Newspaper Debate Research Articles

The ‘Black Pete’ debate in Flemish newspapers: from conflict to moderation

ABSTRACT In recent years, a lot of academic attention has been paid to the public discussion on ‘Black Pete’ (Zwarte Piet) in the Low Countries. Black Pete is a much-debated blackface character which is part of the Saint-Nicholas tradition – a yearly festive event taking place at the beginning of December associated with gifts and celebration. ‘Tradition’ versus ‘racism’ seem to be the main arguments in the debate. The current study analyses the debate as it evolved in Flanders from 2012 until 2022, applying Critical Discourse Analysis to find out how the thinking about the event and the Black Pete character, as reflected in the newspapers, changed over a decade. Our sample consists of 143 articles from the four most read newspapers in Flanders (De Standaard, De Morgen, Het Laatste Nieuws, Het Nieuwsblad). All journalistic genres were included, news reports as well as opinion articles, but also readers’ letters. Based on an analysis of naming, modality and evidentiality (Fairclough [2013]. Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Routledge; Halliday [1994]. An introduction to functional grammar. Arnold), we illustrate and demonstrate how the tone of the debate gradually changed from a discourse of conflict into a discourse of moderation and appeasement.

Enough Fish in the Sea?

Fish farming is a hot topic in the local press of the Jakobstad region on the west coast of Finland. In 2017, a local fisher established an open sea fish farming company to produce locally farmed fish with the aim of meeting the increasing demand for domestically produced fish. Open sea fish farming is debated due to its environmental impact. The establishment of the fish farm has been challenged and defended in several readers’ letters from local politicians and officials, local activists, researchers, and the company’s founder himself. The debate letters are filled with data on the environmental impact from nutrient emissions, and other measurable factors. However, the debate is not just about feed pellets, fish faeces, and the organic enrichment of bottom sediments—it is about the emotional relationship to the sea in a region forged by the Gulf of Bothnia. With affect theory as a starting point, I aim to analyse how notions of sustainability and sustainable foodways are expressed in a local newspaper debate about fish farming. How do the two sides of the debate present their views of sustainability?

Newspaper Debates in Late Eighteenth-Century England: ‘Letters to the Editor’ versus the Political Pamphlet

When exploring contributions to political debates in late eighteenth-century England, scholars have typically favoured non-serialized publications, most commonly the pamphlet, thus neglecting the many contributions appearing in the periodical press. This article redresses this oversight by exploring both the shortcomings and the advantages of the newspaper as a medium for political debate in this period. Based on a close reading of leading London newspapers from the politically turbulent years of 1791–95, this article explores the following questions: What advantages did the newspaper have over stand-alone publications such as the political pamphlet? What type of audience were writers of political newspaper commentary trying to reach, and what barriers did they encounter when attempting to do so? Why did the newspaper supplant the non-serialized pamphlet as the leading medium for political debate towards the end of the eighteenth century?

A Case of Intergenerational Conflict: The 2015 Finnish Citizens’ Initiative on Pension Indexation

ABSTRACT Pension reforms become more common in times of population aging. In 2015, a Finnish citizens’ initiative recommended increasing pension benefits. Opponents argued this may be at the cost of youths and middle-agers. We investigate the initiative from the viewpoint of intergenerational conflict. A mixed methods analysis reveals no conflict during the signature collection. It only became visible during the newspaper debate, when experts explained the reform effects. The parliament rejected the reform. Findings reveal a unique conflict dynamic in citizens’ initiatives: a reflected judgment gradually emerges during the public debate. Policymakers may use this insight to advance pension-related direct democracy.

Early Reactions to Raul Hilberg’s History of the Holocaust, 1961–7

Raul Hilberg’s landmark study of the Holocaust, The Destruction of the European Jews, was published in 1961. This article tells the story of the early response to Hilberg’s book. For the first time, journalists, scholars, intellectuals and representatives of Jewish communities engaged in a debate about the history and political significance of the Holocaust. This debate preceded the controversy surrounding Hannah Arendt’s articles on the trial of Adolf Eichmann and had more far-reaching consequences. Countless reviewers in the American press praised Hilberg’s analysis of the bureaucratic administration of genocide. They noted his conclusion that all of German society was involved in the ‘destruction process’ and its implications for the contemporary West German leadership. Scholars also lauded Hilberg’s book, although some of them criticized his inclusive perpetrator category and argued that he overlooked the importance of Nazi ideology and dictatorship. Hilberg’s claim that Jewish victims abetted their persecutors gave rise to a debate in Jewish journals and newspapers. Writers and historians objected to Hilberg’s purported ignorance of their experiences and of Jewish history. As this article shows, the reception of Hilberg’s work marks a crucial step in the formation of the Holocaust as part of historical consciousness.

Uniformity or polarization? The nuclear power debate in Japanese newspapers and political coalitions, 1973–2014

ABSTRACT The image of Japanese mainstream media reporting is dominated by the institution of “press clubs”. Critical researchers argue that these restricted and institutionalized links between mainstream media and their sources lead to uniformity in media reporting. Other researchers contend that Japanese journalists play diverse roles and frame issues in diverse ways. These contrasting theses are explored through an analysis of three major newspaper's framing of nuclear power in article series (rensai). First, we construct a set of frames of the nuclear power issue out of materials from two political alliances: the pronuclear alliance (the so called “nuclear village”), and the antinuclear alliance. We apply and adapt these frames using a sample of newspaper article series from 1973 to 2014. The comparison shows that there are significant differences of reporting both between newspaper organizations as well as between different periods. Especially for the phase after 2011, reporting turns pronouncedly nuclear-skeptical in two newspapers. While not denying press club influence, the analysis cautions against mechanically applying a distinction between “insider” and “outsider” media and calls for new analytical categories to explain the substantial differences of framing between journalists of various “insider” media organizations.

‘The Film That’s Banned in Harrogate’: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979), Local Censorship, Comedy and Local Resistance

This article investigates the banning of Monty Python’s Life of Brian by 39 local councils in the United Kingdom in late 1979 and early 1980. Focusing on three of these local areas – Harrogate, Dudley and Swansea – it draws on discursive analysis of local newspaper debate generated by both editors and readers, and the various arguments and strategies they employed to question the right of the local council to remove Life of Brian from their communities, including arguments relating to consumer choice and freedom and local trade and cultural reputation. Through doing this, the article foregrounds an approach that has yet to be explored extensively within the emergent body of work on local film censorship in the UK, advocating for the fruitfulness of a community-based historical analysis of resistance to local film regulation as well as the more commonly employed council-based analysis of local government files and archives. The article also considers the Life of Brian case study as an example of local film controversy where the themes and features of the film itself were drawn on by local resisters of the ban in a range of creative and productive ways.

Specialised music classes in comprehensive education: a case study of the Swedish shift from social-democratic uniformity to neoliberal diversity

ABSTRACT The following article examines the emerging historical legitimacy of specialised comprehensive schools in Sweden. During the 1980s, neoliberal ideas were gaining ground in Swedish educational policy. As a result, the social democratic government began to relax the rigour of the unified, state-regulated educational system. Specialised music classes played a significant role in this context, as such programmes were increasingly considered models for specialisation and deregulation. The establishment of specialised music classes in Sweden was symptomatic of the national adoption of neoliberal principles in education policy. The case study design uses qualitative document analyses of archive materials including public investigations, minutes of political meetings, and newspaper debates. The discursive legitimation of specialised comprehensive education is seen as dependent on three interrelated frame factors: ideology, economics, and law. Within this framework empirical knowledge of the transformative educational policy of the 1980s is analysed.

Following in the footsteps of tobacco and alcohol? Stakeholder discourse in UK newspaper coverage of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.

In politically contested health debates, stakeholders on both sides present arguments and evidence to influence public opinion and the political agenda. The present study aimed to examine whether stakeholders in the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) debate sought to establish or undermine the acceptability of this policy through the news media and how this compared with similar policy debates in relation to tobacco and alcohol industries. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles discussing sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxation published in eleven UK newspapers between 1 April 2015 and 30 November 2016, identified through the Nexis database. Direct stakeholder citations were entered in NVivo to allow inductive thematic analysis and comparison with an established typology of industry stakeholder arguments used by the alcohol and tobacco industries. UK newspapers. Proponents and opponents of SSB tax/SDIL cited in UK newspapers. Four hundred and ninety-one newspaper articles cited stakeholders' (n 287) arguments in relation to SSB taxation (n 1761: 65 % supportive and 35 % opposing). Stakeholders' positions broadly reflected their vested interests. Inconsistencies arose from: changes in ideological position; insufficient clarity on the nature of the problem to be solved; policy priorities; and consistency with academic rigour. Both opposing and supportive themes were comparable with the alcohol and tobacco industry typology. Public health advocates were particularly prominent in the UK newspaper debate surrounding the SDIL. Advocates in future policy debates might benefit from seeking a similar level of prominence and avoiding inconsistencies by being clearer about the policy objective and mechanisms.

How do Human Rights Fit into the Debate? The Representation and Frames of Social Movement Organizations in a Newspaper Debate on the 2010 French Eviction and Expulsion of Roma Migrants

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes the representation of social movement organizations (SMOs) and the frames to which they are linked in a newspaper debate developing after a specific human-rights violation. This analysis is intended to demonstrate how research on social movements and human-rights frames and research on the access of NGOs to the media can complement each other in the investigation of mediated human-rights debates. The violation addressed in this study concerns the eviction of many Roma from their dwellings and their expulsion from France in the summer of 2010. We analyzed the reports in the French newspaper Le Monde on this violation. In response to the first research question – “How were SMOs represented in the selected newspaper debate?” – our analysis indicates that SMOs were less strongly represented than were actors in the French government, except through general reference. With regard to the second research question – “To which frames on the human-rights violation were SMOs linked in the selected newspaper debate?” – the framing analysis reveals a prevalent anti-racist frame, very little explicit reference to human rights, and frames influenced by national logics.

Cannabis in Danish newspapers

Using quantitative methods Danish cannabis debate in national newspapers is investigated. The investigation shows that the most prevalent topics relate to law enforcement. Legalization has become an increasingly important topic in the Danish cannabis debate and the investigation shows a reframing of this debate to become increasingly related to concerns about organized crime. In this way the Danish cannabis legalization debate show the same development as the debates that have led to legalization certain states in the United States of America.

Discourses of the wound and desire for the Other: remembrances of the Katyń massacre and the Smoleńsk crash

ABSTRACTWe investigate the commemorative debate in Polish newspapers about how the Katyń massacre and the presidential plane crash near Smoleńsk, Russia, should be remembered. We demonstrate that a psychoanalytic discursive analysis elucidates the insistence on remembering past wounds, nationalist politics of victimhood, and the difficulties in reaching rapprochement in intercultural relations. To this end, we analyze the commemorative debates in two main Polish newspapers and a news magazine. We argue that an emotive discourse of “Katyń as a wound” yearns for a therapeutic healing of the rifts in Polish national mythology and postcommunist identity. This discourse revolves around a demand for recognition from the Russian Other of a wounded subject by employing evocative metonymies and transposing logics of equivalence and difference.

Kevin Butterfield, The Making of Tocqueville’s America: Law and Association in the Early United States

In The Making of Tocqueville’s America, Kevin Butterfield draws our attention to the fact that the founding generation feared unchecked private governance just as much as it feared unchecked federal power. Rather than viewing civic associations simply as bastions of freedom protecting individuals from a potentially tyrannical state, early Americans worried about the power associations wielded over members and feared the ways they might trample the liberty interests of their members, both socially—such as by blackballing them from respectable society—and more importantly, politically, such as by controlling their votes. The book’s chapters are peppered with stories of civic associations endeavoring to sully the reputations of members who have fallen out of grace. Readers are encouraged to sympathize with the plight of a nineteen-year-old member of the Uranian Society, John Peter Van Ness—future mayor of Washington, DC—who was expelled from his political debate society, ostensibly for his repeated unexcused absences. Van Ness’s colorful response—holding the club’s books ransom—generates, in turn, a lengthy newspaper debate with his former associates about the duties and perils of formal associations. Readers are similarly introduced to the rivalry between two Philadelphia newspapermen of Irish descent, William Duane and John Binns, only to learn how it culminated in both public controversy and litigation after Duane successfully had Binns expelled from four associations, including the St. Patrick Benevolent Society.

Love Without Borders?

Since 2000, Denmark has imposed some of the strictest immigration laws in Europe. Consequently, family reunification has become increasingly difficult for immigrants as well as for Danish citizens. In the fall of 2010, the Danish family reunification laws became subject to criticism and protest by a citizens' initiative called ‘Love without Borders’ (LWB). The article investigates how LWB managed to generate political momentum around love: an affect which seems to promise inclusion, liberation and togetherness for those directly affected by the laws as well as those attempting to change the laws. Yet the idealized version of love promoted by LWB happened to take the form of romantic intimacy predominantly consisting of straight, young and white-brown couples oriented towards reproduction. Our main argument is that despite its good intentions of supporting migration the activist campaign ‘Love without Borders’ ends up supporting whiteness as the body through which love must flow. As an indicator of the racialized discourses informing LWB's activism the article introduces the concept of white transraciality. Thus, to LWB love seems to promise affective ties to the nation, to the future and to the political system in ways that sustain white hegemony. Building mainly on Sara Ahmed's and Laurent Berlant's reflections on love as cultural politics the article analyzes posters, viral videos and newspaper debates in its discussion of the promises and pitfalls of love as an affective political tool.

Performing celebrity motherhood on Twitter: courting homage and (momentary) disaster – the case of Peaches Geldof

It sickens me to see just how far the cult of celebrity and super fandom has come when grown women are passing their own kids round. I hate the world sometimes. (@peaches-g) (cited in Halliday 2013) This quote was part of a Twitter message that Peaches Geldof published in November 2013. In the message she also named the two women who had allowed the Lost Prophets singer Ian Watkins to abuse their babies. What became key elements focused upon by journalists in the newspaper debate that followed her subsequent deletion of the message and apology were the purpose of Twitter as a form of communication, and the celebritisation of public discourse. This tweet was constructed as an empty-headed, gossipy, childish and hence feminised intervention into the public sphere.1 Also tied up with this debate was the ongoing narrative of the ‘non-functionality’ of celebrity culture and its ‘reflexive exhibitionism’ (Hyde 2013). Yet Geldof had, until this point, used a combination of Twitter and Instagram to enact a self-transformation from girlhood to motherhood that had drawn critical affirmation from both media pundits and female followers via the social media sites. It is this image of motherhood that has informed the reporting of her sudden death of a heroin overdose at the age of 25 on 7 April 2014.

A Selected Bibliography of Writings by Bernard Shaw Concerning Health, the Medical Profession, and Related Topics

This selected bibliography gathers Bernard Shaw’s pronouncements on health and related topics. References in brackets are to Dan H. Laurence’s Bernard Shaw: A Bibliography, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1983). References to items reprinted in The Works of Bernard Shaw: Collected Edition (London: Constable, 1930–38) are marked “Repr. in A198.” Items reprinted in Ronald Ford, ed., The Letters of Bernard Shaw to The Times, 1898–1950 (Sallins: Irish Academic Press, 2007) are marked “Repr. in Ford.”

El Salario Mínimo en México

For some years the minimum wage has been the subject of considerable debate in financial newspapers, academic journals, legislative chambers, employers’ associations and trade unions, both in developed and in developing countries, including recently in Mexico. It has come to be considered as a legitimate and important instrument of economic policy to promote equality and raise incomes, especially for the poorest workers. While the debate continues about its effects on employment, informality and inflation, the document highlights the various points of agreement on the issue in Mexico. In real terms, Mexico’s minimum wage, the lowest in Latin America, has experienced a sharp decline over the last decades, to the point that its current level does not meet the provisions of the Constitution, and does not provide workers with a viable route out of poverty, especially when purchasing power parity is taken into account. There is also consensus that it is necessary to decouple the minimum wage as a reference for multiple transactions outside the workplace. Following the analysis of the experience of Mexico, it is argued that the transfer of the benefits of labor productivity to workers is not automatic or guaranteed, given that Mexico has some of the highest levels of labor productivity and competitiveness in the region, however, the level of the minimum wage is among the lowest. While it is important not to forget the importance of productivity and competitiveness in the discussion of the minimum wage, it is equally, if not more important to remember that the transfer of benefits to minimum wage workers is not possible without specific economic and labor policies to do so. Ultimately, this paper argues that a new minimum wage policy for Mexico goes beyond being a merely technical matter; rather, it is a matter of political economy that reflects the weight of equality in the society we want and can build.

Alfonso W. Quiroz Norris (1956–2013)

Alfonso W. Quiroz Norris (1956–2013)

The modernity of others: Jewish anti-Catholicism in Germany and France

The most prominent story of nineteenth-century German and French Jewry has focused on Jewish adoption of liberal middle-class values. The Modernity of Others points to an equally powerful but largely unexplored aspect of modern Jewish history: the extent to which German and French Jews sought to become modern by criticizing the anti-modern positions of the Catholic Church. Drawing attention to the pervasiveness of anti-Catholic anticlericalism among Jewish thinkers and activists from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, the book turns the master narrative of Western and Central European Jewish history on its head. From the moment in which Jews began to enter the fray of modern European politics, they found that Catholicism served as a convenient foil that helped them define what it meant to be a good citizen, to practice a respectable religion, and to have a healthy family life. Throughout the long nineteenth century, myriad Jewish intellectuals, politicians, and activists employed anti-Catholic tropes wherever questions of political and national belonging were at stake: in theoretical treatises, parliamentary speeches, newspaper debates, the founding moments of the Reform movement, and campaigns against antisemitism.

Articulating minority nationhood: cultural and political dimensions in Québec's reasonable accommodation debate

AbstractGiven their precarious position within larger states, national minorities cannot rely on federal governments to affirm their nationhood. Moreover, insofar as nationhood is predicated on a shared history, language and culture, immigrants place additional strains on the maintenance of national distinctiveness and the political claims that derive from it. In 2006–2007, following a series of confrontations over religious practices in the public sphere, Québec's provincial government appointed the Bouchard–Taylor Commission to investigate avenues for the accommodation of immigrant‐related cultural and religious differences. While it failed to generate policy, the commission did provide a discursive space for the (re)assertion of Québécois nationhood. Analysing the production of national identity in newspaper debates of the Bouchard–Taylor report, we offer an alternative to the ethnic–civic paradigm in nationalism theory. Rather than treat ethnic and civic as two separate ends of a single continuum, we conceptualise a relationship between two dimensions: one of culture and one of politics. We show that in contemporary articulations of Québec national identity, the prerequisites of political membership derive their meaning from a productive tension between blood‐based and adoptive conceptions of national culture.