The framing of 9/11 in American, French, and Dutch national newspapers (2001–2015) An inductive approach to studying events

In this article, the authors employ work on events, framing, and social problems to develop an inductive approach to studying events. The article’s central premise is that tracing direct references made to events offers a fruitful strategy to investigate their framing cross-nationally and over time. The authors apply their approach to the case of 9/11 in American, French, and Dutch national newspapers (2001–2015). By combining word counting, topic modeling, and content analysis they examine the amount of attention given to 9/11, the issues to which it has been linked, and the implications attributed to it. The results indicate that the framing of 9/11 in the above three countries has been stable and uniform regarding foreign issues. There are however enduring, marked cross-national differences with respect to domestic issues. In France, 9/11 has barely been related to such issues; in the United States, the event has been connected principally to national security; and in the Netherlands, it has mainly prompted the problematization of Muslim immigrants. Because 9/11 has been a significant event many years after its occurrence, albeit differently so in each country of study, the findings point to the relevance of studying the framing of events cross-nationally and over extended periods of time.