September 11 had a major impact in the world, and this impact is also reflected in the news coverage in the following years. With this study, we wanted to investigate to what extent 9/11 had an impact on the creation of one global public sphere in the Western world.
On the contrary, we found that the classic news value of geo- graphical proximity is still dominant: The news coverage increases most clearly the moment an event occurs on a local level.
The extreme example of this was the murder of van Gogh, which was widely covered in the Dutch newspapers while relatively neglected on a global level. The other key events discussed also show strong and significant local focus.
Whereas 9/11 was mainly seen as an American event by both local and international press, an interesting difference is seen looking at Madrid and London.
While Madrid was localized almost to the same extent in the newspapers, the London bombings were far more localized in the U.S. press, even more so than in the British press.
The portrayal of Muslims also reveals an interesting pattern. Although no significant shifts in negativity were found after 9/11 or after the local key events, 9/11 did create a strong framework of Muslims as terrorists in all investigated media. After the creation of this global frame, the identification of Muslims with terrorism was transformed by local events; it was reinforced in the British press after the London bombings and deconstructed in the Dutch press after the van Gogh assassination, with more attention focusing on domestic rather than international problems with Muslims.
2004 killer: Dutch- Moroccan Muhammad Bouyeri
This table further reveals the relative stability of terrorism across nations, with 71.43 percent (n = 140) of countries remaining in the equivalent trajectory group before and after the killing of bin Laden. Interestingly among this stable subset were notable countries including Afghanistan, France, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Pakistan, Qatar, the UK, and the United Arab Emirates.
On the contrary, we found that the classic news value of geo- graphical proximity is still dominant: The news coverage increases most clearly the moment an event occurs on a local level.
The extreme example of this was the murder of van Gogh, which was widely covered in the Dutch newspapers while relatively neglected on a global level. The other key events discussed also show strong and significant local focus.
Whereas 9/11 was mainly seen as an American event by both local and international press, an interesting difference is seen looking at Madrid and London.
While Madrid was localized almost to the same extent in the newspapers, the London bombings were far more localized in the U.S. press, even more so than in the British press.
The portrayal of Muslims also reveals an interesting pattern. Although no significant shifts in negativity were found after 9/11 or after the local key events, 9/11 did create a strong framework of Muslims as terrorists in all investigated media. After the creation of this global frame, the identification of Muslims with terrorism was transformed by local events; it was reinforced in the British press after the London bombings and deconstructed in the Dutch press after the van Gogh assassination, with more attention focusing on domestic rather than international problems with Muslims.
2004 killer: Dutch- Moroccan Muhammad Bouyeri
This table further reveals the relative stability of terrorism across nations, with 71.43 percent (n = 140) of countries remaining in the equivalent trajectory group before and after the killing of bin Laden. Interestingly among this stable subset were notable countries including Afghanistan, France, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Pakistan, Qatar, the UK, and the United Arab Emirates.