De Rotterdamse bonnetjesaffaire in het Algemeen Dagblad en RTV Rijnmond nieuws

Individuals make choices when they interpret their social environment. These choices are influenced by the dominating standards and values of the society. The media also make choices when they report an event and they are also influenced by the social context. There is a certain representation of reality. In the process of selecting and producing a topic, the author uses frames. To frame is: “to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation” (Entman, 1993:52). Not all elements get as much attention and within a text the emphasis can lie on a certain view. It is a construction of reality and because of the perspective the public creates a certain idea concerning the situation. A journalist can not tell all sides of the story, he selects the relevant facts, places them in a context and presents actors in a certain manner. Journalist of different news organisations can have the same information, but can nevertheless outline a complete other view of the event. A systematic analysis of the text can expose these processes. In this master thesis I examine if there is indeed talk of several interpretations of an actual event. The subject of study is the investigation of the declarations of former mayor of Rotterdam, Bram Peper. Based on Faircloughs theory, I assume that the text is part of a discursive and a social practice. Because of this dialectic relationship, it is also important to examine the social context of the texts. According to Thomas Patterson (1993) there have been important changes in the functioning of the political journalism since the seventies. The style of journalism has changed from a descriptive style into an interpretative style. One of the main characteristics of this new phenomenon is that reporting had moved away from producing information to producing infotainment about an event. News about success, failure and conflicts are more interesting. And these new interests can accelerate media hypes and media scandals. The problem is that this stimulates a specific frame of the event and other aspects can therefore be ignored. The media search for affirmative information and they let derogatory news concerning the event out of the picture. Journalists construct a certain reality, which can lead to unilateral representation of a person or an event. In this master thesis it was not my intention to make a judgment concerning the reporting, concerning the quality of the journalism or concerning to what extent the reporting was well or wrong. Instead I wanted to know more about the relationship between the media and politicians in our society and the role the media play concerning the representation of politicians. Texts can possibly damage an image seriously. Bram Peper assumed that the media had an influence at forming the public opinion concerning the declaration scandal. The study will show what this image is.