The Frame Game - A Content Analysis of Framing Denis O’Brien’s Controversies in the Irish Press

Bowers, Lydia (2017) The Frame Game - A Content Analysis of Framing Denis O’Brien’s Controversies in the Irish Press. masters thesis, Griffith College.

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Abstract

This study examined the reporting in selected Irish newspapers of the affairs of Denis O’Brien, the largest shareholder at Independent News & Media (INM), which publishes Ireland’s two largest- selling titles, the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent. Given the high level of ownership concentration in the Irish media market, questions have arisen regarding the role that newspaper ownership may play in the choice of framing said affairs. Using the concepts of framing and news values in the context of ownership structure this analysis draws on the literature to look at a variety of frames, most notably content bias and news slant in relation to Independent News and Media owned newspapers and other Irish publications. A content analysis was applied to 86 articles across four Irish broadsheets: the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent, both owned by INM, and The Irish Times and Sunday Business Post (SBP), both owned by other organisations. The analysis was categorised by five different events involving Denis O’Brien that took place between September 2016 and June 2017. The results of the content analysis show that framing varied between those newspapers owned by INM and those independent of the media organisation. Not only was coverage less critical it was also far more infrequent in INM-owned publications. Perhaps future research should assess the media’s impact on the forming of public opinion by carrying out audience surveys to measure the audience’s perception of Denis O’Brien and events surrounding the businessman, within the context of the newspaper they read the most and use this study as a starting point.

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