‘F’ is for f̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶s / f̶i̶l̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶b̶u̶b̶b̶l̶e̶s / framing: How politicians frame media (content) on Facebook & Twitter during the Dutch Tweede Kamer elections of 2017

Abstract

With the election of Donald Trump, the Brexit, and the Ukraine referendum in the Netherlands, the relationship between politics and journalism seems altered. This seems to be emphasized by the way in which certain politicians frame their relation to journalists and the media. This thesis concerns itself with the way in which Dutch (aspiring) politicians frame the media and their content. Tweets and Facebook page posts of politicians and political parties were collected during the period January 1st 2017 up to and including the election day, March 15th 2017. These messages were filtered for references to the media, and subsequently a 1% random selection was made which was qualitatively analyzed using a synthesized model. The applied model is based on relational frame theory, framing theory, and the encoding/decoding model. Randomly selected messages were assessed on what kind of encoding strategy was used, and whether the subject of the frame was either the medium itself or its content.

It was found that the predominant encoding strategy was a dominant-hegemonic (i.e. endorsing) one (68-72%). In one in five messages a negotiated strategy was used (20-21%), and only in 11-7% of the cases an oppositional strategy was found. The great majority of these messages deals with media content (83-90%), as opposed to a medium as a whole (17-10%). Politicians were found to predominantly make media references which fit their views. Online media are particularly vulnerable to this, as individual articles are now presented as complete products, and not as part of the newspaper bundle, for example. This cherry-picking behavior of politicians, can lead to a dissipation of the adversarial principle within their newsfeeds, which is why the media have to reflect on their ability to reach the constituents of the politicians. Several recommendations to reduce decontextualization are made.