Conflict as a Frame in Television Coverage of Politics: A Comparative Study in Italy, Spain, and Germany.

This paper presents the findings of a study comparing the use of frames in television news in three West European countries, Italy, Spain, and Germany. Following the definition given by Entman (1993), this study applied a modified classification of frames according to the dimensions cooperation/agreement vs. conflict/disagreement. The agreement/disagreement dimension is used if the frame refers to the position of the journalist, while the cooperation/conflict dimension is applied for coding the events being reported. It was hypothesized that the uses of frames varies among different journalistic cultures (in this case, the Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist Model vs. the North European or Democratic Corporatist Model). In fact, this study found differences that can be interpreted along the lines of the factors that characterize the two journalistic cultures, particularly the relationship between journalists and politicians. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]