Cultural Context and Values in News Narratives: A Comparative Study of Dutch, Spanish and Irish television News

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session III
  In Interactive Poster Session: Intercultural Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

The narratives found in television news characterize culture and encompass feelings and relationships from everyday lives. Yet, there is a paucity of research into the manifestation of cultural values in the narrative structures of television news stories across countries. This current study sheds new light on cultural studies approach in examining news by comparing television news broadcasts in the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland through the frameworks of uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, and contextuality. More specifically, we examine how the three dimensions of cultural variability are conveyed in the verbal and visual narrative variables proposed in this study. Overall, the results show that the use of news storytelling makes room for cultural manifestation at the level of contextuality. Cultural values related to the dimensions of uncertainty avoidance and individualism-collectivism were less expressive in television news narratives of the three countries, but the latter dimension varied significantly as did contextuality.

Authors

• Ju-Sung Lee, Erasmus University Rotterdam

• Amanda Paz Alencar, Erasmus University Rotterdam