Alessio Cornia

Framing the Newspaper Crisis: How debates on the state of the press are shaped in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and United States

This article argues that discourses of a newspaper “crisis” should not be regarded simply as descriptions of the actual state of the press but also as a means by which strategic actors frame the situation. The emerging frames can have substantial consequences for media policy making. The study identifies four key frames used to portray the newspaper “crisis” and discusses their relevance for public debates in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. Similarities and differences are examined through 59 in-depth interviews with policymakers and industry executives as well as a qualitative analysis of policy documents and relevant media coverage. The study demonstrates that debates on the newspaper “crisis” are only partly influenced by (1) economic realities and (2) media policy traditions in the six countries but also reflect (3) the strategic motives of powerful actors and (4) the diffusion of frames across borders, particularly those coming from the United States. A transnationally uniform paradigm emerges according to which the state is expected to play the role of a benevolent but mostly passive bystander, while media companies are expected to tackle the problem mainly by developing innovative content and business strategies. This liberal market paradigm displays one blind spot however: it does not seriously consider a scenario where the market is failing to provide sustainable journalistic quality.

The Europeanization of Mediterranean journalistic practices and the Italianization of Brussels: Dynamics of the interaction between EU institutions and national journalistic cultures

The aim of this article is to analyse the dynamics of change and persistence that affect the Mediterranean journalistic culture when it has to deal with EU institutions. Data were collected by interviewing Italian correspondents in Brussels and by observing their daily work. Results show how their professional culture has adapted to the specificities of the EU news beat. Evidence was found of the emergence of a Euro-centric news perspective, of the adoption of new newsgathering routines and of a tendency to produce less opinionated and more fact-centred news items. The new ‘Europeanized’ practices, however, do not completely substitute the traditional routines. Italian correspondents actively try to treat the EU within conventional routines, fixed in their own journalistic culture, and to construct the news focusing on the conflictive dimension of the events reported.

Risk cultures and dominant approaches towards disasters in seven European countries

This paper builds upon the risk culture concept started with Mary Douglas’ and Aaron Wildavsky’s seminal work on risk and culture. Based upon the empirical results of a qualitative sociological study on sociocultural factors affecting risk perception and crisis communication in seven European countries, a theoretical model, illustrating how differences in disasters framing imply diverse approaches to risk and disaster management, is suggested. According to this framework, culturally bounded assumptions and conventions strongly influence how communities make sense of risks and hazards and how these communities consider some ways of dealing with disasters more appropriate than others. The framework suggested in this article distinguishes between risk cultures of a given society, which do not necessarily respond to nation states. In order to explain differences in how cultures deal with risks and disasters, and to define the main features of our typology, three main interrelated dimensions have been selected: disaster framing, trust in authorities and blaming. By analyzing differences and similarities in how people perceive and interpret disasters, as well as to whom the responsibility for risk prevention and crisis management is attributed, in seven European countries, three specific ideal types of risk cultures emerged: state-oriented risk culture, individual-oriented risk culture and fatalistic risk culture. Implications for crisis management and communication in case of a disaster will be addressed for each of these risk cultures.

Representations of Corruption in the British, French, and Italian Press: Audience Segmentation and the Lack of Unanimously Shared Indignation

As part of a larger European Union (EU)-funded project, this paper investigates the coverage of corruption and related topics in three European democracies: France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Based on Freedom House data, these countries are characterized by different levels of press freedom. A large corpus of newspaper articles (107,248 articles) from the period 2004 to 2013 were analyzed using dedicated software. We demonstrate that freedom of press is not the only dimension that affects the ability to and the way in which news media report on corruption. Because of its political partisanship, the Italian press tends to emphasize and dramatize corruption cases involving domestic public administrators and, in particular, politicians. The British coverage is affected mainly by market factors, and the press pays more attention to cases occurring abroad and in sport. The French coverage shares specific features with both the British and the Italian coverage: Newspapers mainly focus on corruption involving business companies and foreign actors, but they also cover cases involving domestic politicians. Media market segmentation, political parallelism, and media instrumentalization determine different representations preventing the establishment of unanimously shared indignation.

TV-centrism and politicisation in Italy: obstacles to new media development and pluralism

The article analyses how specific market and political conditions restrain the technology-driven change of the news industry and affect the way the new media landscape is taking shape in Italy. The interviews and secondary data analysis show that the digital transition (the growth of online news and the move to digital terrestrial television) has only limited implications for the pluralism of information within the Italian media system. The TV sector is still dominated by a few legacy broadcasters, and the structure of the online news market substantially reflects that of the newspaper sector. Although the new media, compared to the traditional media, have lower technological barriers inhibiting entry, market and political factors still hinder the entrance of newcomers. A major role is played by the dominant positions of two broadcasters (Rai and Mediaset) in the Italian media sector, the lack of effective media policies and the Berlusconi’s conflict of interest. Finally, the digital transition is more significantly impacting the power relations between broadcasters and newspaper organisations in the online news market, which is dominated by established press publishers who, because of the crisis in their traditional sector, have strongly invested in their online activities.

European Councils as first encounters of trans-European media communication?

This case study, based on a multi-method research design, analyses the work routines of European journalists onsite during the European Spring Council 2006 and the coverage of the event in newspapers in Germany and Italy. The analysis finds some initial positive signs indicating a growth of trans-European (media) communication, which might eventually increase the amount of trans-European issues in public discourse. The results also suggest that similar work routines and close cooperation between journalists from different EU member states can be considered first indicators of a developing European journalism culture. Nevertheless, this does not directly translate into similar journalistic products. When it comes to selecting and presenting the news, journalists are still geared to national frames and schemes. National relevance is still the core criterion for news selection.

‘We no longer live in a time of separation’: A comparative analysis of how editorial and commercial integration became a norm:

The separation between editorial and business activities of news organisations has long been a fundamental norm of journalism. Journalists have traditionally considered this separation as both an ethical principle and an organisational solution to preserve their professional autonomy and isolate their newsrooms from profit-driven pressures exerted by advertising, sales and marketing departments. However, many news organisations are increasingly integrating their editorial and commercial operations. Based on 41 interviews conducted at 12 newspapers and commercial broadcasters in six European countries, we analyse how editors and business managers describe the changing relationship between their departments. Drawing on previous research on journalistic norms and change, we focus on how interviewees use rhetorical discourses and normative statements to de-construct traditional norms, build new professionally accepted norms and legitimise new working practices. We find, first, that the traditional norm of separation no longer plays the central role that it used to. Both editors and managers are working to foster a cultural change that is seen as a prerequisite for organisational adaptation to an increasingly challenging environment. Second, we find that a new norm of integration, based on the values of collaboration, adaptation and business thinking, has emerged. Third, we show how the interplay between declining and emerging norms involves a difficult negotiation. Whereas those committed to the traditional norm see commercial considerations as a threat to professional autonomy, our interviewees see the emerging norm as a new way of ensuring professional autonomy by working with other parts of the organisation to jointly ensure commercial sustainability.

The Partisans, the Technocrats and the Watchdogs

By comparing media reporting of the 2009 swine flu pandemic in Sweden, Italy, and the United Kingdom, this paper illustrates general aspects of the three countries’ journalism cultures. We argue that the coverage of a specific issue, such as swine flu, may reveal more general aspects of the place of journalism in society, i.e. the specific notions of professionalism adopted by journalists and the links between journalism and the political culture of a country. The results are related to theories of the globalisation and domestication of news. On the one side, similarities concerning the amount of media attention and the timing of the spread of the virus are seen as a confirmation of globalisation. On the other side, the way this issue was covered in the three countries reveals different interpretations of professional journalism. In Italian and British newspapers, the swine flu issue assumed political colours, and journalists questioned the governments management of the pandemic. However, while Italian media criticism was strictly dependent on the newspapers’ political affiliation, the watchdog function of British newspapers was performed independently of political affiliation. Finally, Swedish newspapers were more focused on the technical dimensions of the issue and renounced scrutinising the authorities’ choices.