Context and the Developed World: Newspaper Coverage of Crisis in Scotland and
Belgium
Introduction
Over a period of months in 1996 the towns of Dunblane, Scotland and Charleroi,
Belgium were in the international spotlight due to acts of extreme violence
committed against children. In Scotland, Thomas Hamilton entered Dunblane
Primary School and murdered 16 students (all aged 5 or 6) and one teacher. In
Charleroi, Belgium, two young girls, both of whom had been sexually assaulted,
were found in the cellar of a house belonging to Marc Dutroux; in the course of
their investigation Belgian police also found the bodies of two eight-year-old
girls buried in Dutroux's garden. Both of these events generated significant
media coverage in both Europe and the United States.
While intensive British and Belgian coverage of domestic mass killings was
understandable, detailed and continuing coverage in the United States
(exemplified by the 34 articles provided by the New York Times) warrants further
investigation for a number of reasons. First, the New York Times (NYT) coverage
of the two events brings the issue of the geography, or "cultural proximity" of
news journalism to the fore. Mass killings of children and adults take place on
a daily basis throughout the world, so what made the Scottish and Belgian cases
"special"? Second, over the past 30 years a large number of studies analyzing
the quality of news coverage from developing ("Third World") regions have been
produced, and such studies have indicated that events in developing nations are
either ignored in the U.S. mass media, or when they are covered, are obscured
due to factors such as "parachute journalism" and decontextualized reporting.
While studies on the coverage of developing nations by Western news media have
been rife, there is a paucity of work on how such coverage compares to coverage
of similar events in developed regions, and if coverage of developed regions
tends to utilize strategies such as using follow-up reports or contextualizing
stories. Detailed and prolonged coverage of specific international events in
regions such as Scotland and Belgium does generate questions about the
performance of our more respected news sources.
The main research question for this study is: Did the coverage of the Dunblane
and Charleroi crimes by the New York Times fulfill the requirements for "good"
journalism as set down by researchers of coverage of developing nations?
Follow-up research questions are as follows: (1) if the coverage did fulfill the
requirements, how did it do so; and, (2) what are the implications of the
quality of coverage from Scotland and Belgium for the debate over coverage of
developing nations?
In order to address these issues, this work will be broken down into the
following sections: a review of literature on relevant theory, previous studies
of international news coverage, and journalistic routines; a discussion of
methodology; a textual analysis of approximately 34 NYT articles with a focus on
three particular areas: "story depth", "local sourcing", and "story
development"; and, discussion/implication of the results.
Review of Literature
The purpose of the study at hand is to analyze the performance of the New York
Times (NYT) in its coverage of child murders in both Scotland and Belgium. The
performance of the newspaper in these stories is directly related to a number of
theoretical and practical issues in journalism and mass communication. This
work will address three specific areas: (1) how the NYT coverage of the crimes
in Europe compares to coverage of similar "crisis" events in other areas of the
world; (2) what are the broader implications of the NYT coverage; and, (3) how
might journalistic "routines" and conceptions of "newsworthiness" have
impacted/influenced the coverage analyzed"? This literature review will
establish the groundwork necessary to answer these questions/issues. In order
to do so, the following issues will be addressed: (1) issues of news
"geography," story selection, and journalistic performance, particularly in
regards to coverage of developing nations; (2) newsworthiness and journalistic
routines in international news coverage; and, (3) journalistic performance
"norms" (what constitutes "good" or "effective" coverage).
In relation to news geography, developing nations are either seriously
underrepresented in the U.S. news media, or they are only represented when
"crisis" events take place (Shoemaker, Danelian & Bredlinger, 1991; Fair, 1993;
Larson, 1982; Larson, McAnany, & Storey, 1986; Harrison, 1986; Gans, 1979;
Terrell, 1989). Fair illustrates this concept when she writes of coverage of
Africa:
Coverage of famines in the Horn of Africa demonstrates the value that crisis
plays in determining news. Once famines were identified as newsworthy,
refugee and aid sites became 'hot spots'...(p. 9)
Equally well documented is the fact that when developing nations are covered,
the journalists who take part in the reporting do a poor job of providing
background information or any type of social, political or economic context to
the events being reported (Dahlgren & Chakrapani, 1982; Harrison, 1986; Fair,
1993; Terrell, 1989; Galtung & Ruge, 1965). Dahlgren & Chakrapani (1982) sum up
the problematic nature of U.S. news coverage of developing nations:
Each narrative positions the violence in the foreground, while the social and
political factors which it expresses recede to the background...While they
are
adequate to make some sense of the event, they do not help us to understand
the social context giving rise to the events in the first place. Each story
only
further confirms the existence of social disorder in the Third World without
adding any insight. (p. 51)
There is an underlying assumption in these studies of press performance that
there is a "better" way to report from these countries. The performance of
American journalists has been deemed to be insufficient by academics who suggest
that the addition of context and background, as well as a movement away from a
reliance upon elite sources for information would lead to improved reporting
(Fair, 1993; Dahlgren & Chakrapani, 1982). Over 30 years ago Galtung & Ruge
(1965) offered the following policy suggestions for media organizations engaged
in foreign reporting:
More emphasis on build-up and background material in the total media output.
Journalists should be better trained to capture and report on long-term
development, and concentrate less on 'events'...[M]ore awareness of the
continuity factor - and at the same time more emphasis on follow-ups...
(pp. 84-5)
These issues and proposals beg the question, however, of whether or not domestic
coverage in the U.S. (or coverage of culturally proximate developed nations) is
any different to coverage of developing nations in terms of its emphasis on
crisis and avoidance of context or background.
There are a number of influences upon the content of media, but perhaps the
most influential for news are those of journalistic routines and
organizational/economic constraints. Many scholars have noted that coverage of
developing nations tends to be inadequate, but do not address the issue of why
that may be the case. Fair (1993), Herman & Chomsky (1988), and Windrich
(1992), however, are all scholars who examined news content and have proposed
some significant organizational, economic, or ideological reasons for such
journalistic shortcomings.
Herman & Chomsky (1988) posited that there exist victims of violence who are
either "worthy" or "unworthy" of coverage in the U.S. news media based upon the
political/economic "value" of their exposure (a value rooted in status quo,
conservative political ideals). Windrich (1992), on the other hand, looked at
U.S. news coverage of Angola's Jonas Savimbi and found that a great deal of the
poor coverage was as much the result of parachute journalism and simple naivet
as it was ideological bias. From a more practical standpoint, Fair (1993) noted
that the increase the costs of keeping a correspondent abroad has prevented many
news organizations from placing journalists in, for example, Africa, and that
since most organizations do not consider Africa to be a viable area for
newsworthy material, it is ignored. (p.8) Other constraints on effective
journalism according to Fair include an over-reliance on government and/or elite
sources of information due to an unwillingness (or inability) to leave major
cities, and, for the same reason, an inability to examine more complex
socio-political issues. (p.9)
Fair (1993) moves away from the specifics of African coverage to give a
comprehensive definition of American journalism in the developing (and the
developed) world:
[T]he demand for corporate profit from news organizations, as well as the
newsgathering routines of pack journalism, crisis orientation, parachute
journalism, and capital city reportage, translate into a system of reporting
where journalists, who sometimes know very little about the countries from
which they are reporting, can indeed churn out a good deal of rather
standardized news products...but like any story or narrative form, news
stories are deeply rooted in the society from which they come. (p.9)
Other studies of routines and organizations have highlighted the tendency of
U.S. journalists to take part in these types of practices (Gans, 1979; Tuchman,
1978; Schudson, 1989; Shoemaker & Reese, 1996), prompted in large part by
accepted conceptions of "newsworthiness" and the economic constraints/demands
inherent in corporate journalism.
Finally, the concept of journalistic performance "norms" is one which relates
to many of the issues discussed in this section. The topic is one which is
covered in detail by McQuail (1992). McQuail goes to great lengths to outline
methods for analyzing some of the more difficult areas of media content such as
objectivity, bias and balance. In his chapter on objectivity, McQuail described
"completeness" in news reporting:
It is usually thought to be a precondition of proper understanding of news,
and the media generally promise completeness in the sense of a full range
of information. (p. 210)
McQuail also addressed the notions of context and follow-ups, issues brought up
by
scholars such as Fair (1993) and Dahlgren & Chakrapani (1982) in their critiques
of U.S.
media. He noted that there has been a certain amount of criticism aimed at
journalists for not providing conclusions to long-running stories, although
McQuail admits that the standards by which to evaluate completeness are
difficult to determine (p. 210-11).
In conclusion, previous academic studies have indicated that most coverage of
developing nations tends to be crisis-oriented, with little or no social,
political or economic context provided; the coverage is therefore shallow, and
essentially reinforces pre-existing views of developing nations as being
backwards or unable to self-govern. The inadequate coverage is a result of news
organizations' unwillingness to fund foreign correspondents, as well as
journalistic routines of using official and elite sources for their information,
searching for only "newsworthy" stories, and staying in urban areas. By
implication, the coverage could be improved through the use of non-official
sources, as well as the inclusion of context and detailed background
information. Also, follow-up stories would help to eliminate the sense of
"parachute journalism" present in current coverage.
The information obtained in this literature review will be used as a
springboard for my analysis of the New York Times' coverage of the crimes in
Scotland and Belgium. Questions of performance in those pieces will be
addressed with specific reference to the information provided above,
particularly the notions of "ideal" coverage (multi-sourced, non-urban, and
contextualized).
Methodology & Data Source
Methodology
The method to be used in this study will be close textual analysis of 34 New
York Times (NYT) articles. The justification for this methodology is that in
order to fully understand the way in which the newspaper created depth and
detail in its reporting, a word-by-word examination is necessary. Close textual
analysis also allows the researcher to cite both short and lengthy sections of
text to highlight a given point, and since this study is focusing on short
passages of text and entire articles, some latitude is needed. Close textual
analysis has proven to be an effective qualitative methodology for the
examination of topics as diverse as newspaper coverage of the Mike Tyson rape
case (Lule, 1995), coverage of the U.S. anti-drug crusade (Reeves & Campbell,
1994), and the framing of the Gulf War on local television newscasts (Reese &
Buckalew, 1995).
Data Source
Thirty-four (34) NYT articles, taken off of the Lexis-Nexis service will be
used in this study. The search words used to locate the Dunblane articles were:
"Dunblane"; the search words used to locate the Belgian articles were:
"Belgium", "child" (and derivatives thereof), "sex", and "murder". The search
dates for both cases were from the date of the first story (the "breaking news")
through November 10, 1996. All articles, with the exception of letters to the
editor, were used in the study.
The NYT was selected as the data source for this study for one main reason: the
NYT is generally considered to be the "paper of record" in the United States for
international news coverage. Academics such as Rodriguez (1996) have also noted
that the NYT is read by journalists from other news sources in order to gauge
what is "important" international news. The NYT also has one of the largest
numbers of foreign correspondents of any media organization in the United
States.
Concepts and Definitions
Three areas will be examined in this study: "local sourcing", ""story depth" ,
and "story development." The definitions of these phrases are as follows:
1) "Local sourcing" is the use of local citizens, either official or
non-official, as sources of information in any given article. The source must
be defined as local in order to be coded as such.
2) "Story depth" refers to the volume (number of articles, length, etc.),
background (personal history, regional history, etc.), and
social/economic/political context (political environment, social unrest,
on-going national debates, etc.) provided in the articles. Of the three
criteria, volume is the least important in determining depth. The conditions
for "depth" are necessarily broad, but will be justified (when appropriate) in
the Results section.
3) "Story development" refers to how the two crimes are explicitly connected by
the NYT to other domestic (in Britain or Belgium) or international events.
"Story development" does not refer to coverage of the specific crime, but rather
to how the crime is linked to other events.
Results
(Please note that all dates in the Results section refer to NYT articles from
1996).
Evidence of Local Sourcing: Scotland
The NYT coverage of the Dunblane school massacre contained information obtained
from a number of local sources, most commonly police officials, local
politicians, parents, and local citizens. This section will examine the use of
those sources in the coverage of the Scottish massacre. While reviewing the
results, it should be kept in mind that in times of crisis such as the aftermath
of a mass killing, the police and other officials are the most profitable
sources of information for journalists, since the number of dead and wounded,
and the identity of the killer(s) and/or suspect(s) are pieces of information
most likely to be at the disposal of official personnel. It could also be said,
however, that the use of official sources (such as the police) lends an
impersonal air to the piece, and does not generate the sense of "localism" that
an interview with a regular citizen might.
The first nine articles on the Dunblane massacre were those that had the
largest
integration of official (predominantly local) and non-official (predominantly
local citizens) sources. The article that broke the news of the killings (NYT,
3/14) contained a large number of local sources of information. The primary
source in this first article was a local police officer, but also included in
the piece were quotations from a rescue worker, a local town official, a local
resident, the head of the Stirling Scout Association, British Prime Minister
John Major, a local parent, a local teachers' group, and the pastor of Dunblane
Cathedral. While most of information gathered from the "official" police
sources were detail oriented (number of casualties, time of killings, etc.), the
non-official sources provided "reaction" quotations such as, "It's been a
horrible day...and it affects everyone here." (3/14)
After the initial story, there remained a strong local presence in the coverage
of the massacre. The first seven follow-up articles to the initial breaking
story (NYT, 3/15a, 3/15b, 3/16, 3/17, 3/18, 3/19, 3/23) contained quotations and
information obtained from a wide variety of local citizens and officials. Among
those interviewed (other than police officials) were local council members, gun
store owners and Dunblane citizens (3/15b); rescue workers and Dunblane mothers
(3/16); the editor of a British gun magazine (3/18); and, Ron Taylor, the
Headmaster of Dunblane Primary School and Margaret Finney, a school crossing
guard (3/23).
As the coverage of the massacre moved into its second week, the focus of the
stories moved away from Dunblane, and more towards Great Britain in general, and
specifically the debates surrounding gun control (10/20, 10/17, 8/14), the
safety of British schoolchildren (7/10), and violence in films (5/24, 4/14).
Because of this shift towards coverage of issues of national import, the number
of sources from Dunblane (and even Scotland) used in the stories became limited.
The primary sources (post-March 23, 1996) were government officials,
representatives of the British teachers' union, and gun-law critics.
Evidence of Local Sourcing: Belgium
Unlike that of the Dunblane massacre in Scotland, the NYT coverage of the
Belgian sex-crimes was not initially focused on one particular town. While the
murders and abuses took place in Charleroi, a significant amount of the coverage
focused on Brussels, since that is where the majority of activity (public
reactions, demonstrations, etc.) took place after the crimes were revealed. As
with the Scottish coverage, however, there was a good balance between official
and non-official local sources used, and the stories which emerged from Belgium
highlighted "citizen reaction" to the crimes even more than did those from
Dunblane.
Unlike the coverage of the Dunblane killings, where the prominence of local
sources diminished through time, the Belgian stories tended to contain more
"local" sources of information as the story developed. The first two articles
on the Dutroux murders (8/22, 9/4) had police and local authorities as the
primary sources of information; there were no interviews with local citizens or
victims' relatives. From the third story through the eleventh, however, a large
number of Belgian citizens, politicians, protesters, and union members were
cited (10/21a, 10/21b, 10/19,10/15, 10/10, 9/26, 9/25, 9/9, 9/8). In order to
generate a sense of local reaction in the local community after the discovery of
the bodies, an 83 year-old railroad engineer, a local policeman, a classmate of
one of the victims, a local mother and daughter, and a 22 year-old student were
interviewed in the third article (9/8). Other local citizens (from Charleroi and
Brussels) interviewed as the story developed were: a bookshop manager, an office
worker, and a businesswoman (10/10); firefighters, a nurse, four policemen, and
a house-painter (10/19); and, a mother/protest marcher in Brussels (10/21).
The local citizens who were interviewed for the articles above played much the
same "narrative role" as those in the stories from Scotland: they provided the
"local reaction" or "citizens response" angle, while police, local officials and
legal analysts provided the majority of the substantive details of the case. A
typical reaction from a Belgian citizen was as follows:
'I am here [at a rally in Brussels] to show solidarity with the parents,' said
one
marcher, Gerda Zammattio, the mother of a three-year-old daughter, Naomi.
'What has happened in the last few weeks has moved me greatly. The system
must become more humane.' (10/21)
An exception to the loose rule that official sources provided the substantive
details of the case came when Jeanine Lauwens, mother of the confessed killer
Marc Dutroux, was quoted at length on the topic of her son's upbringing and
early life (11/4).
Story Depth
As mentioned in the Method section, volume (number and length of articles) is
not the determining factor in whether or not the coverage of a story has
"depth." Having said this, volume should be seen as a necessary condition for
depth, since providing details and context in a story requires significant
space. With this in mind, a brief outline of the number of articles on, and
related to, the Dunblane killings and the Belgian sex-crimes, together with
article lengths will be given before any qualitative analysis of story depth.
A total of 21 pieces/articles on the Dunblane massacre were run in the NYT
between March 14 and November 10, 1996; a total of 13 pieces/articles were run
on the Belgian case between August 22 and November 4, 1996. The longest article
(directly addressing the killings and/or aftermath) on the Scottish killings was
1084 words; the longest article (directly addressing the killings and/or
aftermath) on the Belgian killings was 2259 words.
Evidence of Story Depth: Scotland
The NYT coverage of the Dunblane killings was marked by the depth of
information provided on three particular topics: the killer, Thomas Hamilton,
and his personal background; the environment in which the killings took place
(the town of Dunblane); and, finally, the socio-political context in Great
Britain both before and after the killings in regards to gun control.
The Killer: Thomas Hamilton
Starting with the first article published, the identity and background of
murderer Thomas Hamilton was thoroughly examined. Throughout the 21 articles,
the description of Hamilton rarely deviated from the first ones offered:
The Scottish police identified the gunman as Thomas Hamilton, 43, a loner
and
avid gun enthusiast who lived in a housing project in nearby Stirling. (3/14)
Mr. Hamilton, 43, a shambling loner whose obsession were guns, boys and
photography, was well known to children and parents in this tiny community,
even before he killed 16 small children...(3/15)
Hamilton, and his "obsession" with "guns and young boys" was a theme highlighted
by the NYT. It was also noted in the first article that:
In recent years, Mr. Hamilton led several local boys' clubs. In 1973 he was
made a Boy Scout leader in Stirling, the Scout Association said. But in
1974 he was asked to resign 'following complaints about unstable and
possibly improper behavior.' (3/14)
After these initial descriptions of Hamilton, the NYT began to focus on two
areas of his past: the obsession with young boys, and his history with guns.
References to the sexual connection to Hamilton's crime ended only after ten
articles. After the initial commentary that Hamilton's behavior had been
considered by locals as being "improper," more evidence was supplied suggesting
that the killer may have been something more than just a voyeur:
...regional council members said they had tried to get him removed from the
boys' clubs that he ran, in which children complained that he was overly
familiar, that he made them take their shirt off, and that he was obsessed
with photographing them. (3/15)
His [Hamilton's] problems began in 1974 when he was dismissed as Scout
leader for taking eight boys on an outing and claiming they spent the night
in a hostel when in fact they slept in a freezing van. (3/18)
References to Hamilton's use of, and obsession with, guns followed a similarly
detailed pattern. The first article noted that Hamilton, "had been a member of
several local gun clubs and appeared to have permits for some of his weapons."
(3/14) In a follow-up, the NYT revealed that Hamilton actually had permits for
all of the weapons he had owned, and pointed out that two of them were
"semi-automatic." (3/17) Finally, Hamilton's full arsenal was revealed:
...[R]eports widely printed in British newspapers assert that his gun
certificate
authorized him to possess two .357 Magnums and two 9-millimeter semi-
automatic pistols - all of which he reportedly used in his murderous
rampage - along with two rifles, which he apparently did not own. (3/18)
The environment: Dunblane
While references to the environment in Dunblane were not as detailed as those
of the personality and background of Thomas Hamilton, the NYT reporters clearly
made a point of "framing" the Scottish town in a positive light. In the initial
report of the killings, and in several follow-up articles, the town of Dunblane
was described in evocative terms:
A picturesque town of 7,000 people, many of them well-to-do commuters
with jobs in Edinburgh or Glasgow, Dunblane is known as a place of
friendly respectability and beautiful large houses, where people know
their neighbors and even burglary is seen as a exotic urban practice. (3/15)
The town was also portrayed as a near collective, whose citizens banded together
during a time of crisis:
Today, many stores on the High Street, the social center of this cathedral
town,
were closed. Some had signs out front, expressing sympathy for the families
of the children. (3/15)
But here, after three days of being besieged by reporters from around the
world,
the weary residents of Dunblane and Stirling were preparing for a non-
denominational vigil at the Dunblane Cathedral and said they were ready to be
left alone. (3/16)
Socio-Political context: gun control in Britain
Within its coverage of the massacre, the NYT did a thorough job of retelling
the recent history of British gun-control legislation and debate. The first
article, which was rich in detail and context, immediately addressed the issue
of gun-control in Britain:
The attack focused immediate attention on handgun legislation and school
security in a country where most police officers do not even carry guns...
(3/14)
[T]oday's incident stirred immediate memories of a similar one in Berkshire,
England, in which a gunman in Hungerford used an arsenal of weapons to kill
14 people before killing himself. That incident, in 1987, led to a law
banning
the use of automatic weapons and requiring permits for any guns taken off
the premises of authorized gun clubs. (3/14)
The gun-control angle was present in a majority of the articles on the Dunblane
killings, and further information provided on the topic included the following:
a brief description of the requirements for obtaining a gun permit in Britain
(3/15); an announcement that Prime Minister Major had appointed a Scottish
judge to investigate how Hamilton had obtained his licenses (3/16); that
Hamilton had actually "met Britain's tight legal requirements for gun ownership"
(3/17); a detailed description of the presence of legal and illegal firearms in
Britain, and a further breakdown of the requirements for obtaining a gun permit
(3/18); and, three articles following a movement in the British Parliament to
implement an outright ban on the ownership of handguns (8/14, 10/17, 10/20).
Evidence of Story Depth: Belgium
Up to November of 1996, the NYT ran eight fewer stories on the Belgian murders
than those on the Scottish, and so a slight discrepancy between the two in terms
of "depth" might have been expected. The coverage of the crime, however, proved
to be quite detailed, but unlike the coverage from Scotland, the NYT focused (in
"depth") on only two areas of the case: the background of the killer, Marc
Dutroux; and, public reaction in Belgium to the murders (and the police handling
of the investigation).
The Killer: Marc Dutroux
As with the Dunblane killings, the Charleroi murderer was known to the NYT as
soon as the story broke. Details on Marc Dutroux were readily available to the
press, primarily because he had a criminal record and had confessed to the
crimes. The information provided in the first article was repeated on a regular
basis throughout the other articles:
Marc Dutroux, 39, an unemployed electrician in Belgium who was previously
convicted of abusing children, has followed the pattern to the letter, and
now
he is back in police custody after having confessed to another series of
crimes...Dutroux was sentenced in 1989 to 13 years in prison on multiple
counts of rape and child abuse. But he was released after three years for
good
behavior...(8/22)
Follow-up articles elaborated on Dutroux's crimes, indicating that he had also
murdered a criminal associate (9/4), was involved in an international child
pornography ring (9/25), had kidnapped several children (10/10), and was
involved in car theft and drug trafficking (10/10, 11/4). A lengthy article
containing an interview with Dutroux's mother was published (11/4) which shed
some light upon his background, although the mother had lost contact with her
son some years earlier.
Public reaction to the murders
According to reports in the NYT, public reaction to the child murders in
Belgium was extremely strong, and the newspaper highlighted that "angle"
accordingly. While the initial articles on the killings focused on general
public outrage, later pieces began to illuminate a more deep-rooted hostility
many Belgians felt towards their political, legal, and criminal systems (a
hostility triggered in large part by the Charleroi killings).
The reaction to the murders in Belgium, as reported in the NYT, came in two
particular forms: the general outrage after the killings, and then the more
organized protests against both Dutroux and the Belgian authorities. The
general outrage followed a somewhat regular pattern:
The fate of the six girls has engendered a sense of national mourning in
Belgium, with television images from across the country today showing
cars driving around with black ribbons and demonstrators carrying signs
saying, 'To death.' (8/22)
In Brussels, an easy-living capital, the mood is dark and brooding. 'It's
like a collective depression,' said Andre de Wael, an office worker,
boarding a train to take a break in Paris, 'it's as if all our anxieties, as
if all things in the country, have become mixed up in these murders.'
(10/10)
As suggested in the final quotation, and as indicated in later articles, much of
the anger and confusion over the killings in Belgium was rooted in the fact that
the country was considered to a peaceful nation, immune from the type of crimes
committed by Dutroux (9/25, 10/10, 10/19, 10/21).
Reports on the more organized reactions to the murders came a number of weeks
after the killings were discovered, and especially after the chief judge
investigating the crimes, Jean-Marc Connerotte, was dismissed from the case for
attending a fund-raising dinner for families of the missing children. (10/14)
It was reported that Connerotte had become a national hero in Belgium, and that
the dismissal had provoked serious national reactions:
An issue that has already inspired nationwide anger and protest exploded,
with wildcat strikes and sit-ins and barricades on roads and train tracks...
Many say they believe press reports that the judge...was about to disclose
the names of senior officials who had been recognized on sex videotapes
confiscated in the case. (10/19)
The reports of public disturbances culminated with two stories on a public
protest march in Brussels attended by nearly 275,000 Belgians (10/20, 10/21).
The NYT framed the demonstration in the following way:
The march had been planned before Mr. Connerotte's dismissal last week,
and gained momentum in the days following, which were marked by
spontaneous protests around the country aimed increasingly at the nation's
entire political and judicial class. (10/21)
In a rather morose editorial, the NYT summed up its response to public reactions
to the killings (and the political scandals surrounding them):
These events would be business as usual in many nations, but until now,
Belgium did not consider itself one of them...The idea of lost European
innocence is touching but mythical...In the 20th century, moreover, more
people have died in the massacres, genocides and pogroms of supposedly
civilized Europe than on any other continent. (10/21)
Story Development
In this final section I will briefly detail the "development" of the two
stories under analysis, that is, I will examine how follow-up articles (after
the initial, breaking story) related the crimes to other domestic
(Belgian/British) and foreign issues. This results section is not as
"text-oriented" as the previous two, but is intended to illustrate the lengths
to which the NYT contextualized the stories (and in so doing added to "story
depth"), with "context" in this case relating to how the stories fit in to other
socio-political debates/issues around the world.
Story Development: Scotland
As mentioned in the section on "story depth," much of the post-crime coverage
of the Dunblane killings by the NYT focused on the gun control debate in
Britain. Stories following this theme were relatively spread out over the 8
month period. Some articles merely used the Dunblane killings as a springboard
into a detailed description of British gun control laws. (10/20, 10/17, 8/14)
In a number of these stories, comparisons were made between gun usage in the
United States and Great Britain. While stories on or about gun control were
predominant (and clearly the main thread that ran through the articles over
time), there were a number of articles on other topics that cited the incident
in Dunblane, or used the killings as a point of comparison. Alternative topics
to the gun control debate in the NYT included the following: a similar crime in
the United States (4/14); the attempted censoring by British authorities of an
incoming American film (5/24, 4/14); an attack at a second school in Britain
(7/10); and, two articles on the arts (9/12, 11/10).
In April, 1996, the NYT reported on a murder-suicide case in Eastchester, New
York. According to the paper, the killer bore a striking psychological
resemblance to the killer from Dunblane, Thomas Hamilton. The reporter noted
that both incidents have stimulated debate on gun control measures, as well as
the question of, "how one tells the difference between a neighbor who is
somewhat strange and one who is capable of murder." (4/14) An attack by a
machete-wielding man on a nursery school in Wolverhampton, England that left
three students injured was also framed within the context of the Dunblane
killings (7/10), as were moves by members of the British Parliament to have the
video distribution of the uncut version of the American film "Natural Born
Killers" halted (5/24, 4/14). Finally, two articles, one on photography (9/12)
and one on the opening of a new play in New Jersey (10/10) had references to the
Dunblane massacre. In an article covering an annual meeting of photojournalists
in France, the organizer, Jean-Francois Leroy, made a relevant connection
between the killings in Dunblane and those in other regions of the world:
He [Leroy] said photographers were still willing to work in distant regions
of the developing world or among the ailing or dispossessed in advanced
societies, but many of their reports were not getting published. 'We talk
about the poor kids murdered by a monster in Dunblane, Scotland because
they could be our kids,' Mr. Leroy said, 'but we don't care about the kids
in Bosnia.' (9/12)
Story Development: Belgium
The NYT articles covering the Belgian crimes had one overarching theme other
than details of the crime/criminal: social unrest. Of the 13 articles published
by the newspaper, seven dealt directly or indirectly with some type of social
unrest, demonstration or public gathering. All of those articles had the Dutroux
murders as the central focus. As mentioned previously, many of the articles
addressed public dissatisfaction with the political and legal system in Belgium.
Many of those pieces, in turn, dealt with a protest march in Brussels attended
by upwards of 275,000 Belgians (11/4, 10/20, 10/21).
In addition to the stories of social unrest, the NYT reported on a number of
other issues linked the Dutroux killings: the murder of a the Belgian Socialist
Party leader in 1991 (10/21, 10/19, 10/10, 9/9); a discussion of child
exploitation at the United Nations (9/25); and, the murder of a child in Germany
(9/26). Of the topics, coverage of the murder of the Socialist Party leader
proved to be the most detailed and illuminating. The NYT revealed that Alain
Van Der Biest had been arrested on September 9, 1996 for the murder of Andre
Cools. The link to the Dutroux murders, according to the paper, lay in the fact
that, "the prosecutors in the child-sex probe had previously investigated the
Cools murder." (9/9). Fuel was added to the Belgian protesters' fire when it
was revealed that the magistrate in the Dutroux case, Jean Connerotte, was
fired; the NYT reported that the chief magistrate in the Cools murder had
resigned when he was suspected of covering up information. According to the
NYT, the combination of the two events led to the mass distrust in the Belgian
legal system, and a belief that a culture of lies was operating with the
corridors of power in Brussels. (10/21, 10/20, 10/19).
Discussion/Implications/Conclusions
Coverage of Scotland & Belgium: Conforming to the "Academic Ideal"?
Sourcing
Many academics cited in the literature review considered the use of local,
non-elite sources to be part of the solution to the problem of unbalanced or
poor news reporting from developing nations. This leads to the question(s) of
whether or not the NYT did an adequate job of: (1) finding local sources, and
(2) finding local sources who were "non-elite," and if the use of those sources
added to the coverage of these developed nations any substantial way.
For the most part, the NYT did a credible job of integrating its local elite
and non-elite sources. As noted in the results, the majority of "hard"
information (suspect name, background information, criminal history, number of
casualties) came from official sources. While a large number of "regular"
Scottish and Belgian citizens were interviewed or quoted in the 34 articles,
their comments tended to be of the "reaction," "grief-stricken," or "outraged"
nature. This is hardly surprising, however, since one would not expect regular
citizens to have access to "hard" information (unless, of course, they were
eye-witnesses or knew the killer).
The use of "regular," non-elite sources, however, did dramatically change the
tone of the articles. By giving Scots and Belgians column inches in which to
voice their opinions, a sense of localism, community, and humanity was generated
in the articles. By supplying an outlet for what was essentially public opinion
on the murders, the NYT provided readers with a social context to the aftermath
of the killings. Rather than simply reporting on the murders and ignoring
citizen reaction (as is the case in many other foreign crime stories), the NYT
writers "used" (either wittingly or unwittingly) public reaction and outrage to
create an image of two countries whose citizens do not accept violent crime as
an everyday occurrence, and have cultures that are firmly rooted in
Judeo-Christian values.
Background, Context, & Follow-Ups
The issues of background, context, and follow-ups are directly related to
"story depth" and "story development." Again, many scholars noted that, as a
result of various journalistic constraints (usually economic) and routines
(often culturally biased), coverage of developing nations tended to ignore the
social, political and economic contexts within which events took place. The
result, it was argued, was fragmented and essentially worthless information that
had little or no relation to the "real story." Decontextualization also led to
developing nations being seen as "typically backward" or "fundamentally flawed."
The issue here, therefore, is whether or not the NYT satisfied the various
conditions for contextualization, and, if so, how it affected the image of the
two developed nations.
To begin, the stories from Scotland and Belgium were written with a significant
amount of depth. In both cases the killer was identified immediately, and
information on his background was given in detail. Hamilton's association with
guns and young boys was expanded upon, as was Dutroux's obsession with
kidnapping and pornography. Issues from within the socio-political spheres of
Britain and Belgium were also addressed: in the case of Britain it was handgun
control, and in Belgium, political and legal corruption. Finally, the town of
Dunblane was described in rather evocative detail creating an image of a quaint,
peaceful town destroyed by a horrific act of violence.
Associated with the idea of "story depth" was that of "story development."
Both of the storylines analyzed contained a large number of "connected" or
"related" stories. These connected or related issues (such as the second school
attack in Britain and the Andre Cools murder in Belgium) added further depth to
the existing stories by placing them in a broader context. By the NYT
connecting the Dunblane killings to the murders in Eastchester, New York, for
example, the Scottish killings could be seen in a more "global" perspective, as
were related issues such as gun control and child safety. In the same way, the
connection made between the Charleroi killings and a murder in Germany generated
a cross-national context for the Belgian crime.
It appears that the NYT did satisfy many of the requirements for creating
context (other than simply having follow-up articles). The depth and
development of the Scottish and Belgian stories placed the two events in a
broader context, and suggested to the reader that the murders and kidnappings
did not take place in social, political, or economic vacuums. The reports on
the demonstrations in Brussels were particularly valuable in painting a picture
of Belgian society, and indicated the depths to which the Belgian citizenry
distrusted elites in their country. Clearly, without a given context, crimes
will appear to be random and, to a certain extent, typical. The nations of
Britain and Belgium, due to the background and context provided, were portrayed
as essentially peaceful and compassionate lands, but not without their problems.
"Crisis Coverage" or Legitimate Social Issues?
What distinguishes legitimate coverage of a crisis situation from what has
become known as "crisis coverage" (in the negative sense) has rarely been
elaborated upon. I would posit that while stories such as those from Dunblane
and Belgium are "crisis" stories, they have been transformed into legitimacy (in
an academic rather than professional sense) through detailed sourcing, depth,
and development.
Coverage of an earthquake, plane crash or mass murder without appropriate
background and contextual information leads to the classic "crisis coverage"
outlined by a number of scholars (Larson, 1982; Fair, 1993; Harrison 1986). The
question to be addressed, however, is whether or not the majority of news
coverage (both domestic and international) is not crisis-oriented, and if so,
what distinguishes the good crisis coverage from the bad?
What essentially transformed the Scottish and Belgian stories from mere tales
of blood-and-mayhem to legitimacy was the connection of the crimes to broader
social and political issues. While the murders may have been the genesis for
the 34 stories, the fact remains that the majority of the articles dealt with
other issues such as social upheaval and gun control, which, while related to
the crimes, freed the journalists from merely giving body-counts and injury
reports. Much of the criticism of classic "crisis coverage" centers around the
fact that it is not linked to any domestic or international social issues. The
coverage from Scotland and Belgium shows how crisis events can be linked to
social issues in concrete ways.
Implications for the "Developed vs. Developing" Debate
Perhaps more than anything else, the results of this study can only add fuel to
the fire of those who criticize American news coverage of developing nations. A
secondary consideration is that while thousands of child murders, many more
gruesome than those in Scotland and Belgium, go unreported, the killings in
Dunblane and Charleroi were front-page material for months. Fair (1993) and
Herman & Chomsky (1988) are perhaps correct, therefore, when they assert that
only those countries culturally "proximate" to the United States are deemed
"worthy" of such coverage.
The answer to both issues could lie in the simple economics of American
international journalism: newspapers are simply unwilling to pay for costly
correspondents in developing nations. The New York Times had correspondents in
London and Paris, and so when the killings took place in Dunblane and Charleroi,
there was no economic reason not to send them there; and, in actual fact, the
stories were extremely "newsworthy" to begin with: two small regions of Europe,
usually unaccustomed to extreme violence, experience horrific acts against
children. On top of this, one of the stories took place in a country where
English was the native language.
While the above arguments defending the NYT against accusations of geographical
bias are substantial, the fact remains that the newspaper decided to run
detailed stories on the two crimes, when it had chosen not to do so on hundreds,
if not thousands, of other occasions when similar crimes occurred (an example
being the massacre of street children in Rio de Janeiro). Also, the two stories
it did decide to run (in detail) both originated in Western Europe, suggesting
that the NYT considered that region to be more worthy of such in-depth coverage
than other areas of the world. The 34 articles by the NYT on the two crimes are
not radical departures from journalistic procedure, but their depth, sourcing,
and development are relatively abnormal, and as such generate questions with
regards to the editorial reasoning behind the decision to run them. The detailed
coverage of the Dunblane and Charleroi killings, when juxtaposed to previous
(relatively thin) coverage of violent events in developing nations, leads one
to believe that cultural bias and cultural proximity are as important, if not
more important, factors than economic constraints.
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