波蘭總統專機墜毀事件的媒體框架分析：一個波蘭與俄羅斯的比較研究 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學位學程 International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University. 立. 治碩士論文政大. Master’s Thesis. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 波蘭總統專機墜毀事件的媒體框架分析：一個波蘭與俄羅斯的比較研究. sit. y. Nat. Media Framing of the 2010 Polish Air Force Crash – A Comparative. er. io. n. Content Analysisa of Media Coverage in Poland v and Russia. i l C n hengchi U. Student: Karolina Goebel 高若琳 Advisor: Professor Tsung-Jen Shih 施琮仁. 中華民國104年6月 June 2015.

(2) 波蘭總統專機墜毀事件的媒體框架分析：一個波蘭與俄羅斯的比較研究 Media Framing of the 2010 Polish Air Force Crash – A Comparative Content Analysis of Media Coverage in Poland and Russia. 研究生: 高若琳. Student: Karolina Goebel. 指導教授 : 施琮仁. Advisor: Tsung-Jen Shih. 立. 政治大碩士論文. 學. ‧ 國. 國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學位學程. ‧ y. sit. Nat. A Thesis. er. io. Submitted to International Master’s Program in International. n. a lCommunication Studies i v n Ch U i e n g c hUniversity National Chengchi. in partial fulfillment of the Requirement for the degree of Master in International Communication Studies. 中華民國104年6月 June 2015.

(3) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(4) ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am grateful to Professor Shih Tsung-Jen (施琮仁), my thesis advisor, for all of the much needed guidance, direction and patience throughout each stage of the study. I thank my other committee members, Professors Sun Sewen (孫式文) and Liu Wen Ying (劉文英), for their helpful suggestions and comments. I dedicate this thesis to my parents, Urszula and Adam, for their unconditional support and love. I hope this achievement of mine will complete the dream that we all shared and. 政治大. which you made come to life those many years ago when you chose to give me the best. 立. education you could. And to my sisters, Magda and Kasia, who never failed to give me words. 學 ‧. ‧ 國. of encouragement whenever I needed them.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(5) ABSTRACT This paper examines how selected Polish (TVN24) and Russian (RT) news media framed, sourced and attributed the responsibility in the news coverage of the 2010 Polish Presidential plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, from April 10, 2010 to January 20, 2011. Through a content analysis of 519 news stories, this study shows that the most common frames were attribution of responsibility, human interest, international relations, conflict, conspiracy theories, and Katyn Forest massacre for TVN24, and attribution of responsibility, international relations, human interest, conspiracy theories, conflict, and Katyn Forest. 政治大 unfolding event brought attention to new issues. Additionally, results showed that both outlets 立 massacre for RT. In the media coverage of the plane crash frames changed over time as the. ‧ 國. 學. put the responsibility for the crash on pilots. The most common sources in the two media outlets were politicians/officials and experts.. ‧ y. Nat. er. io. sit. Keywords: Media Framing, Comparative Study, Content Analysis, News Coverage, 2010 Polish presidential plane crash. n. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(6) TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgment .....................................................................................................................................v Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. vi Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................. vii List of Tables and Figures .................................................................................................................... viii. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................1 LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................ 5 Poland – Russia Relations ....................................................................................................................5. 政治大 Poland-Russia Relations in the Aftermath of the Plane Crash .............................................................8 立 Media and International Relations......................................................................................................10 Polish Air Force Tu-154 Crash.............................................................................................................7. ‧ 國. 學. Media Framing ...................................................................................................................................13 Attribution of Responsibility ..............................................................................................................19. ‧. News Sources .....................................................................................................................................21 News Sources and Media Framing .....................................................................................................24. y. Nat. sit. METHOD ............................................................................................................................................26. er. io. Sample and Unit of Analysis ..............................................................................................................26 Coding ................................................................................................................................................29. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. Intercoder Reliability ..........................................................................................................................31. engchi. FINDINGS...........................................................................................................................................33 Use of News Frames ...........................................................................................................................33 Attribution of Responsibility ..............................................................................................................36 Use of News Frames Across Time .....................................................................................................37 Use of News Sources ..........................................................................................................................39 Relations Between News Sources and Frames ...................................................................................40. DISCUSSION .....................................................................................................................................43 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research ................................................................................48 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................................49 References .............................................................................................................................................51 Appendix A. Code Book .......................................................................................................................69 Appendix B. Articles (TVN24) ............................................................................................................73.

(7) List of Tables and Figures Table 1 The 2010 Presidential plane crash media frames coding key. 30. Table 2 Intercorder reliability test results. 32. Table 3 News coverage frames. 35. Table 4 Attribution of responsibility. 36. Table 5 Major news source. 40. Table 6 Relations between news sources and frames (TVN24). 41. Table 7 Relations between news sources and frames (RT). 42. 政治大. Figure 1 Do you agree that the Katyn massacre remains the main source of difficulties in the contemporary relations between Poland and Russia? 6. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Figure 2 How would you evaluate the future of relations between Poland and Russia after the presidential plane crash in Smolensk? 9. ‧. Figure 3 Attribution of responsibility frame, human interest frame, and international relations frame distribution across time (TVN24) 38. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Figure 4 Attribution of responsibility frame, human interest frame, and international relations frame distribution across time (RT). Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(8) 1. Introduction The relationships between countries are profoundly important aspects of global society as they influence the way the entire population of the world, divided into separate communities, live. Even though Poland and Russia are closely related to each other both ethnically and culturally, the countries’ relations have always been considered one of the most complicated in Europe. It is a result of centuries of conflict between the two countries. The most controversial dispute between Poland and Russia revolves around the mass killing of Polish officers in April 1940 in the Katyn Forest and it severely influenced the relationships. 政治大. between the two countries. In the post-communist era, the tensions between Poland and. 立. Russia have only stoked.. ‧ 國. 學. Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash is a precedent in the history of the world aviation and the history of politics. This fatal accident, that occurred on April 10, 2010, in Smolensk,. ‧. Russia, resulted in a tragic death of 96 people, including the president of the sixth biggest. Nat. sit. y. country in the European Union (EU), North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) generals,. n. al. er. io. and Polish political elite. The purpose of the political visit of the top Polish officials in Russia. i n U. v. was to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre when the Soviet secret. Ch. engchi. police murdered about 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia (Przewoznik, 2010). Each of the 96 people on the board of the Tu-154 treated the invitation to the ceremony as an honor. Symbolic was not only the place of the crash, but also the context in which the event occurred. In the era of globalization and communication technology media have a significant influence on international relations. Through coverage of foreign crisis, media are able to create an emotional response from public who may extort policy-maker to take an action (Neuman, 1996). That was the case in 1994 when the Clinton administration decided to.

(9) 2 withdraw from Somalia after media’s negative representations of the issue which caused public response and pressure to retreat (Bly, 2002). Following the undeniable importance of news coverage of international events, framing is one of the useful aspects to study media coverage of international events. Pavlik (2008) defined frame as a tool to organize ideas and thoughts so that particular events and issues make sense as they are put in a meaningful context. The context may be influenced by social and political reality, stereotypes, prejudices, and political agendas. In other words, the way media in different countries frame the same message highly depends on the cultural. 政治大 India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines how English-language media in立. context, as well as political and economic ideologies. Maslog, Lee & Kim (2006) explored. ‧ 國. 學. represented the war on Iraq according to their own perspectives. The results showed that the media differed significantly in their distribution of war and peace frames and there was no. ‧. uniformity in their perception and framing of the incident. The process of framing is intrinsic. sit. y. Nat. in the process of making news and may have a great influence on the audience’s perception of. n. al. er. io. reality. Through the keywords, metaphors, visual images, concepts, and symbols embodied in. i n U. v. the news (Entman, 1991), media framing determines the way in which the public understand. Ch. engchi. the events or processes (Evans, 2008). Framing can take various forms, and Semetko & Valkenburg (2000) studied the differences in the use of news frames of European politics in four national newspapers and three national television outlets in Holland and showed that the most common frames were attribution of responsibility, conflict, economic consequences, human interests and morality. The authors noted that the way European politics and issues are framed in the news may influence public understanding and evaluation of the issues, institutions, and political actors and that the public’s perception may easily be changed depending on what frames are used in the media coverage..

(10) 3 While analyzing media frames of controversial issues, it is helpful to explore news sources used in the media coverage as they are an important element of the framing process. While writing their stories, journalists interact with different news sources and choose those that are suitable to the topic and audience. Depending on the source used in media coverage, media may present different picture of the same issue. Thus, analysis of the usage of news sources can provide additional information on how media differ in their choice of sources and how it influences the process of framing (Lasorsa & Reese, 1990). There is an impressive literature that explains the key concepts of international. 政治大 relations have also been an interest 立 for many scholars, most of which proposed an agenda for. relations (i.e., Griffiths & O’Callaghan, 2012; Calrsnaes, Risse, Simmons, 2013). US – Russia. ‧ 國. 學. the improvement of the relationship between the two countries that significantly deteriorated (i.e., Pifer, 2009; Aslund & Kuchins, 2009; Rojansky & Collins, 2010). Contemporary. ‧. international relations between Poland and Russia, and its historical context, has been an area. Nat. sit. y. of interest for many years (i.e., Polinceusz, 2009; Grodzki, 2010; Maciazek, 2011; Zieba,. n. al. er. io. 2011; Zukowski, 2011) with recent literature focusing on the aftermath of the accident in. i n U. v. Smolensk on the Polish-Russian dialogue (i.e., Tucker, 2010; Wonicki, 2010; Machalski,. Ch. engchi. 2011;) expressing hope for the improvement of the relations. There is also a constantly growing collection of literature related to media’s influence on foreign affairs (i.e., Gowing, 1994; Neuman, 1996; Bahador, 2007; Evans, 2008; Van Belle & Potter, 2011; Yordanova, 2012; Robinson, 2013) most of which support the old hypothesis that the media indeed have an influence on the decision making in foreign policy. However, they often fail to define the degree to which the media coverage play their role in foreign affairs. Some studies have examined the ways media of selected countries portray foreign nations focusing on one country’s media (i.e., Yu & Riffe, 1989; Saleem, 2007) or comparing media of selected countries (i.e., Soderlund & Schmitt, 1986; Soderlund, Wagenberg, Surlin, 1989; Yang,.

(11) 4 2003). None of those studies explored media in Poland and Russia. There is also still a lack of research in the area of media coverage of the Smolensk plane crash. Even though there are some studies about media coverage of the incident (i.e., Krasko, 2011; Dabrowski, 2011; Rogoz, 2011; Grzyb & Dolinski, 2013) none of them have compared news from Russia and Poland and they did not attempt to explore the framing perspective. This thesis is organized as follows. The first part of literature review outlines the context of this study, including the complex relations between Poland and Russia, the background of the tragedy in Smolensk, and its aftermath. The second part presents the. 政治大 sources. After introducing the data 立 and methods, the analytical section presents the results of literature review on media and international relations, media framing, metaphors, and news. ‧ 國. 學. the content analysis of media coverage of the Polish Air Force crash in Poland (TVN24) and Russia (RT). Through the comparison of media narratives, this thesis aims to explore if the. ‧. historical context of mutual antagonism and complicated relations between Poland and Russia. Nat. sit. y. influenced the way media outlets in both countries framed the plane crash in Smolensk. A. n. al. er. io. cross-national comparative study may be beneficial for making noticeable aspects that. i n U. v. remained invisible, especially the extent to which different factors (such as the national. Ch. engchi. institutional, political, and social contexts, as well as cross-national differences in journalistic practices, norms, and roles) influence the development of frames in the news (De Vreese, Peter, & Semetko, 2001). Additionally, such comparison of the narratives is the best way to fully and reliably disclose frames which are usually difficult to identify because they may appear as natural and unnoticeable choice of words and images. It thus is expected to show that such choices are never inevitable, but reflect the widespread perspective salient in the country (Entman, 1991). The way the plane crash was framed in the news can have important implications for public perception, understanding and evaluation of the issue. The final.

(12) 5 conclusion then summarizes and appraises the main findings and propose a route for future research.. Literature Review Poland – Russia Relations Poland – Russia relations have been marked by centuries of conflicts and suspicions towards each other and are considered one of the thorniest in Europe. The burden of the past, the repetitive attempts by Russia to dismember of Poland in the 18th and 19th centuries, and. 政治大 initiated 10 years of non-aggression between the two countries, led to the division of eastern 立 signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 by Germany and the Soviet Union which. ‧ 國. 學. European countries between them and enabled Germany to attack Poland on September 1, 1939. The mass killing of about 22,000 Polish officers by Stalin’s secret police in April 1940. ‧. in the Katyn Forest is probably one of the most controversial disputes between the two. sit. y. Nat. countries and is still affecting the mutual relations. Even though NKVD tried to keep the. io. al. er. crime a secret, the mass graves were discovered by Germans on April 10, 1943. It took Soviet. v. n. Union 47 years to admit guilt for the massacre in the Katyn Forest (Satter, 2012).. Ch. engchi. i n U. There are two implications that make it difficult for the Poles to forgive. One is the fact, that even though the Russian government admitted their guilt, they have never officially apologized for the Katyn massacre and have never described it as a crime against humanity. Second implication is the classified status of most of the record of the Russian investigation although Russian law does not allow classifying documents related to abuse of human rights (Satter, 2012). This is visible in Public Opinion Research Center’s polls that reflect the population’s perception of Polish-Russian relations. When asked “Do you agree that the massacre in the Katyn Forest is still the main source of difficulties in the contemporary relations between Poland and Russia?” in May 2008, 22% of Poland’s populations responded.

(13) 6 “Strongly agree” and 47% answered “Agree.” Only two percent responded “Strongly disagree” and 19% disagreed (Figure 1).. Strongly disagree. 2%. Disagree. 17%. Hard to tell. 14%. Agree. 47%. Strongly agree. 立. 0%. 政治 22%大. 10%. 20%. 30%. 40%. 50%. ‧ 國. 學. Source: Public Opinion Research Center BS/70/2008: Memory of the Katyn massacre and the evaluation of its impact on the Polish-Russian relation. ‧. Figure 1. Do you agree that the Katyn massacre remains the main source of difficulties in the contemporary relations between Poland and Russia?. Nat. sit. y. The tensions between the two countries continued with Poland demanding missile. n. al. er. io. partnership defense facilities be deployed on its territory, interfering with Russia’s entry into. i n U. v. the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a dispute around the. Ch. engchi. location of Nord Stream project, as well as Russia’s maneuvers stimulating attack on Poland (Grodzki, 2010). In 2007, the government formed by Platforma Obywatelska (PO; Civic Platform) and Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (PSL; Polish People’s Party) chose a pragmatic approach to form relations with Russia. This came in accord with the decision of newly elected president of the United States, Barack Obama, to ‘reset’ the relations with Russia. Polish government decided to departure from the aggressive tone and the abandonment of unsuccessful attempts to exclude Russia from participation in the group of countries associated to the West. Poland withdrew from preventing talks with Russia about the country’s accession to the OECD and dropped veto on the negotiating mandate for talks on a.

(14) 7 new system of cooperation and partnership between the EU and Russia. Additionally, starting from 2008, both countries have participated in mutual summits and official meetings, including the visit of Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Poland’s Prime Minister in Russia, as well as the visit of Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Poland to join the events marking the 70th anniversary of World War II. The tension between Russia and Poland had once again risen as Poland’s President Kaczynski (representing anti-Russia sentiments) openly supported Georgia in the conflict in 2008, accusing the Federation of believing that it can become the empire again (Nagorski, 2008).. 政治大 Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski, who informed Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 立. In February 2010, Putin invited Tusk to join the celebrations, what resulted in wrath of. ‧ 國. 學. Russia’s Embassy in Poland about his willingness to participate in the event. This was not the first time when conflict arose between top Polish officials as who is supposed to represent the. ‧. country on the international arena. Many started to speculate that Russia decided to invite. sit. y. Nat. Tusk because they were afraid of president Kaczynski’s controversial and radical statements. io. al. er. that could annihilate many months of attempts to normalize the relations between the two. v i n C h President (April Prime Minister (April 7, 2010) and Poland’s e n g c h i U 10, 2010). n. countries. A compromise had been reached as two separate visits were planned for Poland’s. Polish Air Force Tu-154 Crash The ceremony for Poland’s President, marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre was planned for Saturday morning on April 10, 2010 in Katyn, Russia. It was the second, unofficial, ceremony following one on April 7, held by Prime Ministers Donald Tusk and Vladimir Putin. That day, the Smolensk North Airport was covered in thick fog and the visibility was around 400 meters. Pilots of the Polish Presidential plane were informed about that fact by the flight controller in Minsk but no decision had been made on whether to change the course to another airport. The plane collided with trees and crashed about 500 meters from.

(15) 8 the airport. None of the 96 people on board, including Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, former president, the chief of the Polish General Staff, Polish military officers, the president of National Bank of Poland, Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Polish government officials, members of the Polish parliament and clergy, as well as relatives of victims of the Katyn massacre, survived (Turwon & Wojtowicz, 2011).. Poland – Russia Relations in the Aftermath of the Plane Crash Right after the plane crash, seeing the numerous acts of solidarity, support and help from Russians, many were voicing the possibility for the Russian-Polish relations to improve. 政治大. and to resolve the long-lasting dispute revolving around the mass murder in the Katyn Forest. 立. (Grodzki, 2010; Tucker, 2010; Krasko, 2011). Russian authorities tried to show their good. ‧ 國. 學. will and, at the same time, to demonstrate the efficiency of their country. Soon after the accident, Putin offered his assistance and became the head of the Russian commission which. ‧. main aim was to investigate the cause of the fatal crash (Grodzki, 2010). Russian television. y. Nat. sit. program was interrupted with a speech of Dmitry Medvedev, who ensured Poles about. n. al. er. io. Russian’s sympathy and willingness to cooperate with Polish side (Krasko, 2011). The results. i n U. v. of a poll conducted by Public Opinion Research Center in June 2010 (two months after the. Ch. engchi. plane crash), asking participants to evaluate the future of relations between Poland and Russia, show that 48% of respondents believed that the relations will improve, 37% claimed they won’t change, while only five percent stated that the relations will worsen (Figure 2). Russia’s investigation of the causes of the crash was concluded on October 20, 2010 and sent to the Polish authorities who had 60 days to state their comments after which the report was published to the public on January 12, 2011. Polish site had expressed their dissatisfaction with the report saying that it was incomplete, violated Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (“Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation”), and did not take comments made by Polish officials into consideration (“MSWiA: Polska.

(16) 9 występowała o kopie nagrań...”). The report put whole blame on the pilots who failed to make a timely decision to proceed to another airport after ignoring numerous warnings given by the flight controllers in Smolensk. Additionally, Russian’s investigation team claimed that one of the reasons of the crash was presence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Air Force in the plane’s cockpit, what put pilots in a situation of psychological pressure to continue landing despite the weather (Raport końcowy z badania zdarzenia lotniczego). Polish site, on the other hand, stated that the pilots were not the only ones responsible for the accident, and put a partial blame on the Russian flight controllers who passed incorrect information to the plane crew regarding the plane’s actual position. Additionally, the Polish report mentioned. 治政大 lightning system, and three deficiencies in the airport in Smolensk (tall trees, approach 立 incorrect airport information received by Poland) which also contributed to the accident ‧ 國. 學. (Raport końcowy w sprawie ustalenia okoliczności i przyczyn...).. ‧. 5,00%. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat They will worsen Hard to tell. C h10,00% engchi. i n U. They will not change. v. 37,00%. They will improve. 48,00% 0%. 10%. 20%. 30%. 40%. 50%. 60%. Source: Public Opinion Research Center BS/67/2010: Public Opinion About Katyn Massacre and Its Significance for Polish – Russian Relations. Figure 2. How would you evaluate the future of relations between Poland and Russia after the presidential plane crash in Smolensk?.

(17) 10. Media and International Relations In a world where almost everything is mediated, everyone is under the influence of the media, even policy makers of international affairs as proven by a research on a growing media impact on foreign policies (Cohen, 1963). The following part of this section outlines a few aspects of the relationship between media and international relations: media as a source of information and communication channel for policy makers, the role of the media in foreign policy decision-making, and the effect of media on country image.. 政治大. First, the news media is the main source of information about world affairs for many. 立. people around the globe. This includes diplomats who rely on mass media not only to explore. ‧ 國. 學. the broad range of international affairs, but also as a source of information about their foreign partners in negotiations (Zhang, 2011). In his study, Yoel Cohen (1986), showed that. ‧. Members of British Parliament, interest groups, and research institutions who were preparing. y. Nat. io. sit. their reports for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, almost entirely depended. n. al. er. on media as their source of information about international developments. However, as. Ch. i n U. v. Bernard Cohen (1963) noted, the press is more of a larger network of communication that. engchi. helps the policy makers define the current political situation than a newspaper on which the policy makers depend for their political knowledge. One of the advantages of using media as a communication tool in international negotiations is improved speed of delivering the messages in comparison to formal diplomatic channels which are much slower (Zhang, 2011). On the other hand, the possibility of incorrect interpretation of information, negative presentation of a negotiator’s public image and improper timing of revealing the information may have a negative effect on negotiations (Davison, 1974)..

(18) 11 Second, scholars have been exploring the media effect, which suggests that media coverage may influence the conduct of the US diplomacy and foreign policy, and argued that media coverage of a humanitarian crisis influenced the government’s decision-making process (i.e., Robinson, 2002). Thanks to the new technology, news media has become immediate and able to pressure politicians to respond quickly to what the media are focusing on. Major international conflicts, such as the Gulf War in 1991, conflict in Somalia in 1992, the Bosnian crisis and Kosovo, are considered evidences of the existence of media effect, as the media coverage of those events caused Western countries, especially the USA, to take. 治政 Martin Shaw (1993) showed that media framing of the Iraqi大 rebellions and humanitarian 立 crisis, drove Western countries to take an action. In contrast, in the case of the Shi’ite. actions and to change their policies towards those countries (Zhang, 2011). In his research,. ‧ 國. 學. rebellion, there was not a distinct terminology frame, as well as a lesser media attention, and. ‧. the Western governments did not take any action.. Nat. sit. y. Third, the news media also acts as an important tool for creating the image of a. n. al. er. io. country which “determines the way in which the world sees it and treats it” (Zhang 2011,. v. p.14). Kunczik (1997) defined national image as “the cognitive representation that a person. Ch. engchi. i n U. holds of a given country, what a person believes to be true about a nation and its people” (p. 9). He also wrote, “Images of certain nations, however right or wrong they might be, seem to form [themselves], fundamentally, through a very complex communication process involving varied information sources... But radio and TV transmissions of international programs, newspapers, books, news services and so on are probably the strongest image shapers” (p. 1). Navasky (cited in Zeizer & Allen, 2002) said that people tend to make up their national mind largely basing on journalism (p.1). Philip Kotler et al. (1993) first proposed a concept of a nation’s ‘brand’ which basic assumption is that countries, regions, and cities can be branded in the same way as companies.

(19) 12 and products. To make the process of nation branding successful, all of a nation’s forces have to be mobilized to promote the country image abroad (Zhang, 2011). For example, the Chinese government established an Overseas Propaganda Department in 1991 which published a series of papers addressing issues concerning human rights and Tibet (Zhang & Meadows, 2012). Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Saudi Arabia launched an image-repair campaign that included paid spots on media outlets in the USA, foreign speaking engagements, and polls among American public regarding opinions about the country (Zhang & Meadows, 2012). However, the empirical evidence of how nation’s brand can influence its. 政治大 The image of a country立 in media may change over time, driven by the countries. foreign relations is absent (Zhang, 2011).. ‧ 國. 學. relations as well as major events in political and economical developments. Zhang (2011) conducted a 17-year longitudinal study (1989-2005) of the image of China presented in three. ‧. European newspapers, the Financial Times, The Economist, and the International Herald. Nat. sit. y. Tribune. Her findings show three major changing images of China in the media over time.. n. al. er. io. First, media presented the image of a problematic China (1989-1992) which followed the. i n U. v. Tiananmen Square student demonstration and the abolishment of communism in Eastern. Ch. engchi. Europe. Media tended to show a very pessimistic view of China, discussing the possibilities for the collapse of Chinese economy and politic in the context of the post-Cold War. The image of a problematic China remained the same until 1992 when it started to be replaced by the image of an economically attractive China (since 1993). Media in Europe wrote about China’s big potential market, great opportunities for investments, its rapid growth, and the activities of Western and Chinese companies. They projected an image of a very dynamic country which attracted attention worldwide. During the last decade of the study, media tended to present the image of a rising China (since 1998). They reported the ways in which.

(20) 13 China was engaging in the global market and how its changes in economy-related issues were having an influence on the world.. Media Framing Following the undeniable importance of news coverage of international events, framing is one of the useful aspects to study media coverage of international events. As Semetko & Valkenburg (2000) noted, the way international issues are framed in the news may influence public understanding and evaluation of them. An impressive literature explains frames and framing (i.e., Goffman, 1972; Entman, 1991, 1993; Edelman, 1993; Scheufele,. 政治大. 1999; Van Gorp, 2007; Chong & Druckman, 2007), and even though no single definition of. 立. the term exists, most of the authors point out similar characteristics. A broad explanation of. ‧ 國. 學. framing sees it as a collection of different linguistic descriptions of the same problem, or, in other words, a various formulations of the same message that convey the same core. ‧. information. According to this approach, “framing (...) can be achieved through the use of. y. Nat. sit. different articulations attained by highlighting different aspects (...) as long as the main. n. al. er. io. message does not change” (Keren 2011, p. 5). Entman (1993) pointed out to selection and. i n U. v. salience, and said that „to frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make. Ch. engchi. them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, more evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation” (citied in Reese 2003, p. 10). In other words, framing is a process of drawing attention to specific aspects of a topic and minimizing attention to others (Samaras, 2002). Goffman (1972) and Samaras (2002) defined frame as an interpretation of various events that enables individuals to “locate, perceive, identify and label occurrences within their living space and the world at large” (p. 71). Pavlik (2008) saw frame as a tool to organize ideas and thoughts so that particular events and issues make sense as they are put in a meaningful context which may be influenced by the social and political reality, stereotypes, prejudices, and political agendas..

(21) 14 Framing is a fundamental aspect of the process of news making as journalists are empowered to decide what pieces of information to include while reporting a story and what to leave out (Straubhaar & LaRose, 2004). Tuchman (1978) viewed media framing crucial in the process of turning “non-recognizable happenings into a discernible event” (citied in Scheufele 1999, p. 106), while Gitlin (1980) noted that media frames enable journalists to quickly identify and classify information and put them into context. In his definition of media frames, Tuchman (1978) pointed out that “the news frame organizes everyday reality and the news frame is the part and parcel of everyday reality... [it] is an essential feature of news”. 治政大media, media professionals and information, while Reese (2003) defined framing as the way 立 their audiences organize and make sense of events and issues. He also noted that the way an (p. 193). Neuman et al. (1992) saw news frames as tools to convey, interpret and evaluate. ‧ 國. 學. event or issue is cast makes a big difference in how people respond to it. Additionally,. ‧. framing allows journalists to deliver large amounts of data by recognizing it as information,. sit. y. Nat. assigning it to specific categories, and packaging it in order to efficiently relay it to the. io. er. audience (Samaras, 2002). Gamson (2004) compared media framing to a picture frame, saying that, similarly to a picture frame, media frame “places borders around something. al. n. v i n C h distinguishing itUfrom what is around it” (as cited in (issues highlighted in media in our case), engchi Chang et al., 2012, p. 18). Thanks to this role, media workers are enabled to highlight particular aspects of an issue in question and focus audience’s attention on it (Chang et al., 2008). Entman et al. (2008) noted that the process of framing takes place on four different levels: (1) in the culture, (2) in the minds of elites and professional political communication, (3) in the texts of communications, and (4) in the minds of individual citizens. The authors asserted that culture, including schemas present in the minds of a society’s individuals and frames found in the system’s communications, sets the boundaries and limits of framing. This.

(22) 15 includes literature, entertainment, news, conversations, and other political discourse (as cited in Chang et.al., 2012, p. 18). Similarly, according to Scheufele (1999), there are at least five factors that may influence the way journalists frame specific occurrences: (1) social norms and values, (2) organizational pressures and constraints, (3) pressures of interest groups, (4) journalistic routines, and (5) ideological or political orientations of journalists. However, as McQuail (2005) pointed out, framing brings a certain risk of bias. He mentioned, “framing is a way of giving some overall interpretation to isolated items of fact. It is almost unavoidable for. 政治大. journalists to do this and in so doing depart from pure ‘objectivity’ to introduce some (unintended) bias” (p. 379).. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Through the keywords, metaphors, visual images, concepts, and symbols embodied in the news (Entman, 1991) media framing may affect the audience’s perception of reality and. ‧. their understanding of reported issues (Lee & Kim, 2010; Evans, 2008). Semetko &. y. Nat. io. sit. Valkenburg (2000) pointed out that frames shape public perceptions of political issues and. n. al. er. institutions and that the perception may easily be changed depending on what frames are used. Ch. i n U. v. in the media coverage. By deciding the placement of the story, tone of the report,. engchi. accompanying headlines, photographs, visual and auditory effects, media are able to achieve the desirable framing (Parenti, 1999). Kahneman & Tversky (1984) noted that even the usage of specific word in sentences that carry the same meaning can lead to significant differences in the choices audience makes. Additionally, framing influences the way audiences understand their national or cultural group membership. While covering a story, reporters address it to a specific national audience which shares the same cultural background. Thus, while reporting international news to an audience with the same background, reporters will face the issue from the shared perspective (i.e., American journalists covering conflict between the U.S. and other country will recognize themselves as Americans). The context of.

(23) 16 the news may be influenced by the social and political reality, stereotypes, prejudices, and political agendas, thus, the way media in different countries frame the same message highly depends on the cultural context, as well as political and economic ideologies (Maslog, Lee, Kim, 2006). However, it is expected that media in countries of similar political and economic ideologies would cover certain issues in a similar way (Kaid, Harville, Ballotti, & Warzyniak, 1993). Previous research on frames defines few approaches to identify frames in the news. One of the approaches is inductive in nature and includes frames which appeared in the. 政治大 inductive way has been criticized 立for being too difficult to duplicate and for relying on a small studied material during analysis instead of using predefined frames (de Vreese, 2005). The. ‧ 國. 學. sample (Hertog & McLeod, 2000).. Another possible way to analyze media frames, according to Semetko & Valkenburg. ‧. (2000), is a deductive approach to content analysis which requires predefinition of certain. y. Nat. io. sit. frames in order to examine the extent to which they appear in the explored news. It is thus. n. al. er. necessary to have a clear idea of what kinds of frames are likely to appear in the news to. Ch. i n U. v. avoid overlooking undefined frames (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). A small number of. engchi. frames that frequently appear in the news have been identified in the literature, including the conflict frame (Patterson, 1993; Cappella & Jamieson, 1997), the attribution of responsibility frame (Iyengar, 1991), economic consequences frame, human interest frame, and morality frame (Neuman, Just, & Crigler, 1992). The aforementioned frames were confirmed to largely account for all the frames that have been found in news (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000) and three of them (attribution of responsibility frame, conflict frame, and human interest frame) will therefore be used in this study, in addition to other frames (international relations frame, Katyn Forest massacre frame, and conspiracy theories frame) drawn especially for the research..

(24) 17 Semetko & Valkenburg (2000) noted that conflict frame’s focal point is rivalry between individuals, groups, or institutions as an instrument of capturing attention of audience. Patterson (1993) found that this frame is frequently used in the news about presidential election campaign, or, according to Semetko & Valkenburg (2000), in the news regarding discussion between political elites. Olausson (2009) found out, that in the coverage of a climate change, news media tended to put emphasize on conflict between the US and the EU. Putnam & Shoemaker (2007) noted that in a situation of conflict, framing refers to “the way that participants define the situation – that is, what they attend to or ignore in an ongoing stream of events, what counts as important, and what actions should they take” (p.. 治政大 cynicism and mistrust of 2). Cappella & Jamieson (1997) criticized media for promoting 立 politicians by emphasizing conflict in their news stories. Attribution of responsibility frame ‧ 國. 學. describes an issue in a manner to put responsibility for its cause on the government, individual. ‧. or group (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). Media can present problems and their solutions as. sit. y. Nat. either an individual’s or society’s responsibility (An & Gower, 2009). For example, Mastin et. io. er. al. (2007) studied news coverage of elder abuse, and found out that the problem was presented as an individual issue with an individual solution rather than a problem of a whole society that. al. n. v i n required a societal response. IyengarC(1991) that, U in every aspect of life, attribution of h e nclaimed i h gc responsibility influences attitudes and behaviors. Thus, news media play an important role in shaping public’s perception of who is responsible for causing or solving crucial societal problems (Iyengar & Kinder, 1987). Human interest frame focuses on affected people’s reaction and an emotional aspect of the media coverage of an event, issue, or problem. As Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) pointed out, this frame is a result of journalists effort to personalize and dramatize the news to capture audience interest. In their study, Cho & Gower (2006) found that this frame had a. significant influence on public’s emotional response and that it was an important insinuator of.

(25) 18 responsibility. Bennet (1995) noted that journalists tend to use this frame to capture and maintain audience attention in the very competitive market of news. Study conducted by Schwalbe et al. (2008) showed that there was a rapid evolution in frames of televised images of the Iraqi war from conflict to human interest. Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) have also defined economic consequences frame, which emphasizes the consequences an event, problem, or issue will have economically on an individual, group, institution, region, or country, and morality frame, which presents an event, problem, or issue with a reference to religious doctrine or moral principles. These five. 政治大 Holt & Major, 2010; Dimitrova立 & Stromback, 2005), but many of the academics still define predefined frames have been recognized as the most useful to study by many scholars (i.e.,. ‧ 國. 學. their own frames and apply them to their studies. In his study of media framing of transferring the US forces to South Korean base, Lee (2006) described eight frames, including the already. ‧. mentioned conflict frame, responsibility frame, economic consequences frame, human interest. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. prestige frame.. y. frame, morality frame, as well as domestic politics frame, national interest frame, and national. Ch. i n U. v. It has been confirmed by previous studies that frames may change over time (i.e., Li et. engchi. al., 2002; Ungar, 1998; Hertog, 2000; Entman, 1991) . Ungar (1998) argued that media can change framing approach from presenting terrifying information to a more calming one whenever “dread-inspiring events are developing in unpredictable and potentially threatening ways” (p. 36). This goes in accord with Graber’s (1993) suggestion, that there are three stages of media coverage of crisis situation. During the first phase, when the accident strikes, media correspondents, officials and bystanders rush to the scene. Media’s key role during that stage is to accurately describe what has happened and, even if it is bad news, cease uncertainty and calm the audience. During the second stage of news coverage of a crisis, media mostly focuses on adding sense to the situation and makes effort to address the victims’ need and to.

(26) 19 repair the damage. According to Graber, the third phase tends to overlap with the first two stages. During the last phase, media’s role is to put the issue in question in a larger, long-term context, and to continue keeping the audience calm by providing them guidance for appropriate behavior. Li et al.’s (2002) findings proved that coverage frames changed during the different stages of the first eight hours after the September 11 terrorist attack. During first two hours, most of the news were framed as disaster stories (56.82%), followed by political stories (14.77%), criminal and terrorism (12.53%) and safety concerns (8.95%). Three hours later the. 政治大 stories increasing to 28.77%, safety 立 concerns to 10.85%, while criminal and terrorism focus framing changed with number of disaster stories declining significantly (37.26%), political. ‧ 國. 學. remained the same. In the last stage of media coverage of the terrorist attack the number of news framed as disaster continued to decline (31.51%) , stories framed as human interest. ‧. increased significantly (10.92%), while political stories remained high (22.69%). Safety. Nat. sit. y. stories stayed at the same level as in the previous stage (7.14%). Additionally, two new. al. n. (pp. 13-14).. er. io. frames, economy (2.52%) and environment (3.75%), became more evident in the last phase. Ch. Attribution of Responsibility. engchi. i n U. v. Media can have a great influence on how the audience would assign responsibility for events in question. Through framing, the news media make an impact on the creation and resolution of social issues (Iyengar, 1991). Wortman (1976) noted that the need to assign blame on someone or something is deeply rooted in the society and people will go as far as to create a scapegoat themselves. Arceneux & Stein (2006) explained that blaming someone makes individuals feel like they have control over the situation and believe that similar incidents in the future can be avoided..

(27) 20 Few definitions of attribution of responsibility have been proposed in the existing literature. Fry (2014) suggested, that attribution of responsibility serves to identify a party who is responsible for a specific issue. Amoroso (2011) noted that attribution of responsibility “occurs where one state is responsible for the conduct of another state, while the latter state is simultaneously responsible for its own conduct” (as citied in Fry, 2014, p. 5) thus it requires involvement of more than one party. An & Gower (2009) claimed that in a situation of a high level of importance (such as crisis), the news media are likely to put blame on the individual or organization, especially in the news coverage of issues that could have been. 治政大 (such as laziness and mentioned in issues that involved the themes of character deficiencies 立 immorality), as well as in themes of inadequate skills or education. On the other hand, societal prevented. In his work, Iyengar (1991) noted that individual responsibility was mostly. ‧ 國. 學. responsibility was found in cases involving economic conditions (i.e., the cost of living,. ‧. technological process, and foreign trade), as well as in topics revolving around institutional. sit. y. Nat. barriers (i.e., racism), and deficient governmental efforts (i.e., budget cuts).. n. al. er. io. This paper’s main interest is to compare the use of frames in media outlets in Poland. i n U. v. and Russia and to explore if there are significant differences between them and if they shifted. Ch. engchi. over time. Therefore the research questions are as follow:. RQ1: What was the dominant frame in the news coverage of the 2010 Polish Presidential plane crash in media in Poland and Russia? Do they differ? RQ2: To whom do the media in Poland and Russia attribute the responsibility for the plane crash? Do they differ? RQ3: Does the dominant frame in the news coverage of the 2010 Polish Presidential plane crash in media in Poland and Russia change over time? Do they differ?.

(28) 21. News Sources Examining the usage of source in news articles can contribute to understanding of how issues are framed and how different media choose different sources (Lasorsa & Reese, 1990). The authors suggested that through selection of specific sources, media workers decide what they want their audience to believe or think. This is why it is believed that the issue may be represented differently depending on the source used in the coverage. First, media studies define news sources as official and unofficial opinions, as well as eye-witness accounts of events (Cross, 2010). Gans (as cited in Matthews, 2010, p.35). 政治大 interviewees who appear on the立 air or who are quoted in the magazine articles and those who characterized news sources as “the actors who journalists observe or interview including. ‧ 國. 學. supply background information or story suggestions”. Similarly, Tuchman (1978) referred to news sources as to providers of the information, while Fairclough (1989) defined sources as. ‧. people and organizations which are used by media in news coverage. Gans (1979) noted that. sit. y. Nat. “the most salient characteristic of source is that they provide information as members of. n. al. er. io. representatives of organized and unorganized interest groups” (p. 80). Faridah et al. (2011). i n U. v. pointed out that news sources add authority and believability to news stories. Thus, as studies. Ch. engchi. conducted by Sigal (1973) and Voakes et al. (1996) showed, news sources are the initial providers of news, while media follow them with their interpretation of the sources’ perceptional frames. However, it will be media who will be blamed in case of misreporting of facts (Faridah et al., 2011). Second, Shoemaker & Reese (1991) divided news sources into direct and indirect. According to them, direct sources are participants involved with the news event. They are either subjects of the described story or they are somehow affected by it. Indirect sources on the other hand are used to add to the narrative of the event in question. In this group, the authors included experts qualified to comment on the issue, as well as members of the general.

(29) 22 public. Fischer & Swierczynska – Glownia (2008) suggested that news sources may be divided into formal and informal basing on credibility (legality and relevance of the source) and justice (the possibility of verification) of the received information. Then they divided formal sources of information into external and internal. External sources include: human sources (spokespersons, experts, commentators, key opinion leaders); institutional (news agencies, other media reports, electronic databases); documents (official documents and studies, traditional archival resources, historical documents, newsletters, invitations, press conference materials, informational leaflets). Internal news sources include: formal archival. 治政大and internal. External news Swierczynska-Glownia divided informal sources into external 立 sources combine: human sources (eye-witnesses of the events, journalists’ own contacts, resources of media outlet and internal database of media company. Similarly, Fischer &. ‧ 國. 學. unofficial commentators, colleagues); cognitive sources (observable, overheard stories,. ‧. informal notes, practical knowledge of journalists). Internal news sources consist of:. y. sit. io. al. er. and education.. Nat. standards, principle and rules of conduct of journalists as well as the journalists’ knowledge. v i n C Hall et al., 1978) and the media (Gans, 1979; Hackett, 1985;h e n g c h i U that news media seem to prefer n. It has been identified that different news sources enjoy different degree of access to. using “primary definers” – official sources from powerful actors and institutions, such as governments, representative interest groups and law enforcement (Cross, 2010) as they hold certain reliance in society (Hermida et al., 2012). It thus results in the tone of debate and interpretation of events being dictated by those in power (Hall et al., 1978). The view of “primary definers” have been challenged by many scholars (i.e., Gans, 1979), but the most influential correction was suggested by Schlesinger in 1990. He noted that “primary definers” approach ignores conflicts between competing elites, sources gained by the “off the record” method, as well as journalists’ role in creating their own news stories..

(30) 23 In a comparative study of media framing of the Sino-US spy plane collision by media in the US and China, Wu (2002) identified seven news sources, including Chinese government, Chinese public/scholar, Chinese media, US government (Congress), US public/scholar, US media, and international community. Her findings showed that media in both countries mostly relied on their respective governments, and that media in the US were more likely to quote sources from Chinese newspapers than vice versa. These findings were also supported in a study conducted by Sandra Dickson (1992) of how the New York Times and the Washington Post covered the US – Nicaraguan conflict in 1983-1987. Government. 治政大 Dickson concluded that the government or US-supported forces were not sourced frequently. 立 two newspapers failed to show divergent points of view by legitimizing the US position in the. officials were quoted around half of the time, while representatives of Nicaraguan anti-. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. conflict.. In a study of news coverage of five alleged terrorist plots, Matthews (2010) identified. sit. y. Nat. as many as 26 sources, including government sources (veiled and identifiable), political. io. al. er. sources (veiled and identifiable), police sources (veiled and identifiable), senior/authoritative. v i n C h anonymous source, public, experts, hybrids, community sources, e n g c h i U miscellaneous, health n. sources, counter terrorism sources, security sources (veiled and identifiable), member of the. source, US sources, French sources, spokesperson from Manchester United FC, military sources (veiled and identifiable), relatives or friends of Lance Corporal Hashmi, relatives or friends of Ken Bigley, Pakistani sources, and Airline sources. His findings showed that across five different stories, police sources were the most frequently quoted reference type. This was followed by veiled security sources, identifiable government sources, identifiable police sources, and individual members of the public (pp.143-144). One research question was posed in relation to the usage of news sources in news stories:.

(31) 24 RQ4: What were the dominant news sources used in the news coverage of the 2010 Polish Presidential plane crash in media in Poland and Russia? Do they differ?. News Sources and Media Framing It has been recognized in the literature that sources tend to actively promote themselves into the news and reporters choose them depending on their appropriateness for the described story and target audience (Lasorsa & Reese, 1990). Therefore, studying the usage of news sources in media may provide additional knowledge about the process of frame-building.. 政治大. As mentioned earlier, different sources enjoy different degree of access to the media. 立. (Gans, 1979; Hackett, 1985; Hall et al., 1978) and journalists tend to pick official sources. ‧ 國. 學. from powerful actors and institutions for their stories. Gamson (1992) described those news. ‧. sources as ‘frame sponsors’ who make efforts to frame information in their stories in a way that is consistent with their preferred framing. Those ‘frame sponsors’ may include. y. Nat. er. io. sit. politicians, editorial writers, bloggers, and experts (Chang et al., 2012). Fishman (1980) and Tuchman (1978) have also suggested that this unequal distribution of news sources affects the. al. n. v i n content and interpretation of the news that news are more of a C stories. U h e nItgindicates i h c. representation of the actions of powerful figures in the society, while general public takes the position of observers. This practice leads to framing news stories in favor to those who wield the power (Cross, 2010). Chang et al. (2012) stated, that the passive nature of journalists who turn to official and established news sources brings more opportunities for these sources to dominate the frames, and reporters become the “transmitters of the official viewpoints” (p.. 19). Additionally, Pan & Kosicki (1993) noted that participants plan their actions very carefully to achieve their political and communicative aspirations. The authors pointed out.

(32) 25 that this ‘competition’ between various actors, is judged by media workers who have the power to decide to accept one source over another. This is also echoed by other communication scholars (i.e., Bennet, 1990; Gans, 1979; Shoemaker & Reese, 1996) who noted that media workers take an active role in the frame-building process as they have the freedom to choose which source to cite and to organize the information instead of simply repeating it. Acknowledging the role of news sources in framing of the media news, one research question was posed:. 政治大. RQ5: How are the sources and frames used in the news coverage of the 2010 Polish. 立. Presidential plane crash in media in Poland and Russia related?. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(33) 26. Method The study employs quantitative content analysis to answer the above research questions. A quantitative content analysis is considered one of the useful methods to examine the content of a broad range of recorder information, including transcripts of interviews, discussions in various research, films, TV programs, as well as the editorial and commercial content of newspapers and magazines (i.e., Macnamara, 2005; Walizer & Wienir, 1978; Wimmer & Dominick, 1987). Content analysis, as a method to study mass media, was first introduced by Harold Lasswell in 1927 as a tool to study propaganda and quickly gained. 政治大 movies (Macnamara, 2005). Kerlinger 立 (1973) defined content analysis as a “method of. popularity in the 1920s and 1930s following the rapid growth of communication content of. ‧ 國. 學. studying and analyzing communication in a systematic, objective, and quantitative manner for the purpose of measuring variables” (as citied in Wimmer & Dominick 1987, p. 166), while. ‧. Krippendorf (1980) characterized content analysis as a methodology that enables researchers. sit. y. Nat. to make replicable and valid references from data to their context. Berlson (as citied in. n. al. er. io. Macnamara, 2005, p.2) described content analysis as a “research technique for the objective,. v. systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication.” In his. Ch. engchi. i n U. definition, Weber (1990) noted that this research method uses a set of procedures that allows it to make accurate deduction from texts.. Sample and Unit of Analysis The unit of analysis is a news story related to the Polish presidential plane crash. They were collected from Poland’s TVN24.pl and Russia’s RT.com (formerly known as Russia Today). TVN24.pl was launched in 2007 as one of the channel of TVN Group which belongs to a private company ITI Group (International Trading and Investments Holdings SA Luxembourg)..

(34) 27 TVN Group is one of the biggest commercial, privately owned media group in Poland with ten television channels, a shopping channel, a leading internet portal (TVN24.pl), and a digital platform (“Investors”). Since 2010, TVN Group has been acknowledged to be one of the most opinion-making Internet source in Poland (“TVN Group, the leading opinionmaker...”). The portal’s key demographic are viewers aged 16-49 living in big cities of population above 100,000 (“TVN leads the market in commercial target group...”). One important aspect that may have an influence on media framing process is media outlet’s partisanship. Scholars differentiated media outlets which care about objectivity and. 政治大 advances certain political agenda 立in favor of one party and political viewpoint (i.e., Jamieson, fairness, from partisan outlets which publish news stories that are framed in a way that. ‧ 國. 學. Hardy & Romer, 2007; Levendusky, 2013). Dobek-Ostrowska (2011) explored the level of political influence on the biggest media in Poland and noted that most of the explored outlets. ‧. were highly subjective towards one of the ruling parties. She pointed out that the media. Nat. sit. y. performed different functions to political parties such as being their advocates, creating their. n. al. er. io. friendly image, providing neutral information, having a critical attitude towards them but. i n U. v. expressing a balanced point of view, or being aggressive and biased. The author also. Ch. engchi. suggested that Polish journalists do not hide their political commitment and since 2005 (when Lech Kaczynski was elected Polish President and his party was chosen ruling party) TVN Group showed a close relationship with PO despite being a private company. The outlet’s director, Edward Miszczak, openly admitted that it is not proper to talk badly about PO on air, because the station’s audience mainly consists of PO voters. This is reflected in the outlet’s content which is more likely to ridicule PiS, despite the party’s attempts to improve their image, than to question PO’s actions (“W TVN nie wolno żartować z PO?...”). DobekOstrowska (2011) indicated that TVN Group runs its own editorial policy based on negativity, poor assessment of the political elite, criticism and skepticism. This bias led to a six-month.

(35) 28 long boycott of the medium by politicians belonging to PiS from July 2008 to January 2009 (“W TVN nie wolno żartować z PO?...”). RT.com was created in 2005 by Russian government and belongs to Russian international news agency RIA Novosti (“RT: About us”). The portal is said to reach a population of million people in over 100 countries. RT’s typical viewers are men aged 35-49 with college degrees. Additionally, most viewers are business owners, entrepreneurs, managers, or government officials (“Russia Today most popular foreign channel...”). It is often pointed out that RT’s main purpose is to promote the position of Russian government in. 政治大 funded from Russia’s budget, Putin 立 has previously personally saved it from financial cuts. English-language countries and is oftentimes called “Putin’s medium” (Osborn, 2005). Being. ‧ 國. 學. (Heyman, 2008).. The news stories for the study were collected from April 10, 2010 to January 20, 2011.. ‧. This period was chosen because it includes the immediate coverage as well as time after the. y. Nat. io. sit. publication of the results of Russian’s investigation that was published on January 12, 2011.. n. al. er. The keywords used to search for the news were “Smolensk” for TVN24.pl (the name of the. i n U. v. city is the most common word used in Poland to refer to the plane crash), and “Polish. Ch. engchi. president’s plane crash” for RT.com, which were typed in the search box on respective websites. A total of 2257 news were found on TVN24.pl, 1147 of which were published during the given period of time. However, some of the articles were focusing on Polish politicians who were acquaintances with people on the plane (thus word “Smolensk” appears in the articles) but showed no relations to the discussed event and were excluded from the research. Additionally, some of the articles mentioned the city (Smolensk) with no relations to the plane crash in 2010 and decision was made not to include them in the study. Also, it was assumed that articles with less than 200 words would not employ any frame and a total of 47 news stories were excluded for being too short. In the end, a sample of 421 articles was.

(36) 29 chosen from TVN24.pl (n=421). A total of 113 news were found on RT.com. After selecting the articles in the given time period and excluding interviews and articles that talked about Smolensk in different aspects, a sample of 51 articles was chosen for the study (n=51). Therefore, this study explores 472 articles in total (n=472).. Coding Each news article was coded for a number of variables, including the six distinct frames as defined in Table 1. These frames were derived through a pilot study of 52 randomly selected news articles. The author carefully read them to define recurrent themes (Baysha &. 政治大. Hallahan, 2007). As a result, three predefined frames were found (Semetko & Valkenburg,. 立. 2000; Maslog et.al, 2006; Lynch & Peer, 2002; Arthur, 2012): conflict frame, attribution of. ‧ 國. 學. responsibility frame, and human interest frame. Additionally, three frames that have not been previously defined appeared: international relations frame, conspiracy theories frame, and. ‧. the Katyn Forest massacre frame. Also, other frames category was created as many of the. y. Nat. sit. studied articles did not employ any of the aforementioned frames or their occurrence was not. n. al. er. io. remarkable. This category includes articles which discussed international media coverage of. i n U. v. the issue, new regulations and policy, or those which published evidences collected during. Ch. engchi. investigations without giving any form of commentary.. Because each news story could contain more than one frame, every theme was coded as either dominant, appear or does not appear. The dominant frame was coded when it prevailed in more than a half of the paragraphs in the studied article or was the single theme of the story , thus articles could have only one dominant and several secondary frames. It was possible that no dominant frame was found because of the equal importance allocated to different frames..

(37) 30 To answer RQ4 and RQ5 regarding the usage of sources, possible major news sources were determined by the players somehow involved in the 2010 Polish Presidential plane crash. These include: (1) politicians or officials (including policy makers, executors, civil servants, ministers, director generals, etc.); (2) ordinary people (i.e., citizens, family members); (3) experts (i.e., researchers, professors, pilots); (4) non-governmental agencies or its staff; (5) other media outlets or news agencies; and (6) no sources, which were coded as the single source that appeared most frequently in the news article. Seven possible categories were coded to answer RQ3 as to whom the media attributed. 政治大 government; (3) pilots; (4) traffic 立controllers; (5) manufacturers (i.e., plane companies); (6) the responsibility for the plane crash, including: (1) Polish government; (2) Russian. ‧. ‧ 國. A.. 學. other; (i.e., weather), and (7) not mentioned. For the complete code used refer to Appendix. n. Attribution of responsibility frame. al. y. sit. io. Conflict frame. Description. er. Frame name. Nat. Table 1 The 2010 Presidential plane crash media frames coding key. Ch. The story characterizes the plane crash as rivalry between different groups (i.e., politicians, parties, countries). engchi. i n U. v. The story describes the issue in a manner to put responsibility for its cause on the government, individual or group. Does it point out who is the one to blame? Does it say how to take responsibility? Does it talk about further plans to solve the issue?. Human interest frame. The story focuses on people’s reaction; emotional aspect of the media coverage of the issue. Does it use emotional words to describe hospitality, sympathy, anger, etc? Does the story refer to the private or personal lives of the actors? Does it put a human face on the issue?. International relations frame. The story refers to the Poland-Russia relations in the past or emphasizes the impact the issue will have on the future relationship between Poland and Russia.

(38) 31. Conspiracy theories frame. The story focuses on conspiracy theories, such as terrorist attack, assassination, bomb, Russian and Polish governments scheme, etc.. The Katyn Forest massacre frame. The article refers to the plane crash in terms of the 1940 Katyn Forest massacre. It emphasizes the history and implies similarity between the two events.. Other frames. Including calendar, international media coverage of the issue, operation of investigation committees, new regulations and policy, technology, history of Polish Air Force, evidences collected during investigations without giving any form of commentary, chaos, political game. 立. Intercoder Reliability. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. In the process of media content analysis, a risk of subjectivity in interpretation appears which can lead to a low quality research outcome (Chang et al., 2012). To avoid low. ‧. reliability, two coders run the intercoder reliability test including the author and a Polish. y. Nat. io. sit. graduate student who studies in Poland. The coder was informed about the purpose of this. n. al. er. study and trained to become familiar with the study’s mechanics and peculiarities during. Ch. i n U. v. training sessions in which various articles were examined and coded. As multilanguage. engchi. content analysis poses challenges (Peter & Lauf, 2002), it was made sure that the coders have proficiency in both Polish and English. Ten per cent of the articles were randomly selected to check intercoder reliability (52 articles out of total of 519). The total number of sample changed from 519 to 472 during the process of running content analysis as a total of 47 news stories appeared to be too short to be included in the study. The reliability was measured using Cohen’s kappa, which is used only with two coders (Brennan & Prediger, 1981). In a study in which units are coded, Cohen’s kappa provides straightforward results as it documents pointby-point agreement which allows to notice details at which the agreement is smaller and requires sequential analysis. Therefore, this coefficient is suitable for this study as it describes.

(39) 32 agreement with respect to how a coding scheme was used (Bakeman & Gottman, 1997). This method suggests that results above 0.81 are considered highly reliable and those above 0.61 reliable (Cohen, 1960). The results of the intercoder reliability tests, as presented in Table 2, showed that the international relations frame achieved the lowest, yet acceptable, level of 0.859. Conflict frame and attribution of responsibility frame received score of 0.914, while human interest frame – 0.925. Remaining categories, major news source, conspiracy theories frame, Katyn Forest massacre frame, and attribution of responsibility achieved the highest level of 1. Table 2 Intercoder reliability test results. 1 0.914 0.914. Human Interest Frame. 0.925. n. Conspiracy Theory Frame. al. sit er. io International Relations Frame. y. Nat. Attribution of Responsibility Frame. ‧. Conflict Frame. 學. Major News Source. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大 Cohen’s Kappa. Ch. 0.859. e n g1 c h i. Katyn Forest Massacre Frame. 1. Attribution of Responsibility. 1. i n U. v.

(40) 33. Findings Use of News Frames The first research question asked what the dominant frame was in the news coverage of the 2010 Polish Presidential plane crash and if they differed in the Polish and Russian media. The results (Table 3) revealed that both TVN24 and RT employed the attribution of responsibility frame most frequently (TVN24 – 28.5%; RT - 41.2%). TVN wrote1:. (B12). Terrorist attack, explosion, fire on board, failure of the technology, ill-. 政治大. prepared airport – none of these things caused the crash of the Presidential plane. 立. Tu-154 near Smolensk. This is the conclusion of the findings of the Interstate. ‧ 國. 學. Aviation Committee (IAC), which on Wednesday, in Moscow, presented the preliminary report of the investigation. IAC pointed out, however, that the crew of the Tu-154 did not undergo regular training and was formed a few days before the. ‧. disaster.. sit. y. Nat. io. er. Therefore, the results indicate that TVN24 and RT were similar in covering the issue as they employed attribution of responsibility in most of their articles. However, they differed. al. n. v i n C hThe Polish outlet paid in their choices of other media frames. more attention to people’s engchi U reactions (21.1%):. (B2). Poles, especially residents of Warsaw, began mourning in the early afternoon. They spontaneously began to hang flags with pall and organize joint stand. Internet users started to convene on Facebook to light candles in front of the Presidential palace at 8:00 PM.. 1. English translations of articles published by TVN24 were provided. Excerpts with original language can be found in Appendix B. 2 Number of article in Appendix B..