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Covering the Bosnian War: �Journalism of Attachment� in Dutch Newspapers
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Karremans and Mladic fitted well within this framework, only here the Dutch were not presented as the ‘good guys’, but were representative of Daladier and Chamberlain.
Dutch media played an important role in creating the framework within which the
Bosnian war was interpreted in the Netherlands. Earlier research shows that the news coverage diverged to a considerable extent with the actual events in the former Yugoslavia (Ruigrok, De Ridder & Scholten, 2005; NIOD, 2002). In his research, Wieten (2002: 83) concluded that Dutch media portrayed the Bosnian war in a stereotypical way:
“Media and politics seem to have aided each other in creating a rather stereotypical, simplified picture of the conflict, and, as a consequence, also of what the international community, the Netherlands in particular, could do to bring it to an end and solve it.”
The reasons why the media created this simplified and stereotypical picture could be found in the phenomenon of ‘journalism of attachment’. Coined by BBC’s former correspondent Martin Bell, ‘journalism of attachment’ proposes that reporters are participants in the conflicts they report and, as a consequence, take part in the public debate about the conflict. He practiced a journalism that was more interested in reporting about the victims of the conflict and the causes of the war, than the mere mechanics of waging war. His intention was to make somebody do something to end it. In Bosnia, many journalists embarked on similar crusades and became partial (Bell, 1998).
In this study we investigate the phenomenon of journalism of attachment in Dutch
newspapers while covering the Bosnian war.
J
OURNALISM
OF
ATTACHEMENT
AND
THE
CONCEPT
OF
OBJECTIVITY
For decades, the journalistic practice has been the object of scrutiny by practitioners, critics and scholars. According to the traditional journalistic interpretation of objectivity, that fits within the philosophical tradition of realism, a journalist is able to function as a neutral mediator between real-world events and the public. Within these traditional journalism texts, news is defined as a mere reflection of reality. Campbell and Wolseley (1961: 6), for example, define news as “an account of something real”, while news, according to Harris et al. (1981: 27) is something that “has actually happened”. Journalistic objectivity in this respect is synonymous with neutrality, or the separation of facts from values and opinions. To determine the quality of journalistic practices researchers contrasts the content of news with the actual happenings. According to researchers journalists working within this tradition use a causal model of journalistic practice. The characteristics of the event determine the value of the facts and therefore whether it is being covered and consequently the place of the story, its size et cetera (Rosengren,1970, 1974, 1977). Or in other words: the content of the media is dependent on characteristics of the events to happen.
Recent conceptualisations of news concentrate on the impossibility of news as a
reflection of reality. Charnley (1975: 44), for example, states that news is “the timely reporting of facts or opinions that hold interest or importance, or both, for a considerable number of people”. Stephens (1988: 9) goes a step further in defining news as “new information about a subject of some public interest that is shared with some portion of the public, or, in short, what is
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| | Authors: Ruigrok, Nel., Schoenbach, Klaus., Scholten, Otto. and De Ridder, J.. |
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Karremans and Mladic fitted well within this framework, only here the Dutch were not
presented as the ‘good guys’, but were representative of Daladier and Chamberlain.
Dutch media played an important role in creating the framework within which the
Bosnian war was interpreted in the Netherlands. Earlier research shows that the news coverage
diverged to a considerable extent with the actual events in the former Yugoslavia (Ruigrok, De
Ridder & Scholten, 2005; NIOD, 2002). In his research, Wieten (2002: 83) concluded that
Dutch media portrayed the Bosnian war in a stereotypical way:
“Media and politics seem to have aided each other in creating a rather stereotypical,
simplified picture of the conflict, and, as a consequence, also of what the international
community, the Netherlands in particular, could do to bring it to an end and solve it.”
The reasons why the media created this simplified and stereotypical picture could be found in
the phenomenon of ‘journalism of attachment’. Coined by BBC’s former correspondent Martin
Bell, ‘journalism of attachment’ proposes that reporters are participants in the conflicts they
report and, as a consequence, take part in the public debate about the conflict. He practiced a
journalism that was more interested in reporting about the victims of the conflict and the causes
of the war, than the mere mechanics of waging war. His intention was to make somebody do
something to end it. In Bosnia, many journalists embarked on similar crusades and became
partial (Bell, 1998).
In this study we investigate the phenomenon of journalism of attachment in Dutch
newspapers while covering the Bosnian war.
J
OURNALISM
OF
ATTACHEMENT
AND
THE
CONCEPT
OF
OBJECTIVITY
For decades, the journalistic practice has been the object of scrutiny by practitioners, critics and
scholars. According to the traditional journalistic interpretation of objectivity, that fits within the
philosophical tradition of realism, a journalist is able to function as a neutral mediator between
real-world events and the public. Within these traditional journalism texts, news is defined as a
mere reflection of reality. Campbell and Wolseley (1961: 6), for example, define news as “an
account of something real”, while news, according to Harris et al. (1981: 27) is something that
“has actually happened”. Journalistic objectivity in this respect is synonymous with neutrality,
or the separation of facts from values and opinions. To determine the quality of journalistic
practices researchers contrasts the content of news with the actual happenings. According to
researchers journalists working within this tradition use a causal model of journalistic practice.
The characteristics of the event determine the value of the facts and therefore whether it is being
covered and consequently the place of the story, its size et cetera (Rosengren,1970, 1974, 1977).
Or in other words: the content of the media is dependent on characteristics of the events to
happen.
Recent conceptualisations of news concentrate on the impossibility of news as a
reflection of reality. Charnley (1975: 44), for example, states that news is “the timely reporting
of facts or opinions that hold interest or importance, or both, for a considerable number of
people”. Stephens (1988: 9) goes a step further in defining news as “new information about a
subject of some public interest that is shared with some portion of the public, or, in short, what is
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