A Media Framing Approach To Securitization

"Presenting securitization as a communication issue, this book combines media framing with the theory of securitization to explain how the discourse of security informs media content, and what happens to policy and public understanding when it does. Because securitization studies the construction of threats to societal structures as well as political-institutional structures, this book addresses security framing as a question of identity and the ability of political-cultural elites and media actors to manipulate it. After setting out how its theories work together, the book turns to news and its effects: How do media accounts make empirical sense of the world when they are bound by the need to make social-cultural sense first? How does "security" look in competing news accounts, and how do securitizing frames affect attitudes toward policies and political elites? Lastly, the book asks how academics and professionals can address the challenges to a democratic public's role in decision-making created by the manipulation of security. Bringing together distinct fields within communication studies to reflect on the pressing issue of securitization, this book will be a key resource for scholars and students working in the fields of mass communication, policy studies, critical linguistics, and international relations, as well as risk and crisis communication"--

Presenting securitization as a communication issue, this book combines media framing with the theory of securitization to explain how the discourse of security informs media content and what happens to policy and public understanding when it does. Because securitization studies the construction of threats to societal structures as well as political-institutional structures, this book addresses security framing as a question of identity and the ability of political-cultural elites and media actors to manipulate it. After setting out how its theories work together, the book turns to news and its effects: How do media accounts make empirical sense of the world when they are bound by the need to make social-cultural sense first? How does "security" look in competing news accounts, and how do securitizing frames affect attitudes toward policies and political elites? Last, the book asks how academics and professionals can address the challenges to a democratic public’s role in decision-making created by the manipulation of security. Bringing together distinct fields within communication studies to reflect on the pressing issue of securitization, this book will be a key resource for scholars and students working in the fields of mass communication, policy studies, critical linguistics and international relations, as well as risk and crisis communication.

This volume aims to provide a new framework for the analysis of securitization processes, increasing our understanding of how security issues emerge, evolve and dissolve. Securitisation theory has become one of the key components of security studies and IR courses in recent years, and this book represents the first attempt to provide an integrated and rigorous overview of securitization practices within a coherent framework. To do so, it organizes securitization around three core assumptions which make the theory applicable to empirical studies: the centrality of audience, the co-dependency of agency and context and the structuring force of the dispositif. These assumptions are then investigated through discourse analysis, process-tracing, ethnographic research, and content analysis and discussed in relation to extensive case studies. This innovative new book will be of much interest to students of securitisation and critical security studies, as well as IR theory and sociology. Thierry Balzacq is holder of the Tocqueville Chair on Security Policies and Professor at the University of Namur. He is Research Director at the University of Louvain and Associate Researcher at the Centre for European Studies at Sciences Po Paris.

This volume aims to provide a new framework for the analysis of securitization processes, increasing our understanding of how security issues emerge, evolve and dissolve. Securitisation theory has become one of the key components of security studies and IR courses in recent years, and this book represents the first attempt to provide an integrated and rigorous overview of securitization practices within a coherent framework. To do so, it organizes securitization around three core assumptions which make the theory applicable to empirical studies: the centrality of audience, the co-dependency of agency and context and the structuring force of the dispositif. These assumptions are then investigated through discourse analysis, process-tracing, ethnographic research, and content analysis and discussed in relation to extensive case studies. This innovative new book will be of much interest to students of securitisation and critical security studies, as well as IR theory and sociology. Thierry Balzacq is holder of the Tocqueville Chair on Security Policies and Professor at the University of Namur. He is Research Director at the University of Louvain and Associate Researcher at the Centre for European Studies at Sciences Po Paris.

This open access book investigates the complexity and the modalities of securitization of migration and border control at the EU level. It discusses and compares how different EU institutions and agencies have been deploying different logics of security, e.g. humanitarianism or management of risk, while framing increased migratory flows and so called migration crisis as a security problem. The book argues that the (re)development of EU migration and border control policies in response to increased migratory flows of 2015 have revealed an increasingly tangled nature of securitization of migration in the EU. This is reflected in the intertwining of security logics where migrants and human mobility tend to be securitized through different, sometimes multiple, interpretative lenses at different stages of policy framing. From a theoretical point of view, the book develops a fresh analytical perspective that further contributes to burgeoning discussion on securitization theory. By bridging the literature on policy framing and securitization it makes a significant contribution to the debates on both securitization and migration. As such this book is of great interest to students, academics, policy makers and all those working in the fields of EU politics, migration, security, and international relations.

Focusing on contemporary challenges, this major new Handbook offers a wide-ranging collection of cutting-edge essays from leading scholars in the field of Security Studies. The field of Security Studies has undergone significant change during the past twenty years, and is now one of the most dynamic sub-disciplines within International Relations. It now encompasses issues ranging from pandemics and environmental degradation to more traditional concerns about direct violence, such as those posed by international terrorism and inter-state armed conflict. A comprehensive volume, comprising articles by both established and up-and-coming scholars, the Handbook of Security Studies identifies the key contemporary topics of research and debate today. This Handbook is a benchmark publication with major importance both for current research and the future of the field. It will be essential reading for all scholars and students of Security Studies, War and Conflict Studies, and International Relations.

This edited volume examines the current challenges to media freedom and democratisation in the Middle East. The book revisits the relationship between media consumption and activism in the region, providing thorough analyses on the appropriation of social media for political engagement. Since the outburst and spread of what was known as the ‘Arab Uprisings’ in 2010, the political and media landscapes in the Middle East region have dramatically changed. The initial hope for democratic change and governance quality improvements has faded, as several regimes in the Middle East have strengthened their repressive tactics toward voices deemed critical of governments’ practices, including journalists, bloggers, and activists. The crumbling Arab media scene has also reached an abysmal low, with little to no independence, and public perception of basic freedoms in the region has significantly dropped, as has trust in media and government institutions. This book examines current challenges to media freedom, political participation, and democratisation in the region while reassessing the dynamic relationship between media use and political engagement, amidst a complex political environment accompanied by a rapidly changing digital media landscape. This book’s relevance will appeal to varied audiences, such as scholars and students of journalism, communication, political science, and Middle Eastern studies. It will also prove to be an invaluable resource for organisations dedicated to the research of political communication, media freedom, and use patterns of nontraditional, or new, media.

This book explores the distortion of communication online, centered around the theory that the economic policy model of online media is primarily based on the systematic manufacture of dissent. Following the media criticism tradition of Habermas and Chomsky, among others, the book shows how anger can motivate news consumption as the principle of divide-and-rule in the online media of the 21st century is systematically applied. The author posits that media addiction increases interest, therefore deliberate distortion of facts and the manufacture of dissent provide the media with a larger audience and this becomes the business model. This insightful volume will interest researchers, scholars, and students of media economics, political economy of media, digital media, propaganda, mass communication, and media literacy.