Nation, Capitalism, Myth: Covering News of Economic Globalization

Abstract

This study analyzes U.S. newspaper coverage of the merger of the automobile manufacturers Daimler-Benz and Chrysler. It argues that a discourse of national distinctions was created through a major public relations effort that was accepted by elite U.S. newspapers. To substantiate a “merger of equals,” the public relations department of DaimlerChrysler tied its campaign to the mythic frames of “marriage” and “birth.” The ensuing appropriation of “marriage” as mythic category by journalists resulted in a story line along an “objective” idealized equilibrium that was structured by national difference and reduced the coverage to a few players. This meant a failure to help readers understand the global relevance of this merger, the oligopolistic tendencies of the car industry, and the global dependencies of the world economy. Ultimately, the coverage supported an ethnocentric vision of capitalism, which suggests an underlying resistance to economic globalization and the dissolution of the nation-state.