Dutch daily newspapers dominate coverage of the so-called ‘new Cold War’ frame. This is according to data research by students of the Master Media & Journalistiek (Journalism) at Erasmus University Rotterdam in collaboration with KRO-NCRV television programme Pointer.
Cold War rhetoric
The master students (Gijs Berk, Milan Doornekamp, Denian Franken and Eva Leenders) conducted a sample and looked at 1,500 articles on the Russian-Ukrainian war from the five largest Dutch daily newspapers over the past three years. This shows that 35 years after the fall of the wall, Cold War rhetoric is back in the public debate. Reports on the war in Ukraine are now mainly about the threat of a new Cold War, the importance of (re)arming and a focus on the Netherlands, Europe and NATO. This has almost tripled by the end of 2024 compared to the beginning of 2022. With this, articles with frames on, for example, the importance of supporting Ukraine, conflict definition and economic consequences fade into the background.
According to Nel Ruigrok, the lecturer at Erasmus University who supervised the study, it is important to realise that media have influence. ‘So there is a big responsibility there for journalists. If they write predominantly in a Cold War frame, citizens adopt that.’
Russian and Ukrainian journalists
The students interviewed Russian and Ukrainian journalists to ask for their thoughts on the investigation and media framing. A producer of TVRain and a writer for The Moscow Times (both Russian) see less and less coverage of civilian casualties in the media. Yet they see utility in more coverage of the risk of a new Cold War.
Nataliya Yarmola, journalist for the domestic Ukrainian television channel 1+1, says of the ‘new Cold War' frame that it is something they have been talking about ‘since the beginning of the war’. Only Yarmola also sees a downside: ‘Putin can use this sentiment to say to his society that they are indeed waging a war against the entire West.’ From Ukraine's perspective, she does think the media frame can also do some good. It can help connect people in Ukraine and the rest of Europe, instead of spreading fear and reinforcing polarisation.
Research workshop
During the Media & Journalism master's programme, students choose a research workshop, in which they conduct their own research. One of these workshops focuses on data journalism. Led by lecturer Nel Ruigrok and journalist Reinier Kist, students investigate the role of (data) journalism in our society from a theoretical perspective. They then get to work themselves with a dataset, formulate a research question and analyse the data. In the process, they discover the hidden stories behind the data, which also results in great publications in the media.
For instance, the students' research recently appeared in NRC (link to paid article). Also read the article or listen to Pointer's radio broadcast.
