Colouring the Media (Re)presentation of Ethnic Minorities in the Dutch News Media University of Nijmegen – Department of Communication Leen dHaenens &

Colouring the Media

(Re)presentation of Ethnic Minorities in the Dutch News Media

University of Nijmegen – Department of Communication

Leen d’Haenens & Joyce Koeman

Monitored Media- Facts & Figures -

• Television news represents (only) 11% of the total sample of articles and items, since 9 different newspapers and only 4 TV news programs were analysed.

• Moreover, the article sample contains an average of over 20 articles, while a single TV news program counts 10 selected items at the most.

Monitored Media- Comments -

Main News EventsMonday 17 - Saturday 22 November 2004

• Possible attack of the Dutch Prime-Minister

•The murder of Maja Braderic (16)

• Soccer match The Netherlands - Scotland (6-0)

• The presence of Dutch soldiers in Iraq

• The new non-smoking legislation in public areas

•...

Newspapers

Monitored Newspapers

National (7)

- De Telegraaf*- De Volkskrant*- Algemeen Dagblad (AD)- NRC- Trouw- Reformatorisch Dagblad- Metro (free newspaper)

Local (2)

- Rotterdams Dagblad*

- PZC

* extensively coded (long coding)

Newspaper Coding

Long coding (61%)(DeTelegraaf, de Volkskrant

and Rotterdams Dagblad)

• Dutch national news on all pages of the main quire (excl. sports, finance…)

• EU-affairs• For the Rotterdams

Dagblad also the local pages were selected

Short coding (39%)(6 other newspapers)

• National/local news on the front page

• Editorials & letters to the editor

• EU-affairs

Newspaper title N %Rotterdams Dagblad* 317 29.9De Telegraaf* 192 18.1De Volkskrant* 137 12.9PZC 110 10.4Algemeen Dagblad 84 7.9NRC 76 7.2Metro 55 5.2Trouw 47 4.4Reformatorisch Dagblad 43 4.1Total 1061 100

Selected Articles / Newspaper- Facts & Figures -

* long coding

• Extensively coded newspapers (long coding) take up 61% of the sample.

• Most articles are found in the Rotterdams Dagblad, since domestic news was selected from the main AND the local quire.

Selected Articles / Newspaper- Comments -

Article Types- Facts & Figures -

N %News stories 485 45,7Front page stories 244 23,0Letters to the editor 148 13,9Feature or special issue reports 53 5,0Human interest stories 45 4,2Pictures with caption 30 2,8Announcing public/cultural events 29 2,7Editorials 23 2,2Q&A Interviews 4 0,4Total 1061 100

The most current article types are news stories and front page stories;

Feature articles and special issue reports are hardly present (5%).

• Article types differ according to long and short coding procedures: short coding only includes front page stories, letters to the editor and editorials.

• The extensively coded newspaper De Telegraaf covers a lot of human interest stories and few news stories compared to de Volkskrant and Rotterdams Dagblad.

• Editorials are not found in Metro and PZC, most editorials are found in NRC Handelsblad.

• Metro has the smallest amount of front page stories due to the smaller size of the newspaper.

Article Types- Comments -

Article Types / Ethnic Dimension- Facts & Figures -

• 22% of the human interest stories and 1/4 interviews are ‘coloured’.

• Factual news stories and letters to the editor and editorials are a little less ‘coloured’ (18%).

• The least ‘colour’ we find on front page news and pictures with captions (13%).

Article Types / Ethnic Dimension- Comments -

National vs. Local Newspapers

• National and local newspapers do NOT differ in terms of their reference to ethnic minorities, or in their coverage of certain coloured topics.

• Local newspapers tend to focus more on: - (local) politics & government; - transport; - nature & environment; - tragedies & accidents.

‘Coloured’ Themes in Newspapers- Facts & Figures -

* Themes with an ethnic dimension in less than 10% of the articles are excluded from this table;

Subject* Articles (N) With ethnic dimension (%)

Religion 18 55.6

Gender issues 15 33.3

International relations 33 30.3

Labour issues 27 29.6

Education 38 26.3

Demonstrations and protests 17 23.5

Public order crime 216 22.7

Politics & Government 78 17.9

Total all subjects 1061 16.7

EU affairs 43 16.3

Legal affairs 37 13.5

Social issues 128 12.5

‘Coloured’ Themes in Newspapers

- Comments -Focusing solely on the news themes that are more than average (16.7%) associated to some ethnic dimension:

- Ethnic dimensions are found in more than half of the articles about religion;

- 1/3 articles about gender issues or international relations refer to ethnic minorities;

- Ethnic dimension is also found in a great amount of articles about labour issues, education, demonstrations and protests;

- Public order/crime and politics & government are two of the newspapers main themes that are also prominently ‘coloured’.

Themes & Topics: Definitions

• Themes: categorisation of all subjects in the news with or without some ethnic dimension

(e.g. politics & government, public order/crime and religion).

• Topics: categorisation of specific news with an ethnic dimension(e.g. immigration policies & control, fundamentalism/extremism and cultural/language issues).

‘Coloured’ topics

1. Crime & deviance (16%)

2. Fundamentalism/extremism (11%)

3. - Integration/segregation (7%)

- Religious identity & practices (7%)

- Discrimination & racism (7%)

Articles about crime & deviance refer most frequently to some ethnic dimension and the reference is also the most prominent.

Presentation of Minorities• Presence: Most minority actors appear in stories about

public order (28%) or immigration & asylum (13%).

• Labelling: Nationality and first/last name are the most common ways to label minorities.

• Images:40 minority characters were found in articles with a picture, but only 14 minority characters were actually shown in those pictures (35%).

Representation of Minorities (1)

• Portrayal:

Press Majority(N = 810)

Minority(N = 118)

Total(N = 998)

Negative 2.3 2.5 2.4

Critical 12.1 11.9 12.0

Neutral 74.1 72.0 73.1

Positive 8.5 10.2 9.3

Defending 3.0 3.4 3.2

Total 100 100 100

In general minorities are portrayed neutrally and slightly more positively than majority

characters.

• Quotation: - Minorities are mostly quoted in relation with crime &

deviance (26%), fundamentalism/extremism (13%), family issues & child/parent relations (13%).

- Over 1/3 of the quoted minorities are common people/citizens, while only 14% of the quoted majority characters are common people.

• Credibility:

Representation of Minorities (2)

Majority Minority Allquestioned 9% 22% 10%neutral / no reference 67% 64% 67%asserted 19% 11% 18%does not apply / unknown 5% 3% 5%Total 100% 100% 100%

• Credibility:

- 2/3 quoted minorities are quoted in a neutral way or without reference to their credibility.

- The credibility of minorities is questioned more often, while the credibility of majority characters is more often asserted.

Representation of Minorities (3)

Television News

Monitored News and Current Affairs Programs

Commercial TV

- RTL Nieuws- Hart van Nederland

Public TV

- NOS Journaal- Netwerk

Television Coding- Facts & Figures -

Items covering national news, local news and EU affairs were selected for television coding:

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

NOS

Netwerk

RTL Nieuws

Hart van NL

EU

Local

National

• The current affairs programs do NOT cover EU affairs, unlike the regular news programs.

• The main focus of Hart van Nederland is very local (proximity news), compared to the other news/current affairs programs.

• Also the scope of the NOS Journaal seems to be more local than the commercial counterpart RTL Nieuws.

Television Coding- Comments -

Selected Items / News and Current Affairs Programs

- Facts & Figures -

News & current affairs N %NOS Journaal 43 32.8Hart van Nederland 40 30.5RTL Nieuws 41 31.3Netwerk 7 5.3Total 131 100

•Netwerk is a current affairs program covering mainly news backgrounds with an (inter)national scope, which resulted in (only) 7 selected items.

•Hart van Nederland is also a current affairs program, but focuses on more local news, which resulted in 40 selected items

Selected Items / News and Current Affairs

- Comments -

‘Coloured’ Themes- Facts & Figures -

* Themes with an ethnic dimension in less than 10% of the articles are excluded from this table.

Subject* Articles (N) With ethnic dimension (%)

Immigration & asylum 4 100.0

EU affairs 4 50.0

International relations 10 40.0

Labour issues 2 50.0

Public order/crime 29 37.9

Total all subjects 131 25.2

Demonstrations and protests 4 25.0

Politics & government 12 25.0

Culture/arts/entertainment/royalty…

25 20.0

Tragedies/accidents 9 11.1

• In general ¼ TV news items are ‘coloured’.

• Public order/crime and Culture/arts/ entertainment (etc.) are the main themes in TV news and current affairs programs.

• Public order/crime is also ‘deeper coloured’ than average: 37.9%

‘Coloured’ Themes- Comments -

‘Coloured’ topics

1. Violence in general (18%)

2. Crime & deviance (15%)

3. Illegal immigration (12%)

4. - Immigration policies & control (9%)

- Fundamentalism/extremism (9%)

News items about illegal immigration and immigration policies & control are the most

explicitly ‘coloured’ topics.

Presentation of Minorities

• Presence: - 39% of all main characters are majority members while

only 11% are minorities.- Almost half of the minority characters are common

people.- 27% of all minority characters are associated to themes

related to public order.

• Labelling: Usually (in 69% of all instances) when minorities are depicted, the text also mentions the name/nationality or ethnic/racial identity.

• Images: 99% of all items show some images; about 14% of all minorities are only depicted by skin colour or other physical features.

Representation of Minorities

• Portrayal:Most minorities are portrayed neutrally and sometimes even more positively than majority characters.

• Quotation:

Majority Minority AllTV N = 101 N = 30 N = 131Negatively 0 0 0Critically 5 8 5Neutrally 90 87 89Positively 5 10 6Defending 0 0 0Total 100 100 100

2/3 of the main minority characters are quoted, mostly dealing with topics such as fundamentalism/extremism and violence in general.

• Credibility:Most quoted minorities are referred to in a neutral

fashion.

‘NOS Journaal’ – Nederland 1 (20:00-20:30u)

Public TV News

• Half of the news has a national scope.• The average length of each news item is 2 minutes.• Main themes are public order and -- due to the ‘media

hype’ related to the Dutch soccer team -- culture/arts/ entertainment.

• Two main ‘coloured’ topics: crime & deviance and violence in general.

• Prominent reference to some ethnic dimensions is made in 12% of the news items.

• 1 in 6 of the main actors are considered as a minority.

Public TV Current Affairs

‘Netwerk’ – Nederland 1 (20:30-21.00u)

• Only 7 items are monitored.• An average item in this current affairs program takes

up to 14 minutes.• 71% of the items have a national scope; EU affairs are

not covered.• The main themes are politics & government and public

order.• In 3 of the 7 items prominent reference is made to

some ethnic dimension.• 4 minority and 10 majority characters are found.

Commercial TV News‘RTL Nieuws’ – RTL4 (19:30-19.50u)

• 70% of the news has a national scope, while 25% focuses on local events.

• The average length of a news item is 1.5 minute.• Main themes during the monitored week are public

order and culture/arts/entertainment (cf. the Dutch soccer team).

• Main ‘coloured’ news deals with topics such as illegal immigration and violence.

• 23% of the items prominently refer to some ethnic dimension.

• 1 in 8 main characters is defined as a minority.

Commercial TV Current Affairs‘Hart van Nederland’ – SBS6 (22:30-

23:00u)

• Over 80 percent of all items has a local scope; EU affairs are not covered in this program.

• One item takes about 1.5 minute.• Most items are related to public order (30%) or

tragedies/accidents.• Only 4 ‘coloured’ topics are found.• Few references to ethnic dimension are made.• 6 minority actors are found among the 80

identified main actors (7.5%).

Overview

Newspapers & TV

news

Overview (1)- Main Themes -

Main themes in press & TV together:

1. Public order/crime (21%)

2. Culture/arts/entertainment/royalty/celebrities (14%)

3. Social issues (12%)

4. Politics & government (8%)

5. Consumer issues & free time (6%)

Other 39% of articles are subscribed to 15 other subjects (max. 4% each)

TV covers more news on international relations, tragedies/ accidents and culture/arts/entertainment, while newspapers cover more themes related to media & communication.

Overview (2)- Ethnic Dimensions -

TV news is more ‘coloured’ than printed news.

Overview (3)

- ‘Coloured’ Topics -

Main ‘coloured’ topics for press & TV:

1. Crime & deviance (16%)

2. Fundamentalism/extremism (11%)

3. Immigration policies & control (7%)

Religious identity & practices (7%)

Overview (4)- Presentation of Minorities -

• Presence:The minorities present in TV news or newspapers are usually common people. Professionals, political actors and organisations in the news with minority backgrounds are hardly found.

• Labelling:Most minorities are labelled by nationality or name on TV news and in the press.

• Images:Not surprisingly more images of minorities are depicted in TV news than in newspapers.

Overview (5)- Representation of Minorities -

• Portrayal: 88% of minorities are portrayed neutrally (72% in press and 87% in TV news); in coloured topics they tend to be portrayed slightly more positively.

• Quotation: Both in TV news and in newspapers minorities are in general associated with ‘coloured’ topics such as fundamentalismextremism, crime & deviance and violence.

• Credibility: in TV news the credibility of minorities is NOT questioned at all, while the latter is questioned in 22% of the instances in the press.

The Dutch News Media in a European Context

Comparing to the European Results:

- Dutch press & TV refer more often to some ethnic dimension;

- Dutch newspaper articles cover more subjects like public order/crime, social issues and EU affairs, but less politics & government;

- The amount of quoted minority characters who are criminals/crime suspects is smaller (9.5% vs. 15.5%);

- Negative portrayal of minorities is less prominent than in other European media.

Further Information

• University of Nijmegen (NL)www.socsci.kun.nl/maw/cwdr. Leen d’Haenens: [email protected]. Joyce Koeman: [email protected]

• Online | More Colour in the [email protected]