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CDE04 Media, Power and Democracy in Times of Crisis
PP 117 Cutting Back on Democratic Debate? A Longitudinal Study on Mainstream Media and Austerity Measures
D. Raeijmaekers1, P. Maeseele1
1 University of Antwerp, Communication Studies, Antwerpen, Belgium
In 2008, the financial-economic crisis hit Europe hard. In response, many countries have taken mandatory or precautionary austerity measures to sustain
the current system. The need for government budget cuts appeared to be out of question. In that sense, a political and social consensus on neoliberal policy
was reinforced, while the economic model itself was unraveling (Hall, Massey and Rustin 2013). In this paradoxical context, the aim of our paper is to shed
light on the longtime role of mainstream media in fostering or impeding democratic debate on socioeconomic governance. More specifically, we study
the way three Belgian mainstream newspapers have covered government budget cuts in 1977, 1983 and 2011. The longitudinal comparison is fascinating
on two levels. First, the cases represent different political-ideological timeframes with (potentially) different socioeconomic logics: from the socio-demo‑
cratic idea of theWelfare State and a mixed economy in the 1970s, over the installment of the neoliberal idea of global free-market capitalism in the 1980s,
to a recent crisis of the dominant neoliberal system. Second, over the decades, the Belgian media system has changed: from largely pillarized (i.e. partisan)
newspapers in the 1970s, to fully commercialized newspapers nowadays. Theoretically, we start from a framework with agonistic pluralism as democratic
ideal (Mouffe 2013) and ‘de/politicization’ as central analytical concept (Maeseele 2015). Our main concern is whether newspapers frame socioeconomic
policymaking as involving a broad democratic debate among political alternatives (i.e. politicization), or as involving a social consensus about an inevitable,
natural development (i.e. de-politicization). Methodologically, we conduct a critical discourse analysis on the newspapers’coverage, with an explicit focus
on ideological preferences and discursive strategies (Carvalho 2008). The results show a declining level of politicization in Belgian newspapers regarding
the topic of government cuts. In 1977, we still find semi-politicized coverage. Among the largely pillarized newspapers, there is a wide range of political
alternatives. However, discursively, each newspaper tends to represent only one specific viewpoint as legitimate. By 2011, the three newspapers hardly
mention any alternative policy measures. Moreover, the debate is closed discursively by de-legitimizing potential alternative policy options as irrational or
immoral, while austerity measures are naturalized as inevitable (often referring to the European Union). This paper concludes by addressing the conference
theme‘Mediating (dis)continuities: contesting pasts, presents and futures’. Based on the comparison between past and present media coverage on austerity
measures, we reflect on how media can communicate more effectively from the perspective of democratic politics in the future. REFERENCES Carvalho A
(2008) Media(ted) discourse and society. Journalism Studies 9(2): 161–177. Hall S, Massey D and Rustin M (2013) After Neoliberalism?The Kilburn Manifes‑
to. Available at: (accessed 15 May 2015). Maeseele, P (2015) Beyond
the post-political Zeitgeist. In: Hansen A (Ed) The Routledge handbook of environment and communication. London: Routledge, pp. 128–147. Mouffe C
(2013) Agonistics: Thinking the world politically. London: Verso.
PP 118 Northern Representations of Southern Grievances: A Frame Analysis of the Spanish, Portuguese and Greek Anti-Austerity Protests
in Scandinavian News Coverage
T. Askanius1, A. Kaun2, J. Uldam3, M. Kyriakidou4
1 Lund University, Communication and Media, Lund, Sweden
2 Södertörn University, Media and Communication, Stockholm, Sweden
3 Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
4 University of East Anglia, School of Political- Social and International Studies, Norwich, United Kingdom
This paper examines the representation of the anti-austerity protests in the European South in the mainstream news coverage of the European North. It
draws on a news frame analysis of the wave of protests unfolding in Spain, Portugal and Greece (between 2011–2015) in Danish and Swedish newspapers.
In a critical engagement with the ‘protest paradigm’, the paper deconstructs the dominant frames through which citizens’protests are (de)legitimized and
examines to what extent the economic grievances of citizens in Southern Europe are construed as part a of common European political struggle which calls
for European solidarity on the on the part of citizens in Scandinavia.The paper asks: • How are discursive struggles over widening North /South divides of so‑
cial and political interests in Europe reflected in news coverage of the protests? • How/to what extent is the Eurozone crisis and subsequent anti-austerity
protests construed as a common European struggle calling for European solidarity? • How/to what extent is Euro-scepticism and rising nationalist discourse
as a response to the Eurozone crisis in Scandinavia reflected/articulated in the media’s coverage?We analyse a representative sample of quality and tabloid
newspapers from a wide political spectrum in order to identify patterns of similarities and differences in reporting, both between the different newspapers
in the two countries and across Scandinavia. Based on the results of this analysis, the paper engages in a critical discussion of the role of national news media
in constructing public discourses that nourish antagonistic North/South divides, processes of nationalist stereotyping and‘political othering’within Europe.