Globalizing security? Media framing of national security in France and the United States from the Cold War through 11 September

Abstract

This article offers a longitudinal examination of the public discourse on national security, as indicated by media frames, in France and the United States. The analysis presented here encompasses an era characterized by key changes to issues of national security in both nations, including the Cold War and the fall of Communism, and Islamic extremist-led terrorist attacks in each country. The focus is on cross-national and longitudinal differences in the way the media frames security issues. I seek to extend previous work on cross-national media framing which finds stability and persistence of national cultural repertoires over time. I test for change in framing strategies drawing on world polity and media transnationalism approaches. Results point to changes on multiple fronts between 1984 and 2004, though these changes occur against a backdrop involving the apparent persistence of national cultural repertoires. Implications for theory and research on national security, media, and culture are discussed.