Browsing by Subject "framing analysis"

The Syrian civil war was a byproduct of peaceful calls for moderate living and political freedom turned into an on-going devastation leaving behind traces of death, destruction and millions of refugees. While the Syrian citizens remain to be the main victims of this war, the media has played a crucial role in framing this crisis. Thus, the choice of investigating the Russian intervention can be attributed to the unprecedented involvement of Moscow in the Arab region. The involvement of both the U.S-led coalition and Russia gave the Syrian civil war a global status prioritising it as a crisis unfolding a new chapter in the world’s political order. Additionally, the social and political formation of Syria where the “breakdown of state institutions and the deepening communal rift" has often bred waves of violence and instability in the entire region. The primary aim of this study is to examine and analyse the framing of the Russian intervention in Syria as covered by Russia Today (RT) and Al Jazeera (AJ). It investigates the framing of different combatants involved in the war given the intricate nature of the crisis in Syria and the involvement of multiple global and regional superpowers and different politically and ideologically driven factions. In addition, the study investigates the sources incorporated by the two aforementioned news outlets while broadly looking upon reasons for the different coverage of the war by examining the historic and contemporary geopolitical formation of the region. It lays out the process of research design and data collection in the timeframe between September 2015 and January 2016. Subsequently, a background account of the establishment of RT and AJ is provided as a means of understanding the internal and external dynamics that unquestionably contribute in its agenda-setting. The literature review looks at concepts such as objectivity, credibility, source selection in addition to the emergence of user-generated content. As a background reference, the study examines the US invasion of Iraq and the reintroduction of embedded journalism. Similarly, the study compares the media portrayal of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and Syrian president Bashar Al Assad. The main findings of this study has shown that the introduction of user-generated content has played a notable role in this war as found by the examination of AJ which depended largely on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights for its news stories. RT, on the other hand, opted for a traditional role by depending primarily on military sources.

The EU has been in the recent decades one of the most important innovators globally. However, due to the recent events in its external environment, such as supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19, third-country dependencies and external geopolitical pressures, its position in global innovation is challenged. These developments are often discussed under the headline “strategic autonomy”, which refers to the EU’s capacity to act autonomously in key strategic policy areas. As capacity to innovate is what crucially undergirds the EU’s economic power, the EU’s innovation policy plays a fundamental role in achieving strategic autonomy. Yet, peer reviewed study of the implications of strategic autonomy for EU innovation policy has remained thus far uncharted. This thesis asks: how the discourse on strategic autonomy frames EU innovation policy? To answer the research question, this thesis deployed a framing analysis in parallel with qualitative content analysis. This approach was applied to policy documents published by the European Commission in the period of 2019-2023. This thesis aimed to investigate the extent to which strategic autonomy has influenced EU innovation policy. Secondly, the thesis explored how the concept(s) inform policymakers about the identified problem and examines the policy justifications that arise from this assessment. The qualitative content analysis found that the discourse on strategic autonomy has become increasingly relevant for the EU innovation policy, showcasing high levels of frequency in the use of the concept in the policy area. Moreover, a closer look at the use of the concept revealed that not only is the concept invoked frequently, but has only become highly influential for the shaping of the policy. In addition, an overarching framing could be identified that perceives the environment external to the EU being increasingly hostile and competitive, complicated by antagonisms towards the rules-based world order. From this assessment arises novel policy justifications for international cooperation in R&I. Also, EU innovation policy is increasingly interested in securing autonomous capacity to innovate and have access and control of critical technologies. In terms of international cooperation, a balancing act between openness and assertiveness could be observed. The analysis also had implications for internal developments as the EU is showing a much more active role in directing funding to critical sectors to enhance its industrial capacity and competitiveness.

This thesis studies Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s discourse on connectivity in the context of Free Basics. As a specific focus, this paper looks at a Facebook connectivity initiative called Internet.org. The initiative was launched in 2013 and it aims at connecting all of the world’s population to the internet. As a part of Internet.org, Facebook developed a smartphone application called Free Basics. As mobile data can be costly in many less developed countries, Free Basics provides free internet access to a limited number of websites. These usually include categories such as Facebook, news sites, job listings, weather and health information. As of 2018, the application was active in over fifty countries around Asia, Africa and Latin America. The method used for analysing the data set is framing analysis. The data, which consists of 54 text documents published between 2013 and 2018, is collected from a single source, an American database called The Zuckerberg Files. This thesis finds that Zuckerberg frames connectivity and Free Basics in three different ways. The first frame, Free Basics as altruistic philanthropy, shows how Zuckerberg focuses on downplaying any possible business benefits that Facebook might have from Free Basics. He stresses the charitable nature of the connectivity initiative and claims that Facebook simply acts on the deep belief for their mission: connecting everyone in the world. The only possible economic profit, according to Zuckerberg, could be for the partnering telecommunications companies. The second frame, Free Basics for universal benefits, displays Facebook’s global outlook on the connectivity issue. In this discourse, Zuckerberg imagines Free Basics as an all-encompassing solution for the five billion people who are currently unconnected. He also argues for universal benefits from increased connectivity by referring to the “global knowledge economy”, where even the already connected people can gain from the new ideas that can now be shared through the internet. The third and last frame, Free Basics accelerating development, looks at Zuckerberg’s statements on how Free Basics can help people in developing countries improve their lives. In comparison to the second frame, here Zuckerberg uses individual people’s stories to give examples on all the areas Free Basics can be helpful in. These stories tie into themes of development, such as health and education, and Zuckerberg frames Free Basics and connectivity as simple, first-step fixes to a variety of issues. In conclusion, the results of this study seem to be in line with the previous studies on Zuckerberg’s discourse. Many elements discussed in the literature also occurred in my data: Facebook’s desire to appear neutral, the debate on net neutrality as well as the giant technology companies and their profound belief in technological determinism in development have been widely discussed earlier. By critically studying Zuckerberg’s argumentation, we gain a better understanding of the company’s actions and motives. This research is valuable because it uses a unique data set to provide an outlook to the way in which Zuckerberg frames Free Basics, as well as connectivity in general.