability to alleviate the problem? Does the story suggest solutions to the problem/issue?
Does the story suggest that an independent group is responsible for the issue? Does the story suggest the problem requires urgent action?
Government responsibility Others are responsible
.763 .077 Human interest (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
Does the story provide a human example or 'human face' on the issue?
Does the story employ adjectives or personal vignettes that generate feelings of outrage, empathy-caring, sympathy, or compassion?
Does the story emphasize how individuals and groups are affected by the issue? Does the story go into the private or personal lives of the actors?
Does the story contain visual information that might generate feelings of outrage, empathy-caring, sympathy, or compassion? - .802 Economic consequences (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000) (1)
(2) Is there a mention of financial losses or gains now or in the future? Is there a reference to economic consequences of pursuing or not pursuing a course of action? - .566
Diagnostic frame (Snow,
Vliegenthart & Brown, 2007)
(1)
(2) Being in a financial crisis is the result of the character of Greek culture. The financial crisis is attributed to a perceived failure of the incorporation of every Greek citizen into Greek society. Greek society .531 Prognostic frame (Snow, Vliegenthart & Brown, 2007) (1) (2) (3)
Restore order with new regulation of the Greek government. Address underlying social and economic problems.
Improve Greek governmental structure
Internal Greek solutions .625
Prognostic frame (Snow,
Vliegenthart & Brown, 2007)
(1)
(2) Increase amount of supervision on the Greek financial market from independent authorities Other European countries should support Greece or are planning to support Greece External Greek solutions .305 Note: the total amount of coded messages is 114. Interpretation: α <.6 = not reliable, α >.6<.8 = threshold reliability, α >.8 good reliability. Items from the original frames were used to construct a new frame. From the newly constructed frame only the 'Government responsibility' and the 'Internal Greek solutions' proved to adhere to threshold Cronbach's alpha levels.
To solve or not to solve | 12 The stimulus material consisted of five different news messages. These materials were based upon issue-specific frames from the content analysis. The body of the news message has a neutral tone (Appendix VI) and the introduction and conclusion were manipulated based on a type of frame (diagnostic vs. prognostic) combined with an evaluation (positive vs. negative). The independent variable 'Frame' was manipulated by presenting two types; the crisis is a problem (diagnostic) and the crisis can be solved (prognostic). The evaluation was manipulated by either positively or negatively describing the problem and the solution (see Table 2).
PROCEDURE. Participants received an invitation mail and were redirected to the experiment. The survey tool randomly distributed the participants into one of the five conditions. Participants were told that participating in this experiment was voluntary and anonymous. The landing page included general information about the experiment. From then on the experiment started and the participants first answered demographic questions and questions regarding the moderators. Then, the participants were exposed to a news article containing a positive or a negative version of a frame. At the end, participants completed a posttest questionnaire which included both mediator and dependent variables. A pre-test was not implemented here, because the focus lies in linking opinion to emotion and not in measuring a change in emotion (see Appendix V for the complete experiment).
Table 2: Framing and valance in four conditions Frame Positive
Diagnostic Prognostic
Crisis is a problem but a solution is near; nothing stands in the way to save
Greece.
Many applicable and short-term solutions for this crisis are possible.
Diagnostic Prognostic
Negative Crisis is hopeless; change must come but there is little to no chance of success.
Only a few complex and long-term solutions for this crisis are possible.
MEASUREMENTS. The variable 'prior opinion' was used to see whether or not the groups differ from each other significantly before they reached the stimulus material. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that no significant differences between groups were present, F (4,497) = .88, p = .476. This means that there were no differences regarding prior opinion.
Prior opinion. Using a seven-point scale (1 = Completely disagree to 7 = Completely agree) the respondent's opinion (M = 3.69, SD = 1.25, α = .82) was measured using four questions such as 'Being member of the European Union is good for my country'.
Political ideology. This variable was measured by asking participants to which extent
they prefer either left-wing or right-wing politics by using a ten-point scale (0 = left wing to 10 =
To solve or not to solve | 13
Need for affection. Eight questions, like 'I am a very emotional person' and 'It is important to be aware of my emotions' were measured on a seven-point scale (1 = Completely disagree to 7 = Completely agree) (M = 4.13, SD = .76).
Five factor personal inventory (FFPI)4. The different dimensions of character traits
were measured by using two items per dimension on a seven-point scale (1 = Does not describe me at all to 7 = Describes me very well). Example items for the Emotional stability dimension (M
= 4.8, SD = 1.17) were 'Anxious, easy to upset' (M = 3, SD = 1.58) and 'Calm, emotionally stable' (M = 4.61, SD = 1.25). These dimensions are based upon the construction of Hendriks, Hofstee and De Raad (1999).
Emotion. By using a seven-point scale (1 = Does not match at all to 7 = Matches completely) the respondents were asked 'How do you feel now?' (Happy: M = 3.51, SD = 1,58) (Angry: M = 3.48, SD = 1,79) (Surprised: M = 3.4, SD = 1,5) (Content: M = 3.73, SD = 1,64) (Enthusiastic: M = 3.39, SD = 1,54) (Fortunate: M = 3.87, SD = 1,63) (Sad: M = 3.34, SD = 1,67) (Calm: M = 4.54, SD = 1,44) (Anxious: M = 2.79, SD = 1,53) (Frustrated: M = 3.48, SD = 1,75).
Opinion statements. Two questions on a seven-point scale measure to what extent the
respondent thinks Greece should be helped (M = 3.29, SD = 1,41 α = .75 without item 'I think not helping Greece is harmless for the EU'). Items 'I think the Greek will actively rebuild their financial system' and 'I think helping the Greek will make the EU stronger' together form a reliable scale.
Financial support. As a final question it was asked how much financial support should
be provided by the Netherlands to save Greece according to the respondents (M = 1.99, SD = 1,5). A total of six options were provided, ranging from 'Nothing' (=0) to 'Over 10 million' (=6).
Results
Newspapers. The first results focus on the content analysis. Looking at the presence of frames5, popular newspapers (M = .47, SD = .29) tend to significantly emphasize the external Greek solutions (prognostic frame) more than popular newspapers (M = .63, SD = .22), F (1,112) = 8.59, p = .004. The other prognostic frame, Internal Greek solutions, was used as frequently in quality as in popular newspapers. The same is true for the Greek society (diagnostic) frame.
4 The dimensions are Extraversion (α=.51), Agreeableness (α=.41), Conscientiousness (α=.3), Neuroticism (α=.51) and
Openness (α=.16). Because randomized the questions regarding the traits we have to merge the items measuring each dimension. Before doing so, items needed to be reversely coded (item 'Reserved, quiet' was coded reversely to match item 'Extravert, enthusiastic'. After doing so, a high score in both items now mean a high score in Extraversion.
5With 70,2% (n = 80) of quality news stories and 29,8% (n = 34) of popular news stories the distribution of quality versus
popular newspapers shows to be uneven. As Levene's test of variance shows, the government responsibility (F (1, 112) = 7,42, p = .007)), human interest (F(1,112)=16,35,p=.000)) and economic consequences (F(1,112)=3,95,p=.050)) frames also have uneven variance within the group. Analysis will still be carried out to assess the differences between both sorts of newspapers.
To solve or not to solve | 14 Quality newspapers (M = .26, SD = .31) use the human interest frame significantly more than popular newspapers (M = .08, SD = .19), F (1,112) = 9.54, p = .003. Table 3 shows that the hypothesis - Qualitative newspapers use a responsibility theme to frame a story and popular outlets use a human interest theme to frame a story (H1) - remains unsupported; popular
newspaper do not use a human interest frame as major theme. Instead, it is the other way around; quality newspapers use a human interest frame more frequently and popular newspapers use a responsibility frame more frequently.
Table 3: presence of frames per newspaper
Quality newspaper Popular newspaper p
M SD M SD
Human interest .26 .31 .08 .19 .003
External Greek solutions .47 .29 .63 .22 .004
Economic consequences .67 .37 .79 .30 .086
Government are responsible .83 .35 .91 .23 .216
Others are responsible .24 .31 .31 .33 .269
Internal Greek solutions .33 .33 .39 .37 .374
Greek society .07 .21 .07 .22 .912
Visibility analysis. The above mentioned analyses are visualized in a prominence analyses in Figure 1. The item 'Being in a financial crisis is the result of the character of Greek culture' in the Greek society frame (diagnostic frame) was frequently associated with the culture of southern European countries in general, not in particular for Greece. Also, item 'Increase amount of supervision on Greek financial market' was primarily used as a prerequisite for any support at all. Over time, the focus on saving Greece (and how to do so) and the actors that are involved shifts toward focus on the own country and the risks involved of supporting Greece. Also, more attention is given to making informed choices and less to take 'urgent action'. At this point Greece itself is no longer blamed explicitly (although present between lines; item 'Other European countries should support Greece or are planning to support Greece' is still present in the newspapers but receives a greater emphasis on support, not blame).
After this period, it seems that Greece really cannot solve its financial problems on its own; the other (northern) European countries should do so now. This is visible in Figure 1; after mid 2011 focus shifts from one of the prognostic frames 'External Greek solutions' to the other prognostic frame 'Internal Greek solutions'. Eventually, the question arises of what happens when Greece is not able to pay the bill anymore - a question that was unspoken of at the beginning of the financial crisis of Greece. This is represented in Figure 1 after mid 2012 when the human interest frame and the economic consequences frame get similar attention. This analysis answer the question about which aspects of diagnostic and prognostic frames were present in the media during coverage of the financial situation in Greece between 2010 and 2013 (RQ2).
To solve or not to solve | 15
To solve or not to solve | 16
Experiment
The analysis for the experiment includes a one-way analysis of variance [ANOVA] and a multiple mediation model. I used the ANOVA for direct effects and I tested the multiple mediation model for additional indirect effects, moderators and control variables. The purpose of using these subsequent steps was that I was able to look for effects between the conditions and emotions first. I then used only the relevant emotions in the mediation model to have a more parsimonious model to start with6.
ANOVA. I first looked at a general direct effect from the independent variable (conditions) on the
dependent variable (financial support) followed by a direct effect of the independent variable on the mediator7. A one way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the effect of the frames
on the level of support in the five conditions. First, I investigated the direct effect. No significant difference was found at the p <.05 level for the five conditions [F(4,497)=.277, p = .893] regarding financial support for Greece. The biggest difference was found between the Prognostic Negative and the Neutral condition (Mdifference = .074). All in all, this result suggests that the frames did not have a
direct effect on the level of support for Greece. Our research question about the main effect of framing on opinion (RQ1) can be answered by noting that an effect is absent.
Second, I looked at the effects of the frames on the mediator. The conditions did evoke a number of discrete emotions such as happy [F(4,497)=2.717, p = .029], angry [F(4,497)=2.633, p
= .034], sad [F(4,497)=2.998, p = .018] and frustrated [F(4,497)=5.016, p = .001]. A post-hoc multiple comparison Bonferroni test (Table 4) shows that the diagnostic positive group scored significantly higher on happiness compared to the prognostic negative group (Mdifference =.633, p =
.043). Other differences in inducing discrete emotions are mainly visible between the diagnostic positive and diagnostic negative groups. In all cases the diagnostic negative group established a higher level of discrete emotion compared to the diagnostic positive group for anger (Mdifference
=.790, p = .018), sadness (Mdifference =.790, p = .008) and frustration (Mdifference =1.01, p < .001).
Frustration was also induced significantly more in the neutral group compared to the diagnostic positive group (Mdifference =.813, p = .009). This is a logical result as it means that the positive
message has lead to less frustration among participants. Also, when grouped together, positive emotions (happy, content, enthusiastic, fortunate) and negative emotions (angry, sad, anxious, frustrated) differ significantly between conditions, F(4,497)=2.451, p = .045 and F(4,497)=3.826, p
6In Appendix VIII a brief note is presented on how the data were treated before conducting any analyses. It seemed that support
for Greece (Y) has a skewness of 1.583, which is out of bounds (-1+1). Taking the natural log fixed the skewness to .89, which is acceptable. NB: The z-score for the original skew of support for Greece = skew / SDskew = 1.583 / .109 = 14.52. This means that the
skew is very far from the mean.
7 A manipulation check indicated that no between-group differences existed regarding prior knowledge between conditions, F
To solve or not to solve | 17 = .004 for positive and negative emotions respectively. A Bonferroni comparison shows that negative emotions were present to a larger extent in the diagnostic negative group compared to the diagnostic positive group (Mdifference =.755, p = .002). The Bonferroni test does not show significant
differences between group for the positive emotions.
These results already demonstrate that overall the negative frames were better at triggering emotions among participants. However, this is only true for emotions that are negative in nature. At the same time the positive frame was better able to establish a positive emotion. All in all, the emotion which was induced to the greatest extent proved to be happiness followed by frustration and anger. Because the large part of differences occurred within the same frame but between positive and negative groups I believe this is the first proof that valance mattered more than frame type in this study. The multiple mediation model in the next section further tests this.
Table 4: Framing and emotion
Diagnostic Positive N = 100 Diagnostic Negative N = 100 Prognostic Positive N = 100 Prognostic Negative N = 101 Neutral N = 101 M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD Pa pb Happy 3.96a 1.543 3.42 1.615 3.45 1.282 3.33a 1.709 3.38 1.636 .043 Angry 3.03a 1.732 3.82a 1.940 3.56 1.540 3.43 1.835 3.55 1.819 .018 Sad 2.91a 1.518 3.70a 1.679 3.27a 1.582 3.41 1.733 3.42 1.762 .008 Frustrated 2.90ab 1.617 3.91a 1.793 3.50 1.685 3.36 1.70 3.71b 1.785 <.001 .009 Negative emo 2.85a 1.381 3.60a 1.429 3.28 1.320 3.24 1.431 3.39 1.474 .002 Positive emo 4.02 1.431 3.53 1.524 3.59 1.173 3.50 1.517 3.49 1.556 - -
p - value resembles significance of mean difference at .05 level. The a and b markers indicate between which groups significant differences exist. Positive emotion do not differ significantly between Diagnostic Positive and the Neutral condition (p = .091).
INDIRECT. In the next step I tested the effect of valence of news framing (positive versus negative) and the type of news framing (diagnostic versus prognostic) on the level of support for Greece. I included the relevant discrete emotions from the ANOVA as mediators and I used political ideology and the character traits as moderators. Age and gender served as control variables. The assumption is that more positive news frames lead to more positive emotional responses which subsequently lead to a higher level of financial support for Greece. I tested this model below by using the INDIRECT macro in SPSS (Preacher & Hayes, 2008).
I found that Frame type (1=Diagnostic, 0=Prognostic) has an insignificant total effect (c-path) on the level of financial support for Greece (p = .386). Also, the analysis shows an insignificant main effect (c-path) of positive news frames (versus negative news frames) on the level of financial support for Greece (p = .863).
To solve or not to solve | 18 Happy (M1) Angry (M2) Sad (M3) Frustrated (M4)
In other words, the valence of the news frame did not contribute to more financial support for Greece but the frame type did not either. However, the discrete emotions could still serve as mediators. This indeed is the case for three of the discrete emotions; happy, angry and sad in the model were the valence of a news frame is used as the independent variable.
Figure 2: Multiple mediation model
The model includes the indirect effects of frame type and valence on support for Greece via the mediators happy, angry, sad and frustrated. It also includes the direct effect of the frame types and valence on support for Greece. The indirect effects of X on Y via M(1-4) are resembled by a1, b1 to a4, b4. The total effect is the sum of the indirect effects and the direct effect. Bootstrapping was used to get more reliable estimates of SE. Therefore, the 95%CI and indirect effects are bias corrected. *p<.05. **p<.01
Both happy and sad show a partial significant indirect effect of positive versus negative news framing on the level of financial support for Greece at the start of the model (a-paths). The positive news frames had a positive effect (a1-path) of moderate strength on happy emotions (b* = .35, SE = .16,
p = .027). The opposite is true for the effect of positive frame on sad emotions where a negative effect (a3-path) is present (b* = -.48, SE = .16, p = .004). This means that positive news frames
triggered a higher level of happiness and a lower level of sadness compared to the negative frames. These emotions were the only ones influenced by the valence of the frame. At the end of the model the discrete emotion Angry shows a partial significant indirect effect of positive versus negative news frames on support for Greece at the end of the model (b2-path). Being angry had a very weak
negative effect on the level of support for Greece (b* = -.07, SE = .03, p = .005). The discrete emotions Frustration did not yield any significant effects on the level of support for Greece. Using Frame type (1=Diagnostic, 0=Prognostic) as an independent variable in this model resulted in insignificant a- and b-paths (RQ3).
The analysis provides support for the ability of positive and negative frames to trigger emotions: the positive frames had a negative effect on sadness and a positive effect on happy.
Positive (1) vs. negative (0) news frames
(X1)
Support for Greece (Y) a1* a2 a3** a4 b1 b2* b3 b4 c'
To solve or not to solve | 19 However, these emotions did not affect the level of financial support for Greece (RQ5). For anger,
the opposite is true; positive frames did not significantly affect this emotion, but anger did affect the level of financial support for Greece negatively. This answers our second hypothesis about how the valance of a frame triggers emotion (RQ4). I also asked if political ideology would serve as a
moderator on the relation between emotions and frames. However, these interactions proved to be insignificant. Therefore, it seems that political ideology does not moderate the effect of emotion on opinion (RQ7).
I also used the PROCESS macro (Model 14) to see if political ideology and the character traits act as moderators on the relation between the discrete emotions and support for Greece when frame type is used as independent variable. Although the model was significant, F (12, 388) = 5.9, p <.001, only a direct effect of age on opinion was present (p = .035). The interactions between political ideology and the emotions (RQ6) were highly insignificant (from p = .256 for happy to p =
.98 for frustrated x political ideology). The same is true when frame valence is used as independent variable - it yielded similar results. Using political ideology as a moderator between frame type (p=.4) / frame valence (p=.13) and the discrete emotions also resulted in non-significant outcomes. Finally, I entered the character traits as moderators in a model with frame valence and a model with frame type as independent variables. Again, no meaningful results emerged; this means that none of the character traits moderate the relation between emotion and the level of support for Greece (H3).
Conclusion
By investigating the news coverage surrounding the financial situation in Greece between 2010 and 2014 it clear that over time, a shift in focus is visible from saving Greece as soon as possible and means to do so to analyzing the risk for the own country should Greece be supported financially. Also, instead of focusing on urgent action, emphasis lies on making a thought-through decision: to support or not to support. No finger pointing towards Greece, but looking for financial support from the other EU-members. More emphasis is put on other countries that are planning to support Greece now. It seems like the financial crisis is becoming too large for Greece to handle on its own, so the other European countries have no choice to support Greece. Ultimately, the question arises of what the damage really would be when Greece would not be able to pay the bill anymore. As time passes by, the political and economic power from the north, Germany and France, seem to care less about a potential exit for Greece from the Euro zone. Germany makes it clear that it would no longer feel much of the consequences should Greece really leave the Euro zone (NRC, 2014). This might be explained by what Snow, et al.(2007) concluded when investigating the French riots; when a country is further away from the country in need, the issue will only be mentioned and actors will be blamed.
To solve or not to solve | 20 When a country is close by there also is a mention of potential solutions. However, the situation in Greece proves to be special. Greece indeed is blamed for their own financial troubles, but the other European countries seem to understand the risk for their own financial situation as well. In other words: the financial risks are perceived as getting close to home, so solutions for the problem are openly discussed in the media.
So, to what extent do frames, through emotions and with a moderating role for political ideology and character traits, influence support for Greece? This study shows that frame type (prognostic versus diagnostic) matters over time - the media use these frames to get their message across about (1) a country in need of help due to their own problems and it needs support to (2) a country in need that could be dangerous for our own financial situation. However, in the experiment it seemed that the type of frame did not matter. The valence of the frame was most important. Even then, positive frames only influenced the level of happiness and sadness. The amount of financial support for Greece is influenced by anger but the level of anger was not triggered by the frames. So, what did cause the participants to be angry? I believe that this level of anger already was present before the experiment started. Therefore, reading a certain frame could alter the intensity of this emotion but the emotion was strong enough to know that these participants would support Greece less than others8. All in all, the frames in this study were not able to influence the support for
Greece.
In the future, research could focus on what the Greek press had to say about the financial situation in Greece. Would that be focused on support from other European countries as well? And if so, would that be framed as a positive or negative solution? Additionally, would the Greeks themselves lay more focus on the human interest side of the situation? Maybe this human interest would focus entirely on the person of Angela Merkel and/or Nicolas Sarkozy. Another possibility would be to analyze the perceived ability of the Greek government in combination with important actors. Also, a pre-test could be used to asses a change in emotion during the experiment.
Discussion
Although this study was carefully thought of beforehand some remarks can be made regarding the coding procedure, the collection of data for the content analysis, and the meaning of the experiment. First, as the coding for the content analysis came along some other problems and solutions to deal with the crisis in Greece were presented in the media. Near the end of the content analysis period, countries started to blame the Southern countries in general for their financial situation. A solution
8A between group comparison showed that anger was more present in the diagnostic negative group compared to the diagnostic
To solve or not to solve | 21 that was not taken into account was the possibility of a Greek exit from the Euro zone. As time passed by, this solution was seriously considered in the media. Unfortunately, this was not properly measured in the content analysis.
Second, although search terms for the content analysis were kept general to collect as much relevant articles as possible the search terms should be set to a proximity in the article of within 5 lines. A lot of waste was built up from articles mentioning support for a certain country or issue and at the end of the article Greece was mentioned as an example. As a final remark for the experiment, asking participants to assess their own emotional status and character traits might be unreliable. Both constructs are complex and easily overestimated. However, these questions did serve the purpose of this study: to get a better understanding of how frames and emotion are able to influence opinion.
Third, I found more non-significant results than I had hoped for. This could be due to the likely possibility of real-life pre-treatment. I assumed the financial situation of Greece was suited for this study because our participants would be somewhat familiar with the topic. And I even included frame strength enhancers such as a credible source; our Minister of Finance (Chong & Druckman, 2007). Reading about it in an experiment would therefore not be strange but even similar to the real world. And also, I based my frames on the episodic principle: focus on individual by using a specific example which a person can relate to. That should account for a more intense emotional response (Aaroe, 2011). All in all, I expect that the participants already build up a strong prior opinion and therefore were not really susceptible to a single stimulus material anymore. The opinion of the participants simply was not likely to be changed just by exposure to one additional news frame. It would have taken a lot of effort and a strong frame to affect so-called 'motivated individuals' in the competitive framing environment we live in (Chong & Druckman, 2007). A final explanation could be that participants already knew what proportion of Greek citizens was affected by the crisis. However, news coverage also included stories about how the Greek situation would affect other countries. So, the powerful effects of emotion (of happy and sad) are triggered by the frames but acting upon these emotions did not occur. This what Small, et al. (2007) also found in their study.
Although these imperfections were present in the study I felt that the topic of emotions and the concept of the European Union is still not completely clear. Looking back at the results we can still look for reasons why certain emotions are triggered by certain frames and which emotion - if induced in an experiment itself - is able to influence our opinion. I still cannot indicate whether ratio or emotion is most important, under which circumstances, and for which topics in our area of political communication. Therefore, there is much more to study and much more to discover.
To solve or not to solve | 22
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Correlations
Frame
type valence Happy Angry Sad Frame trated Frus- Financial support ideology Political version Extra- Agreea- bleness Conscien- tiousness Neuro- ticism nomy Auto-
Frame type 1 Frame Valence .002 1 Happy .097 .106* 1 Angry -.019 -.092 -.412** 1 Sad -.010 -.140** -.380** .651** 1 Frustrated -.007 -.125* -.401** .742** .668** 1 Financial support .044 .010 .183** -.283** -.198** -.239** 1 Political ideology .035 .028 -.015 .027 -.027 .059 -.194** 1 Extraversion .016 -.033 .135** .030 -.063 .012 .025 .044 1 Agreeableness .058 -.018 .079 -.171** -.183** -.228** .090* .004 .048 1 Conscientiousness .033 -.037 .003 -.079 -.067 -.116** -.064 .044 .031 .351** 1 Neuroticism .001 -.049 .203** -.179** -.275** -.266** .027 .142** .034 .314** .292** 1 Autonomy
N
.000 -.002 .069 -.150 ** -.133** -.137** .072 .019 .288** .256** .200** .144** 1 502 502 502 502 502 502 502 502 502 502 502 502 502M
.50.50 3.51 3.48 3.34 3.48 .48 6.25 4.13 5.25 4.89 4.80 4.68
SD
.50 .50 1.58 1.79 1.67 1.75 .61 2.08 1.19 1.01 1.11 1.17 1.07 * p <.05 ** p <.001Appendixes | 2
Appendix I - Codebook
Search string LexisNexis: "Griekenland" AND "steunpakket" OR "steun"
Time frame: January 2010 - December 2013:
Since November 2008 the Euro zone was subject to a financial crisis. A small economical
recovery in 2009 brought a positive feeling back to European citizens. However, in the
course of 2010 it seemed that predominantly Southern-European countries coped with vast
sovereign debts. To counter these debts a European emergency fund was set up in the same
year (Europa-nu, 2013). Ever since then, the media write about the financial situation of the
Euro zone in general and the role of the Southern countries, and thus Greece, in specific.
Sampling: coding of population
Newspapers: de Volkskrant, NRC Handelsblad, de Telegraaf
1. GENERAL
V1. Newspaper
Three major national newspaper of which the first two represent quality newspapers and the
third represent popular newspapers.
1. de Volkskrant 2. NRC Handelsblad 3. de Telegraaf
V2. Does this article refer to the recent financial crisis in Greece?
A news article is coded in reference to the recent financial crisis when all of the next
conditions are met:
The news article appeared in one of the three newspapers mentioned above from
January 2010 until the present date.
The news articles has the financial situation in Greece as main topic and at least
two-third of the news article should cover the financial situation in Greece. A mere
reference to this situation is not sufficient. It is also not sufficient when the financial
situation in Greece is used as an example or comparison with another financial issue.
The former should be clear from reading the first two paragraphs. If not, the article
will be coded as not relevant.
1. Yes [when above conditions are met] 2. No [continue to next article]
V3. Date [dd/mm/jjjj] V4. Word count [# words] V5. Title [title of article]
Appendixes | 3 V6. Format of article 1. News story 2. Interview 3. Column/opinion 4. Background 5. Editorial comment 6. Other
2. FRAMING
To assess which frames are present in the news articles a selection of relevant frames will be
used. First, episodic and thematic frames are coded followed by diagnostic and prognostic
frames. Each element of the frame will be coded for its presence (yes or no), so that every
score of the indicators is clear. Then, a scale will be constructed and a comparison will be
made on the basis of the average score per frame and per newspaper.
Episodic and thematic framing
Episodic frames focus on the individual whereas thematic frames relate to societal forces
which places an issue into a broader context (Iyengar, 1991; Gross, 2008). The translation
of the kind of frames can be found in the work of Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) - whether
or not on purpose - for their frames resemble focus on the individual (human interest frame)
and a broad context (responsibility and economic consequences frames).
V7. Thematic: Responsibility [Yes / No]
A. Does the story suggest that some level of government has the ability to alleviate the problem?
B. Does the story suggest that some level of the government is responsible for the issue/problem?
- If yes, who is held responsible?
C. Does the story suggest solutions to the problem/issue?
D. Does the story suggest that an independent group is responsible for the issue? - If yes, who is held responsible?
E. Does the story suggest the problem requires urgent action?
V8. Episodic: Human interest [Yes / No]
A. Does the story provide a human example or 'human face' on the issue?
B. Does the story employ adjectives or personal vignettes that generate feelings of outrage, empathy-caring, sympathy, or compassion?
C. Does the story emphasize how individuals and groups are affected by the issue? D. Does the story go into the private or personal lives of the actors?
E. Does the story contain visual information that might generate feelings of outrage, empathy-caring, sympathy, or compassion?
V9. Thematic: Economic consequences [Yes / No]
A. Is there a mention of financial losses or gains now or in the future? B. Is there a mention of the costs/degree of expense involved?
