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The relationship between media framing and societal development in Sweden, focusing on the case of SNS. The study examines how media framed SNS during different periods, from the 1950s to the 1980s, and how societal changes influenced media framing. Key concepts include media system, frame building, and agenda-setting.
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UPPSALA UNIVERSITY Department of Business Studies Master Thesis Spring Semester 2012
A qualitative longitudinal study Authors: Julia Kahlström Erik Norin Supervisor: Stefan Jonsson Date of Submission: 2012- 08 - 08
This thesis concentrates on how media framing, regarding organisations, in Sweden have developed, starting in the 1950s. Recent studies have concluded that media framing differs between different national contexts. Still, there is a need of empirical studies comparing the medias´ influence within countries over time. The thesis intends to fill the gap doing a longitudinal single case study on a critical case, examining a Swedish organisation called SNS; Centre for Business and Policy Studies. Three snapshots with 30 years apart have been selected as events, all when SNS underwent a controversial situation. The findings suggest a shifted focal point from more thematic to episodic frames, in the case of SNS. In the 50s the focus was mainly on economic aspects and the media of later decades tend to focus more towards conflicts. The conclusion is that the media framing, in a historical perspective, has developed within one nation’s context. A special thanks to…
Figure 1- Media & Stakeholders In The 50s .................................................................................. 23 Figure 2- Media & Stakeholders In The 80s .................................................................................. 26 Figure 3- Media & Stakeholder In The 21 th ................................................................................... 28 Figure 4 – Results From 1951 ........................................................................................................ 29 Figure 5 – Results From 1981 ........................................................................................................ 32 Figure 6 – Results From 2011 ........................................................................................................ 34 Figure 7- Development Of The Five frames .................................................................................. 37 Figure 8 – Summary Of Propositions & Outcomes ....................................................................... 39
Decision making in organizations is now starting to integrate with medias’ framing and media can both construct and destruct a reputation of an organization (Björnsson & Luthersson, 1997). This has led to a strong dependence on the media since their framings have a great influence towards how the public perceives the organization (Cho & Gower, 2006). This is particularly true when a crisis occur in an organization (Pearson & Clair, 1998), because this is when they are at their most vulnerable state. The use of framing has been studied in different contexts, such as different countries (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000; An & Gower, 2009; Valentini & Romenti, 2011). These studies established that framing could differ depending on cultural values and social differences between countries. This thesis on the other hand will argue that framing could also differ within a single country over time. This is supported by the idea that the history of a country provides different contexts, due to the changing nature of societies. Should this prove correct future studies would have to consider the history of a country as an additional dimension since studying different points in time could produce different results. Other studies have made different conclusions on whether or not framing is a dependent or independent variable of societal development (Scheufele, 1999). For this thesis it does not matter what came first – the chicken or the egg. What does matter is how and if there have been any changes in media framing over time and if it is at all connected to societal development. According to Hallin & Mancini (2004) a comparison between media systems and particularly framing could be done by studying a time when political parties had a strong influence on media, as opposed to a more contemporary period where commercial forces have a greater influence. Swedish media as well as society has gone through major changes during the last 60 years (Björnsson & Luthersson, 1997) and therefore a historical comparison between media and other social actors would indicate whether or not media framing could also differ within a single country over time.
The information flow has increased and news is provided faster than ever before. Historical changes in media and society would indicate that how news is presented has changed too. The aim of the study is to explore how media framing, in a national context, has changed between the years 1951 and 2011. Through this thesis, the intention is to make an empirical contribution on how media framing has changed over time and if this change is connected to the societal development.
commercialization and the ties to the government have decreased (Hjarvard, 2008; Petersson et al. 2005). This combined with the massive information flow has made media more influential (Strömbäck, 2009). To completely understand the development of the Swedish media, one has to understand the power of media (Strömbäck, 2009). Several theories have been developed and next chapter will introduce two of the most well-known theories concerning media influence.
In the 1970s, several scholars developed theories about medias´ influences (Strömbäck, 2009). Two of the most well-known theories are The Agenda Setting Function of Mass Media by McCombs & Shaw (1972) and Framing theory by Goffman (Strömbäck, 2009). In 1972 McCombs & Shaw released a theory of mass media named “The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media” arguing that media were the major source for political information and able to frame the information in a certain way and influence the result (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). The theory has been further developed and now consists of two levels where the second level describes the attributes of themes and subjects presented in the media. Thereby influence the cognitive aspects of the audience (Carroll & McCombs, 2003; Weaver, 2007). Some argue that the Framing Theory is a part of the second level Agenda Setting (McCombs, 2006). The disagreements to McCombs statement is that Framing theory includes what the content represent e.g. how cultural values influences media and how the lack of information could create specific framings (Strömbäck, 2004). Another fundamental difference is while Agenda setting theory takes media’s power for granted Framing theory sees the whole perspective and the social constructions (Strömbäck, 2004). Several of the above mentioned factors Framing theory includes and Agenda setting theory excludes have to be taken into consideration when studying how media interacts with other actors. Framing theory will be further described in next part.
The purpose of framing is to highlight and select. This is used to construct arguments around problems, judgment and/or solution (Entman, 1993). Framing could have a wide range of appearances and the result could influence the society (Scheufele, 1999). If done successfully media framing could affect and change peoples and even society’s values and beliefs (Entman, 1993). If the framings instead are of low relevance, there is a risk that the audience rejects the frames (Yioutas & Segvic, 2003), which could damage media’s credibility. Media framing can be seen as a dependent or independent variable (Scheufele, 1999). Framing is in most cases referred to as the dependent variable in the process of creation. Here, media are affected and influenced by external actors (Strömbäck, 2004). This would indicate that current trends, attitudes and norms would impact on how situations are framed. Media would be affected by how people perceive the world; referred to as frame building (Scheufele, 1999). The frames could also be seen as an independent variable explaining why the readers perceive the reality in a certain way, i.e. frame setting (Scheufele, 1999). This perspective emphasizes media’s role and provide them with great power and responsibility. The two perspectives could be regarded as either on an individual- or societal level. One example of consequences on the individual level could be a changed attitude to a phenomenon while an example of the societal level is political socialization or collective actions (De Vreese, 2005). In order to understand how the Frame-Building and Frame-Setting emerge, the processes will be described below.
2.4.1 Frames Related To Controversial Situations The influences from the media when organizations have controversial situations, has never been stronger or more common (Pearson & Clair, 1998; Massey, 2001; Howell & Miller, 2006; Alpaslan et al. 2009). The news tends to be framed within two ways; episodic or thematic. When handling an issue or event, one way is often dominant. Still, it is uncommon with news exclusively becoming episodic or thematic. Episodic news is when media focuses in certain cases or events and frames the individuals as responsible. Contrary, thematic news frames an issue in general or abstract terms where the society is seen as responsible (Iyengar, 1991). The press tend to take a thematic approach if the controversial situation was accidental or caused by an employee. Contrary, if an executive were responsible, the episodic point of view will be framed (An & Gower, 2009). Important to considerate when discussing episodic and thematic ways of framing responsibilities is the influence from the social contexts in which the news is produced (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). To analyze a controversial situation in politics or organizations five frames have been identified (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000; An & Gower, 2009; Valentini & Romenti, 2011). The five identified frames and their correlation to episodic and thematic news will be further described below:
1. Human Interest Frame (HIF): focuses on drama and giving an emotional angle by generating empathy or sympathy. This makes the news becoming a product (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). Consequently, the journalists’ interpretations get more space making the angle personal. The frame correlates with episodic news and is rarely used in emergent situations but more common when the situation was preventable and the manager was responsible (An & Gower, 2009). 2. Conflict Frame (ConF): tries to reflect disagreements between parties, individuals or groups. ConF often pictures several sides of an issue and talks about winners and losers (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000) and is common when internal conflicts occur (An & Gower, 2009). ConF has no clear ties either to an episodic or thematic way of framing an event (An & Gower, 2009).
3. Morality frame (MorF): when referring to morality, religion or social prescriptions. Journalists often use the MorF indirectly because they have to follow the norms of objectivity (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). When organisations having a controversial situation, the frame is rarely used. Still, the frame was more common when the incident was preventable. MorF tend to correlate with an episodic approach (An & Gower, 2009). 4. Economic Frame (EconF): mentions financial outcomes in present or future situations. The media uses economic frame when referring to the economic consequences of taking or not taking action. The financial costs or degree of expenses is often involved (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). EconF is the only frame correlating with media taking a thematic approach (An & Gower, 2009). 5. Attribution of Responsibility Frame (AttrF): when media talks about responsibilities, either in a governmental or individual level. Focus areas are solutions, matters requiring urgent actions or discussing the governments’ possibilities to ease the problem (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). AttrF is common when the controllability and intentionality from an actor is strong. Episodic news and AttrF often goes hand in hand (An & Gower, 2009). Next section will handle the authors’ suggestion of how these circumstances including medias´ societal role and the five frames have developed historically.
As Scheufele (1999) suggest there is a difference in the literature about if media framing is a dependent or an independent variable. Framing as a dependent variable indicates that external actors and current social trends affect which frames are used. In this study it would mean that the five frames has been affected by the societal developments and have the same trends as society in general. Contrary, if framing is an independent variable, framing has a more powerful role and can actually change societal values, beliefs and norms. This indicates a societal development created by the way the media use different frames (Scheufele, 1999). Even if these two different
Economic Frame This frame is supposed to be most common in the 50s and have a negative development. The economic news was in a macro-level to a higher extent in earlier decades but has become more focused in the micro-level (Grafström, 2006). Since EconF and a macro-level approach often goes hand in hand (An & Gower, 2009) the proposition is a lower amount of EconF in later decades. Attribution of Responsibility Frame The proposition is a rare use of AttrF in the 50s but increase later on. The motivation is a more questioning attitude from media with its origin in the 80s (Grafström, 2006) and an increased attention to sensational news (Rindova et al. 2006) where blaming some actor is used as a tool.
Method is like a map, (Myers, 2009 p. 19) or more accurately, a treasure map, it will present crossroads, clues, temptations and some possible danger zones, and there is always a drawn line to show which path to choose, so by your next visit you will know which way to go.
The thesis is about presentation and meaning, but also how these two has changed over time. Doing this in a narrow setting and with a high degree of interpretation, the natural selection of research approach would be qualitative (Repstad, 2007). This will primarily be a qualitative approach, seeking deeper settings, with an interpretive analysis that aims towards understanding the meaning of the data. Often qualitative approach includes only non-numerical data (Saunders et al. 2009). This on the other hand will solely not be an only non-numerical thesis. Instead descriptive numerical data will be the results from a match between the five identified frames and data in form of newspaper articles, collected from three different events in 1951, 1981 and 2011. According to Mohr & Neely (2009) there are no contradictions between having an interpretative analysis combined from both non-numerical and numerical data. Numerical data could actually provide assistance and simplifications to the texts. The numerical data could also be used to trace meanings in the interpretative analysis. The combination would only be beneficial to explanatory research (Mohr & Neely, 2009).
The plan was to conduct a case study, this kind of studied are often associated with questions on how and why (Pratt, 2099; Yin, 2008). They are also useful when boundaries between context and phenomenon are unclear (Baxter & Jack, 2008). In this case it is not known if a possible development is actually the phenomenon or the context. These blurred boundaries made it impossible to use an experimental strategy (Saunders et al. 2009). The complexity and the limited access to individuals with knowledge about events that happened up to 60 years ago, also made a survey difficult to conduct.
The selected organisation to examine is SNS – Centre for business and policy studies. SNS has been an active part of the Swedish society since the 5 th of June 1948 (Ullenhag, 1998). It will do them more justice to let them introduce themselves “ SNS is an independent network of leading decision makers from the private and public sectors that share a commitment to social and economic development in Sweden. Its aim is to improve the basis for rational decisions on major social and economic issues, by promoting social science research and stimulating public debate ” (SNS.se, 2012). Even if there are many drawbacks with using one organisation in form of the limited ability to generalize, there is a belief that the organisation actually provides a unique opportunity. There are several reasons for this, as Ullenhag (2012) described it, SNS could be seen as a mirror of the Swedish society. SNS has during their existence followed and influenced the public debate with their reports and seminars; they are always dealing with subject that is contemporary for the actual period. Another argument for SNS being a reflection is the organisational change from a broad beginning to a more focused and narrow organisation, something seen in the overall Swedish society (Ullenhag, 2012). Additionally, one of the authors conducted an internship there during the autumn 2011; something Pratt (2009) writes is important to inform about. This type of insider positioning provides helpful, when concerning access and knowledge. The study is not issued on the behalf of the organisation, the theme and the research questions are issued solely by the authors. Possible drawbacks are mainly in form of biases and a pre-set mind. The authors are aware of this according to Saunders et al. (2009) is the only prevention that could be made. In addition, SNS experienced three similar incidents in the years 1951, 1981 and 2011. A controversial subject, concerning a debate about cartels, wage-earner funds and privatization, has characterized these incidents. SNS has been a part of the discussion and the result was exposure in newspapers. In these events SNS has experienced internal or external crises. The ideal setting would have been three identical incidents, and that media framing could be isolated as the only changing variable. This is in most longitudinal studies an unrealistic setting and one has to be aware of the differences in these incidents. In 1981 SNS never released a report and in 20 11 unlike 1951 and 1981 there were severe internal conflicts that divided SNS as an organisation. It will be assumed that SNS has always had the same objective and means to reach this objective.
This makes it possible to compare how the media has changed the information provided when they frame the organisations exposure. The method used for the first set of sampling are going to be non-probability, the case and the newspaper articles collection will not be selected using statistics, instead everything found written in broadsheets about SNS in the different periods will be collected. This is appropriate in explanatory studies, since the aim is not to generalize (Saunders et al. 2009). In this type of sampling there are no critical rules to sample sizes. As a consequence the authors take great responsibility deciding upon that. The case is selected using a critical case sampling, because these three incidents has been of great importance to SNS (Saunders et al. 2009). There will be interviews to find data about these cases, in the form of newspaper articles and other sources of information. The snowball sampling is used for finding persons relevant for the interviews. In a longitudinal study, access could be difficult especially in the oldest event that took place approximately 60 years ago. Using this strategy could indicate low representatives (Saunders et al. 2009), but because this study is primarily archival it will make the search for relevant articles so much easier.
A deeper understanding for SNS was needed to define the case. Tools used to get the information were biographies from former employees, mainly CEOs, and books considering the history of SNS. Reports published by SNS in periods of the events were studied and SNS own homepage. Finally, documents from earlier conferences held by SNS and recent newspaper articles were revived. Using this material, people relevant interviewing started to appear. These informants were all connected to SNS in some way and could range from professors to authors and former employees. An interaction phase started, and unstructured interviews led to ideas how the study could proceed, when and where newspaper articles were published and recommendations for other persons to interview. The interviewers acted more like guides, but still pursued a consistency, something very common in case studies (Yin, 2008). There is always a need to decide a theme before the interviews,
