Flemish Press Research Articles

Millions of climate refugees are coming!’ A critical media discourse analysis on climate change-induced migrants in Flemish press

ABSTRACT The rise in research, policy and news on climate change-induced migration has grown exponentially over the last two decades. Migration related to global warming is increasingly portrayed as inevitable and used to mobilise people to act immediately against climate change. By analysing the discourse of two Flemish news media journals (De Standaard and Het Laatste Nieuws) and the Belgian national news agency (Belga), indexed by the GoPress database (1985–2022), this paper aims to present how migration and climate change are linked to each other in the media, how this differs across media outlets, and reflects on potential outcomes of this framing. Results indicate that climate-induced migration is often portrayed in an apocalyptic way and seen as an inevitable threat that needs to be avoided. The used terminology and the portrayals of climate change-induced migration are not in line with the scientific evidence on this topic.

‘Flanders Conquered the World’s Fair!’ Flemish newspaper discourses and nation-building during the 1958 Brussels World Exhibition

This article examines the meaning of the ‘Flemish Day’ at the Brussels World Exhibition of 1958 for the formation of the Flemish nation. With this one-day festival pro-Flemish organisations contested the francophone character of the Expo, and francophone dominance in Belgian society. Its success announced the steep advance of the Flemish movement in the second half of the twentieth century. But how can we best interpret its impact on Flemish nation-building? The article analyses reactions on the Flemish Day in the Flemish press. Using six newspapers of diverse ideological strands it assesses support for Flemish emancipation. It thereby reveals a broad acceptance of the legitimacy of the Flemish Day, despite remarkable ideological differences. The discourse analysis supports the hypothesis that broadly shared interpretations of, and an almost unanimous identification with Flanders, provided the foundation for the mass spreading of Flemish consciousness in the 1960s and 1970s. Contributing empirical evidence to the study of nation-building in post-war Flanders, this article demonstrates the importance of media as mirrors and sources of national discourses.

The mediated construction of “woke”: Emerging discourses and primary definers in the Flemish press

From 2021, “woke” became an omnipresent term in Flemish public debate. In this paper, we explore how the mainstream press contributed to the emergence and construction of discourses on wokeness. First, we ask how the topic of “woke” reached the media agenda in Flanders. Second, we analyze the respective role of journalists and their sources in constructing discourses on “wokeness”, drawing on the notions of “primary” and “secondary definers” . We collected all newspaper articles mentioning “woke” in four newspapers for 6 months from 2021 to 2023. After a preliminary quantitative content analysis, we conducted a discourse analysis to identify the themes and terminology associated with woke as well as the key (journalistic and non-journalistic) actors talking about it. This allowed us to, first, reconstruct a timeline of the emerging discourses on woke; and second, to identify underlying discursive and journalistic patterns. The chronological analysis disclosed how a few “critical discourse moments” put woke on the media agenda. In each instance, an elite person created a stir, drawing attention to the (supposed) threat of “wokeness”. Woke was generally framed negatively as a “movement” threatening freedom of speech. Although journalists aimed to provide a balanced view and many op-eds offered counterarguments, the mainstream press did give a broad platform to actors deliberately instrumentalizing woke for (often political) purposes. By responding to anti-woke voices and not taking a side, most journalists did take over and reconfirm the framing of “woke” as a movement and threat proposed by elite primary definers.

‘Deviant’ or the consequence of social evolution? Discourses of intentional ‘multiple parenthood practices’ in the Dutch and the Flemish press

Practices of ‘intentional multiple parenthood’, by which more than two parents agree to conceive and raise children together, have gained increased news coverage in recent years. This paper explores written press articles concerning intentional multiple parenthood in Belgium and the Netherlands. Through a discourse analysis of press articles, the paper challenges the gendered and dyadic concept of parenthood as an understandable given. Newly developed concepts within the ‘traditional’ framework of parenthood are explicitly presented as ‘new’ and ‘revolutionary’ within the public discourse, yet their existence remains dependent on mainstream conceptual usage and the dominant social relations underpinning them. Furthermore, it has been found that press articles on the topic of multiple parenthood frequently use familiar concepts (such as traditional family values of love and commitment) and existing terminology (such as ‘father’, ‘mother’, ‘donor’) to describe the non-mainstream practice of multiple parenthood despite the lack of recognition for this practice in the legal realm.

Eastern others: Homonationalism in the Flemish press

Jasbir Puar introduced the notion of ‘homonationalism’ to describe the increasing acceptance of sexual minorities in Western nations, leading to their incorporation in the national in-group which is increasingly opposed to homophobic ‘others’. While Muslims constitute the main out-group, other groups and nations are also targeted, in particular Russia and related countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Such discourses create a binary opposition between two homogenized parties, the uniformly LGBTQ-friendly in-group versus the uniformly homophobic ‘other’. While the literature on homonationalism mostly discusses politics in the U.S. and a number of other nation-states, this article explores homonationalism in a smaller sub-national region in Western Europe, Flanders, focusing on the press as a tool for spreading homonationalist discourse. Exploring three months of Flemish newspapers, this article identifies some instances of explicit homonationalism but more implicit homonationalism which does not explicitly mention the in-group but does paint a one-sided picture of Russia and related countries as homophobic.

Women, ethnic minorities and newsworthiness: Journalists’ perceptions

This study seeks to determine the extent to which the Flemish press gives voice to gender and ethnic diversity. A total of 16 in-depth interviews with print journalists outlined five key arguments about diversity in the newsroom. Two of these view the portrayal of diversity as conceptually irrelevant or inconsistent with a notion of universal equality. The third argument defines diverse representation as an active search process that is part and parcel of a journalist’s mission. Two additional arguments blame the lack of diversity in news reporting on practical obstacles – professional practices that make it difficult to aim for a diverse source selection, or the less prominent role of women and ethnic minorities in society which leads to a less diverse set of news sources. This study seeks to find explanations in the news production process as to why gender and ethnic diversity in the news continues to be consistently scarce.

Media representation of regulated incivilities: Relevant actors, problems, solutions and the role played by experts in the Flemish press

This article analyses the representations of regulated nuisance in a section of Flemish newspapers over time. It identifies the groups of people who have been successful in conveying messages in and through Flemish press news, and explores the way they have represented problems of, and suggested solutions to, regulated incivilities over the years. Furthermore, against the backdrop of newsmaking criminology, it considers whether and how crime and justice experts have contributed to shaping the Flemish media discourse on regulated incivilities over time. Overall the analysis of press news has found that the press, by giving coverage to the voices of local institutional actors, has promoted the criminalization of nuisance and, especially, of physical incivilities. The views of criminological experts, by contrast, have remained marginal. The article concludes by suggesting how such findings present a new set of empirical and conceptual challenges for newsmaking criminology, and more generally, for public criminology.

The Swine Flu Emergency Department: The Relationship Between Media Attention for the Swine Flu and Registrations in an Emergency Medicine Unit

When the world is faced with a new potential pandemic outbreak, the media report heavily about it. Media are an important disseminator of health threat information. This study examined potential media effects during the 2009 outbreak of A/H1N1 influenza. To examine the relationship between media reports of the swine flu and self-registrations in an emergency department (ED) of a tertiary hospital in Flanders, Belgium. All articles concerning swine flu published in seven Flemish newspapers were selected during the biggest flu peak in Belgium. This number was compared with the number of patients who presented themselves with a self-diagnosis of swine flu symptoms during the same time frame. The Pearson's correlation coefficient was selected to determine the relationship. The cross-correlation function determined the direction of this relationship. A strong correlation was found between the number of potential patients (n = 308) and the number of articles in the Flemish press (n = 1657). The number of patients was the leading indicator; increases in the volume of written press followed increases in the number of patients. Media reporting is extensive when a new infectious disease breaks out and intensifies when it is feared that pandemic levels are reached. This was also the case with the swine flu outbreak in Flanders. These findings suggest that a rise in the number of media reports follows a rise in the number of cases, rather than the reverse.

HEROES IN THE SPORTS PAGES

Concepts such as myth and archetype offer interesting opportunities for research on media content. Both concepts, however, have very diffuse definitions and operationalizations stemming from specific fields of application. As a result, the concepts of myth and archetype have proved difficult to translate into a transparent and replicable research design to study journalistic output. This paper aims at a thorough operationalization of the hero myth/archetype. The hero archetype will be explored in detail as it is one of the most common archetypal narratives. The archetypal hero journey is translated by developing an operational hero grid in which the archetypal hero narrative is classified in nine sequences and three constituent components. The Flemish press coverage of cyclist Tom Boonen is analyzed to test empirically the developed research tool. While the emphasis of this paper lies on the empirical testing of this research tool, it also aims to broaden empirical data on the coverage of sport figures in the press. Results clearly show myth at work in the newspaper reporting on Tom Boonen.

Bottlenecks in the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the coverage of the first and second intifada in the Flemish press

Various authors suggest that the public’s knowledge of the Israeli—Palestinian conflict is inadequate. As it is generally accepted that public opinion on international news items is mainly formed by media content, the international media are often held responsible for sustaining the prevailing misconceptions about the Israeli—Palestinian conflict by covering the conflict parties in a biased and imbalanced way. This study focuses on the representation of Israelis and Palestinians in the news coverage of the first and second intifada by the Flemish press. By way of a content analysis, evolutions and discrepancies in the coverage of both intifadas are described in a longitudinal analytical perspective. The authors conclude that the portrayal of the Palestinian actors shifts from a rather positive view during the first intifada period to a more critical portrayal during the period of the second intifada. At the same time, there is an opposite move in the representation of the Israeli actors in the conflict. Although our results show differences in the distinct portrayals, they do not provide sufficient evidence to conclude unequivocally that the coverage of the first and second intifada is unbalanced. Indeed, the authors find that while some variables definitely favour the Israeli point of view (e.g. the use of sources), others clearly sustain the Palestinian side (e.g. the individualization of victims). In other words, the Flemish dailies cover the first and second intifada in quite a balanced way, contrary to what international studies on the coverage of the Israeli—Palestinian conflict have concluded regarding the media in different national settings.

De doorbraak van de strip als populair medium in de Vlaamse pers van de jaren dertig

The breakthrough of comics as a popular medium in the Flemish press of the 1930s A systematic quantitative research of the Flemish press of the 1930s shows how the medium of the comic strip suddenly became quite widespread in this crucial decade. Comics had of course already been published in Flandres before the 1930s, but from the 1930s the number of published comics suddenly grew enormously, becoming typical features in various publication formats (dailies, illustrated journals and children's magazines). Although the large majority of the comics was still published in black and white, those in children's magazines were sometimes in colour. The sequences predominantly had a horizontal layout (although 17% of the comics in illustrated journals were published in a vertical column). Balloons were still little used (only in about one in five comics) but this changed in the course of the decade. Each publication format also had a preference for a specific type of comic, with the dailies publishing far more serial stories than the illustrated journals and children's magazines did. Newspapers and illustrated journals would use at lot of foreign material. Dailies got their comics predominantly from the Netherlands, while the illustrated journals usually published Scandinavian wordless gag comics. Children's magazines, on the contrary, mostly worked with Belgian artists.

Framing the First and Second Intifada: A Longitudinal Quantitative Research Design Applied to the Flemish Press

Frame analysis, based on the hybrid frame concept, has proved difficult to translate into a comparative, replicable and longitudinal research design. This article seeks to place the study of media frames in a wider theoretical framework with special interest for the various methods of empirical research. The article focuses on a further operationalization of the law and order frame and the injustice and defiance frame as introduced by Wolfsfeld. For this purpose, different framing and reasoning devices are ascertained and applied to the study of the coverage of the First and Second Intifada in the Flemish press. While its emphasis lies on the empirical testing of a framing research tool, this article also aims to broaden empirical data on the coverage of the Intifada beyond the American, British and Israeli media context.

Idolatry versus authenticity: A lexical and systemic-functional analysis of the coverage of the World Youth Day 2005 in the Flemish press

This article investigates the way (catholic) religion and youth are represented in different Flemish newspapers. The case of World Youth Day (WYD) 2005 offers a well-defined corpus, which is very suitable for an analysis of the discourse on religion, youth and media. Based on a linguistic analysis of the corpus, we have been able to describe the representation given to the WYD, of the presence of the pope and of the young participants. It turns out that, although the coverage is on the whole very precise, it shows remarkable patterns of inconsistency. On the one hand, most newspapers overemphasize the meaning of the presence of the pope at the WYD in relation to the overall meaning of the event. But this idolatry does not correspond with the view of the Flemish participants, who also get a lot of attention and who are represented in an authentic way. Furthermore, in a number of cases, the journalists revert to presuppositions and stereotypes in their representation of the event.

Comment un diplomate français voyait la presse belge à la veille de la seconde guerre mondiale

Bertrand Rochereau de la Sablière, third secretary in Brussels, studies the Belgian press of the time, in a report, 326 folios long, transmitted to the Quai d'Orsay on june 30, 1938. The development of the Flemish press, its growing weight in the political life, its attitude towards Germany struck the author. Rochereau stresses the variety of the opinions expressed in the French-speaking press, whose francophilia is patent, especially in Wallonie, even if the success of the Popular Front in the 1936 elections in France caused a certain reticence in the most conservative papers. As regard the financing and circulation of the papers, their relation with the Court and the Governement, the role of the agencies, the diplomat provides us with a lot of useful informations and develops some well-advised reflections.

De opinierichtingen in de Belgische dagbladpers

From the outset the Belgian press has been a political press. The catholic and liberal newspapers, however, have never been tightly linked to the corresponding political parties, whereas the socialist and communistnewspapers depend officially from their respective political party so that they can be considered as real party-papers.Of the 39 Belgian newspapers 20 can be defined as catholic, 7 as liberal, 7 as socialist and 1 as communist ; 4 newspapers call themselves «neutral», but on several political occasions they heve nevertheless taken up position. Among these 39 newspapers only 19 can be considered as «independent» : of the 20 catholic newspapers 16 belang to 5 different newspaper chains ; 7 of the liberal dailies are owned by only 3 newspaper groups; 3 of the 7 socialist papers belang to the same chain and 3 of the so-called «neutral» dailies are published by only one group.From the circulation figures of the Flemish press it emerges that the catholic and liberal newspapers make some progress, while the socialist dailies are constantly regressing. The total circulation of the Frenchspeaking newspapers is slightly receding, but here again the socialist newspapers are the big losers. It should be noticed that only the circulation figures of the Flemish newspapers are officially ascertained, whereas the major part of the French-speaking newspapers do not allow such an official control.From this it is clear that in Belgium there exists a real disproportion between the number of readers of political opinionnewspapers and the voters for the corresponding political parties. For the moment the number of readers of catholic newspapers surpasses the amount of voters for the CVP-PSC-party in an considerable way. This also applies to the liberal press, where the amount of readers outnumbers the voters for the PW-PLP-party. On the other hand, the number of readers of socialist newspapers even does not amount to half of the numbers of voters for the BSP-PSB-party.

The Flemish Press and Other Press Problems in Belgium

The Flemish Press and Other Press Problems in Belgium