You have likely heard all about the Edward Snowden/National
Security Agency (NSA) leak scandal that has been prominent across many media
outlets since Snowden’s first “leak” in June of 2013.
Get an overview on Edward Snowden, former U.S. NSA employee, here.
The global coverage continues today with media outlets (TV, radio, newspaper) confronting the leaked information about secret CIA and NSA operations in different ways.
Most recent scandal: The NSA likely surveilled German Chancellor Angela Merkel's private communications. (Information revealed by Snowden, of course. And yes, this means tapping the Chancellor's personal cell phone.)
This article will compare United States' and Germany's newspaper coverage of this issue.
This article will compare United States' and Germany's newspaper coverage of this issue.
See the New York Times: "Anger Growing Among Allies on U.S. Spying."
Trends to notice:
- Political Controversy: Like I said in my last post, controversy, especially on this global scale, means interesting content. Interest equals profit for media companies.
- Newspapers worldwide covered this material.
- Demassification: Both newspapers emphasized specific information that was relevant to their audience.
- For example, each paper published it in their country's respective language.
- Media Purposes:
- Community building
- Other articles in the German press suggest tips to make sure you, a potential NSA target, aren't being surveilled. These articles create a community through country-wide shock and outrage.
Abendzeitung Munich headlines concerning the NSA scandal.
- Inform & entertain
- Because it's political controversy, these stories are newsworthy (selected because they are deemed important by gatekeepers) as well as interesting.
- Both articles are serious and informative, but as seen above, Abendzeitung Munich posted more creative articles like, "How to make life difficult for the NSA."
- Effects:
- Framing
- What the NY Times calls a "diplomatic challenge," Abendzeitung Munich calls "completely unacceptable."
- Each paper explains the same event in a different way, giving their audiences a different frame of understanding from which to draw conclusions.
- Agenda-setting
- Media decide what their audience is aware of. By covering and dramatizing this event, these papers force the controversy to the front of knowledge.
Check out the full sources for more info.
- Sources used in this article:
- "Anger Growing Among Allies on U.S. Spying" by New York Times
- "Diplomatic Meltdown" by Abendzeitung Munich
- "Generating Newsworthiness: Interpretive Construction of Public Events" by Marylin Lester
- "The Case for Demassification" by John Sheridan
- "The Media of Mass Communication" by John Vivian
- Extra news sources
- "Edward Snowden is NSA Info Leaker" by CNN
- "How to make life difficult for the NSA" by Abendzeitung Munich
- "NSA Files Decoded" by The Guardian
- "Why Angela Merkel is Outraged" by Miami Herald
The fact that other German articles give suggestions for avoiding surveillance is quite unique. I do not think I have encountered any U.S. coverage that tackles preventative measures of this trend. Instead, U.S. media have tended to focus on the ethical question of surveillance. This is key because it highlights, as you similarly said, the paranoia and betrayal that the German public feels about the secrecy. Because America has had many conspiracy theories about surveillance, it does not come so much as a shock for some. But because it is affecting Germany directly and freshly, it is an outrage. Just as Gerbner contends, stories are important. They develop a narrative of the world and of the culture we live in, and consequently that narrative effects the ways we frame other stories. Just like in this case, America contemplates ethics and the opinions of citizens while Germany condemns international wrongdoing because the conspiracy stories of government surveillance were already there. Also, both the U.S. and Germany are very ethnocentric, so each is going to be preoccupied with the concerns of its own nation.
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