Media framing through stages of a political discourse: International news agencies’ coverage of Kosovo’s status negotiations

This study investigates the persistence of news frames cross-nationally and over time by analyzing the international news agencies’ coverage of Kosovo’s status negotiations over a period of two years. The results suggest a congruency in international news agencies reporting, who mainly employ the ‘episodic frame’ and emphasize the ‘conflict’ nature of the issue. However, a major difference in frame choice emerged between western and non-western agencies, while news frames over the two-year period appeared to be static rather than dynamic. Overall, this study implies that event-oriented factors, such as professional norms, tend to drive the framing of international news. Yet these norms are embedded in the journalistic culture of the country where the news-people originate from, and this culture is becoming more homogeneous along with the process of globalization.