Global journalism - a news-style to bridge a social divide. A longitudinal quantitative content analysis of The New York Times’ coverage of the Venezuelan Crisis.

Global journalism - a news-style to

bridge a social divide. A longitudinal

quantitative content analysis of The New

York Times’ coverage of the Venezuelan

Crisis.

T-shirt reads - “There is no food”. Full credits : AFP and @FedericoParra

Master Thesis in Journalism Studies: Balarāma Chambers

University of Groningen Masters in Journalism Studies

Student Number: S3106705

Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Dr. T.A.C. Witschge

Second Reader: Dr. S.A. Eldridge II

Submission Date: 04/03/2018

Word Count: 25,977 words.

Abstract

This longitudinal study explores the The New York Times' coverage of the Venezuelan crisis, across 3 different time periods, from the beginning of the crisis in 2012 until 2017. The theoretical frame-work which guides this study is ‘global journalism’ - a new-style highlighting our transnational commonality and keeping journalism democratically relevant in a global age (Berglez 2008 and 2013). This study finds The New York Times news-style is a hybrid. 52.6% of its news-style is built upon the mergence of domestic, foreign and global news-styles and perspectives. These findings reveal national and foreign modes of reporting dominate at the expense of global journalism. Global journalism accounts for 26.43% of the coverage, but 18% is embedded within foreign and national reporting-styles. The implications is that some facets of global journalism are repressed by ‘cognit-ive dissonance’. In this study this is a national outlook seeking to eliminate tensions caused by cer-tain global impulses in the reporting. The conclusion is that arguably the worst economic collapse since the ‘Great Depression’ in the US, the Venezuelan crisis is mostly confined as a national event. It is therefore largely not reported in a global and therefore not placed in a wider socio-historical context.

Keywords: Crisis, Globalisation, Global journalism, Hybridisation, Nationalism, New York

Abstract 2

List of Tables 6

Acronyms used 7

Acknowledgements 8

Introduction 9

The Venezuelan crisis and why media coverage is an important area of study 9

The literature to guide this research 10

The academic and societal relevance 11

Structure of this thesis 12

Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework. 14

1.1. Introduction 14

1.2 Globalisation 15

1.2.1 The complexities of globalisation 15

1.2.2 Negative facets of globalisation 16

1.3 The Venezuelan crisis 17

1.3.1 The socio-historic foundations of the crisis 17

1.3.2 The crisis today 18

1.4 Media empowerment 21

1.4.1 Introduction to the changing media landscape 21

1.4.2 New Empowerment 22

1.4.3 Moral Implications and symbolic representation 23

1.5 Global Journalism 24

1.5.1 Heterogenous understanding 24

1.5.2 Hegemony of national-outlook 25

1.5.3 An overview to global journalism as a news-style. 26

1.6 National Media 27

1.6.1 How nationalism functions in news-content 28

1.6.2 Cognitive Dissonance 29

1.7 A Counterweight to Nationalistic Reporting 30

1.7.1 Social Bridging 31

1.7.2 Global Outlooks 32

1.8.1 Research Question 33

1.8.2 Subquestions 33

2. Chapter 2 - Methodology 36

2.1 Methodological design of research. 36

2.1.2 Timespan of research 39 2.2 Sample of analysis 41 2.2.1 Sampling 42 2.3 Data Archiving 43 2.4 Coding Scheme 43 2.5 Limitations 45

4. Chapter 4 - Empirical Findings. 45

4.1 General findings 45

4.2. Answers to Research Questions 46

4.2.1 Research Question 1 - What type of reporting is the most prominent? 46 4.2.2 Research Question 2 - How frequent are global outlooks? 47 4.2.3 Research question 3 - What are the most prominent ‘building blocks’ of global

journal-ism? (Berglez 2013, p.26-43) 49

5. Chapter 5 - Discussion 51

5.1 Transnational interconnectivity and global reporting 52 5.2 Reporting style Period 1 - Foreign Event and Foreign Outlook 54 5.3 Period 2 - Rise of Nationalistic Reporting with a Foreign Outlook 56

5.4 Journalistic socialisation 58

5.4.1 Political-economy 58

5. Period 3 - Global outlooks and Social Responsibility 60

5.1 Social responsibility 60

5.2 A ‘calculus of death’ (Cottle, 2009 p.47) and a rise in global outlooks. 61

5.6 Global journalism within the NYT’s reporting 62

5.7 Understanding the overall NYT’s news-style as a hybrid. 63

Conclusion 65

Aim of the Study 65

Structure of the thesis 65

The Introduction 65

Research Methods 66

Findings and their implications 67

Limitations and aims for future research 69

Bibliography 71

Appendices 86

List of Tables

Table 1

Presentation of News

P.45

Table 2

Frequency of Global Outlooks per article

P.47

Table 3

Relation of Global Outlooks to size of

article to determine frequency

P.47

Table 4

Building Blocks of Global Journalism

P.48

Table 5

Comparison Between ‘Complex Relations’

and ‘Reader Engagement’

P.49

Table 6

Comparative frequency of building blocks

per article

Acronyms used

Acknowledgements

I would to take the opportunity to thank both Dr Jairo Lugo-Ocando and Dr Eddy Borges-Rey for imparting their knowledge of Venezuela onto me and leaving very fond memories of my bachelors days at university in Scotland. At a time whilst I was learning Spanish and about hispanic culture, missing the continent after my exchange-semester abroad, Dr Borges-Rey’s conversations in partic-ular on Venezuela and Latin America were enriching, engaging and have inspired me to pursue a career covering Latin America in the media, so, put simply, thank you.

At University, I would like to thank Dr Scott Eldridge for his guidance, being given new ways to reflect on politics through interesting discussions in his ‘Political Culture’ module and for kindly lending me very relevant literature - as well as casting my eye towards several Latin American me-dia-scholars. I would also like to thank Dr Ansgard Heinrich for her orientation into the world of research and ensuring I got off on the right footing, by offering valuable support and structure, as well as insightful critique of my work. I would also like to thank Professor Dr Tamara Witschge for guiding and supporting me towards the end of my thesis, by offering new approaches to research, clarity on data and helping to instil the idea of narrativity within research. I would also like to ex-press my immense gratitude to both Dr Peter Berglez and Dr Sarah Van Leuven for kindly sharing their research materials with me.

Lastly, I would also like to acknowledge and to thank the Venezuelan expatriate community living in Buenos Aires, for their unconditional warmth, friendship and support especially Esther, as well as Natalia and Walter. In Europe. I would like to thank my mum for her constant support since I began the MA, to acknowledge the diversity, compassion and motivation of my classmates during the MA and to Daniel for keeping Match of the Day sacrosanct after studying at the weekends back home in the UK.

Introduction

The Venezuelan crisis and why media coverage is an important area of

study

This thesis defines the Venezuelan crisis as “multifaceted”, beginning in 2011 when a number of global and national factors impacted one another (Vivas 2016). Two significant falls in the global price of oil, coupled with arguably poor governmental decisions have resulted in a economic, polit-ical and humanitarian crisis. Its effects are felt within Venezuela and across the globe (Vivas 2016). In humanitarian terms these are alleged human rights abuses by governmental forces, acting with impunity against its own citizens (Human Right’s Watch, 2018). Food shortages, it is argued are down to governmental price caps, resulting in limited production of food and citizen border-cross-ings into neighbouring countries (Al Jazeera, 2017). Venezuelan public healthcare is reported to be significantly impacted, due to a lack of funding, resulting in 85% shortages of medicines (BBC 2017). Crime rates are the highest in the Americas (Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia, 2018). The national oil company has experienced a significant fall in the production oil, impacting the government’s revenues (Reuters, 2017). Hyperinflation is predicted to rise to 13,000% this year, as Venezuela refinances its national debt (Al Jazeera, 2018). The political crisis reportedly involves deep political divisions between the government and the opposition. There are also reportedly in-ternal tensions within the government. Some politicians now fearing political persecution, re-portedly live in exile (GPPAC 2014 and Reuters 2018). The crisis it is argued means Venezuelans have “lost the ability to live together in harmony, for an undetermined amount of time” (Palestini 2017, p.1).

The effects are arguably being felt in different nations. Since 2012 the Argentine government re-ports a significantly yearly increase in Venezuelan migrants moving to Argentina from 1,911 to 12,859 Venezuelan in 2017 (Phillips et al 2017). In 2017 more than 52,000 Venezuelans requested asylum according to the UN Refugee Agency (Phillips et al 2017). Venezuelan females migrants to Colombia are turning to prostitution to financially support themselves, due to the devaluation of the

Bolívar, the Venezuelan currency. One hour of sex-work in Colombia, $20 is reported to equate to

one month’s salary back home in Venezuela (Economist, 2017). Curaçao, a neighbouring Caribbean nation is reportedly witnessing an influx in migrant deaths at sea, as Venezuelans make the perilous crossing, similar to the mediterranean migrant situation (BBC 2018). In Latin America, this migra-tion of Venezuelans has increased pressure on local social services who are unable to support the

influx of migrants (Phillips et al 2017). In Europe, Spain has been impacted by the crisis, receiving 4,300 Venezuelans and experiencing more asylum applications ahead of Syrians and Ukrainians (Reuters 2017). This complex societal issue raises significant questions relating to what the media’s role in covering this crisis is. How exactly do they cover cover such a “multifaceted” crisis? (Vivas 2016). Who are they covering the crisis for? What picture of the Venezuelan crisis is being con-veyed by the media? Do they look at the internal-effects of the crisis in Venezuela or do they adopt a wider perspective? The Venezuelan crisis from a journalism-studies orientation is a particularly important phenomena to study, given its longevity in comparison to other Latin America crises. The Argentine crisis began at the end of 1998 and lasted until 2002. It was arguably was less impactful, as it was not as prolonged (Reuters 2018). The aim is to determine to what kind of coverage The

New York Times (NYT) is portraying and to discuss the overall implications.

The literature to guide this research

The thesis builds upon the the concept of global journalism. This has previously been defined in distinct ways and therefore in order to maintain a clear focus, this study approaches global journal-ism as a news-style (Berglez 2008). Berglez (2008) defines it as an “everyday routine to investigate how people and their actions, practices, problems, life conditions etc in different parts of the world are interrelated” (p.848). The aim of this news-style is to foster greater commonality within a global context (Berglez 2008, p.848). The value of this theoretical approach for the Venezuelan crisis is that it deals with the complexity of our globalised age, which pertinent when discussing the

Venezuelan crisis from a broader perspective (Berglez 2008, p.846). The Venezuelan crisis has both local and global effects and global journalism as a news-style reflects both social realities (Berglez 2008, p.849). In a national context, Venezuelan governmental decisions are intertwined with such global phenomena such financial markets, dictating the value of the currency and the global fall in oil and the increase in the Venezuela diaspora (Al Jazeera 2017). Therefore both societally and aca-demically in order to gain a holistic perspective of the Venezuelan crisis, global journalism is a news-style reflecting how deeply enmeshed globally and locally the Venezuelan crisis is (Berglez 2008 and Cottle 2009)

At the epicentre of global journalism as news-style is the highly contested term,

“globalisation” (Berglez 2008, p.845). Arguably globalisation has significantly the way the media operates. Fürsich (2002) rightly questions, “in the postmodern era, borders have become more

tran-sient and fluid. What are the new functions of the media when global and local centrifugal powers seem to explode?” (p.66). This raises fundamental questions concerning how these changes affect journalistic practice, when the world is arguably more interconnected than before. Global journal-ism specifically questions the kind of knowledge produced within news-content (Berglez 2013, p. 24). Does the media allow itself to become impacted by globalisation or does it remain insularly entrenched within national frames of reference? Today the media arguably has more interconnectiv-ity to report on issues outside of the nation-state. More actors can harness the power of digital af-fordances, effacing national borders and arguably redefining the media landscape (Heinrich, 2015). But what are the moral and the ethical implications when the media are empowered to produce news-content as they become globally interconnected? This is an important consideration affecting the fundamental logic around how difference and sameness are reflected within the media. Part of this thesis’ wider significance is to interweave different media scholars into the field of global journalism who are not traditionally associated with it. Both Silverstone’s (1999, 2002 and 2007) and Chouliaraki’s (2006) research has globalist leanings and elucidates the important implications of how difference and sameness are reflected in the media. These theoretical insights inform the overall research question which is “how much and to what extent is global journalism present in

The New York Times’ coverage of the Venezuelan crisis?”

The academic and societal relevance

The aim of this is to fortify global journalism as a news-style in the theoretical chapter and

strengthen research methods in this field.“The theorising has contributed few tangible suggestions as to how to proceed with empirical studies of global journalism” (Berglez 2008 p.846). The signi-ficance of this study is to ameliorate these difficulties by creating a strong research method. One which is able to empirically measure global journalism as a news-style in the context of the Venezuelan crisis. In doing so, this thesis seeks to build upon previous research on global journal-ism by Van Leuven and Berglez (2016a). This is important as Lindell (2014) affirms the studies looking at global forms of reporting are “modest” and this signifies there is scope to contribute to this field (p.62). Van Leuven and Berglez (2016a) have developed a codebook for quantitative con-tent analysis to “enumerate the instances of global journalism in the news” (p.673). Van Leuven and Berglez’s (2016a) focus was a European comparative newspaper study observing global journalism and not centred on Latin America (p.673). More broadly, this entails there is a current gap within research. Therefore there is scope to make an important academic contribution to the field of global

journalism relating to the Venezuela crisis, an issue which has been significantly impactful since 2012 (Al Jazeera, 2017) .

The academic aim of this study is to foster a deeper understanding of what kind of narrative the

NYT’s adopts, supported by empirical findings. This study is important as the NYT is considered a

paragon in International reporting, gaining 122 Pulitzer Prizes. Its legacy dates back to its first award in 1918 whilst covering the first world war and won its last prize in 2017 (New York Times Company 2018). On Facebook (2017) its global reach stands at over 15 million subscribers and on its website it purports to report a “global audience” (New York Times Online, 2016). Arguably this legacy and global reach means it has the ability to inform transnational audiences, foster global de-bates but does this imply the NYT’s can establish the dominant narratives or even set global agen-das? The NYT’s narratives could impact how and what an audience learns about in relation to the Venezuelan crisis, as many learn about events through the media without direct experience (Silver-stone 2007, p.5). This has relevance both at a societal level in terms of informing citizens, but also at a geopolitical-level by informing the International Community (Cohen 1963, p.110). Stuart Allan in Cottle (2009) notes how a “socially responsible news media can affect social change in progress-ive ways” (p.XIV). At a transnational-level, Trinkunas (2017) argued in seeking to improve the situation, the Vatican’s sponsored talks stalled due the tensions between the government and opposi-tion. This highlights the severity of the crisis and the need for greater international cooperation in order remedy the situation, and arguably highlights the import role the media could play in affecting this change. Therefore this research will seek to determine the overall implications of the NYT’s re-porting, namely how much commonality and wider societal context is reflected within its reports. This study is important as there are no direct findings relating to the Venezuelan crisis and global journalism. Nor are there any longitudinal studies which yield detailed findings (Ruspini 2002, p.4 and 17). Overall this means the findings will help to bridge this lacuna within current research.

Structure of this thesis

The first half of the thesis begins by discussing how a much contested term, globalisation has im-pacted social relations. The relevance of globalisation is core to understanding global journalism as a news-style. The next part of the framework discusses the socio-historic foundations which argu-ably lay the conditions for the Venezuelan crisis to take place. It then discusses then Venezuelan crisis today, looking at both the global and local factors which have arguably contributed to this

shift in the social order. The thesis then moves on to discuss how the media has been impacted by globalisation today. The next subsection discusses global journalism, noting the difficulties in defin-ing the concept and how national reportdefin-ing and research have detrimentally impeded global journal-ism and research. It then discusses global journaljournal-ism, the problem in defining it, the different under-standings and the overall value it holds as a news-style. The following section discusses the corros-ive nature of nationalistic reporting before discussing global journalism as a counterweight and a corrective force to this. The overall value and contribution of global outlooks are discussed in terms of how this can help journalism to remain democratic by fostering greater perspective and com-monality. The last part of the framework transitions from theory to analysis, factoring in the overall research question and subquestions. It explains specifically what this research will measure in rela-tion to global journalism.

The second half of the thesis takes into account the methodology, empirical findings, discussion, conclusion and limitations in conjunction with future research. The methodology is a longitudinal quantitative content analysis, building upon Van Leuven and Berglez’s (2016a) study. The overall design is discussed, noting the value of longitudinal research in conjunction with quantitive content analysis. It discusses why the specific sample of analysis, namely the NYT, was selected. It also dis-cusses the relevance of the 3 periods of observation from October 2012-2013, October 2014-2015 and October 2016-2017, prior to discussing the codebook and the data archiving. The next chapter discusses the empirical findings of the study, taking into account the 3 different research questions and their findings. The next section discusses the findings in relation to global journalism, noting the implications of high collaborative work, the reporting style and what this means. Global out-looks are then discussed in light of the findings, prior to shifting the discussion back to global journalism. The last part of the discussion concludes by discussing the overall reporting style and its implications. The conclusion of the thesis recaps the aims of the study, findings within a broader perspective, before concluding with the limitations and aims for future research.

Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework.

1.1. Introduction

The theoretical framework begins by discusses arguably how globalisation has impacted social rela-tions, which is core to understanding global journalism as a news-style. It notes arguably how power has shifted from the nation-state to the global. It discusses the implications of this, namely the interconnection and negative facets of today’s global age. The next section of this chapter dis-cusses the Venezuelan Crisis, maintaining globalisation as core theme. Given the complexities of the Venezuelan crisis, Cottle’s (2009) framework is utilised as global crisis rarely fit neatly defined typologies (p.16). In order to better understand Venezuela crisis impact today, this entails observing the historical relevance of what Venezuela was, the richest nation in Latin America and in the top 20 global nations for wealth, being a global player in the oil industry (Hausman and Rodriguez 2015). Now it has become a nation where it is reported that 93% of the population can’t afford the scare food available (Ulmer, 2017).

This chapter then observes how the media have been impacted by globalisation, looking specifically at media empowerment and practice. It discusses the moral implications in journalistic reporting when the previously held paradigms shift from the nation-state to the global. In doing so, it seeks to address the fundamental questions relating to how the media organises and reflects this new social order? How does this shift impact the identity between audiences and media alike? What does it mean for the news and the information audiences receive? But questions arise as to how the media portray citizens in different contexts. Do national frames of reference persist or do more global ones emerge? Global journalism is then discussed, noting how this has been ill-defined and approached in diverging ways. National reporting is then discussed, where some scholars argue this has domin-ated at the expense of global journalism. The theory then defines global journalism as a news-style and discusses why this form of reporting is relevant today. It then discusses negative aspects of na-tional reporting, before turning to how global journalism can arguably be a corrective force, foster more commonality through ‘global outlooks’. This it is argues helps journalism to remain democrat-ically relevant (Berglez 2013, p.12). The last section transitions from theory to discussing the as-pects of global journalism which will be analysed.

1.2 Globalisation

Globalisation as a theoretical framework is core to global journalism as a news-style, specifically in terms of understanding the changing social dynamics (Berglez 2008). By discussing how a very contested term, globalisation, has impacted the world, helps to better understand why global journ-alism is relevant today. Held and McGrew (2003), define globalisation as “a stretching of social re-lations and activities across regions and frontiers” and “a growing magnitude or intensity of global flows such that states and societies become increasingly enmeshed in worldwide systems and net-works of interaction” (p.3). Different nation-states become incorporated into one interconnected way of conceiving the world, through different social processes (Hannerz 1990 p.237). Beck (2006) argues "the power-container of the nation-state is broken open” (p.85). In line with the pur-poses of this research it can be conceived as the transnational flow of capital, the formation of glob-al markets replacing domestic economies (Ip 2010). The conclusion to be drawn is that arguably globalisation entails “ decreasing power of the nation- state” (Berglez 2008, p851).

1.2.1 The complexities of globalisation

Gidden’s (1990) dictum interrogates globalisation more profoundly on the dialectical level. He ar-gues “the intensification” of transnational and social relations creates a nexus between distant local-ities as “ local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. This is a dialectical process because such local happenings may move in or observe direction from very distanciated relations that shape them” (p.64). The migratory flow from Mexico to the US in 2014, means today 11.7 million documented Mexicans reside in the US. In turn they arguably help to the domestic political, cultural, and economic landscapes (Migrationpolicy online, 2016). When we start to look more broadly at how globalisation can be conceived, Morely and Robins (1996) argue it is “economics and cultures” which “are thrown into intense and immediate contact with each oth-er” (p.115). This helps to conceptualise the array of global interactions which take place. In doing so this helps to conceive how new relations and dependencies emerge transnationally. The conclu-sion and how this informs this research is that globalisation entails “ever-more complex relations between people, places and practices” (Berglez 2008, p.848).

Brym and Lie (2009) note how globalisation has become more complex, as neoliberalism has inter-twined itself within globalisation. In commerce, neoliberalism acts as a centripetal force in pro-pelling globalisation forward through different social processes (p.221-223). Today

multinational-corporations arguably have greater autonomy than before. General Motors, an automobile manufac-turer migrated its US-factories to Northern Mexico. It was lured by an economic logic, namely Mexican tax concessions and cheap labour. From 1980-1999, 50% of staff were cut in the US. In 2000 the US hit a 38 year high in unemployment (p.389). It can be argued this illustrates the dia-lectical process of how the local is affected by the global. Even though events take place outside of the nation-state, they impact the social order within the nation-state. Robertson (1995) coined the intertwining of the global and the local as ‘glocalisation’. This process results in a hybridisation and homogenisation of cultures. Today within the media, Thussu (2003) defines the melding of the local and global as “CNNization” (p.118-119). Anglophone broadcaster CNN international has adapted its business model in order to fit with local domestic markets, such as the Spanish, German and Por-tuguese markets (p.118-119). Although broad and contested, the relevance to this research and the conclusion is that “globalisation is defined by ongoing relations between regions and peoples, gen-erated by capital, trade, human mobility and technology” (Berglez, 2008p.846).

1.2.2 Negative facets of globalisation

Despite the successes, of globalisation, namely closer connection fostered through trade, politics and culture, Appudurai (2008) notes its contribution towards “cannibalisation”(p.43). These are more corrosive facets of our globalised existence which adversely impact social relations. As glob-alisation remains a contested concept, Beck (2002) posits globglob-alisation is fostering “internal global-isation” within the nation-state. (p.17). Globalisation “transforms everyday consciousness and identities significantly. Issues of global concern are becoming part of the everyday local experi-ences and the ‘moral life-worlds’ of the people” ( Beck 2002, p.17). Cottle (2011) defines this as “dark side of our global age” (p.77), manifesting as the war on terror, financial meltdowns, forced migrations, from pandemics to world poverty, humanitarian disasters and the denial of human rights (Cottle 2009, p.20). The relevance of Cottle's (2011) scholarship is that it illustrates the transnation-al impact of “crises and catastrophes”(p.78). They are not “historictransnation-ally unprecedented” but are global and even epoch-defining, the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, both World Wars, the nuclear arms race and the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 (p.78). Different citizens may belong to different nation-states, but if we look more broadly at the negative aspects of globality then the fundamental point is that crises and catastrophes impact and unite all humanity as we are not immune to them (Cottle, 2009 p1-2 and Cottle 2011, p.78). This notion helps to better understand crises more broadly and the transition into the Venezuelan crisis today.

1.3 The Venezuelan crisis

The introduction to the Venezuelan crisis is explained alongside Cottle’s (2009 & 2011) theoretical framework on crisis. The rationale to include a framework within the case of the Venezuelan crisis is that Cottle (2009) argues global crises rarely fit neat typologies. The Venezuelan crisis can be defined as a complex crisis, beginning in 2011 when a number of global and national factors im-pacted one another. Two significant global drops in the price of oil coupled with poor governmental decisions have culminated in a “multifaceted” economic, political and humanitarian crisis, whose effects are felt within Venezuela and globally (Vivas 2016). The case begins by outlining the socio-historic conditions which gave rise to the Venezuelan crisis prior to discussing the crisis today.

1.3.1 The socio-historic foundations of the crisis

Gramsci (1971) affirms “the crises consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born” (p.275-276). These reflections help to conceive of the magnitude and “societal im-plosion” today in Venezuela (Chambers 2017 , p.1). Venezuela was previously the richest nation in 1

Latin America and one of the 20th wealthiest nations “with a per capita GDP higher than Spain, Greece, and Israel and only 13% lower than that of the United Kingdom” (Hausman and Rodriguez, 2015). However, significant factors have contributed to it becoming an impoverished nation-state in deep crisis where inflation is predicted to reach 13,000% this year (Al Jazeera, 2018).

It is argued Venezuela was significantly impacted by globalisation in 1912, when oil exportation began in the country. Four years later it became the largest global exporter of oil (Venezuelan Ana-lysis, 2003). Between 1925 and 1975 the Venezuelan economy became the fastest growing globally (Al Jazeera, 2016). It cemented itself as a global ‘petrostate’ in 1960, founding the Organisation of

Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) alongside Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (Opec

2018). Venezuela’s development took place through its high dependency on capital, garnered through oil exports. Today it is reported that 95% of this constitutes Venezuela’s income and argu-ably highlights its high economic dependency on oil (Al Jazeera Online, 2016). Due to this bur-geoning capital, a 50 year boom period took place from the 1960s onwards, as the nation became

This research began in 2016 at Groningen University, observing the implications of sourcing the

1

Venezuelan crisis by British legacy media. It was a comparative study between The Guardian and The Inde-pendent.This research found that elite sources dominated the news-coverage, which is problematic for pluralistic reporting

“big magnet” of emigration according to Venezuelan sociologist Tomás Páez (Newkirk and Crooks, 2017). It is reported to have attracted over 700,000 immigrants from France, Spain, Iran, Italy, Por-tugal and Turkey (The Financial Times, 2017).

Cottle (2011) contends “global crises are crises whose origins and outcomes cannot for the most part be confined inside the borders of a particular nation-state” (p.78). This illustrates how crises are enmeshed within highly interconnected globalised systems which impact one another (p.78). When Chávez was elected as president in 1998, he expropriated many national and global enterprises, namely the agricultural, finance, industrial and oil sectors (Financial Times, 2017). It is argued this process significantly laid the foundations for the crisis to later emerge (Financial Times, 2017). Chávez’s government expropriated the national oil company, PDVSA and several multinational corporations; four Mexican corporations, the largest Bank - Spain’s Santander and energy corpora-tion ConocoPhillips and oil-company Exxon. Exxon took their claims to court reporting $16bn in lost capital and later won $900 million in the International Court in Washington, impacting the na-tional budget (Forbes 2017). In 2003, Chávez fired 20,000 of the 35,000 employees working for PDVSA. It is reported that he replaced them with 100,000 ‘Chavistas’, a name given to his support-ers (BBC, 2017). It is argued PDVSA lost significant expertise in running a successful oil business, which contributed towards laying the social conditions for crisis to arise (Plummer, 2013). Former Venezuelan Economist, Hausman holds Chavez’s government accountable for the failure to diversi-fy the economy away from oil as a mainstay (Financial Times 2017).

During this period, Chávez also fixed national prices which it is argued significantly devalued the exchange rate with the US dollar on the global market (The Financial Times, 2017). Given the soci-etal impact these changes had, directly affecting citizens livelihoods, it is reported this process gave rise to the first Venezuelan diaspora (Belatin America online, 2016). From 1998 onwards, many up-per, middle classes and academics became disenfranchised and left the country (Belatin America online, 2016). This period became known as “Boliviarian Disaspora” in reference to Venezuela’s liberator from Spanish colonialism. Simón Bolívar whose anti-colonial ideology, Chávez deeply interwove into the fabric of Venezuelan politics, harnessing it on the geopolitical-level, often caus-ing tensions with the US (Belatin America online, 2016).

This crisis is “multifaceted” and its dimensions are humanitarian, political and economic (Vivas 2016). It commenced in 2011, during the previous presidential reign of Hugo Chávez when the government had $30-US billion in reserves (CNN Money Online, 2016). In 2011 a global fall in oil prices ruptured the economy. This resulted in the PDVSA being unable to pay its subsidiaries to produce oil. Production fell by 25%, affecting the national budget (Helman, 2013). It is argued Ve-nezuela’s dependency on short-term capital from oil exports meant it never developed its own infra-structure. It remained highly dependent on international loans and imported goods as a short-term solution, which were paid for by the oil revenue (The Financial Times, 2017). Much of the capital garnered through oil exportation was reportedly redistributed on social programmes for the poor rather than investing in a sovereign wealth fund (Al Jazeera, 2018). $44 billion was invested in 2012 alone on these social programmes (Reuters online, 2013). In furthering one’s understanding of the nature global crises in relation to Venezuela, Cottle (2009) also contends that;

“many global crises are not self-contained or discrete phenomena but inter penetrate and/or mutate into related cases and exacerbate yet others…The mutability and complexity of real-world crises is rarely captured by neat typologies and distinct categories, and indeed, many humanitarian professionals refer to as ‘complex emergencies’” (p.16).

Due to the highly complex nature of today’s global age, once one dimension of a interconnected system ruptures, it leads to a cascading effect across all interconnected systems. In 2011 Venezuela lost vital oil revenues which are a mainstay of its economy. This ruptured another sector of the eco-nomy. A price hike for goods also befell the country. During this time Chávez’s government also introduced significant food caps in order to curb inflation (Al Jazeera Online 2016). Following the death of Chávez in 2013, the global capital markets began to close on Venezuela. At the same time the global exchange rates increased. This reportedly culminated in the whole economy imploding (BBC, 2017). Enough oil revenue reportedly meant Venezuela could honour previous capital-loan repayments. In 2014 a further oil price collapse culminated in Venezuela being unable to finance its international imports. This directly impacted its domestic production, as imports fell by 90% (World Bank, 2018). This reportedly affected national income, which fell 50% alongside its oil prices (World Bank, 2018). Given Venezuela could not longer compete in the capital markets, the national currency devalued. It lost 99.8% of its value in 5 years, as salaries dropped to $20 per month (Avella, 2017). This year alone the IMF estimates inflation is around 13,000%. (Al Jazeera, 2018)

In Venezuela the lack of imports has caused a humanitarian crisis as national production has been significantly affected, causing hyperinflation. It is reported its citizens wait in queues on average 35 hours per month to enter supermarkets without guarantees of food on shelves (International Busi-ness Times Online, 2016). In 2016, reports estimated 75% of the population lost 19 pounds. Due to the lack of imports, trafficking of goods, namely food and petrol out of Venezuela became ex-tremely lucrative. President Maduro placed the military in charges in order to curb this. It is repor-ted the military runs its own black market and profiteers from food trafficking (AP online, 2017). Due to a lack of imports there is an 85% scarcity of medicines and President Maduro has requested medical aid from the UN (Al Jazeera Online 2017) Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports many scarcities in medicines have resulted in migration of Venezuelans to neighbouring countries (Hu-man Rights Watch, 2018). 5,000 Venezuelans reportedly migrated to Curacao, 20,000 to Aruba, 30,000 to Brazil, 40,000 to Trinidad and Tobago, and reports calculate there to be 600,000 in Colombia (O’Neil 2018). This is reported to be impacting the local social services, such as the pub-lic healthcare. Many arrive malnourished and with other maladies, setting up roadside encampments (Human Rights Watch, 2018). In in the state of Roraima, northern Brazil, due to the influx of

Venezuelans, there are reportedly governmental threats to close the border and without work per-mits reportedly, many Venezuelans are often left in financial limbo upon arrival (Reuters, 2018). The financial collapse means 82% of the country now living in poverty (The Economist Online, 2017).

Venezuela has begun debt-restructuring and owes $150 billion (Al Jazeera, 2018). It has foregone a $50 billion loan from China and a $5 billion from Russia (Reuters Online, 2017). Roberto Haus-man, a Venezuelan Economist expressed concern at what calls a “pernicious” financial accord with China during the crisis. None of the terms have been made public. It is argued the underlying im-plication is Venezuela’s loss of sovereignty, as China’s presence and hegemony is tacitly felt at a moment when Venezuela is financially weak. China’s presence in Latin America continues to grows. China has built infrastructure in Venezuela in exchange for natural resources (Das, 2016). Hausman also condemns Goldman Sachs’ role in their purchase of $2.8bn of ‘hunger bonds’ from

PDVSA. They carry 50% repayment charges. He argues due to the high inflation Venezuela will

never be able to make a full repayment (Financial Times, 2017). The head of Venezuela’s opposi-tion-congress, Julio Borges decried Goldman Sachs’ actions as a “financial lifeline to the regime will serve to strengthen the brutal repression unleashed against the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans peacefully protesting for political change in the country” (Rushe 2017).

Human rights abuses form part of the political crisis and today it is reported there are 1,048 political prisoners (Goicoechea, 2017). Leopoldo López, an opposition politician was imprisoned in 2014, for what the government argues was inciting violent protest. Amnesty International (2015) declares the charges against him “politically motivated” as part of the opposition. Tintori, the wife of the op-position politician, López, campaigned during his improvement in the US spoke of how “the Ma-duro regime makes a mockery of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We have no freedom of speech” (NYT, 2017). Mobilised protests intensified in April 2017, and at least 100 were reported to have died (BBC, 2017). The head of The Organisation of the American States, Luis Almagro stated the Venezuelan government has created a “bloodbath” regarding the reported repression of protestors (BBC Online, 2017). The US has sanctioned Venezuela government against rights violations (Reuters Online, 2017).

In response, current president Maduro has maintained a similar rhetoric to Chávez’s, stating Ve-nezuela is under siege from ‘forces of imperialism’, namely the USA, which undermines its social-ist revolution (The Guardian, 2017). Political division in 2016 alone meant The Venezuela

Obser-vatory recorded 2,138 protests from January to April. The Basel Institute stated corruption amongst

political elites has resulted in over $350bn exiting Venezuela’s treasury in the previous 19 years (The Guardian, 2017). Endemic violence is a daily occurrence; Venezuela has the highest global murder and kidnapping rates (The Financial Times, 2017). In 2017 Maduro’s political party, created a popular assembly, seizing control of the national assembly, in an act decried by the International

Community (BBC News Online, 2017). Delsey Rodríguez, the new president of the constituent

as-sembly stated under international law declaring a humanitarian crisis justifies foreign intervention in Venezuela, thus undermining the government’s hegemony (Al Jazeera Online, 2017). This “soci-etal implosion" (Chambers, 2017, p.1) is what Ricardo Hausman argues is driving this “the new Venezuelan diaspora” of forced migrations across the globe where the effects are also felt (Financial Times 2017).

1.4 Media empowerment

1.4.1 Introduction to the changing media landscape

Shifting the focus from the Venezuelan crisis and its deep complexities raises pertinent questions concerning how to accurately report for global audiences on such complex matters. These audiences

may not experience the same social conditions which are described in the reports. The complexities discussed mean the media will deal with a "multifacted” crisis whose permeations do not fit with a short or conventional report, but how can they empower themselves to cover these challenges? (Vivas 2016). Sambrook (2010) argues news is constant and its “value” is the ability to report “up-to-the-minute breaking news” (p.8). But how can breaking incidents in different nation-states be covered from the distant news-rooms? Globalisation reminds us it is not simply trade, politics and culture which has been impacted but the media too. Globalisation has arguably empowered certain aspects of journalistic practice, but what are these?

1.4.2 New Empowerment

Wasserman (2011) argues the the media have been empowered by development of digital afford-ances. These have forged “new relationships between local (even the ‘hyperlocal’) and global news, linking professional journalists, citizen journalists and audiences in new collaborative networks” (p. 101). Castells (2000) defines this as ‘the network society’, whereby “major social, technological, economic and cultural transformations” take place and give “rise to a new form of society" (p.17). Prior to this, Zelizer (2008) argues local community was core to reporting, propelling journalistic practice forward (p.82). But today this sense of local community, has arguably shifted from the loc-al to the globloc-al, shaping a “new culturloc-al geography”, relating to “new globloc-al solidarities, shared concerns and common positions” (Curran and Witschge 2009, p.102). Heinrich (2012) argues this new empowerment affords journalists the ability to “enhance their networks” (p.66). Gearing’s (2014) research Australian found local journalists were empowered by their networks, expanding their beats transnationally with their stories receiving global reach (p.73).

Reese’s (2015) study found global networked linkages acted as a “problem-solving logic” for journalists in order to circumvent Chinese governmental authoritarian constraints (p.2263). In prac-tice this fostered a bottom up global reporting-style, as “transnational actors operate with their own emerging logics” (p.2278). The significance of these networks is that previous impediments to journalistic practice are effaced. On a broader-level this is affecting the media ecology and arguably mutating the journalistic field from a closed and open ethics across the globe (Ward and Wasserman 2010, p.280). Ward and Wasserman (2010) advocate journalists are no longer the sole gatekeepers of information due to the rise in media circumvention (p.276). New interlopers have entered this realm, with grassroots’ actors empowered to create arguably similar journalistic-content, contribut-ing to the rise of the 5th estate (p.281-282). Ward (2011) reasons with new empowerment and

glob-al reach “comes globglob-al responsibilities” (p.247). Despite its normative dimensions, this reflection is important to this research, as those creating journalistic content are empowered to make it more pluralistic. They can widen the scope of their story through the use of more sources (Hermida et al, 2014 p.480) and thereby look beyond debasing forms of journalistic practice, such as

“churnalism” (Archetti, 2012, p.847).

1.4.3 Moral Implications and symbolic representation

This form of empowerment may aid in the geographic reach, garnered through newly formed net-works and pluralistic content but questions arise as to the ethical and moral implications for the me-dia are when these centrifugal powers explode? (Fürsich, 2002, p.66). On a societal level, the meme-dia are “tightly and dialectically intertwined with the everyday”, thereby shaping social and symbolic reality (Silverstone 2007, p5). The media holds influence in terms of what audiences learn in re-ports. As Livingstone (2007) eloquently draws our attention to, the media are “ portals to other worlds that open up the realms of the imaginary, connecting the domestic living room – stagger-ingly - to the rest of the globe” (p.2). When globalisation impacts this previously held nation-state paradigm, what does this mean for the media and audience alike? Harvey (1989) notes at its core, globalisation is a compression of time and space. This has serious ramifications in terms of “how we and others interpret and then act with respect to the world” (p.205). Technologically journalists are arguably closer to sources and audiences but do these symbolic boundaries still exist? (Hermida et al, 2014) How does the media chose to identify itself, as a national or global storyteller?

Silverstone (2007) notes “global media do not just make the global appear symbolically; they are of course a material component of the infrastructure that makes the globe possible” (p.9-10). In creat-ing symbolic social reality in news-content they also materially reproduce it, through their net-works, capital flows, corporate control, commercial exploitation within a globalised space (p.9-10). How the media chose to reflect the global age carries significant implications in term of the narrat-ives they construct for audiences (Cottle 2009, p.135). This affects how audiences learn and argu-ably how audiences become informed on distinctive topics within the news. Berglez and Olausson (2011) hold identity and its construction in the media requires symbolic material for its production, maintenance and transformation within news-content (p.36). Structures are more fluid than before, as boundaries shift. This can cause issues in reporting, as journalistic practice has previously en-trenched within the nation-state (Berglez, 2008, p.855). This informs this research in terms of the frames of reference which an audience engage with, whether they are national or global. This

dir-ectly relates to the kind of knowledge which shapes our social imaginary, “our landscape of collect-ive aspirations” (Appadurai 2008, p.31). Do we think more outwardly and there globally or do we chose to think more as part of the nation-state and therefore more insularly? Fundamentally though, what are the broader implications of both approaches?

1.5 Global Journalism

Prior to narrowing down and defining global journalism as a news-style which is the aim, this sec-tion discusses the conceptual and practical difficulties of global journalism, namely its definisec-tion. This is arguably why many scholars contest it to be a heterogenous term, understood through differ-ent prisms and defined in diverging ways. This section then looks at the hegemony of the national outlook, whereby national frames of reference dominate global ones. This is because as a news-style, global journalism remains in its “embryonic stages” and in need of fortification in theory and practice (Berglez 2013, p.65). By firstly addressing the difficulties concerning the definition, this will later help to orient and focus this research by narrowing it down as a news-style.

1.5.1 Heterogenous understanding

There are significantly diverging approaches to global journalism, resulting in different definitions. Berglez (2008) defines the news-style of global journalism as the “everyday routine to investigate how people and their actions, practices, problems, life conditions etc in different parts of the world are interrelated” (p.848). Reese (2008) approaches global journalism conceptually, defining it as a “news-gathering, editing and distribution not based on national and regional boundaries” (p.240). Hanitzsch (2008) defines global journalism as “the most important strategy to understand the nature of journalism and how it works across cultural boundaries” (p.94). Hanitzsch (2008) explores global journalism through the prism of comparative studies. He compares different media globally in order to garner a more nuanced understanding of how these different media systems operate (p.94). The difficulty with this form of research is that it implicitly assumes “methodological of theoretical uni-versalism”, which is down to the researcher’s own cultural lens (p.96). This form of practice is defined “epistemological essentialism” relating to how comparative research arguably remains en-trenched within Anglo-American intellectual traditions and bias (Thussu 2009, p.16). Deuze (2006) observes global journalism from a pedagogical orientation, defining it as “journalism within the context of professional education and industry training” (p.21). Deuze’s (2006) research centres on what is being taught to students and practitioners across the globe (p.20). Overall, “there is no

common view of what global journalism de facto is” (Berglez 2013, p.6). This entails further theor-etical insights and research are required in this field to bring more cohesion. These heterogeneous understandings of global journalism entails it pertains to many distinctive fields.

The diverging definitions of global journalism lead Hafez (1999) to conclude global journalism is a "matter of perspective”, relating to how and where one observes (p.487). Lindell and Karlsson (2016) reflect discussions concerning global journalism have been “normative rather than descript-ive”. This is due to the lack of empirical studies within the field which could better fortify the oretical approaches. As such there are advances to be made to the field of research, as it “lacks the-oretical insight” (Hafez 2011, p.1). This is significant to this research because there are such diver-ging understandings. This confusion leads de Beer (2004) to define it as an “intangible concept” (p. 163). Cottle (2011) observes this notion in more depth, defining global journalism as an “encom-passing/descriptive term or as a reference for comparative discussion of different national media systems and the discerned states of national journalism”(p.20). Berglez (2013) follows this line of thought, as global journalism “remains a rather imprecise and bland term”(p.16). What this means is that due the diverging definitions, they “represses the essential practical understanding of the

term” (p.16). This informs this research to maintain a clearer focus by narrowing down the angle of the research of global journalism to a news-style.

1.5.2 Hegemony of national-outlook

Moving on from the distinct approaches and definitions of global journalism which have been prob-lematic, there are further difficulties in approaching this field of research. Van Leuven and Berglez (2016a) contend there is “widespread skepticism about the actual existence of global

journalism” (p.669). Despite any empirical figures to support her claims, Riegert (2009) dispels the notion national media have been reshaped by globalisation. She argues the media remains nation-ally-oriented (p.133). In wider-research questions are being raised concerning the existence of global journalism. Hafez (1999 and 2011) deracinates some conceptual disbelief by providing more contextual analysis. Hafez (1999) reasons within the industry “the content level of the media global-ises much slower than technical and economic aspects of media”. Within research Hafez (2011) reasons more saliency has been afforded to meso-range theories like “agenda-setting or cultivation rather than debating macro-theory” (p.488). Reese (2008) advocates historically media-studies re-search has operated at “the level of the nation-state” (p.240). Therefore Cottle (2011) advocates that researchers step “outside of an implicit methodological nationalism that delimits their critical gaze”

around its existence, as the focus has been aligned to meso-range theory (p.85). Overall the impres-sion in research and practice is that “the local dominates the news at the expense of the

global” (Berglez 2013, p.57).

1.5.3 An overview to global journalism as a news-style.

Berglez (2008) defines the news-style of global journalism as the emerging “younger cousin of for-eign reporting”, and the “everyday routine to investigate how people and their actions, practices, problems, life conditions etc in different parts of the world are interrelated” (p.848). The informs this research by narrowing down global journalism as a news-style and allowing for both clarity and focus. It In doing so, this research observes the news-style’s close interplay with practice. The news-style is developed by different attitudinal decisions the journalist adopts, concerning how best to cover a story. The impulse driving these decisions is to “understand and explain how economic, political, social and ecological practices, processes and problems in different parts of the world af-fect each other, are interlocked, or share commonalities” (Berglez 2008, p.848). Global journalism “depends on the extent to which news, whether about local, national, international, or transnational events and developments, become properly situated and explained in terms of wider and reciproc-ally interacting global social relations and contours of power” (Cottle in Berglez 2013, p.xiii). This is a salient consideration as the media is “dialectically intertwined with the everyday” (Silverstone 2007, p.5). This is particularly true when one thinks of a social, civic and moral space and how the media influences this. It defines a space as that which is “increasingly mutually referential and rein-force” (Silverstone 2007, p.5). Silverstone (1999) reminds us “the media are the both the everyday and the alternatives to it” (p.8). The fundamental implication for Wasserman (2011) is that “unless we think of news as ‘global’, the causes of events become disembedded from their

consequences” (p.100). This means nation-state frames of reference in news-content are deracinated from their global context and the are significant implications to this.

An issue like ‘internet surveillance’ does not solely affect the nation-state. It is a transnational issue, raising challenges in terms of the angle of how to how to coherently report on this. Internet surveil-lance is a complex transnational issue, affecting different laws, governments and citizens across the globe. It requires globally ethical discussions, addressing fundamental questions of the govern-ment’s and citizenry’s rights in order to fully comprehend the issue. The case of Edward Snowden required journalists to actively narrativise the issue for a global audience in order for it to resonate the global and ethical complexities and ultimately in order to make sense of it geopolitically

(Örebro University, 2014 ). A transnational issue like internet surveillance means journalistic prac2

-tice “can no longer operate within nations or cultural borders only” (Weaver and Löffelholz, 2008, p.3). Governance has surpassed the nation-state. Global journalism is “traditional journalism in a new context”, the global context, producing knowledge which reflects global modernity (Örebro University, 2014).

Core to global journalism is to resonate “‘the world-as-a-single-place’ in terms of social transforma-tions, as causes and outcomes”(Reese, 2010, p.344). The relevance to this research is that journal-ists are required to adopt a global logic in order to interrelate different social phenomena globally. Global journalism reflects this logic discursively within news-content. Hall (1992) defines dis-course as “the production of knowledge through language” (p. 291). This discursive practice ob-serves these societal transformations, as both cause and outcomes (Reese 2010, p.344). Berglez holds it affords knowledge in the form of “qualitative” news-content (Örebro University, 2014). This is salient when one considers ecological issues such as a climate change, a transnational issue, which affects all of humanity. Reese (2015) notes in relation to climate change that “global chal-lenges transcend local concerns and national systems” (p.2263). The value to this research is that it highlights how the media can fulfil a role in fostering awareness of certain issues, by deepening the discussion and making it globally resonate. Global journalism can thus empower journalists to ef-fect change, contributing to “transnational coordination and engagement to solve them” (Reese 2015 p.2263). Berglez (2007) world has evolved, becoming more complex to map cognitively-speaking, particularly one reflects on global governance. Global journalism fosters knowledge which is reflective of this local to global paradigmatic shift (p2). This means global journalism’s raison d'etre lies in helping journalism remain relevant democratically-speaking (Berglez 2013, p. 12).

1.6 National Media

This section provides a critique of the national outlook, as the media provides fragmented contexts and parochial forms of reporting. These are are detrimental to audiences’ contextual understanding of complex issues. It then discusses the practice of ‘boundary work’, how nationalistic media create boundaries which affect our broader understanding of difference. This practice marginalises

Berglez discussing data-surveillance through the lens of Global journalism on Youtube. Rights owned by

2

Örebro University filmed and recorded in 2014. Viewable via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zUiPyLN-Tok&t=2071s Berglez speaks at 33 minutes until 49 minutes.

ity groups and does not foster greater global solidarity and understanding. It lastly discusses how global identity through a process known as ‘cognitive dissonance’ how certain identities are repressed through national modes of address. Global identity it is argued defies predefined nation-state narratives.

1.6.1 How nationalism functions in news-content

Beck (2005) advocates “methodological nationalism projects its understanding of legitimacy onto the new, transnational level of the formation of power and counter-power” ( p.46). Nationalism op-erates as an “intellectual paralysis” towards global solidarity (Beck 2005, p.41). Ward (2010) argues “parochial journalism can wreak havoc in a highly linked global world” (p.159). Today Silverstone (2007) argues the media is in its “centripetal phase” of "boundary work”, predicated on “boundaries of national and linguistic cultures” (p.16-17). A nationalistic outlook fails “to grasp the political economic and cultural action and (intended and unintended) consequences know no borders” (Beck 2006, p.18). Although observing emerging actors within the journalistic field, Eldridge’s (2016) definition of “a defined space of belonging built on familiar norms and values” defines the notion of boundary work (p.45). In the media these boundaries are “discursive performances”(p.47), both “covert” and “overt” (p.48). Through these modes of address, a nationalistic outlook fails to recog-nise “transnational modes of living, transmigrants, global elites, supranational organisations” (Beck 2005, p.23). Within the media this results in “crude stereotypes of otherness to the subtle and not-so-subtle discriminations of dramatic characterisation” (Silverstone, 2007 p.19). In The

Independ-ent, Dearden (2016) noted The Sun and The Daily Mail were singled out for “offensive and

discrim-inatory and provocative terminology” by the European Commission Against Racism and

Intoler-ance relating to “hate speech towards” Roma travellers and “unscrupulous press reporting”

target-ing the LGBT community. What the national media failed to afford was a broader outlook to the complexity of reporting on minority groups.

The corrosive aspect of nationalism can thus contribute towards “jingoistic reports” which “can por-tray the inhabitants of other regions of the world as a threat” (Ward 2010, p.159). During the Malv-inas/Falklands War in 1982, the British tabloid newspaper, The Sun in supporting Thatcher’s milit-arial regime, lead with the nationalistic front page headline “STICK IT UP YOUR JUNTA!”, in ref-erence to the sinking of navy-vessel belonging to the de facto Argentine military dictatorship (Greenslade 2002). Hafez (2011) argues the nationalistic impulse in foreign reporting yields a cor-rosive “limitation of the world in the mainstream news to find bits of event-centered

information”(p.485). It contributes to an “enormous fragmentation, de-contextualisation” and a “dangerous loss of complexity” (p.485). This practice can “stampede populations into war or the removal of civil rights for minorities” (Ward 2010, p.159). Ultimately for Hamelink (2012) this form of nationalistic reporting detrimentally yields an “us versus them polarisation” (p.38).

This form of reporting is problematic particularly in light of Bourdieu's (1991) notion that the me-dia holds the “power of imposing a vision on the social” (p.221). This is salient in terms of impart-ing information to an audience unfamiliar with those the events (Chambers, 2017 p.16). Van Leuven and Berglez (2016a) argue nationalistic media fail to “present and problematise life under global conditions” by interrelating the local and the global. In doing so, they fail to foster more diverse and pluralistic news-content (p.681). This addresses the practice of how the national media’s reflex is to “domesticate" news, a discourse which resonates culturally to a domestic audience (Olausson 2014, p.711). Therefore by domesticating news to a domestic audience, this practice does not counteract this “nation-state orthodoxy” which prevails (Beck, 2005 p.5). This means audiences largely com-prehend how social relations affect the nation-state. This understanding of boundary work informs this research on global journalism as it helps to break the insularity of nationalistic reporting which creates divisions “between the experienced and its representation” (Silverstone 2007, p.20).

1.6.2 Cognitive Dissonance

Appadurai (2006) argues “uncertainty, exacerbated by an inability of states to secure economic sov-ereignty in the era of globalisation” translates into a “lack of tolerance of any sort of collective stranger” (p.45). These are not atomistic incidents. Lindell (2014) discerns how this phenomena is reflected in nationalistic reporting. This insular logic reinforces existing relations of power, misrep-resents interests of minorities and subaltern groups (p.78). There is a lack of wider context and of-ten it is argued contributes to the media missing “the link between migration and human develop-ment” (Ethical Journalism Network. 2015). This informs this research as a national outlook subor-dinates identities which aren’t considered as pertaining to the nation-state. Berglez and Olausson (2011) posit national outlooks “privilege political identities that express spatial and territorial be-longing (the nation-state space) by marginalising deterritorialise political identities that emphasise globally relevant agendas and ideas, not national community belonging”(p.47). This means identity is largely reduced to a nation-state frame of reference. This form of practice is what Berglez (2013) discerns as “cognitive dissonance” (p.42). This is how a national outlook seeks to eliminate any friction around residual and emerging identities by repressing them or excluding them (p.42).

‘Cognitive dissonance’ is pertinent to the transnational issue of migration, factoring in both its cause and effects. Global journalism challenges this mendacious nationalistic reflex which “exclusively divides global space into disconnected national island” (Berglez and Olausson 2011, p.41) .This is enacted by illustrating global interdependencies (Berglez 2008, p.847). This is because migration has long been “part of the human condition”, consisting of “displacement and settlement”, “per-manence and instability”, causing a “dialectic between longing and belonging” for migrants (Silver-stone 2007, p.82). Cognitive dissonance as a media logic entails this complexity and tension is eliminated. This is due to the media’s nationalistic impulse driving “assimilation and acculturation” of migrants within the nation-state (Silverstone 2007, p.82). This is because discussing the social conditions and complexities of migration challenge predefined nation-state narratives. “Diasporic cultures can only be understood in their relationship to multiple context of cultures that are both present and absent” (Silverstone, 2007, p.98). Such narratives actively require the media to look outside of the “national container” in order to redefine their own national history and by extension, identity (Beck 2005, p.16). Therefore the national media distanciates and dissociates itself with this narrative. In doing so, it enables citizens to feel “at home and addressed” (Berglez and Olausson 2011, p.44). A complex issue such as migration entails migrants are portrayed through an “invidious discourse of fear and threat” to the nation-state. This does not ameliorate “the challenge of differ-ence”, rather it fosters “pervasive paranoia” (Silverstone 2007, p.83). By better understanding how boundaries are constructed within the media, it illustrates how nationalistic media operates through marginalisation and social exclusion, contributing to parochial societal understandings. This illus-trates how the problem of implementing global journalism is both “cognitive” and

“discursive” (Berglez 2013, p.82).

1.7 A Counterweight to Nationalistic Reporting

This section discusses global journalism as a counterweight to nationalism, a corrective force in practice creating greater proximity to audiences. This closes the moral distance between audience and actor and is defined as “social bridging” (Ward 2010, p.170). This section deepens aspects of ‘social bridging’ through ‘global outlooks’. These are discursive and cognitive frameworks to afford greater contextual and pluralistic understandings which help journalism remain relevant democrat-ically within our global age.

1.7.1 Social Bridging

Global journalism is nothing but a forceful question of this kind of “derelational thinking in West-ern news production”. (Berglez 2013, p.24) It is a “counterweight” to the mendacious national out-look, global journalism highlights how decisions in one country are felt in another and thereby fosters greater proximity between audiences in news-content (Berglez 2008 p.845 and p.848). Har-vey (1989) argues globalisation is the closing of space and time. This has significant repercussions in terms of how one acts, interprets and relates to the world when the national distances are upheld in reporting (p.205). Silverstone (2007) reasons this is a “matter of phenomenology”, specifically "between proximity and distance” (p.11). Historically the media through a nation-state logic have created distance between interlocutors, subjects and subjects, thereby eroding proximity to audi-ences (p.11).

Choularaki (2006) defines this practice more broadly as mediation. This alters, “the capacity of the media to involve us emotionally and culturally with distant ‘others’ and involves “overcoming dis-tance in communication” (p.19). Mediation fosters deep cultural transformations, from deterritori-alisation, the overcoming of geographical distance, the compression of space and time and the real-time witnessing of faraway events. This practice results in “the closing of moral distance” (p.19) and contributes to the “co-presence with faraway others” (p.20). This compression of time is a dis-cursive tool within global journalism. Ward (2010) defines this practice more broadly as “social bridging” - whereby highlighting commonalities acts as a bridge to actors and audiences. It instills deeper interconnections and tolerance between diverse classes, ethnic groups, religions, and cul-tures within and amongst countries. (p.170). It symbolically represents “the world as one unified body in which an “event” and a news story could take place in various locations across the world simultaneously” (Berglez 2008, p.850). This draws a complete distinction to foreign correspond-ence practice, endowed with a national outlook, as the event takes place “elsewhere”. In this form of reporting, the obligatory spatial distinctions between internal (home) and external (foreign), det-rimentally remain the axiom of reports (Berglez 2013, p.35). This distinction to other modes of re-porting entails no singular space hegemonises news-content, as no story is rooted in a particular locus. This consequently informs this research normatively, namely how can journalistic practice can be improved (Berglez 2013, p.25). Global journalism implants greater proximity at a transna-tional level for audiences, which until now Berglez (2013) argues has been “repressed” (p.35-36).