Crises Frame Dynamics: The Communicative Interplay Between News Media and Governmental Organisations Over Time

• In Event: Understanding the Framing of News

Abstract

This study aims to understand how the communicative interaction over time between news media and governmental organisations (GOs) during crises may affect crisis’ evolution.
As a context of study, the recent Ebola pandemic (2014 – 2015) was used. An automated content analysis was applied to U.S. newspaper articles (N = 1,079) and GOs press releases (N = 324). The findings of (reciprocal) time series analyses illustrate how different communication processes (news frame diversity, frame alignment) relate to each other and develop over time. The results imply that a level of common interpretation between actors can foster the openness of news media for a variety of narratives and viewpoints. This might be instrumental for the resolution of a crisis situation.

Authors

• Fynn Gerken, U of Antwerp

• Toni G.L.A. van der Meer, U of Amsterdam

• Sarah Fleur van der Land