reporting the other
DESCRIPTION
The Representation of Foreigners in a Swiss French-language Tabloid Newspaper. A dissertation exploring the representation of foreigners by Le Matin, the most read among the Swiss, paid-for, French-language newspapers. The dissertation was submitted to the Department of Media and Communication of the University of Leicester in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Communications, Media and Public Relations.TRANSCRIPT
Reporting the Other
The Representation of Foreigners
in a Swiss French-language Tabloid Newspaper
Juan Michel
Dissertation submitted
in partial fulfllment of requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts in Communications, Media and Public Relations
(October 2010)
University of Leicester
Department of Media and Communication
*
Abstract
The rate of foreigners in Switzerland’s population is one of
the highest in the world. Thus, ‘the foreigners’ have been
the subject of a heated debate within Swiss society for
about a century — a debate in which the media play a signi-
fcant role. This dissertation explores such a role in the case
of Le Matin, the most read among the country’s paid-for,
French-language newspapers. By applying quantitative and
qualitative research methodologies, we explore the main
features of the newspaper’s representation of foreigners.
Our fndings suggest foreigners receive a very prominent
treatment and appear mostly in negatively connoted con-
texts, although we also found certain attempts to ofer a
more nuanced representation.
Contents
INTRODUCTION ................................................................ 4
PART I – Theory and Methodology
Theoretical framework .................................................... 10
Literature review ............................................................. 13
Methodological approaches ............................................ 17
PART II – Quantitative Content Analysis
The prominence of the issue ........................................... 25
Mapping the topics ......................................................... 36
Types, characterization and origin of foreigners ............. 50
The sources .................................................................... 64
Crime, violence and misdemeanor .................................. 76
Switzerland’s Muslims .................................................... 87
PART III – Semiotic Analysis of Visuals
Foreigners in Swiss prisons ............................................. 98
Foreign workers ............................................................ 101
Illegal immigrants ......................................................... 104
Switzerland’s Muslims .................................................. 107
CONCLUSION ................................................................ 110
Appendix I – Sampling Calendar .................................. 113
Appendix II – Annotated Coding Schedule ................... 114
Appendix III – Data Reliability ...................................... 121
References .................................................................... 123
Index of Tables, Charts and Figures .............................. 129
Acknowledgements ....................................................... 131
INTRODUCTION
In 2009, Switzerland’s population was about 7.9 million people, of which some 1.8 mil-
lion were foreigners (Office fédéral de la statistique [OFS] 2010; Table 11). This figure
does not seem too large if compared with, for instance, a population of 4.2 million for-
eign-born in the United Kingdom (OCDE 2010). But the proportion of foreigners in
Switzerland – 22.9% in 20092 – is the highest in Europe3. In 2005, a worldwide ranking
of states with the highest percentages of immigrants and over one million inhabitants
showed that only eight countries scored higher than Switzerland; they were all from the
Middle East plus Singapore (Piguet 2009:10).
Of course, a crucial factor in determining the number of foreigners in a country is
the definition of what a ‘foreigner’ is. By virtue of the jus sanguinis applied in Switzer-
land, more than a quarter of the foreign population are people born in the country who
would not be considered foreigners had they been born under similar circumstances in,
for example, the United States or France (Afonso 2004:156). In addition to that,
Switzerland’s naturalization policy is recognized as “strongly restrictive compared with
international standards” (Piguet 2009:110).
This being the situation, the issue of the country’s foreign population has been a
hot topic continually debated since at least 1910, when the share of foreigners reached
14.7% and “scare[d] the natives” (Office des migrations [ODM] 2008:7). That debate
intensified after the 1960s (Windisch 2002:13), accompanying a post-World War II in-
crease in foreign population (Chart 1). Given Switzerland’s system of direct demo-
cracy4, that debate has both taken place around – and given origin to – a large number of
binding consultations on different aspects of the policy regarding foreigners. Between
1 All tables and charts referred to in the text appear at the end of the corresponding chapter.
2 Or 22% if foreigners with short-term residence permits and people at different stages of the asylum process were not included (OFS 2010).
3 Only Liechtenstein (population: 35,000) and Luxembourg (population: 500,000) have higher shares of foreign population (OFS 2010).
[4]
1970 and 2009, Swiss citizens voted on 29 such consultations (Piguet 2009:137-139).
That averages three consultations every four years!
Within such a “generalized and permanent public debate of a rare intensity and vir-
ulence” (Windisch 2002:9), the Swiss media play a prominent role: unsurprisingly, ‘the
foreigners’ are often featured in all kinds of media products. From a media studies view-
point, the question is what kind of role the media play in such a heated debate.
In this work, such a broad issue will be narrowed down in a three-fold way. First,
we focus on one of its aspects, namely how foreigners are represented by the media.
Second, we look at one of the four linguistic areas of the country – the French-speaking.
Third, we concentrate on print media and, within it, on one newspaper: Le Matin (LM).
Thematic choice. What we understand by media representation is discussed in the
next chapter, where we also look at the current state of the scholarship in this field. Here
it should suffice to state that our interest is to find out how an important Swiss French-
language newspaper represents ‘the foreigners’ for its readers.
Regional choice. This is motivated both by linguistic competences and biographical
reasons – as my family and I have lived in Geneva as foreigners for the last eight years.
Switzerland’s French-speaking region covers the West of the country (Figure 1). With
about 1.49 million speakers, it is the second largest linguistic area, representing about
20% of the country’s population, or 21% of the Swiss nationals (OFS 2010b).
Media and outlet choice. We chose the print media as the focus of our research giv-
en its prominent role in Switzerland. According to the association of editors of French-
speaking newspapers Swiss Press, in 2009 “the Swiss confirmed their condition of
newspaper-lovers” (Swiss Press 2009:8). Citing a national survey carried out between
4 The two main instruments of Swiss direct democracy are the referendum, which can challenge a law approved by the Parliament if it gathers the support of 50,000 citizens, and the popular initiative, which deals with constitutional matters and needs the support of 100,000 citizens (SwissWorld.org 2010).
[5]
April 2008 and March 2009, Swiss Press reports that 92.4% of the respondents declared
they read at least one newspaper more or less regularly (Swiss Press 2009:8).
Within this big picture, we chose LM because it was the most read French-lan-
guage, paid-for newspaper at the time we started our research5. According to Swiss
Press, in 2009 LM reached 246,000 readers, while its Sunday edition – Le Matin Di-
manche – reached 520,000 (2009:8).
LM is a tabloid, popular newspaper, with a clear emphasis on sensational stories,
sport and celebrities. Its Sunday edition is published in broadsheet format and includes
sections and materials typical of a quality Sunday newspaper (culture, lifestyle, opinion
columns, profile stories, etcetera).
LM is published by Edipresse, the giant of the periodical publications business in
French-speaking Switzerland. Edipresse also publishes the dailies 24 Heures, La
Tribune de Genéve and Le Temps. Together with LM, these are the four most read daily
French-language newspapers (combined readership: 771,000 – Swiss Press 2009:8).
This dissertation is organized as follows: Part I discusses theoretical and meth-
odological issues. We look at the concept of media representation and discuss its relev-
ance for our subject. A literature review gives an account of the research context of this
work. We discuss the choice of research methodologies and the research design.
Part II presents, analyses and discusses the data collected through the application
of the quantitative methodology to a sample of editions of LM. We attempt to answer
our research questions from a quantitative point of view.
Part III consists of a semiotic analysis of a limited number of visuals chosen from
the corpus of photographs accompanying our sample of LM stories. We try to answer
our research questions with a qualitative approach.
In the Conclusion we briefly review and summarize the main findings of our
work, highlighting the most outstanding issues, as well as some of the limitations of this
research and topics worth future exploration.
5 Since, the ‘middle-market’ daily 24 Heures has reached the same readership as LM.
[6]
Table 1: Nationals and foreigners in Switzerland in 2009, with the latter’s regions of origin (Source: OFS 2010a)
(*) EU-27: the 27 countries that form the European Union since 1 January 2007. EFTA: the three countries that together with Switzerland form the European Free Trade Association.
Chart 1: Foreigners with permanent residence in Switzerland 1900-2009, in percentage of the total population (Source: OFS 2010d)
[7]
Nationality Count %
Total 7,874,088 100.00Swiss 6,071,802 77.11Foreigners 1,802,286 22.89
Foreigners by region of origin %
Europe 1,530,913 84.94 EU-27 / EFTA (*) 1,116,356 61.94 Other European countries 414,557 23.00Asia 116,398 6.46Africa 73,553 4.08Latin America 48,501 2.69North America 27,433 1.52Oceania 4,174 0.23Without or unknown nationality 1,314 0.07
Figure 1: Switzerland linguistic regions (French-speaking area in green)
Source: OFS 2010e
[8]
PART I
Theory and Methodology
[9]
Theoretical framework
This dissertation takes up a social constructionist theoretical framework and approaches
its subject from a cultural studies perspective. The representation of foreigners we ex-
plore interests us insofar as it is able to influence the shape that a portion of the social
world takes for a number of people, namely the readers of LM.
As a theoretical paradigm in social sciences, social constructionism sees “the
structures, forces and ideas of society [as] created by human beings, continually recre-
ated or reproduced and also open to challenge and change. […] Social reality has to be
made and given meaning (interpreted) by human actors” (McQuail 2005:101).
In fact, it is not as if ‘making’ social reality and ‘giving [it] meaning’ were two dif-
ferent processes; actually the former takes place through the latter. According to Hall, it
is when members of a group or society engage in “the production and the exchange of
meanings – the ‘giving and taking of meaning’” that it can be said they “belong to the
same culture”, or in other words, that they “interpret [or make sense of] the world in
roughly the same ways” (1997a:2). It is through this shared making sense of – or giving
meaning to – objects, people and events that these are ‘constructed’ as social reality.
“Because we interpret the world in roughly similar ways, we are able to build up a
shared culture of meanings and thus construct a social world which we inhabit together”
(1997b:18). In this perspective, “culture is conceptualized as a primary or ‘constitutive’
process as important as the economic or material ‘base’ in shaping social subjects and
historical events – not merely a reflection of the world after the event” (1997a:6).
For Hall, “representation is an essential part of the process by which meaning is
produced and exchanged between members of a culture. It does involve the use of lan-
guage, of signs and images which stand for or represent things” (1997b:15). Represent-
ing things has to do with “the words we use about them, the stories we tell about them,
the images of them we produce, the emotions we associate with them, the ways we clas-
sify and conceptualize them, the values we place on them” (1997a:3). As a consequence,
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representation – that is, “the production of meaning through language” (1997a:10) – is
conceived “as entering into the very constitution of things” (1997a:5).
Conceptualizing culture in terms of shared meanings does not imply a monolithic
view of it. “In any culture, there is always a great diversity of meanings about any topic,
and more than one way of interpreting or representing it” (Hall 1997a:2), which
amounts to saying that there are always competing definitions – or representations – of
social reality. As meanings “organize and regulate social practices, influence our con-
duct and consequently have real, practical effects” (Hall 1997a:3), people “struggle over
them because they matter […]. They define what is ‘normal’, who belongs and therefore
who is excluded. They are deeply inscribed in relations of power” (Hall 1997a:10).
If meanings are “constantly being produced and exchanged in every personal and
social interaction in which we take part”, they are also produced “in a variety of differ-
ent media; especially, these days, in the modern mass media” (Hall 1997a:3; author’s
emphasis). Media representations thus play an important role in the construction of so-
cial reality. In particular, “whereas news discourse is presented by its makers as an ob-
jective, impartial translation of reality, it may instead be seen to be providing an ideolo-
gical construction of realities” (Allan 1998:108; author’s emphases).
Against this theoretical backdrop, we will explore how the most read Swiss
French-language newspaper represents – or constructs – foreigners for its readers. To
achieve this we have chosen to study the ‘text’ of the newspaper itself, which is both
outcome of production practices and support of interpretative practices.
This choice does not mean that we identify ‘text’ and ‘representation’. That would
amount to saying that meanings are ‘in’ the text or are produced by the text alone. The
reader “is not a passive screen on which the original meaning is accurately and transpar-
ently projected” (Hall 1997a:10). We do not subscribe to the “assumption of textual de-
terminacy” (Richardson 1998:221). As reception analysis has shown, meanings are pro-
duced – or negotiated – in the encounter between the text and the reader, or as Corner
puts it, meaning is “far better seen as a property of interpretative production” (1991
cited Richardson 1998:223). In Hall’s words, “the ‘taking of meaning’ is as much a sig-
nifying practice as the ‘putting into meaning’” (1997a:10).
[11]
Theoretical approaches that emphasize the ‘active reader’ notwithstanding, the text
does play a role in this encounter. There is a “considerable degree of determinacy pos-
sessed by texts”, simply because they resort to “systems of signification based on wide-
spread social/national acceptance, and having relatively low levels of ambiguity”
(Corner 1991 cited Richardson 1998:223). Readers read a particular text and it is upon it
– based on and constrained by its features – that they exercise their active, negotiating
reading.
In looking at the ‘text’ of LM – both stories and visuals – we will seek to answer
some of these research questions:
• How can the representational practices of the newspaper be best described?
• Which are the subjects and themes that are resorted to more often? Which are
the privileged social roles that are built into those constructs?
• Are the representational practices internally consistent or do they show contra-
dictions?
• What are the sources most heavily resorted to by the representational practice?
Are some types of sources made to play specific roles or functions?
• How do the visuals contribute to the representational practices? What socially
shared codes or ‘myths’ are called upon by them?
Before discussing our methodological choices we will look at the research context
in which this study takes place.
[12]
Literature review
The study of media representations has a long history. The earliest entry in Van Dijk’s
“Selective bibliography on ethnic minorities, racism and the mass media” (1995) is The
negro in the Philadelphia press (Simpson 1936). Simpson analysed “the portrayal of
African-Americans in white Philadelphia newspapers”, using “what would later be
called quantitative content analysis” (Simonson 2005:8).
In addition to race issues, studies of representation have dealt with other minorit-
ies, gender issues – e.g. Hearth and Home (Tuchman et al. 1978) – and more or less
everything in between.
Amongst the most influential studies in this field, we can mention Racism and the
Press (Van Dijk 1991) and subsequent works by the same author from a discourse ana-
lysis perspective, as well as Policing the Crisis (Hall et al. 1978) from a cultural studies
perspective. More recently, Reporting Islam (Poole 2002) addressed a subject close to
ours with a similar theoretical framework.
The immediate research context of this dissertation – that is, the scholarship ad-
dressing the subject of the contemporary representation of foreigners in the Swiss
French-language press – is, both in English and French, rather scarce. In fact, it has
been recognized that “only in recent years scientific studies focused on issues of media
and integration [of foreigners] or immigration have been undertaken […], and this
mainly in German-speaking Switzerland”6 (Commission fédérale des étrangers [CFE]
2007:11).
A key study in this field has been written by Windisch (2002). With an ambitious
scope that covers several decades, Windisch studies the representation of immigrants
and immigration, analysing the public debates that took place around ten consultations
related to foreigners’ issues between 1970 and 2001. The theoretical framework is con-
6 Although Swiss scholarship published in German may or may not discuss issues pertaining to – and/or samples from – Swiss French-speaking media, it will be nonetheless left out of this dis-sertation as I lack the necessary linguistic competence. This fact accounts for one of the limita-tions of this research.
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structivist. By intervening in the public debate, citizens “take part in the construction of
the ‘immigration’ subject” (p.24). “Social facts” are “communications facts, constructed
through and by communication” (p.30). Windisch considers the media to be “amongst
the most important providers of meaning” in society. (p.258). Methodologically, he uses
“content analysis” (p.15) based on “multiple quotes” and not in “statistical data” (p.6) to
study 15 French-speaking newspapers7. The corpus of analysis is made of editorial
pieces and in-depth coverage. He studies readers’ letters, which he does not consider as
part of the newspapers’ representational practice but as grass-roots discourse. Windisch
concludes that since the 1960s there has been a profound change in the discourse about
immigration, which evolved from “assimilation” to “multiculturalism” (p.184).
Maasen and Renggli (2007) conducted a study on “images of foreigners as the cul-
tural/ethnic other”. With a theoretical approach similar to ours, according to which they
see mass mediated images as “forms of visual and linguistic constitution of reality”,
they explore the “visualization strategies” and the “concepts of foreignness/ethnicity”
resorted to by the media in order to carry out the “visual construction of cultural and
ethnical otherness”. Publications derived from this research project are available only in
German.
Naki (2007) published a collection of anecdotal evidence about the “populist over-
exploitation of the crime story” in Swiss French-speaking media. More a piece of ad-
vocacy journalism than a scholarly work, the book is focused on the systematic misrep-
resentation of black Africans in the press.
Bonfadelli et al. (2008) conducted a study on the contribution to integration of
Swiss German-speaking broadcast media, both public and commercial. According to a
journalistic account (Leybold-Johnson 2009), the research findings show that foreigners
are usually associated with crime and misdemeanor stories. Foreigners also have diffi-
culties to “speak for themselves” as stories usually resort to politicians and experts as
sources. This work is available only in German.
7 In addition to media content, also statements by government and political parties are studied.
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If the ‘pre-9/11’ context of Windisch’s work (2002) is shown in that it does not
mention Muslims at all, a significant share of the recent research is focused on Islam-re-
lated issues.
Ettinger and Udris (2009) have researched the representation of foreigners in Ger-
man-speaking Swiss media, with a focus on the Muslim and Jewish communities8. In
one of the phases of the research, they study three major newspapers between 1980 and
2007 and observe “a discontinuous but intensifying problematization of foreigners and
ethnic minorities” (p.63). Studying communication events – that is, series of reports
which constitute what in journalistic parlance is called ‘a story’ – they look for their
frames. They find five main, successive frames: labour migration, bogus refugees, crime
(related to the previous one), humanitarian catastrophes (less salient than the others) and
cultural integration/loyalty (p.64-67). The latter is the one being applied to the country’s
Muslims and Jews. In another phase of the research, they study nine media outlets9
between 1998 and 2007 with the same methodology. They find a change in the domin-
ant frames within which Islam-related issues are reported before and after 11 September
2001. Before that date, Muslims in Switzerland are depicted as “victims of inadequate
integration (policies)”, whilst after that date, and especially after the Madrid terror at-
tack in March 2004, they are framed as “unwilling or unable to integrate into Swiss so-
ciety” (p.73).
Gianni et al. (2009) is a progress report10 about a research project on the incidence
of gender issues in the representation of Muslims and Islam in Swiss French-language
media between 2004 and 2006. The study is not interested in the media per se, but takes
media discourse as a proxy for public discourse. Although the research project has a
bigger scope11, the progress report is based upon work done on the newspapers Le Mat-
in and Le Temps. The methodology is quantitative content analysis (to be complemented
8 We discuss in page 87 of this work why Muslim equals foreigner in Switzerland. The Jewish community includes less than 25,000 people and it is not clear to what extent its members can be considered foreigners.
9 Three daily newspapers, two weeklies, two radio news shows and two television news shows.
10 Being a progress report, the authors would like it not to be quoted, so we paraphrase it.
11 The media considered are two newspapers, two weeklies and several television news shows.
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by discourse analysis later on) focused on a selected number of ‘stories’ (in Ettinger and
Udris’ sense of the word). The preliminary findings show that gender issues are not very
prominent as main topics, but rather omnipresent as secondary topics. The authors con-
clude that gender issues play an important role in structuring discourses related to non-
gender issues and thus in shaping the social representation of Muslims. As three quar-
ters of the themes associated with Muslims construct them as problematic, the authors
suggest that Muslims are represented as a threatening other.
This latest piece of research is the only scholarship dealing with the representation
of foreigners in Swiss French-language media that we have been able to identify. We
would argue there is a scholarship gap which offers the immediate context for this
dissertation.
[16]
Methodological approaches
In this chapter we discuss the two research methodologies we have applied and the re-
search design.
Quantitative content analysis
Quantitative – or classic – content analysis seems to be the method of choice in an
“ever-growing number” of studies exploring the “media image of certain minority or
otherwise notable groups” (Wimmer & Dominick 2006:153). Its ability to process large
amounts of texts is well established, as is its capability to “provide a descriptive account
of what a media text […] contains”, all of which makes it fit for “describing patterns or
trends in media portrayals” and, more specifically, for “assessing the representations of
particular groups in society” (Gunter 2008:70).
Famously described by Berelson (1952:18 cited Bauer 2000:133) as being “object-
ive, systematic and quantitative”, it is probably its pretended objectivity that has been
most challenged. Scholars like Deacon et al. (2007:132) acknowledge that the method
does not “deliver a truly ‘objective’, value-free perspective”, given that at all stages of
the research process – sampling, definition of variables and so on – researchers take ar-
bitrary decisions based on their “subjective judgement of what is significant”.
Given the impossibility to avoid subjectivity, scholars emphasise the need to make
subjective choices informed by an explicit theoretical framework (Hansen 1988:95;
Deacon et al. 2007:133; Bauer 2000:140). Bauer suggests that the method provides “an
encounter [with the text] objectified by systematicity” (2000:139; my emphasis) –
where ‘objectified’ refers to “systematic, procedurally explicit and replicable
procedures” (2000:133).
Likewise, the objection to the method’s supposed equation between ‘frequency’
and ‘meaning’ is addressed by the observation that it does not limit itself to counting
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“occurrences of specified dimensions” in a text, but also “analyses the relationships
between those dimensions” (Hansen 1998:98; author’s emphasis).
However, Deacon et al. have pointed out that since the method aims at producing a
‘big picture’ made of trends and patterns across texts, which is one of its strengths, it
does so at the cost of overlooking “complex and varied processes of meaning-making
within the text” (2007:119; author’s emphases). To achieve this sort of analysis, qualitat-
ive methods are needed.
The method’s known inability to make assertions about the production and recep-
tion stages of media texts (Wimmer & Dominick 2006:153-154) is not a problem here,
as we do not intend to do so.
McQuail (2005:363-364) raised an objection based on the nature of the method’s
output: a “new text” that is in itself a “statistical summary” resulting from a form of
reading that “no actual ‘reader’ would ever, under natural circumstances, undertake”.
“The new ‘meaning’ is neither that of the original sender, nor that of the text itself, nor
that of the audience, but a fourth construct, one particular interpretation.”
It is true that applying content analysis amounts to a sort of ‘non-natural reading’,
which is, we would argue, precisely why researchers undertake it. Leaving the myriad
of particular, ‘natural’ readings to audience research, and the ‘sender’s’ intentions to
production studies, and acknowledging that the ‘text itself’ does not speak, content ana-
lysis “maps the space of readings and intentions by exclusion or by trend” (Bauer
2000:145). It “constructs paradigms of potential meaning, rather than understands actual
meaning” (Bauer 2000:148).
The method “must be judged not against a ‘true reading’ of the text, but in terms of
its grounding in the materials and its congruence with the theory of the researcher, and
in the light of his or her research purpose” (Bauer 2000:133).
[18]
Semiotic analysis of visuals
If, as Cottle suggests, there is indeed a “productive contribution of visuals to the
construction of social meaning” (1998:190), this needs to be channelled through their
contribution to media representations. It is important then, besides analysing texts, to
explore the “special role that visuals play in imparting information and inviting affective
and aesthetic forms of engagement”, as well as in producing “enriched and potentially
potent messages” (1998:191-192).
This approach is, Cottle points out, grounded in a rejection of the naïve realist
perspective that unproblematically assumes visuals “to ‘reflect’ or ‘mirror’ the events
and people captured on film” (1998:190). It is also grounded in production studies that
typically reveal “a complex of selection and editing decisions which combine to create a
particular scene and supporting interpretation of the news event” (1998:196).
The method chosen to study visuals in this work is semiotic analysis. The basic
semiotic concepts first developed by Ferdinand de Saussure and others at the beginning
of the 20th century “have entered into the general currency of analytical language in
media and cultural studies” (Deacon et al. 2007:141). Here we will rely on Roland
Barthes’ approach, which can be regarded as “the clearest and most useful exposition of
this new discipline in relation to the analysis of images” (Penn 2000:229).
Briefly put, Barthes has argued that
“representation takes place through two separate but linked processes. In the
first, the signifiers […] and the signifieds […] unite to form a sign with a
simple denoted message […]. At the second stage, this completed message or
sign is linked to a second set of signifieds – a broad, ideological theme […].
The first, completed meaning functions as the signifier in the second stage of
the representation process, and when linked with a wider theme by a reader,
yields a second, more elaborate and ideologically framed message or
meaning” (Hall 1997b:39).
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If at the first signifying level – referred to as denotation – the reader “requires only
linguistic and anthropological knowledges”, at the second level – designed as
connotation – the reader “requires further cultural knowledges”, or in other words, a
“socially shared interpretative resource” (Penn 2000:230-231).
“Barthes calls this second level of signification the level of the myth” (Hall
1997b:39; author’s emphasis). According to Penn (2000:231), the Barthesian myth is
“an unpardonable confusion of history and nature”, the means by which “a culture
naturalizes, or renders invisible, its own norms and ideology”; thus a semiotic reading
tries to “demystify or ‘unmask’ this process of naturalization by drawing attention to the
constructed nature of the image”.
Amongst the limitations of the method, a tendency to offer “impressionistic
insights into the construction of meaning”, as well as a heavy dependence “upon the
skill of the analyst”, which would entail lack of consistency and reliability (Penn
2000:239-240) have been mentioned. These analyses would also be prone to
interpretative exaggerations, as they depend on “the analyst’s own understanding of
surrounding cultural codes and myths” (Cottle 1998:212-213).
In this field, the analyst can only address these criticisms by looking “at the
concrete example and try[ing] to justify [her or his] ‘reading’ in detail in relation to the
actual practices and forms of signification used” (Hall 1997a:9).
Additionally, it has been suggested that the method may be combined with focus
groups and interviews in order to attempt a “communicative validation” that would
address “the problem of subjectivity by reinstating the lay reader” (Penn 2000:242).
This falls out of the necessarily limited scope of this dissertation.
Also, a rapprochement with quantitative content analysis, for instance by adopting
the latter’s systematic sampling procedures, would address the criticism of
manufacturing self-confirming results. Penn has suggested that “a semiological account
of a small sample of images may exemplify different content analytic codes”
(2000:243). Which is what we intend to do in Part III of this work.
[20]
Research design
Sampling newspaper editions. In order to achieve sampling validity, we construc-
ted a random sample of four composite weeks covering (approximately) a one-year peri-
od (between the end of April 2009 and the beginning of May 2010). On Sundays, we
chose the corresponding edition of Le Matin Dimanche. The sample included 28 edi-
tions12. (Appendix 1 contains the Sampling Calendar.)
Constituting a corpus of stories. A single coder (the author) read all of the stories
of each sampled edition, identifying all of those that mentioned or referred to ‛foreign-
ers in Switzerland’. This process yielded 105 stories that formed the corpus for sub-
sequent analysis. ‛Foreigners in Switzerland’ were operationally defined as persons who
being non-Swiss nationals either have or are trying to establish their permanent resid-
ence in the country as well as those whose main job is located in the country, even if
they have their residence in a neighbouring country (cross-border commuters or front-
aliers). This concept excludes foreign tourists as well as foreign investors who are not
residents.
Articles considered as part of the corpus came from all sections of the newspaper;
only advertisements and paid-for material were not included. In the case of sports stor-
ies, those that routinely identified foreign sportsmen and sportswomen by their national-
ity were excluded; only those that made a point of the fact that a person referred to was
a foreigner were included.
Four units of analysis were defined: the story13, the crime story, the foreigner
occurrence and the source.
12 Stempel (1952 cited Bauer 2000:137) suggested that 12 randomly chosen editions of a daily newspaper are a reliable sample of its annual content. We chose 28 to be on the safe side.
13 We use the word ‘story’ in the sense of ‘article’ and regardless genre, so in what follows a ‘news story’, a ‘feature story’, an editorial piece or a reader’s letter will all be considered a ‘story’. We do not use ‘story’ in the sense of the accumulated media coverage of a certain event that evolves along time, like Ettinger and Udris (2009) or Gianni et al. (2009) do.
[21]
Coding variables. For each story in the sample, we coded the usual identifiers (date,
page, etcetera), some editorial and layout features and a number of variables14, namely:
• Whether the story was focused or not on foreigners. We operationally defined as
focused on foreigners those stories in which foreigners were mentioned or alluded to in
the headline or lead paragraph. The theoretical assumption behind this choice is that
while all stories that mention foreigners in one way or another contribute to the repres-
entation of foreigners constructed by the newspaper, not all of them do so with the same
impact or weight. Stories focused on foreigners have a greater shaping power on their
representation than those that only mention foreigners in an incidental way. If we chose
a metaphor for the way we see this process, it would be that of a painting. All of the ele-
ments present in a painting contribute to its global signifying role, but those elements
which stand out from the rest because they are highlighted by the composition, lighting
or other visual strategies, do certainly have a greater signifying impact.
• The main theme and the most prominent sub-theme. Inspired by Poole (2002),
this variable was coded through an inductive process, identifying the themes and sub-
themes as they appeared in the stories; the themes on the basis of the headline and lead
paragraph, the sub-themes being the most prominent of – usually – several secondary
themes identifiable in the story as a whole.
• The type, characterization and origin of each foreigner occurrence and whether
there was a picture associated with it or not. The data yielded by this coding was
aggregated to be used in analyses taking the foreigner occurrence as unit of analysis.
• The type, name, political affiliation and gender of each source and whether it
was pictured or not. The data produced by this coding was aggregated to serve as the
basis of analyses taking the source as unit of analysis.
Crime stories. All of the crime and misdemeanor stories in the sample of LM edi-
tions (that is regardless of whether they mentioned foreigners or not) were coded separ-
14 A more detailed description of each variable and its possible values appears in the Annotated Coding Schedule (Appendix II).
[22]
ately for the following variables: actors’ nationality (Swiss or foreigner) and actors’
role (author or victim).
Validity. The theoretical assumptions that justify the inclusion of the above-described
variables in the research design – and which provide a basis to judge its content and
construct validity – will be incorporated into the presentation and discussion of the data
gathered through the coding process in Part II. (Except for the first variable, whose
theoretical basis has already been explicited.)
Reliability. A random sub-sample of five stories were coded twice with a significant
time span in between the first and the second coding. Calculating for the resulting data
Krippendorff’s α reliability coefficient we obtained values between 0.8662 and 0.7740
depending on the set of variables considered (see Appendix III).
Choosing photographs. The choice of pictures for semiotic analysis was guided by
three criteria: limited number, given the limited availability of space; quantitative im-
portance, that is, we chose pictures of some of the most prominent foreigner types; and
theoretical relevance, i.e. pictures that addressed some of the most prominent issues. We
also took into account that “simply, some materials are more amenable to semiotic
analysis than others” (Penn 2000:232).
Companion website. Bauer (2000:143) and Gaskell and Bauer (2000:346) have
linked the quality of research work to its transparency, emphasizing the availability of
exhaustive documentation. We have tried to address this suggestion by creating a mini-
website [ReportingTheOther.blogspot.com] where we made available the corpus of
stories (as text files), the quantitative data produced by the coding processes (as SPSS
files) and the photos used for semiotic analysis.
[23]
PART II
Quantitative Content Analysis
[24]
The prominence of the issue
Our theoretical assumption is that a newspaper indicates the relative importance of an
issue by the prominence it gives to it (Poole 2002:55). This is achieved through two
main means: the frequency with which the issue appears and its editorial treatment.
Both are the result of the assignment of scarce resources (editorial space, staff) that are
subject to fierce competition and cannot be thought of as being assigned lightly.
Story frequency and issue prominence
Table/Chart 2 shows the occurrence by edition of the 105 stories in our corpus (we call
these ‘all stories’). Only two editions are devoid of stories (8.33% of the sample). There
are two editions with an unusually high number of stories: 01.12.09 (11 stories) and
14.02.10 (10 stories). Assuming that the variable ‘all stories’ by edition follows a nor-
mal distribution (Table/Chart 2b and Chart 2c), both values may be considered as out-
liers15. Outliers may indicate a measurement error (which is not our case) or point to a
peculiar situation that affects the variable, in which case they need to be explained.
The anomalously high number of stories on 01.12.09 is due to the vote, two days
earlier, of a popular initiative to ban the construction of minarets. The edition of 1
December was the first with a full coverage of the issue (nine pages, eight stories) bey-
ond the immediate reporting of results of the vote, done the previous day. Thus, we can
consider this outlying value as justified by an extraordinary event.
The anomalously high number of stories on 14.02.10 does not seem to have a
single cause. Being Sunday, an increased number of stories is to be expected. In addi-
tion to that, three readers’ letters commenting on stories about foreigners which had ap-
15 The value of the variable ‘all stories’ by edition for 01.12.09 is: 11 = µ + 2.77 σ. Its probability (calculated according to Ling 2010) is 1:177, so it cannot reasonably be expected to happen when n = 28 like in this case. For 14.02.10 the variable value is: 10 = µ + 2.39 σ. Its probability is 1:44, so again it cannot reasonably be expected to happen within our sample. We tested the assumption of normality with a Q-Q plot (Chart 2c).
[25]
peared the previous Sunday, and the accumulation of four profile stories about foreign-
ers seems to be a fortuitous coincidence16.
Given these two outliers, in the analysis of the data we will privilege the median,
instead of the mean, as representative of the variable’s central tendency17.
From the above discussion (and the data in Table 2) it follows that the number of
daily stories mentioning foreigners tends to be three (median = 3). We suggest that three
stories mentioning foreigners per day (21 every week, more than 90 per month) indic-
ates an overall high prominence of the issue of foreigners in LM.
Within this big picture, we may want to look at stories that are focused on foreign-
ers (we call these ‘focus stories’). Table/Chart 3 shows their occurrence by edition. As-
suming a normal distribution18 of the variable ‘focus stories’ by edition (Table/Chart
3b), we see that they tend to appear once per edition (median = 1).
We suggest that the fact that every single day LM carries one story focused on for-
eigners (included in the three mentioned above) confirms the overall high prominence
of the issue of foreigners in the newspaper. Foreigners are omnipresent for LM readers.
Editorial treatment and issue prominence
A key factor of the editorial treatment of an issue is the layout features associated with
the stories: size, position within the pages, illustration (Kress & Van Leeuwen
1998:200). Table/Chart 4 shows the distribution of ‘all stories’ according to a layout
salience index that compounds both size and position19. More than three in ten stories
have very high and high salience, while more than two in ten have medium salience. The
salience increases when we consider ‘focus stories’, as Table/Chart 5 shows.
16 They are about gastronomical preferences, movie-making, football and economy.
17 Outliers call for the use of so called ‘robust statistics’ (Burke 2001:22).
18 There is an outlier in this case too. The value for 14.02.09 is: 6 = µ + 3.18 σ. Its probability is 1:100, so it cannot reasonably be expected to occur within a sample of n = 28. The explanation is the same as for ‘all stories’, which we have just discussed.
19 See Annotated Coding Schedule (Appendix I) for details. We grouped the values of the layout
salience index into five clusters: very low, low, medium, high and very high.
[26]
The use of photographs of foreigners with ‘all stories’ appears in Table/Chart 6.
Two in ten stories are well served with XL- and L-sized pictures. As one would expect,
the use of photos of foreigners increases in ‘focus stories’. Table/Chart 7 shows an in-
crease for all sizes but Medium, with XL-sized photos doubling their share.
Although we cannot assess here these results on the basis of comparisons neither
intra- nor inter-newspaper, it is clear that stories in our corpus get a rather prominent
treatment in terms of layout features.
Another key aspect of the editorial treatment is the proportion of stories signed by
newspaper staff writers, as opposed to stories from news-wire services or without by-
line. A larger share of stories with staff by-lines indicates a higher quality of treatment
(Center for Research on the Public Sphere and Society 2010:10).
Table/Chart 8 shows the distribution of ‘all stories’ by type of by-line, while
Table/Chart 9 does likewise for ‘focus stories’. Comparing the two, we see that stories
signed by staff writers increase from six out of ten to seven out of ten when it comes to
‘focus stories’. Both the share of stories attributed to news agencies and those without
by-line diminish by more than half. On the contrary, the share of stories (i.e. letters)
signed by readers doubles. Regardless of whether or not the increase in readers’ letters
indicates a larger interest on their part20, it certainly is part of LM’s strategy to construct
the representation of foreigners.
Table/Chart 10 shows a comparison between ‘all’ and ‘focus’ stories with regard
to bylines (excluding readers’ letters). The more the triangle-shaped figures are skewed
towards the staff writers axis, the higher the professionalism. We can see that ‘focus
stories’ do better than ‘all stories’ in this regard. Interestingly, they even compare well
with Swiss quality press in general (Chart 10b).
We suggest that the high professionalism in the treatment of stories focused on for-
eigners is an additional indicator of the high prominence of the issue for the newspaper.
20 We do not know the total number of readers’ letters received by the newspaper, but only those that it has chosen to publish.
[27]
Table 2: Occurrence of ‘all stories’ by edition (S: Sunday)
Date Stories %S 26.04.09 4 3.81
04.05.09 0 0.0019.05.09 5 4.7603.06.09 2 1.9018.06.09 1 0.9503.07.09 3 2.8618.07.09 2 1.90
S 02.08.09 6 5.7110.08.09 1 0.9525.08.09 2 1.9009.09.09 6 5.7124.09.09 3 2.8609.10.09 5 4.7624.10.09 3 2.86
S 08.11.09 5 4.7616.11.09 3 2.8601.12.09 16 10.4816.12.09 5 4.7631.12.09 0 0.0015.01.10 1 0.9530.01.10 3 2.86
S 14.02.10 10 9.5222.02.10 3 2.8609.03.10 4 3.8124.03.10 4 3.8108.04.10 4 3.8123.04.10 7 6.6708.05.10 2 1.90
Total 105 100
Chart 2: Occurrence of ‘all stories’ by edition
[28]
26.04
.09
04.05
.09
19.05
.09
03.06
.09
18.06
.09
03.07
.09
18.07
.09
02.08
.09
10.08
.09
25.08
.09
09.09
.09
24.09
.09
09.10
.09
24.10
.09
08.11
.09
16.11
.09
01.12
.09
16.12
.09
31.12
.09
15.01
.10
30.01
.10
14.02
.10
22.02
.10
09.03
.10
24.03
.10
08.04
.10
23.04
.10
08.05
.100
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
All stories
Editions
Stor
y fre
quen
cy
Table 2b: Frequency ‘all stories’ by edition
Chart 2b: Frequency ‘all stories’ by edition (with curve of normal distribution)
Chart 2c: Test of normality for frequency of ‘all stories’, Q-Q Plot
[29]
Frequency Percent
Valid 0 2 7.11 3 10.72 4 14.33 6 21.44 4 14.35 4 14.36 2 7.17 1 3.6
10 1 3.611 1 3.6
Total 28 100.0
StatisticsN Valid 28
Missing 0Mean 3.75Median 3.00
2.619Std. Deviation
Table 3: Occurrence of ‘focus stories’ by edition (S: Sunday)
Date Stories %S 26.04.09 2 4.88
04.05.09 0 0.0019.05.09 2 4.8803.06.09 0 0.0018.06.09 1 2.4403.07.09 0 0.0018.07.09 1 2.44
S 02.08.09 3 7.3210.08.09 0 0.0025.08.09 1 2.4409.09.09 1 2.4424.09.09 2 4.8809.10.09 3 7.3224.10.09 2 4.88
S 08.11.09 2 4.8816.11.09 0 0.0001.12.09 4 9.7616.12.09 2 4.8831.12.09 0 0.0015.01.10 0 0.0030.01.10 3 7.32
S 14.02.10 6 14.6322.02.10 1 2.4409.03.10 1 2.4424.03.10 0 0.0008.04.10 1 2.4423.04.10 2 4.8808.05.10 1 2.44
Total 41 100
Chart 3: Occurrence of ‘focus stories’ by edition
[30]
26.04
.09
04.05
.09
19.05
.09
03.06
.09
18.06
.09
03.07
.09
18.07
.09
02.08
.09
10.08
.09
25.08
.09
09.09
.09
24.09
.09
09.10
.09
24.10
.09
08.11
.09
16.11
.09
01.12
.09
16.12
.09
31.12
.09
15.01
.10
30.01
.10
14.02
.10
22.02
.10
09.03
.10
24.03
.10
08.04
.10
23.04
.10
08.05
.100
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Focus stories Other stories
Editions
Stor
y fre
quen
cy
Table 3b: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by edition
Chart 3b: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by edition (+ normal distribution curve)
[31]
Frequency Percent
Valid 0 8 28.61 8 28.62 7 25.03 3 10.74 1 3.66 1 3.6
Total 28 100.0
StatisticsN Valid 28
Missing 0Mean 1.46Median 1.00
1.427Std. Deviation
Table 4: ‘All stories’ by layout salience index (binned)
Chart 4: ‘All stories’ by layout salience index (binned)
Very lowLowMediumHighVery high
Table 5: ‘Focus stories’ by layout salience index (binned)
Chart 5: ‘Focus stories’ by layout salience index (binned)Very lowLowMediumHighVery high
* The concrete values attributed to the variable being arbitrary, these statistical figures are only an indication. As such, they suggest ‘medium’ as the central tendency of the layout saliency index in both ‘all’ and ‘focus’ stories.
[32]
Frequency Percent
Valid 5 4 9.84 13 31.73 13 31.72 4 9.81 7 17.1
Total 41 100.0
Statistics *N Valid 41
Missing 0Mean 3.07Median 3.00
1.233Std. Deviation
Frequency Percent
Valid 5 13 12.44 23 21.93 24 22.92 9 8.61 36 34.3
Total 105 100.0
Statistics *N Valid 105
Missing 0Mean 2.70Median 3.00
1.449Std. Deviation
Table 6: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by size of photographs of foreigners
Chart 6: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by size of photographs of foreigners
Table 7: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by size of photographs of foreigners
Chart 7: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by size of photographs of foreigners
[33]
Frequency Percent
Valid XL 6 14.6L 8 19.5M 4 9.8S 7 17.1
None 16 39.0Total 41 100.0
Frequency Percent
Valid XL 8 7.6L 15 14.3M 6 5.7S 11 10.5
None 65 61.9Total 105 100.0
Table 8: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by type of byline
Chart 8: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by type of byline
Table 9: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by type of byline
Chart 9: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by type of byline
[34]
Frequency Percent
Valid Staff 30 73.2Reader 6 14.6
None 4 9.8Agency 1 2.4
Total 41 100.0
Frequency Percent
Valid Staff 67 63.8None 24 22.9
Reader 8 7.6Agency 6 5.7
Total 105 100.0
Table 10: Types of byline by type of story (‘all’ and ‘focus’) (in %, disregarding readers’ letters)
Chart 10: Types of byline by type of story (‘all’ and ‘focus’) (in %, disregarding readers’ letters)
Chart 10b: Types of byline by type of newspaper (political reporting, Swiss press, 2009) (Center for Research on the Public Sphere and Society 2010:10)
[35]
Staff writers
No byline News agencies
0
30
60
90 All storiesFocus stories
Staff writers No byline News agencies TotalAll stories 69.07 24.74 6.19 100
Focus stories 85.71 11.43 2.86 100
Mapping the topics
A crucially significant aspect of how the newspaper constructs the representation of for-
eigners is the topics in whose context they appear (Poole 2002:24).
Main story themes
Table/Chart 11 shows the distribution of ‘all stories’ by main story theme. A small
group of themes clearly dominates over a long tail of issues with lower shares. By far,
the most important theme is ‘Crime/violence’, followed rather closely by ‘Religion’. Al-
though with lower shares, ‘Misdemeanor/vandalism’ and ‘Sports’ stand out of a mass of
topics with shares around or below 3%.
The prominence of the ‘Crime/Violence’ theme makes it determinant for the rep-
resentation of foreigners in LM. If compounded with ‘Misdemeanor/Vandalism’, the
two of them make for a lawbreaker context in more than four out of ten of all the stor-
ies. We suggest that this cannot but heavily influence the representation of foreigners by
the newspaper.
Out of the top four themes with which foreigners are associated, the two we have
just discussed are negatively connoted, one may be construed as problematic
(‘Religion’) and only one is positively connoted (‘Sports’).
We may wonder whether all these four themes can be considered regular features
of the representation of foreigners. As we have seen, stories motivated by the vote on
the minarets initiative made up for an outlier in the assumed normal distribution of the
variable ‘all stories’ by edition. Table/Chart 12 shows the occurrence of the four dom-
inant main themes (plus an additional fifth: ‘Arts’) over the sample of 28 editions.
While the other themes are all fairly regularly distributed over time, ‘Religion’ stories
are heavily concentrated around the date of the vote. This does not mean that those stor-
ies should be excluded when considering how LM constructs the representation of for-
eigners, because they are indeed part of it. However, it should not be ignored either that
[36]
they have a somewhat incidental character determined by an extraordinary event, as op-
posed to the regular presence of the other issues within the ‘usual’ representational prac-
tice.
Secondary story themes
In order to provide more depth to the analysis of how foreigners are represented, we
identified one sub-theme in each story21 (Poole 2002:63). Those themes appear in
Table/Chart 13. They are noticeable more than the main themes (30 vs. 26). That
makes for a greater diversity, which is further enhanced by the incorporation of 15 new
topics, including identity and language, which make for a richer picture.
Amongst the secondary themes, three topics stand out from the rest: ‘Policy/legis-
lation’, ‘Identity/ies’ and ‘Youth’. Looking at their occurrences over time (Table/Chart
14), we see that the topic ‘Identity/ies’ seems to be present within a six-month period
centred around the date of the vote on the minarets initiative, and therefore it could have
been influenced by this event. On the contrary, ‘Policy/legislation’ and ‘Youth’ are fairly
regularly spread throughout the sample of editions and thus over time. This suggests
that they are not determined by an extraordinary event and can thus be seen as features
of the ‘usual’ representational practice of LM.
However, in order to assess more accurately the impact of these three secondary
themes on LM’s representational practice we need to see with which specific main top-
ics they tend to be associated. This is done in Table/Chart 14b. ‘Youth’ appears associ-
ated to lawbreaking activities. ‘Policy/Legislation’ too, to a certain extent, but encom-
passes a broader range of topics. ‘Identity/ies’ is linked to ‘Religion’ and ‘Life styles’,
as we expected given its timing, but also to ‘Sport’, ‘Education’ and ‘Arts’, which indic-
ates a broader breadth.
We suggest that the clear prominence of ‘Policy/Legislation’ as a sub-theme indic-
ates a significant feature of the representational practice of LM. Foreigners tend to be
21 Except in 31 stories – most of them very brief – whose main topics are crime/violence/misde-meanor.
[37]
represented as subjects of legislation. At the same time, the prominence and context of
the sub-theme ‘Youth’ suggests that young foreigners tend to be represented as a con-
cern or threat. ‘Identity/ies’ points towards a two-fold approach: one that emphasizes the
concern and another that attempts to value foreigners’ contributions in certain domains.
Story themes in ‘focus’ stories
If we now look at the main themes of the ‘focus stories’ (Table/Chart 15), we will see
that the four top topics of ‘all stories’ retain their place. This seems logical given their
heavy dominance, but their respective weights (i.e. share of stories in percentage) have
changed. The most noticeable modification is that of the topics ‘Crime/Violence’ and
‘Misdemeanor/Vandalism’, which both decreased significantly, the former more dramat-
ically (by almost 50%). On the other hand, ‘Religion’ and ‘Sport’ increased their weight
slightly.
We suggest that the main topics present in the ‘focus stories’ confirm, although in
an attenuated manner, the dominant role of the four top main topics already identified in
‘all stories’.
Finally, the sub-themes identified in ‘focus stories’ (Table/Chart 16) confirm
‘Policy/Legislation’ as a dominant one, also attenuated as the whole set of sub-themes
appears more flattened. That sub-theme now shares the top position with ‘Integration’
and ‘Identity/ies’. Depending on how they are construed, these could suggest a more nu-
anced approach in the representational practice of LM when it comes to stories that are
focused on foreigners.
[38]
Table 11: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by main theme
[39]
Chart 11: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by main theme
[40]
Table 12: Frequency of four (plus one) main themes by edition (all stories)
Chart 12: Frequency of four (plus one) main themes by edition (all stories)
[41]
Date Crime Religion Sport Arts26.04.09 204.05.0919.05.09 1 1 103.06.0918.06.09 103.07.09 318.07.09 102.08.09 2 110.08.09 125.08.09 1 109.09.09 4 1 124.09.09 209.10.09 124.10.09 1 108.11.09 1 1 216.11.09 301.12.09 3 816.12.09 2 1 131.12.0915.01.10 130.01.10 1 114.02.10 1 122.02.10 109.03.10 324.03.10 1 1 108.04.10 3 123.04.10 2 308.05.10 1
Misdemeanor
26.04
.09
04.05
.09
19.05
.09
03.06
.09
18.06
.09
03.07
.09
18.07
.09
02.08
.09
10.08
.09
25.08
.09
09.09
.09
24.09
.09
09.10
.09
24.10
.09
08.11
.09
16.11
.09
01.12
.09
16.12
.09
31.12
.09
15.01
.10
30.01
.10
14.02
.10
22.02
.10
09.03
.10
24.03
.10
08.04
.10
23.04
.10
08.05
.100
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9Crime Misdemeanor Religion Sport Arts
Table 13: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by secondary themes
[42]
Chart 13: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by secondary themes
[43]
Table 14: Frequency of three secondary themes by edition (all stories)
Chart 14: Frequency of three secondary themes by edition (all stories)
[44]
Date Policy/legislation Youth26.04.0904.05.0919.05.09 103.06.09 118.06.0903.07.09 118.07.0902.08.0910.08.0925.08.09 109.09.09 224.09.09 109.10.09 1 124.10.09 108.11.09 1 116.11.09 101.12.09 216.12.09 231.12.0915.01.1030.01.1014.02.10 322.02.10 1 109.03.10 1 124.03.10 108.04.1023.04.1008.05.10 1
Indentity/ies
26.04
.09
04.05
.09
19.05
.09
03.06
.09
18.06
.09
03.07
.09
18.07
.09
02.08
.09
10.08
.09
25.08
.09
09.09
.09
24.09
.09
09.10
.09
24.10
.09
08.11
.09
16.11
.09
01.12
.09
16.12
.09
31.12
.09
15.01
.10
30.01
.10
14.02
.10
22.02
.10
09.03
.10
24.03
.10
08.04
.10
23.04
.10
08.05
.100
1
2
3
4
Policy/legislation Indentity/ies Youth
Table 14b: Cross-tabulation secondary themes ‘Policy/Legislation’, ‘Indentity/ies’ and ‘Youth’ by main themes
Chart 14b: Cross-tabulation secondary themes ‘Policy/Legislation’, ‘Indentity/ies’ and ‘Youth’ by main themes
[45]
Table 15: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by main theme
[46]
Chart 15: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by main theme
[47]
Table 16: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by secondary themes
[48]
Chart 16: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by secondary themes
[49]
Types, characterization and origin of foreigners
What types of foreigners are referred to, how are they characterized and where do they
come from are all issues at the very core of the representational practice.
Types of foreigners
Table/Chart 17 shows the occurrences of the different types of foreigners22.
At the top of the list appears the type ‘Nationality/Region’, which clusters all the
cases in which foreigners are referred to exclusively by their country/region of origin. In
those occurrences, foreigners are defined by the ‘attribute’ that constitutes them as such
– their being Kosovar, French, etcetera – and therefore as non-Swiss. In this type, for-
eigners are defined independently of their status as foreigners. It does not matter wheth-
er they have lived many years in the country or have just arrived, etcetera. This repres-
entational practice resorts, in order to indicate their ‘foreignness’, to the most basic of
the possible ‘markers of difference’. This practice – which could be defined as ‘essen-
tialist’, to the extent that the marker of difference used is no longer questioned (Ettinger
2008:6) – is the predominant approach, accounting for about a third of all the cases.
Three of the types in Table/Chart 17 gather cases in which foreigners are not ex-
plicitly named as such, but their condition is implicit in their sharing certain attributes –
a religion, an ethnic or racial feature, a certain lifestyle – that would normally not be
found in Swiss nationals. Here, the condition of foreigner is actually omitted, but it can
be inferred from certain specific attributes, which could be considered too as ‘markers
of difference’, although as a sort of ‘second degree’. It does not mean that people shar-
ing those attributes are necessarily foreigners, but they are most likely to be so and the
representation operates on the basis of this assumption. The most important of these
types (‘Religion’) is that in which foreigners are defined by their being Muslims. As we
22 For details on definitions of foreigner types and characterizations see Annotated Coding Sched-
ule (Appendix I). We do not count individual foreigners but occurrences of foreigner types.
[50]
saw earlier on, this is a special case following an extraordinary circumstance. The other
two ‘implicit’ types (‘Ethnic/Racial’ and ‘Lifestyle’) are of much less weight.
Somewhat surprisingly, sharing the second position in Table/Chart 17 appears
‘Bi-national’ (where one of the two nationalities is the Swiss one). This type does not
strictly match the foreigner category, but bi-nationals are not just plain Swiss either. We
suggest it constitutes a significant aspect of the representation of foreigners in LM. Bi-
nationals are what foreigners may become – under certain conditions23.
Sharing about the same number of cases, the ‘Collective’ type clusters references
to foreigners in a collective way (i.e. simply as ‘the foreigners’ – les étrangers). This
type shares with the first one the essentialist mode of representation.
There are in Table/Chart 17 six types that match a foreigner status. Three of them
can be combined for analytical purposes, as they represent different stages of the same
process: ‘Asylum seeker’, ‘Provisionally admitted’ and ‘Refugee’. These asylum-related
types have a combined share of 10.3% of the cases. We suggest this is a significant fea-
ture of LM’s representational practice.
Also with a significant share within this group appears the ‘Cross-border com-
muter’ (Frontalier) and the ‘Illegal immigrant’ (Sans-papier). ‘Student’ is the last of this
group.
Table/Chart 18 shows that when it comes to ‘focus stories’, all the four types that
appeared first in ‘all stories’ decrease their shares.
Meanwhile, five out of the six status-related types increase their shares, with only
one (‘Student’) disappearing. The asylum-related types more than duplicate their shares
and reach a combined 23% of the cases. ‘Illegal immigrant’ grows more than twice.
‘Cross-border commuter’ increases its share by one third.
For the remaining types, ‘Ethnic/Racial’ grows significantly (50%) and ‘Lifestyle’
disappears, while ‘Rich’ and ‘Expatriate’ retain their positions as the last of the lot.
The above figures suggest, on the one hand, that the representational practice in
the ‘focus’ stories is much more heavily status-oriented than in ‘all stories’. On the other
23 These conditions are the matter of a decades-long debate in Switzerland (Danesi 2002).
[51]
hand, the asylum-related types of foreigners come up as a crucially significant feature of
the representation of foreigners in LM24.
Characterization of foreigners
Foreigner types get different characterizations as Table/Chart 19 shows.
Leaving aside the cases where no specific characterization is given, the most fre-
quent characterizations are ‘Muslim’ (in correspondence with the type of foreigner
defined by their ‘Religion’) and ‘Criminal’.
If ‘Criminal’ is combined with ‘Young criminal’, they top the list with a joint
share of 20.0% of the cases. The fact that one out of five mentions of foreigners charac-
terize them as perpetrators of crimes makes for a significant feature of the representa-
tion of foreigners in LM.
The next most frequent characterization is ‘Artist/Showbiz/Sport person’. This is
certainly in line with the typical features of a tabloid newspaper, but that does not make
it less relevant for the representational practice of LM.
A significant aspect of the representational practice of the newspaper is the fact
that clearly negatively connoted characterizations (indicated with ‘N’ in Table 19) add
up to 30.2% of the cases. On the contrary, clearly positively connoted characterizations
(indicated with ‘P’) add up to 15.6%. (Most of the other characterizations can be con-
strued as problematic or neutral.)
Looking at ‘focus stories’ (Table/Chart 20) we see, on the one hand, that ‘Crimin-
al’ and ‘Young criminal’ characterizations significantly decrease their combined share of
cases to 9.6% and therefore move down (specially the latter). But, on the other hand, the
negatively connoted characterizations retain a combined share of 23.0%.
24 Borrowing language from LM, we could speak of ‘over-representation’, since ‘in reality’ there were about 40,300 people in different stages of the asylum process in 2009 – that is, 2.2% of the foreigner population (OFS 2010). But this is not truly relevant within our theoretical framework.
[52]
The top of the frequency table is shared by ‘Artist/Showbiz/Sport person’, which
was at the top of the positively connoted characterizations when considering ‘all’ stor-
ies, and ‘Worker/Employee’, which grows significantly to reach this position.
On the one hand, we see an affirmation of the tabloid profile operating in the rep-
resentational practice while, on the other hand, the ascension of the ‘Worker/Employee’
characterization seems to highlight a different aspect of it.
Origin of foreigners
Table/Chart 21 shows where LM’s foreigners come from.
Out of 39 countries, the most frequently mentioned is France, with which French-
speaking Switzerland shares the language and most of its international border, making it
therefore the closest possible source of foreigners, especially in the form of Frontaliers.
Aggregating the data by regions, Western Europe heads the lot (22.8%), followed
by the Balkans region (9.6%), Africa (9.4%) and Latin America (6.7%).
When it comes to ‘focus stories’ (Table/Chart 22), France shares the first position
with Iraq. In terms of regions, the figures are: Western Europe (13.4%), Africa (13.3%),
Latin America (9.5%) and the Balkans (7.7%).
[53]
Table 17: Frequency of foreigner types in ‘all stories’
Chart 17: Frequency of foreigner types in ‘all stories’
[54]
Table 18: Frequency of foreigner types in ‘focus stories’
Chart 18: Frequency of foreigner types in ‘focus stories’
[55]
Table 19: Frequency of foreigner characterizations in ‘all stories’
‘N’ = negatively connoted‘P’ = positively connoted
[56]
Chart 19: Frequency of foreigner characterizations in ‘all stories’
[57]
Table 20: Frequency of foreigner characterizations in ‘focus stories’
‘N’ = negatively connoted‘P’ = positively connoted
[58]
Chart 20: Frequency of foreigner characterizations in ‘focus stories’
[59]
Table 21: Origin of foreigners, ‘all stories’
[60]
Chart 21: Origin of foreigners, ‘all stories’
[61]
Table 22: Origin of foreigners, ‘focus stories’
[62]
Chart 22: Origin of foreigners, ‘focus stories’
[63]
The sources
An analysis of the sources in the stories allows us to identify the actors preferred by the
newspaper in order to build its representation of foreigners. While sources have their
own agendas and try to shape the newspaper representation according to their own in-
terests and goals (Palmer 2000:50), once they are incorporated into the newspaper’s text
they can be seen as building blocks of its representational practice25.
In order to ensure consistency across different types of stories, when it comes to
stories that are not focused on foreigners we consider only sources that do refer to for-
eigners – that is 60 sources in 31 ‘non-focus’ stories. On the contrary, in stories that are
focused on foreigners, all sources are considered – that is 111 sources in 31 ‘focus’ stor-
ies. The total number of sources considered in what follows is then 171.
Types of sources
The range of sources that mention foreigners (Table/Chart 23) is clearly dominated by
the type ‘Politician/PM’. This suggests that LM’s representational practice construes the
foreigners issue above all as a matter of professionalized political debate or indeed le-
gislation, since most of the politicians quoted are members of federal or cantonal legis-
lative bodies and, on the other hand, other types of political actors (e.g. ‘Civil society’
and ‘Trade union’) are rather few and far between.
The second most frequent source type is ‘Expert’. This suggests foreigners are rep-
resented as an issue that needs specialized knowledge to be tackled.
The third most frequent source type is ‘Individual’. It clusters individual persons
who could not be fitted into other types and thus functions to a certain extent as an ‘Oth-
er’ category26.
25 Out of 105 stories in our corpus, 68 do quote sources: 31 ‘focus stories’ plus 37 ‘non focus stor-ies’; of the latter, only 31 stories have sources that actually refer to foreigners.
26 The type ‘Other S’ corresponds mainly to sources that are abroad (e.g. a lawyer in Germany).
[64]
The source type ‘Lawyer/Representative of foreigner’ appears in the fourth posi-
tion, above foreigners themselves, which can indicate a slant towards a patronizing atti-
tude in the choice of sources. The types ‘Organization of foreigners’, ‘Civil society’ and
‘Government agencies specialized on foreigners’ appear with lower frequencies, while
‘Civil society support group’ is amongst the least quoted sources; this may indicate a
tendency to sideline sources that can be construed as ‘biased’ in favour of foreigners.
Some of the 24 source types identified in Table/Chart 23 can be grouped in
clusters27 according to certain common traits as follows:
Source types Frequency Percentage
Foreigner-related 28 16.37
Foreigner-related + Naturalized/Bi-national 36 21.05
State/Government-related 68 39.77
Law-enforcement agencies28 21 12.28
The ‘Foreigner-related’ source types have an accumulated frequency equivalent to
that of the main single source type (Politician/PM). If we add to this cluster the source
type ‘Individual Naturalized/Bi-national’, we see that one out of every five sources is
foreigner-related. However, the ‘State/Government-related’ sources almost double that
figure, which makes clear their dominant position. Within the latter, the law-enforce-
ment agencies reach a quite prominent position.
Types of sources and their incidence across stories
The frequency of occurrence of the different source types over the total corpus of stories
is not the only indicator of the incidence of each source type on the construction of the
representation of foreigners. Another important factor is the frequency of stories per
source type, that is, in how many stories of the corpus a certain type of source appears29.
27 The source types clustered in ‘Foreigner-related’ are marked with an F in Table/Chart 23; those in ‘State/Government-related’ with an S; those in ‘Law-enforcement agencies’ with an L.
28 Already included in State/Government-related but also shown separately given their specificity.
29 The occurrences of a certain type of source may be spread across the corpus of stories in a wider or narrower fashion, allowing it to have a correlative larger or smaller impact on the representa-
[65]
Table/Chart 24 shows that while ‘Politician/PM’ retains the first place as it ap-
pears in almost one out of four stories, ‘Lawyer/Representative of foreigner’ and ‘Po-
lice’ climb to the second and third positions respectively. ‘Expert’ falls from the second
rank in terms of frequency to the fourth in terms of share of stories30.
If we look at the same clusters of source types31 we explored earlier on from the
viewpoint of their incidence across stories, we find the following:
Clusters of source types Stories Percentage
Foreigner-related 19 30.64
Foreigner-related + Naturalized/Bi-national 26 41.93
State/Government-related 36 58.06
Law-enforcement agencies32 16 25.80.
The dominant position of the ‘State/Government-related’ type of sources is con-
firmed, as they appear in almost six out of every ten stories. ‘Foreigner-related’ sources
appear in three out of ten stories, although the picture improves when the
‘Naturalized/Bi-national’ type of source is added. One out of every four stories includes
a source of the ‘Law-enforcement agencies’ type.
Types of sources and story prominence
We can analyse further the impact of the different source types on the construction of
the representation of foreigners by looking at the prominence of the stories in which
tion of foreigners (several representatives of a certain source type quoted together in a few art-icles would have less impact than if they were quoted regularly in a larger number of stories).
30 Sources belonging to the types ‘Politician/PM’ and ‘Expert’ tend to appear more than one per story (29 politicians in 15 stories; 17 experts in 8 stories).
31 The figures in the following table do not result from adding up the corresponding figures in Table 24, but of counting anew the stories that include the source types grouped in the four clusters. The percentages are calculated with regard to the total number of stories that include sources which refer to foreigners (62).
32 Already included in ‘State/Government-related’ but shown separately here given their spe-cificity.
[66]
they tend to appear. Table/Chart 25 shows a cross-tabulation of source types by the
layout salience index of the corresponding stories.
Most of the occurrences of the ‘Politician/PM’ type are in stories of very high and
high prominence. Following it closely, most of the occurrences of ‘Expert’ are in stories
of high prominence. And most of the occurrences of the ‘State/Government-related’
types appear in stories of high and medium prominence.
The exception is ‘Police’, which appears distributed fairly regularly over stories of
all sorts of prominence. Being the only source type exhibiting such a behaviour this sug-
gests a certain pervasiveness and thus a significant and peculiar impact on the represent-
ational practice.
It is also significant that the source type ‘Organization of foreigners’ consistently
appears in stories of low and very low prominence.
The source types ‘Individual foreigner’ and ‘Lawyer/Representative of foreigner’
appear mainly in stories of very high and medium prominence, presenting a marked
anti-normal distribution. This distinguishes them from other types and suggests that we
may be in presence of two different sorts of representatives of these source types, one of
them likely to be celebrity/sport-related.
Political afliation of sources
Table/Chart 26 shows the sources’ political affiliation. This trait is explicitly indicated
in approximately one out of five cases, so it is not representative of the sources as a
whole, but of those specifically considered as being political.
Not surprisingly, at the top of the ranking we find the four main Swiss political
parties33. What may be surprising is to see the centre-left PSS topping the ranking. But if
we aggregate the parties according to their political tendencies, we see that all of the re-
33 These are: UDC, PSS, PRD, PDC (see Table/Chart 26 for the full name of the parties). They are listed here in the order of their representation at the Swiss National Council or lower house of the country’s Federal Assembly (according to the elections of 2007; OFS 2007). The PLR and the PDC merged at national level at the beginning of 2009, so in what follows we will aggregate them.
[67]
maining sources belong to the right and centre-right parties (see Chart 26b). In fact,
with about one third of the sources for which political affiliation is given, the PSS func-
tions as the ‘leftist’, balancing counterpart of a representational practice largely based
on centre-right and right-wing political sources – which, one could argue, is consistent
with the Swiss political landscape as a whole.
Sources and gender
From the gender balance viewpoint, our corpus of stories is heavily dominated by male
sources as Table/Chart 27 shows. With a 3:1 male/female ratio, LM’s representational
practice is globally shaped by a male perspective.
[68]
Table 23: Types of sources (that refer to foreigners, ‘all stories’)
‘F’ = Foreigner-related‘L’ = Law-enforcement agencies‘S’ = State/Government-related
[69]
Chart 23: Types of sources (that refer to foreigners, ‘all stories’)
[70]
Table 24: Stories by type of source, ‘all stories’
‘F’ = Foreigner-related‘L’ = Law-enforcement agencies‘S’ = State/Government-related
[71]
Source type Frequency Percent
Politician S 15 24.19Lawyer/foreigner representative F 11 17.74Police L 10 16.13Expert 8 12.90Individual foreigner F 8 12.90Media 8 12.90
8 12.90Individual 7 11.29Govern, other S 7 11.29Private sector 5 8.06Civil society 5 8.06
5 8.06Journalist 4 6.45Judiciary L 4 6.45Foreigners organization F 3 4.84Government, foreigners S 3 4.84Employer of foreigner 3 4.84Government, Economy/Employment S 3 4.84Other S 3 4.84Federal Councillor S 2 3.23Trade union 1 1.61Education 1 1.61Civil society support group F 1 1.61Anonymous L 1 1.61
Individual binational/naturalized (F)
Government, Police/Justice/Penitenciary L
Chart 24: Stories by type of source, ‘all stories’ (in %)
[72]
Trade union
Education
Civil soc supp. group
Anonymous
Fed. Councillor
Foreigners org
Gov. foreigners
Employer foreigner
Gov. Econ./Employ.
Other S
Journalist
Judiciary
Private sector
Civil soc
Gov. Pol./Just./Penit.
Individual
Gov. other
Expert
Indiv. foreigner
Media
Indiv. natur./binat.
Police
Lawyer/foreigner rep.
Politician
0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00
1.61
1.61
1.61
1.61
3.23
4.84
4.84
4.84
4.84
4.84
6.45
6.45
8.06
8.06
8.06
11.29
11.29
12.90
12.90
12.90
12.90
16.13
17.74
24.19
Percent
Table 25: Cross-tabulation Source type by Layout saliency index, ‘all stories’
Chart 25: Cross-tabulation Source type by Layout saliency index, ‘all stories’
[73]
Table 26: Political affiliation of sources (‘all stories’)
Chart 26: Political affiliation of sources (considering only cases in which they are indicated)
PSS Parti Socialiste Suisse Socialist PartyUDC Union Démocratique du Centre Democratic Centrist UnionPDC Parti Démocrate-Chrétien Christian Democratic Party PLR Parti Libéral-Radical Liberal-Radical PartyPRD Parti radical-démocratique Radical Democratic Party PBD Parti bourgeois démocratique Conservative Democratic Party PSN Parti des Suisses Nationalistes Nationalist Swiss Party PLS Parti Libéral Suisse Liberal Party UDF Union Démocratique Fédérale Federal Democratic Union PEV Parti Evangelique Evangelical Party
The English names of the parties are our own translation.
[74]
Table 27: Gender of sources (all stories)
Chart 27: Gender of sources (all stories)
[75]
Crime, violence and misdemeanor
In LM’s representational practice34, foreigners associated with lawbreaking activities ap-
pear in stories whose main themes are ‘Crime/Violence’ or ‘Misdemeanor/Vandalism’,
or are characterized as ‘Criminal’, ‘Young criminal’ or ‘Offender’. Table/Chart 28
shows all the stories that link foreigners to lawbreaking activities in any of these ways.
These are 51 stories, that is about half of our corpus.
Assuming that the variable crime/misdemeanor-related stories by edition shows a
normal distribution (Table/Chart 28b), if we take its mean (= 1.82) as indicator of its
central tendency35, it turns out that LM includes nearly two stories linking foreigners to
lawbreaking activities in each of its editions. We suggest this is a significant feature of
LM’s representational practice.
Regarding editorial treatment36, the dominant story genre is the very brief news
story focused on a particular crime/violence/misdemeanor/vandalism-related incident37
(Table/Chart 29). These stories, not least because of their length (average: 67 words),
do not allow for any contextual treatment. Second, and with a similar frequency, comes
the longer news story of the same kind38. Typically, these longer stories focus on more
dramatic episodes, which in line with LM’s tabloid approach get greater prominence.
News and features addressing the issue in a broader context are much less frequent.
34 In this chapter and the next we take a closer look at two ‘case studies’ within LM’s representa-tional practice.
35 As Table/Chart 28b shows, the fact that three editions in our sample include five crime/misde-meanor-related stories could be considered an outlying value, although two editions with five stories would not have been so (given the actual distribution of the variable, the probability of the value five is 1:11, which means that it can very well appear twice in a sample in which n = 28). Disregarding one of the occurrences of the suspected value would leave us with a mean = 1.71. The median (= 1.00) seems too conservative in this context.
36 In what follows, we get back to considering only stories whose main theme is ‘Crime/Violence’ or ‘Misdemeanor/Vandalism’ – that is a total of 45 stories.
37 Called ‘Faits divers’ in French, these stories are sometimes regarded as a specific French-speak-ing journalistic genre (Lits 2001). We indicated them as ‘Brief FD’.
38 ‘News FD’ in our nomenclature.
[76]
The sub-themes associated to the ‘Crime/Violence’ main theme are shown in
Table/Chart 30. We see that more than half of these stories are just about the bare
crime/violence incident. When there is a deeper approach to it, the issue is mainly
linked to youth and represented as a matter of policy and legislation, with an emphasis
on the concern about society values that seem to have changed or deteriorated and about
the over-representation of foreigners in these sorts of activities.
Table/Chart 31 shows that – in line with the above-described approach – the dom-
inant source type is ‘Police’, which combined with the source types ‘Judiciary’,
‘Police/Justice/Prison-related Government agencies’ and ‘Anonymous’ (which is also a
Police or Judiciary representative), makes for a good third (34.61%) of all the sources.
We suggest that this law enforcement perspective is crucial in LM’s representational
practice of foreigners. Significantly, the source type ‘Expert’, otherwise prominent, is
almost completely absent here – for LM’s representational practice there is no need of
experts beyond the law-enforcement agencies to address this issue.
The type of foreigners in these stories is shown in Table/Chart 32. As we saw
earlier, the essentialist approach to the definition of foreigners takes the lead (‘National-
ity/Region’ and ‘Collective’ combined make for two thirds of the cases). Only ‘Cross-
border commuters’ and ‘Other F’39 stand out from the rest.
Singling out the (foreign) culprits
An issue that often arises when discussing the media treatment of deviance is whether
the nationality of foreigners is reported more often than that of nationals of the country
(Naki 2007). To tackle this, we looked at the nationalities of actors involved in 66
crime/violence stories as well as in 44 misdemeanor/vandalism stories published in our
sample of LM editions40. Table/Chart 33 shows the results.
39 This type clusters a variety of cases, for instance non-residents who work in Switzerland incid-entally (e.g. truck drivers based in other European countries).
40 That is all of the stories of these kinds in our sample, not only those mentioning foreigners.
[77]
Considering the 45 actors whose nationality is reported or implied41 in crime/viol-
ence stories, roughly one third of them are identified as Swiss and two thirds as foreign-
ers. If we consider ‘responsible’ actors (as opposed to ‘victims’), we see that foreigners
are almost twice as likely to be reported as ‘responsible’ actors in crime/violence stories
than Swiss nationals (21 foreigners vs. 12 Swiss out of a total of 33).
On the other hand, the 17 actors identified by nationality in misdemeanor/vandal-
ism stories are roughly half Swiss and half foreigners.
In order to asses these figures, we researched the same kinds of stories in a parallel
sample of editions of the newspaper Le Temps42, a quality broadsheet published in
Geneva. The results for Le Temps are in Table/Chart 34.
Le Temps publishes less of these sorts of stories and it also shows a smaller identi-
fied-actor-per-story ratio (0.56) than LM (0.88). Considering the 19 actors whose na-
tionality is reported in crime/violence stories by Le Temps, roughly half are Swiss and
half foreigners (this holds for both actors in general as well as ‘responsible’ actors). This
is in stark contrast to LM43.
On the other hand, considering the seven actors identified by nationality in misde-
meanor/vandalism stories, roughly a bit less than one in three is Swiss and a bit more
than two in three is a foreigner.
LM’s representational practice is clearly different or even opposed to that of Le
Temps. We suggest that LM features prominently the involvement of foreigners in law-
breaking activities as a central element of its representational practice.
41 In the case of the Swiss, they are usually identified by naming their canton of residence, but we have used other indirect identifiers. A few foreigners, too, were identified in an indirect way.
42 The sample is made of 28 editions published on the same dates used to sample LM, or the fol-lowing day for the dates when Le Temps was not published (it does not appear on Sundays).
43 Within our theoretical framework we need not look at the issue of which newspaper would be most accurately ‘reflecting’ the reality of foreigners involved in crime/violence activities. How-ever, for information, the figures for 2009 are: charged for infractions to penal law: 52% Swiss, 48% foreigners; if only permanent residents are considered: 64% Swiss, 36% foreigners (OFS 2010f).
[78]
Table 28: Occurrence of all stories linking foreigners to lawbreaking activities by edition
Chart 28: Occurrence of all stories linking foreigners to lawbreaking activities by edition
[79]
Date Other26.04.09 1 304.05.09 0 019.05.09 2 303.06.09 0 218.06.09 1 003.07.09 3 018.07.09 1 102.08.09 0 610.08.09 1 025.08.09 1 109.09.09 5 124.09.09 2 109.10.09 0 524.10.09 2 108.11.09 2 316.11.09 0 301.12.09 3 816.12.09 5 031.12.09 0 015.01.10 1 030.01.10 1 214.02.10 4 622.02.10 1 209.03.10 3 124.03.10 2 208.04.10 4 023.04.10 5 208.05.10 1 1
Total 51 54
Crime/Violence + Misdemeanor
26.04
.09
04.05
.09
19.05
.09
03.06
.09
18.06
.09
03.07
.09
18.07
.09
02.08
.09
10.08
.09
25.08
.09
09.09
.09
24.09
.09
09.10
.09
24.10
.09
08.11
.09
16.11
.09
01.12
.09
16.12
.09
31.12
.09
15.01
.10
30.01
.10
14.02
.10
22.02
.10
09.03
.10
24.03
.10
08.04
.10
23.04
.10
08.05
.100
2
4
6
8
10
12
Other storiesCrime/violence + misdemeanor
Table 28b: Frequency of Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories
Statistics
Chart 28b: Frequency of Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories (with normal distribution curve)
[80]
Table 29: Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories by genre (‘all stories’)
Chart 29: Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories by genre (‘all stories’)
[81]
Table 30: Secondary themes associated to Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories (‘all stories’)
Chart 30: Secondary themes associated to Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories (‘all stories’)
[82]
Table 31: Types of sources in Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories (‘all stories’)
[83]
Chart 31: Types of sources in Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories (‘all stories’)
[84]
Table 32: Types of foreigners in Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories (‘all stories’)
Chart 32: Types of foreigners in Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories (‘all stories’)
[85]
Table 33: Le Matin, Actors by nationality in all Crime and Misdemeanor stories
Chart 33: Crime stories Chart 33b: Misdemeanor stories
Table 34: Le Temps, Actors by nationality in all Crime and Misdemeanor stories
Chart 34: Crime stories Chart 34b: Misdemeanor stories
[86]
Crime/Violence stories All actors Swiss actors Foreign actors51 45 17 28
100.00% 37.78% 62.22%Victim Victim
12 5 21 7
All actors Swiss actors Foreigner actors43 17 8 9
100.00% 47.06% 52.94%Victim Victim
4 4 8 1
Resp. Resp.
Misdemeanor stories
Resp. Resp.
Swiss actorsForeign actors
Crime/Violence stories All actors Swiss actors Foreign actors33 19 9 10
100.00% 47.37% 52.63%Victim Victim
8 1 9 1
All actors Swiss actors Foreigner actors9 7 2 5
100.00% 28.57% 71.43%Victim Victim
1 1 3 2
Resp. Resp.
Misdemeanor stories
Resp. Resp.
Swiss actorsForeign actors
Swiss actorsForeign actors
Swiss actorsForeign actors
Switzerland’s Muslims
Although a Swiss citizen can certainly be a Muslim, the country’s history and its policy
regarding nationality mean that most of the approximately 400,000 Muslims who live in
Switzerland are foreigners44. Thus, when LM refers to “Switzerland’s Muslims” (les
musulmans de Suisse), it is actually referring to a segment of the foreigner population,
which is defined by one common, generalizing trait: their religion. However, their con-
dition of foreigners is omitted and so too are other traits usually attached to foreigners,
like their country/region of origin.
In addition to these stories, individual Muslims are featured in other stories (pro-
files, features, etcetera), which mention their condition of being Muslim although this is
secondary to the story theme or angle. In what follows we consider both kinds of stories
together, in order to get a richer and deeper understanding of LM’s representation of this
foreigner type.
As we discussed earlier, when it comes to Muslim foreigners, LM’s representation-
al practice is heavily influenced by the vote on the minarets initiative. This is visible in
Table/Chart 35, which shows all the stories whose main theme is ‘Religion’ or that
mention Muslims or the Muslim condition of an actor in the story.
If those stories account for 18.09% of all the stories in our sample, which is a sig-
nificant share, in Table/Chart 35b we see that stories published on 01.12.09 are an out-
lier if we consider Muslim-related stories distributed normally. If the median (= 0.00) is
not helpful in this case to assess the central tendency of Muslim-related stories, we can
instead consider the mean of these stories disregarding the outlier (Table/Chart 35c).
That would give 0.39 story per edition, or about two Muslim-related stories every five
days. We suggest that Muslim foreigners, although not completely absent, are not a
central feature of LM’s representational practice.
44 There were 310,807 Muslims in Switzerland in 2000, of which 11.7% were Swiss nationals (GRIS 2010a:9). Researchers estimate the current figure at about 400,000 (GRIS 2010b).
[87]
The story genres (Table/Chart 36) are much less news-oriented than in the case of
crime/violence/misdemeanor stories. On the one hand, the analytical/reflexive approach
following the minarets vote explains the number of feature stories, while Muslim indi-
viduals make for profile stories and interviews. The amount of readers’ feedback, which
contributes to a representation of this type of foreigner as a concern for the newspaper
readers – and by extension for the population, is significant.
The source types are dominated by ‘Politician/PM’ and ‘Expert’ (Table/Chart 37).
The affiliation of the political sources (Table/Chart 38) shows a clear orientation to-
wards the Centre-right/Right/Extreme-right (more than two thirds of the cases) over the
Centre/Centre-left (less than one third).
The secondary themes underlying these stories are shown in Table/Chart 39. The
issues ‘Integration’ and ‘Identity/ies’ dominate the picture. If the ‘Policy/Legislation’
approach is there, ‘Politics/participation’ and ‘Prejudices/Racism’ are at the same level.
Depending on how the issues are concretely construed, this could offer a nuanced
approach or be consistent with the findings of Ettinger and Udris (2009)45.
The types of foreigners in these stories are shown in Table 40. Its most interesting
feature is the high share of ‘Bi-national/naturalized’. We could see here an attempt,
within LM’s representational practice, to portray Muslim foreigners as potentially “in-
tegrable”.
45 See (our) page 15.
[88]
Table 35: Occurrence of Muslim-related stories by edition
Chart 35: Occurrence of Muslim-related stories by edition
[89]
Date All Muslim-related stories Other26.04.09 0 404.05.09 0 019.05.09 1 403.06.09 0 218.06.09 0 103.07.09 0 318.07.09 0 202.08.09 2 410.08.09 0 125.08.09 0 209.09.09 0 624.09.09 0 309.10.09 1 424.10.09 1 208.11.09 2 316.11.09 0 301.12.09 8 316.12.09 1 431.12.09 0 015.01.10 0 130.01.10 1 214.02.10 1 922.02.10 0 309.03.10 0 424.03.10 0 408.04.10 0 423.04.10 1 608.05.10 0 2
Total 19 86
26.04
.09
04.05
.09
19.05
.09
03.06
.09
18.06
.09
03.07
.09
18.07
.09
02.08
.09
10.08
.09
25.08
.09
09.09
.09
24.09
.09
09.10
.09
24.10
.09
08.11
.09
16.11
.09
01.12
.09
16.12
.09
31.12
.09
15.01
.10
30.01
.10
14.02
.10
22.02
.10
09.03
.10
24.03
.10
08.04
.10
23.04
.10
08.05
.100
2
4
6
8
10
12
Other storiesAll Muslim-related stor-ies
Table & Chart 35b: Frequency of Muslim-related stories
Statistics
Table & Chart 35c: Frequency of Muslim-related stories excluding minarets-related stories
Statistics
[90]
Table 36: Muslim-related stories by genre
Chart 36: Muslim-related stories by genre
[91]
Table 37: Source types in Muslim-related stories
[92]
Chart 37: Source types in Muslim-related stories
[93]
Table 38: Political affiliation of sources, Muslim-related stories
Chart 38: Political affiliation of sources, Muslim-related stories (considering only cases in which they are indicated)
PSS Parti Socialiste Suisse Socialist PartyUDC Union Démocratique du Centre Democratic Centrist UnionPDC Parti Démocrate-Chrétien Christian Democratic Party PLR Parti Libéral-Radical Liberal-Radical PartyPRD Parti radical-démocratique Radical Democratic Party PBD Parti bourgeois démocratique Conservative Democratic Party PSN Parti des Suisses Nationalistes Nationalist Swiss Party PLS Parti Libéral Suisse Liberal Party UDF Union Démocratique Fédérale Federal Democratic Union PEV Parti Evangelique Evangelical Party
The English names of the parties are our own translation.
[94]
Table 39: Secondary themes associated to Muslim-related stories
Chart 39: Secondary themes associated to Muslim-related stories
[95]
Table 40: Types of foreigners in Muslim-related stories
[96]
PART III
Semiotic Analysis of Visuals
[97]
Foreigners in Swiss prisons
This photo (Figure 2) appeared on 26.04.09, with a story on the share of foreigners in
the Swiss prison population and the political debate around it (see Figure 3, page 100).
At an iconic level, the image shows a pair of clasped hands jutting out of a barred door
or window. The hands are white, young and masculine. The body of their owner is out
of sight. He is dressed informally and does not wear wrist-watch or rings. The forearms
rest on one of the massive bars. Presumably the person is looking beyond the bars
through the open door/window.
The signified of the image in its context comes up through its being immediately
anchored by the most prominent textual elements that surround it on the page (headline,
lead paragraph and photo caption). The headline – “70% of foreigners in prisons: the
UDC1 reacts” – closes the polysemy of the image on a particular signified: a foreign in-
mate in a Swiss jail. The lead paragraph links the issue of the share of foreigners in the
Swiss prison population, defined as “over-representation”, to the country’s asylum
1 The right-wing Democratic Centrist Union, the most important Swiss party.
[98]
policy via the proposals of the right-wing party UDC and the “unanimous doubts” about
the ability of the Federal Councillor in charge of Police and Justice to “curb the prob-
lem”. The photo caption establishes that the 70% share “has not changed for years”.
In the context of the story, the image signifies a stagnated situation. There is a
long-standing problem – the over-representation of foreigners in Swiss prisons – that
creates “unease” (malaise)2 and is not being addressed by the highest instance of the
Swiss government. The photo signifies this immobility and lack of appropriate and ef-
fective action, stressed by the resting forearms. The headline of the sidebar article em-
phasizes this point: “the political parties still hesitate”. The hands jutting out through the
bars suggest a crowded inside. They can only clasp each other as times goes by.
Looking at this signified as as signifier of a second order, we can read in the photo
the myth – in the Barthesian sense of the word – of a helpless society that passively
faces a long-standing problem that nobody seems willing or able to solve. The concept
of over-representation does not only refer to a mere statistical figure but re-enacts a key
idea that informed a representation of foreigners embraced by large sectors of Swiss so-
ciety throughout the 20th century: the discourse of ‘over-foreignization’ (Skenderovic
2003:187). Too small a country, too many foreigners inside or trying to enter it, too
weak a reaction by the political and other elites, including the news media, as the editor-
ial in the same edition makes clear (LM 2009a:23). Yesterday the threat was the foreign-
ers’ hold (l’emprise étrangere) on Swiss society in general, today it is the foreign
criminality, more often than not related to would-be refugees. If neither the political left
– which is satisfied with the status quo – nor the right – which is divided – does any-
thing, and the press is silent, it is the Swiss people who are prisoners of the inaction of
their leaders. Besieged from within by foreigners who do not abide by the country’s
laws, they clasp their hands and wait. Fortunately, there is one political party which
seems to react to this malaise3.
At the top of the page, readers are invited to do likewise on LM’s website: “React!
Would you vote ‘yes’ to the UDC’s initiative for the expulsion of foreign criminals?”
2 As the variant of the headline used on the front page puts it.
3 Malaise and “the UDC reacts” are interchangeable in the two versions (front page and page 3) of the story’s headline.
[99]
26 avril 2009. Le Matin Dimanche i 3
ActuYsuite
Réagissez!Voteriez-vous oui à l’initiative de l’UDCpour le renvoi des criminels étrangers?
www.lematin.ch/criminels
Un motard se tueCHEXBRES (VD). Un motardde 30 ans s’est tué vendredi soir près deChexbres. Il est tombé après avoir dé-collé sur un dos-d’âne et a percuté unevoiture arrivant en sens inverse. Lavitesse serait en cause.
Collision mortelleavec un tramGENÈVE. Un scootériste de 22 ansest décédé après avoir été renversé parun tram vendredi soir à Genève. Pourune raison inconnue, il s’est déporté surla gauche et a heurté l’avant gauched’un tram, qui arrivait normalement enface, a communiqué la police cantonalegenevoise. Hospitalisé, il a succombédans la nuit à ses blessures.
Policiers enformation blessésNIDWALD. Des détonateurs ontexplosé hier pour une raison inconnueà Oberdorf bei Stans (NW) lors d’unexamen sur les explosifs auquel partici-paient des policiers en formation. Desexperts ainsi que des candidats ont étégrièvement blessés. Environ 30 person-nes issues de corps de police de toutela Suisse participaient à cette forma-tion. Elles étaient préparées depuisune semaine à cet examen qui devaitsolder la formation.
Homicide dans lemilieu de la drogue
TESSIN.Un Vaudois de31 ans résidantau Tessin a étéarrêté dans lanuit de ven-dredi à samedi.Il est soup-çonné d’avoirtué un Tessi-
nois de 28 ans, le soir précédent àChiasso. Selon la police, les deux hom-mes gravitaient dans le milieu de ladrogue. L’arme du crime n’a pas encoreété retrouvée. La victime, domiciliée àMendrisio, a été trouvée gisant devantun bar vers minuit. On l’avait poignar-dée à la gorge et au ventre.
Indemnes après unechute de 80 mètresSCUOL (GR). Une voiture occu-pée par trois personnes a fait une chutede 80 mètres dans un talus, vendredi, enBasse-Engadine. Aucun des passagersn’a été blessé mais le véhicule estentièrement détruit. Le jeune conduc-teur roulait à une vitesse excessive dansun virage, entre Fran et Scuol, a indiquéhier la police grisonne.
70%d’étrangersdanslesprisons: l’UDCréagitStéphanie [email protected]
L’UDC ne s’était plusréunie à Berne depuisles échauffourées du6 octobre 2007, lors-que la ville avait été
mise à feu et à sang, lors du défilédes agrariens, en pleine campagnesur les moutons noirs.Or, ce samedi-là, le parti retournesurdans la Ville fédérale pour dé-fendre à nouveau son initiative enfaveur du renvoi des criminelsétrangers. Il a convoqué son con-grès extraordinaire dans la capitaleet, hasard du calendrier, les derniè-res statistiques nationales sur la pri-vation de liberté viennent lui prêtermain-forte: 69,7% de la populationcarcérale suisse est composéed’étrangers. Un chiffre qui ne ré-vèle aucune augmentation par rap-port aux années précédentes, maisun chiffre quasi passé sous couvertvendredi lors de sa publication parl’Office fédéral de la statistique.Car ce pourcentage élevé de popu-lation étrangère incarcérée démon-tre une fois de plus que la loi envigueur depuis 2007 n’a pas dé-ployé les effets escomptés.«Un détenu coûte 300 francs par jour»
«Les chiffres sont plus qu’élo-quents. Il faut agir et ne pas secontenter de demi-mesures, surtoutlorsqu’on sait qu’un détenu coûte300 francs par jour au contribua-ble», tonne Kevin Grangier, porte-parole de l’UDC. La nouvelle statis-tique sous le bras, le parti va galva-niser ses troupes samedi prochain etremettre la compresse pour vanterson projet, plébiscité dans la rue lorsde la récolte des signatures et au-jourd’hui menacé d’un contre-projetà peine moins rigoriste. «On ne veutplus de mesures gouttes d’eau», af-firme pourtant le porte-parole pourdénigrer la mouture que le Conseilfédéral a mise sur pied afin de barrerla route de l’UDC (lire ci-dessous).Les autres partis dénoncent, eux,l’attitude des Démocrates du centre.«Ces chiffres sur la surpopulation
étrangère en prison, nous les con-naissons et ils ne nous étonnent pas.Il faut agir, mais pour cela, il faut levouloir. L’UDC dit non à nos solu-tions car elle ne veut pas résoudreun problème qui fait son succès
électoral», s’emporte ChristopheDarbellay, président du PDC.Même son de cloche du côté desLibéraux Radicaux. «Lorsqu’onveut du rouge et qu’on nous pro-
pose du rouge clair, normalementon dit oui. C’est pourtant ce ques’est refusé à faire l’UDC dans cedossier, puisqu’elle n’entre pas enmatière sur nos propositions qui nesont pas extrêmement éloignées desleurs», raconte Isabelle Moret, vice-présidente des Libéraux-Radicaux.A gauche, on assure que la législa-tion actuelle suffit. «Il y a eu143 expulsions en 2007 dans lecanton de Vaud, donc le systèmeactuel fonctionne et peut-être en-core amélioré», rappelle AdaMarra (PS/VD). Et pas questionde donner son blanc-seing au con-tre-projet si peu éloigné de l’initia-tive si ce n’est qu’il ne porte pas lagriffe du parti décrié pour sespositions vis-à-vis des étrangers.«Le contre-projet implique unprincipe extrêmement pervers caron introduit des automatismes.Toute personne qui écope de deuxans de prison doit être renvoyé.
Cela ne va pas, il faut quandmême juger au cas par cas», ter-mine la socialiste.Détention dans le pays d’origine
Les partis bourgeois espèrent que ledossier passe au plus tôt devant lesChambres fédérales car défendreun nouveau tour de vis dans la loisur les étrangers reste toujours uneopération délicate à quelques moisseulement des élections fédéralesde 2011. «Si le contre-projet ne vapas plus loin qu’aujourd’hui, noussommes loin de gagner devantl’UDC», avertit encore ChristopheDarbellay qui n’exclut pas de re-mettre sur le tapis une de ses propo-sitions, refusée il y a quelques an-nées, et qui exigeait ni plus nimoins de pouvoir emprisonner lescriminels étrangers dans leurs paysd’origine. Pour autant que les droitsde l’homme y soient respectés etqu’un contrôle soit possible. Y
En 2008, 70%de la populationcarcérale étaitd’origineétrangère. Unchiffre qui nevarie pas depuisdes années.
DÉLINQUANCE. Une semaine avant le congrèsextraordinaire de l’UDC sur la politique d’asileet quelques jours après les doutes unanimement émis
sur les solutions d’Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf pourenrayer le problème, la statistique sur la surproportiond’étrangers enfermés rallume le débat
Entreserrerlavisetserrerlavis, lespartishésitentencoreiToutes les formations politiques sontd’accord: 70% d’étrangers en prison c’esttrop. La révision de la loi sur les étrangersvotée par le peuple en 2006 n’a pasdéployé les effets escomptés et lesdisparités de traitement des dossiers selonles cantons restent encore trop grandes.Sans compter que le nouveau code pénalne permet plus au juge de prononcer unrenvoi directement au moment dujugement. Tout le monde s’accorde pourdire qu’il faut donner un tour de vis auxpratiques actuelles et se munir d’une baselégale claire qui laisse moins de place auxappréciations. Par exemple en listant lesdélits qui s’assortissent de renvoi. Leslibéraux-radicaux et le PDC mettent touten œuvre pour trouver un contre-projet àl’initiative UDC pour le renvoi des criminelsétrangers. Un projet qui va, selon eux, troploin et qui ne fait pas dans la nuance caril réserve le même sort aux meurtriers etaux abuseurs d’assurances sociales par
exemple. L’initiative de l’UDC avait pourtantrécolté 210 000 signatures dans la ruealors que 100 000 suffisent et ce succèsa poussé le Conseil fédéral à proposer sasolution.Il y a dix jours seulement, tous les partisont cependant accueilli avec le plus grandscepticisme le contre-projet préparé parles services d’Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf etcensé faire barrage aux solutions UDC. «Ilne va pas assez loin», estime par exempleChristophe Darbellay, président du PDC.Les partis se disputent surtout sur la duréede la peine de prison qui peut débouchersur un renvoi. La mouture actuelle proposede sévir dès qu’une peine dépasse les2 ans, le PDC pense qu’un an suffirait.«Pour prendre un an, il faut déjà avoir faitquelque chose de très grave», expliqueChristophe Darbellay.Du côté des libéraux-radicaux, onpréférerait par contre se baser sur le typede crime que sur une notion de temps.
«C’est plus juste et cela influenceraitmoins la décision des juges», estimeIsabelle Moret, vice-présidente du parti.Alors que le contre-projet devrait passerdevant le parlement ces prochains mois,l’UDC compte bien utiliser ce laps detemps pour thématiser la criminalitéétrangère et imposer son initiative. Uneinitiative sur laquelle le peuple pourraitbien voter dans le courant 2010,puisqu’aucune majorité ne semble sedégager au Parlement en faveur d’uncontre-projet. Car le PS estime toujoursqu’une application stricte de la loi actuelleest suffisante pour régler le problème, ilrefuse pour l’heure de choisir un camp. Et,il renvoie le Conseil fédéral à saresponsabilité de conclure des accords deréadmission avec l’étranger, «car souventles renvois sont exigés, mais on ne peutpas les appliquer faute d’accord avec lepays d’origine», conclut Ada Marra(PS/VD). Y
i«Ces chiffres, nous lesconnaissons et ils ne nousétonnent pas. Il faut agir,mais, pour cela, il fautle vouloir. L’UDC dit nonà nos solutions car elle
ne veut pas résoudre un problèmequi fait son succès électoral»Christophe Darbellay, président du PDC
Pour la parlementaire Ada Marra (PS/VD),«les renvois sont souvent exigés, mais on ne peut pas les appliquer faute d’accordavec le pays d’origine». Yvain Genevay
Un cycliste perdla vieCOURT (BE). Un cycliste de69 ans a perdu la vie, hier, après unecollision avec une voiture à Court.L’automobiliste, qui arrivait d’une routesecondaire, s’est engagé sur la routeprincipale sans voir le cycliste qui a étéheurté et projeté à terre. Les premierssecours n’ont pas permis de lui sauverla vie.
Yvai
nGe
neva
y
Montagne fataleJUNGFRAUJOCH. Un alpinisteallemand de 70 ans a perdu la vie ven-dredi après une chute sur le flanc sud dela Jungfrau, sur le territoire valaisan dela commune de Fieschertal. Son corps apu être récupéré hier.
Keys
tone
/Tip
ress
/Dav
ide
Agos
ta
Foreign workers
On 16.12.09 the picture below (Figure 4) accompanied a story about the announcement
of an increased unemployment rate for the coming year (see Figure 5, page 103).
At the centre of the image there is an officer of the Swiss Border Police, recognizable
by the insignia on his arm, carrying a couple of traffic cones. Coming towards the view-
er there are long queues of cars, whose plates – when visible – are French. The ground
is wet and the gloves of the officer suggest a cold weather. The cars have their lights on,
thus the scene takes place early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Trucks drive in
the background, where there are also flags. The photo was taken at one of the Swiss bor-
der check points after the country joined the European Schengen area4.
At the iconic level, the image is a mere border crossing scene; the cars could be
carrying tourists to do Christmas shopping. However, anchored by the surrounding tex-
tual elements (headline, extended sub-headline and text boxes and sidebar) it signifies
the free movement of labour and its debated impact on the home labour market in terms
4 Before entering the Schengen area at the end of 2008, the Swiss Border Police had green uni-forms.
[101]
of unemployment. “Unemployment: Are the EU workers responsible?” asks the head-
line. The extended sub-headline links “free movement [of labour]” with the prospect of
an increased unemployment rate the following year and the assertion of the right-wing
party UDC, which puts the blame for it on European Union workers, but leaves the ver-
dict out: “The link is not that clear.” However, the sidebar embedded in the picture
defines the free movement [of labour] as a “flood”5 (afflux). And the chart of unemploy-
ment rates by nationality highlighted over a black background leaves little doubt about
what the answer to the question posed by the headline could be.
Considering this signified as signifier of a second order we enter the level of the
Barthesian myth: Switzerland awash in a tide of European Union workers entering the
country to worsen its unemployment rate. The Border Police officer, extraordinarily
lonely – as they usually work in pairs – in the cold and under the rain looks powerless in
his Schengen attire to contain the anonymous and seemingly endless flood that comes
from abroad6. The only Swiss in the picture, the officer can at best expect to channel the
flood with feeble, almost pathetic means. What good can ordinary traffic cones do when
one is facing a flood?
The only dissonant element in the picture – the trucks, which like the cars are en-
tering the country, but bringing into it goods and perhaps much needed raw materials –
is almost entirely hidden by the text box that functions as the photo caption.
Nowhere in the story is to be found any further reference to the UDC and its blam-
ing European Union workers for the increase of Swiss unemployment, so its placement
in the extended sub-headline becomes even more significant: it plays a crucial role in
framing the issue.
Inserted in the picture, an invitation encourages readers to give feedback on LM’s
website: “Tell us: Should our borders be closed?”
5 Although recognizing that it obeys to a home-grown demand. Interestingly, the signified are EU workers and not Frontaliers, who are most likely those who appear in the photo.
6 The drivers’ faces are not visible while the flags in the background suggest their varied origin.
[102]
12 SUISSE MERCREDI 16.12.2009 LE MATIN
LE DÉCODAGE
Chômage: les travailleursde l’UE sont-ils responsables?LIBRE CIRCULATION Alors que le SECO annonce un taux de chômage de 4,9% en 2010, l’UDCpointe du doigt la main-d’œuvre issue de l’Union européenne. Le lien n’est pourtant pas aussi évident.
Qui sont-ils?Allemands,Autrichiens,Français, Italienset Portugaisreprésententla majoritédes travailleursissus de l’Unioneuropéenne.Leur immigrationa fortementaugmenté cesdernières annéesafin de répondreà la demandede secteurs oùla main-d’œuvresuisse fait défaut.Alors que leurnombre était limitéà 1250 par moisjusqu’en 2007,ils sont aujourd’hui6000 à êtreengagéschaque moisdepuis la levéedes contingents.
AFFLUXDepuis la levée des contingentsen 2007, les travailleurs de l’UEaffluent en Suisse.
DANS QUEL SECTEUR SONT-ILS ACTIFS?
HÔTELLERIE Une grandepartie des ressortissantsde l’UE est recrutéepar la restauration etl’hôtellerie, relève SergeGaillard, directeur duSECO. «Dans ce secteur,la libre circulation n’a rienchangé au chômagedes Suisses.»INDUSTRIE Ils sont aussinombreux à travaillerdans l’industrie.Ingénieurs ou employés
peu qualifiés, ils comblentsouvent un manquede main-d’œuvre sur lemarché suisse. Le secteurdu bâtiment est aussi trèsprisé. Dans l’horlogerie,les ressortissants de l’UEont été les premiersà faire les frais de la crise.SANTÉ Les Allemandssont notamment trèsactifs dans le secteurde la santé, où la main-d’œuvre fait défaut.
LES EFFETS DE LA LIBRE CIRCULATION?k Doperl’économie «Lalibre circulationa permisaux entreprisesde recruter unemain-d’œuvre quifait défaut en Suisse, telscertains ingénieurs, et dedévelopper leurs activitéséconomiques», souligneSerge Gaillard. Voilà pourla haute conjoncture.k Des chômeurs
étrangers.Conséquencede la criseaprès le booméconomique,les ressortissantsde l’UE sont plus
nombreux au chômage.«Les derniers arrivés sontles premiers à partir, noteDominique Babey, chefde l’assurance-chômage.Mais sans eux il n’y auraitpas eu de croissance.»
LES SOLUTIONS?
Contingenter DorisLeuthard, ministre del’Economie, a récemmentévoqué l’idée deréintroduire des quotaspour les travailleurs del’UE. Chez EconomieSuisse,on se montre sceptique.«Cela ne résoudrait rien,car les personnes issues del’UE sont très spécialiséeset nous en avons besoin»,estime Crista Gaggini,directrice romande.Renforcer lescontrôles S’assurer queles employeurs ne fraudentpas en embauchant àmoindre prix, tel est lesouhait du Parti socialisteet de son président,Christian Levrat. «Il fautaussi introduire un salaireminimum dans lesbranches où cela n’existepas et faire un gros effortsur la formation dans lessecteurs où il manque desSuisses qualifiés.»
Sont-ils touchés par le chômage?Précarisés Contrairement aux idées reçues, les ressortissants de l’Unioneuropéenne ne sont pas épargnés par le chômage. Face à un taux de 3%pour la population suisse en novembre 2009, 8,1% des étrangers timbrent.Portugais, Français ou Italiens sont les plus touchés: 7,4% pour lespremiers, 6,1% pour les seconds et 5,1% pour les derniers. Une différencequi s’explique notamment par le faible niveau de qualification de la plupartd’entre eux et leur activité dans des secteurs très touchés par la crise,telles l’hôtellerie ou l’horlogerie.
Suisse 3,0%4,2% DE CHÔMAGE
4,0%4,1%
5,1%6,1%
7,4%9,4%
AllemagneAutricheItalieFrancePortugalBalkans de l'Ouest
Taux de chômageselon la nationalité
(SECO, novembre 2009)
par Viviane Menétrey
Keys
tone
/L.
Lehm
ann
DITES-LE-NOUS
Faut-il refermernos frontières?
www.lematin.ch/frontiere
Keystone/salvatore di Nolfi
Illegal immigrants
The photo below (Figure 6) was published on 18.07.09. It accompanied a follow-up
story about the person pictured in it, a sans-papier who had been hurt by a car in an ac-
cident and afterwards was threatened with expulsion by the immigration authorities (see
Figure 7, page 106).
At the iconic level, the photo is rather laconic: a middle-aged woman dressed in a red
nightdress sits in bed showing a plastered leg and holding a Teddy bear. Another Teddy
bear and some pillows complete the scene. The woman looks at the camera. The wall
behind her does not have any decoration.
The viewer does not have to wonder much about what the picture signifies. A re-
production of LM’s front page of the previous day – whose headline reads “To deport
her? A scandal!” – appears prominently in the upper right-hand area of the image, next
[104]
to a yellow-on-black caption that reads “Double victim”. The headline of the story reads
“We are with her”. The extended sub-headline names her as Mirta Palma and links her
situation to a request for a “humanitarian [residence] permit” and a “solidarity” move-
ment. More importantly, it defines the person as “the hurt [woman] of Bel-Air [the ven-
ue of the accident]” instead of, for instance, by her status as a foreigner – i.e. illegal
immigrant – or her country of origin.
The signified of the photo is two-fold: the victimization of a sans-papier and the
LM’s reaction against it. The victimization is signified mainly through the subject prom -
inently displaying her plastered leg. Additionally, two complementary signifying opera-
tions are at work. The subject’s vulnerability is accentuated by exhibiting her in night-
dress. And the subject is infantilized via the association with the Teddy bears7. The
newspaper’s reaction is signified by the self-referential insertion of the previous day’s
front page denouncing the scandal of the threatened expulsion. The prominent white-on-
yellow logo of the newspaper functions as a signature to the story headline8: it is Le
Matin itself that is “with her”.
Taking this signified as a signifier of a second order, we can explore the myth level
of the image, which we suggest is also two-fold. On the one hand, it is the affirmation of
the Swiss humanitarian tradition. Both the fact that the newspaper campaigns against
the “scandalous” expulsion and the institution of the “humanitarian [residence] permit”
– which is the subject of a didactic sidebar – prove that tradition to be alive and well.
On the other hand, Mirta Palma signifies the myth of the “good foreigner” in its
sans-papier incarnation9. Certainly not an asylum seeker, as the sidebar makes clear, the
“good foreigner” is harmless and child-like. It accepts with gratitude its precarious
condition of undeclared worker with neither social insurances nor any rights10. Its being
a “victim” does not refer to these circumstances.
7 If the subject were substituted with a young girl the picture would work as well.
8 In fact a quote of one of the story’s sources.
9 Curiously, 6,000 Ecuadorian sans-papiers in just one canton do not seem to be a ‘problem’ for LM.
10 The humanitarian permit is not a right. The story explains that getting it is “difficult” as the authorities are “very severe” and apply “very restrictive policies”.
[105]
7SUISSELE MATIN SAMEDI 18.07.2009
«NOUS SOMMES AVEC ELLE»BLESSÉEDEBEL-AIR (VD)( ��� � ������� ��! �� )� �� ����# 3� "� ������ �� ������� �� �� ��� �������� �� (� ����� ��� � � !������'�� !��� �# ��� ������ � 7� � ��3���� �� ���� ���*# �,��3� � ��� �3���� ���# ���� � � ������� "����� ������������ �� ')���# �# ��� ������� ���� � �� 3� )� �� ����� ����� �� +����� =�� ������ ��� �"�����* C�� �������� �������"��������� 7��� 2� �� ����� �� �� %888 ���������� � �3��� ���� ���� � ������� �������� ��� 'D� �� �����B� ���# ��
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CRAINTES DE L’AVOCAT
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Muriel Jarp
«NOUS ALLONSNOUS BATTRE POURQUE MIRTA PUISSERESTER»Un ami équatorien
LE PERMIS HUMANITAIRE, C’EST QUOI?Il faut distinguer la protectionaccordée au requérant d’asile dupermis humanitaire, préciseHenri Rothen, chef du Service dela population. Un requérant doitêtre victime de persécution dansson pays pour obtenir le statutde réfugié.Quant au permis humanitaire(un permis B en fait), il peut êtreoctroyé à ceux qui ontlonguement été en Suisse demanière clandestine, et dont leretour au pays serait un «casd’extrême gravité». «Lapersonne doit être tellementintégrée que son retour serait
insupportable», explique HenriRothen. Si le canton de Vaudjuge le dossier recevable, ill’envoie à l’Office desmigrations, qui est dernier juge.Depuis 2002, sur 600 dossiersenvoyés à Berne, environ 30%ont été acceptés.Pour y prétendre, il faut remplirles conditions suivantes:Durée de résidence Avoirséjourné en Suisse au moinsneuf ans sans interruption pourles célibataires, et sept ans pourles personnes qui ont desenfants en âge de scolarité.L’intégration à la société Par
son réseau social, ses amis,la maîtrise de la langue, etc.Comme Mirta Palma a étéprésidente de l’association desEquatoriens pendant des années,cela pourrait être considérécomme une intégration, préciseHenri Rothen.Ne pas avoir commisd’infraction Cela depuisl’arrivée en Suisse.Avoir des revenus Donc nepas dépendre de l’aide sociale.Bénéficier de circonstancesexceptionnelles La situationmédicale de Mirta Palma,par exemple.
DOUBLEVICTIMEAprès s’être faitrouler dessus,Mirta Palmase voit expulséede Suisse.
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www.lematin.ch
Vendredi 17 juillet 2009 No 198 Fr. 2.20
GUIDE
Prince
est à
Montreux!
P. 27
ÉMILE MPENZA
VAUD
BRAQUAGES
EN SÉRIEPAGE 7
Voici la
bombe du
FCSion
L’EXPULSER?L’EXPULSER?LEEEEXXXXUNUNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR?????????????????XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR????????????????????XPULSER?XSCANDALESCANDALEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
Eric Lafargue
PAGES 4-5
PUB
SPORTS
PAGES44-45
BLESSÉEBLEBLESSÉSSÉEE
DE BEL-AIR
SherylNields/SONYBMG
Victime de l’accident
de Lausanne, Mirta
Palma travaillait
en Suisse depuis
des années dans la
clandestinité.
Sébastien Féval
£P
HO
TO
SS
ÉB
AS
TIE
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AL
Switzerland’s Muslims
On 08.11.09, three weeks ahead of the vote on the minarets initiative, the picture below
(Figure 8) accompanied a story on a voting intention survey (see Figure 9, page 109).
At the iconic level, the picture shows a group of rather informally dressed people, wo-
men and men, the former being much more prominent and wearing head-scarves. They
are pictured from their waists up and are all with their backs to the camera. In the back-
ground, the top of a minaret is visible against the blue sky. LM’s readers are probably
expected to recognize it as the minaret of Wangen bei Olten11, a municipality in the Ger-
man-speaking canton of Solothurn (Soleure, in French). Its inauguration had been repor-
ted by the paper on 29.06.09 with a brief story illustrated with the same picture, al-
though smaller and cropped (LM 2009b:8). That particular minaret and the scarves
make the people pictured in the image Muslims in Switzerland. In terms of visual com-
11 The initial request for an authorization to build that minaret, submitted several years earlier, had actually been the starting point of the initiative.
[107]
position, the placement of the minaret corresponds almost perfectly to the golden pro-
portion of the image. This, together with the fact that it stands out over an uncrowded
background and constitutes the convergence point towards which the women point their
partially visible faces, makes it the focus of the image.
The textual elements of the story anchor the photo within the context of the debate
and political campaign around the minarets initiative and by extension the place of Is-
lam in Switzerland. The initiative “seduces more women than men”, states the headline.
The photo caption and the lead paragraph report a survey according to which more wo-
men than men would vote in favour of the initiative. The lead also offers an explanation
of why they would do so: “out of fear of losing their [gender] gains”.
In this context, the photo signifies, on the one hand, the initiative itself as the min-
aret is clearly its focus. On the other hand, as the women in it are obviously not those
whom the headline refers to, i.e. Swiss female voters, it signifies instead their fears,
what they fear to become: women wearing head-scarves and standing behind the men12
– or, in other words, women who have lost their rights. As a whole, the photo signifies
also a certain stereotypical image of Islam.
On a myth level, the picture refers to the lack of integration of Muslims in Switzer-
land because of their religion. All Muslims pictured in the image are oriented towards
the minaret – the men bowing down their heads towards it, the head-scarved women
looking at it – and with their backs to the viewer, that is to the Swiss people.
Whilst the men are faceless and thus anonymous, the women’s faces are partially
visible. That contributes to their prominent role in the photo but also adds an additional
layer as the story is about women, both Swiss and Muslim: they can see each other but
they cannot look each other in the eye. It is above all to Swiss women – two of them
also pictured in the story – that the Muslim women in the photo are showing their backs.
Finally, if at a myth level the photo refers to the non-integration of Muslims, the
graphic device of framing it leaned towards the right – intended to add dynamism to the
layout of the page – suggests the destabilizing effect Islam has on Swiss society.
12 The women are in the forefront of the image but in a subaltern position regarding what is hap-pening in the scene.
[108]
16i Le Matin Dimanche. 8 novembre 2009 Points forts
L’initiativeantiminaretsséduitpluslesfemmesqueleshommes
«Depuis les an-nées 1990, lesfemmes votentmajoritaire-ment à gauche
ou vert», dit Pascal Sciarini, profes-seur de sciences politiques à l’Uni-versité de Genève. Elles sont égale-ment réfractaires à la droite dure,jugée raciste et machiste. Mais il y aune exception: selon le sondage duTages-Anzeiger et du Bund du 8 oc-tobre, les femmes seraient plus en-clines que les hommes à voter oui(39% contre 31%) à l’initiativecontre les minarets soutenue par
l’UDC. Elles craignent l’installa-tion d’un islam qui leur ferait per-dre leurs droits.«Les femmes sont sensibles auxcombats qu’on mène», dit Eric Ber-tinat, secrétaire général de l’UDCgenevois rappelle que depuis deuxans, la moitié de leurs nouveauxadhérents sont des femmes. «Etpourtant, ajoute-t-il, nous n’avonsjamais fait campagne pour les recru-ter et en plus nous n’avons jamaismanifesté la moindre velléité pari-taire.»Trahie par la gauche
Alors pourquoi certaines femmesiraient-elles se jeter dans la gueuledu loup? «Je me sens trahie, ditCarla 74 ans qui a milité pour ledroit de vote et l’avortement. Je necomprends pas cette complaisanceface à l’intégrisme et le silence desféministes sur cette question.».Tatiana, enseignante, historiquementà gauche, ira voter oui le 29 parcequ’elle ne supporte plus d’être mal-
traitée et terrorisée dans sa classe pardes garçons «qui estiment que lesfemmes ne valent rien». C’était déjàle sujet du film avec Isabelle Adjani,«La Journée de la jupe», qui a connuun record d’audience historique surla chaîne Arte.Fantasme ou réalité? Y a-t-il vrai-ment danger d’un retour en arrière?Pour Djemila Benhabib, musulmaneet Algérienne désormais installée auQuébec, la réponse est oui. Dans sonlivre «Ma vie à contre-Coran», elledémontre la stratégie de conquête del’islamisme politique en Europe:d’abord distribuer des millions viales associations, ensuite terroriser lesmusulmans qui osent sortir du ranget enfin menacer les occidentaux quiosent critiquer l’islam. «Au-jourd’hui, on ne peut plus rien dire.L’islamophobie est devenue le motmagique pour verrouiller tous lesdébats.»Auteure de «Islamophobie ou légi-time défiance», Mireille Vallette, fé-ministe et de gauche, partage cetavis. «Il y a danger et notre sociéténe pose pas ses limites.» Après avoiranalysé les discours de ceux quiparlent au nom de l’islam, imams etleurs porte-parole intégristes, la Ge-nevoise arrive à la conclusion quecet islam-là est non seulement inca-pable de s’adapter à notre démocra-tie mais qu’il tente de la faire régres-ser, en commençant par fissurer lesacquis des femmes. Son livre n’areçu pratiquement aucun accueilauprès de sa famille politique.«L’UDC m’a invité à en parler, maisil n’est pas venu à l’esprit des socia-listes ou des verts de le faire. La
gauche fonctionne par dogme: lasécurité et l’immigration sont desintouchables. Et parler de l’islam enterme critique vous envoie immé-diatement à l’extrême droite. L’undes arguments des adversaires de
l’initiative, c’est: «Attention il risquede nous arriver ce qui est arrivé auDanemark au moment des caricatu-res de Mahomet!». Ce chantage estinadmissible.»Silence des féministes
La Genevoise constate aussi que leféminisme, devenu administratif ouuniversitaire, a déserté cette ques-tion. Djemila Benhabib va plus loinen lui reprochant d’être devenu sonallié objectif. Silvia Ricci, expertede ces questions-là, tempère. «Laquestion du voile continue de divi-ser les féministes. D’un côté, lesuniversalistes laïques qui au nom del’égalité refusent tout signe de com-munautarisme. Elisabeth Badinterou l’allemande Alice Schwarzer, parexemple. De l’autre, celles qui esti-ment que brandir l’islam, c’est évi-ter de voir les discriminations quiont eu lieu ici. Leur tolérance àl’égard du voile s’explique par le faitqu’elles ne veulent pas stigmatiserun groupe déjà victime de racisme.»Pendant ce temps, l’UDC récupère
la mise et s’érige en gardien d’unhéritage qu’il n’a jamais contribué àenrichir, lui qui se moque de l’éga-lité homme/femme considéréecomme un «appauvrissement cultu-rel.» Mireille Vallette n’est pas dupemais reconnaît à l’UDC le mérited’avoir permis le débat. Elle estimecependant qu’un oui aggraverait leproblème de l’intégrisme. Y
Selon un sondageréalisé en Suissealémanique,les femmes seraientplus nombreusesque les hommesà voter oui àl’initiative contreles minaretsKeystone/Peter Klaunzer
ISLAM. Un sondage révèle que les Suissesses seraient plus enclinesque les hommes à voter pour l’initiative contre la construction desminarets par peur de voir leur acquis disparaître. L’UDC genevoise
rappelle que depuis deux ans la moitié de leur nouveaux adhérentssont des femmes, sans avoir entrepris de campagne dans ce sens.Des intellectuelles de gauche tirent la sonnette d’alarme
Identiténationalefrançaise:censureetpropagandeAntoine MenusierPARIS
Canal Plus passe, Eric Bes-son demeure. La chaîneprivée française a démon-
tré cette semaine que le site identite-nationale.fr, ouvert mardi dernierpar le ministre, censurait sans ver-gogne les messages défavorablesau président de la République.Calme olympien de l’incriminé. Ilne nie pas les faits, mais il balaied’un revers de manche les accusa-tions de censure.La petite équipe de «L’Edition spé-ciale», émission de la mi-journée, avoulu tester l’impartialité du site enquestion, qui est censé récolter les
avis des Français sur le «grand dé-bat» ouvert par Eric Besson, dontune «synthèse» sera rendue en fé-vrier, à un mois des élections régio-nales. Canal Plus a envoyé deuxe-mails, l’un favorable au chef del’Etat, l’autre critique envers lui.Teneur du premier – publié dans laminute sur le site: «L’identité natio-nale c’est défendre le drapeau et laMarseillaise comme le fait NicolasSarkozy.»Eric Besson se défend
Contenu du second, mis à la pou-belle par les services d’Eric Besson:«Pour moi, l’identité nationale c’estporter haut et fort les valeurs répu-blicaines que sont la liberté, l’éga-
lité, la fraternité et non le népo-tisme, les inégalités et la xénopho-bie comme le fait NicolasSarkozy.» On ne touche pas à lapersonne du roi.Eric Besson a bien voulu s’expli-quer, vendredi, sur Canal Plus. «Laquestion posée, c’est «Qu’est-cequ’être français?», a-t-il rappelé.Accuser Nicolas Sarkozy de népo-tisme, ça n’a rien à voir avec lesujet.» L’e-mail indélicat avec leprésident de la République a finale-ment été publié sur le site, précédéde cet avertissement: «Voici lecommuniqué que les équipes del’émission L’Edition spéciale ontsouhaité voir publié.»Il serait faux d’affirmer que tous les
messages un tant soit peu critiquesavec la question posée passent à latrappe. Si la plupart des internautesapprouvent les termes du débat,certains les contestent, estimant quel’identité nationale française fait fides apports de la diversité des origi-nes et des religions. Mais quantitéd’individus, testant, à la suite deCanal Plus, les filets de la censurebessonnienne, ont témoigné de sonefficacité.Drôles de méthodes
Le ministre ne s’émeut pas davan-tage d’un autre reproche: à la ru-brique «Ils s’expriment» de la pla-te-forme, des déclarations de per-sonnalités de tous bords – «18 000
jusqu’ici», a indiqué Eric Bessonvendredi – contribuent au débat,certaines contre leur gré. C’est lecas notamment, d’Olivier Besan-cenot, de Jean-Luc Mélenchon etde Pierre Moscovici, tous de gau-che. Ils ont exigé le retrait de leurspropos. Refus du ministère del’immigration et de l’identité na-tionale, pour qui ces déclarations,qui peuvent être interprétées parles lecteurs comme un quitus à lalégitimité du débat, appartiennentau domaine public.Drôles de méthodes: on a plusaffaire ici à un enrôlement deforce dans une propaganded’Etat qu’à une réflexion libre.Difficile, toutefois, qu’il en soit
autrement quand on érige en mi-nistère un sentiment intime,l’identité nationale. Y
POLÉMIQUE. Un message défavorable à Nicolas Sarkozy a étécensuré sur le site de débat à propos de l’identité nationale.
Imperturbable, le ministre Eric Besson nie les évidences et défendle bien-fondé de l’opération qu’il a lancée mardi sur Internet
iMaria Roth-Bernasconi,conseillère nationaleet coprésidente desfemmes socialistessuisse, comprend lacrainte des femmes«qui ont peur deperdre quelquechose qu’elles n’ontd’ailleurs pas forcémentacquis», mais refuse lesreproches qui sont faits à lagauche. Il ne faut pas se
tromper d’allié.«Qu’est-ce que l’UDCa fait pour lesfemmes, sinonvouloir les remettreà la maison, voternon à l’horairecontinu ou fermerles bureaux del’égalité? Même si la
presse n’en fait pas écho, lagauche est sur le terrain.Personnellement, je me batscontre les mariages forcés et
j’ai déposé une initiativeparlementaire contrel’excision, dont d’ailleurs ladroite ne voulait pas. L’UDCne se préoccupe pas du sortdes femmes. Ce qu’il veut,c’est exclure, et non pasintégrer, mais sa stratégie estde la poudre aux yeux: on nepeut pas fermer lesfrontières, c’est irréaliste.Posons-nous la bonnequestion: qui fait quoi et pourquelle cause?» Y
Marie-Claude Martin«Les Quotidiennes»[email protected]
iÀ LIRE«Ma vie à contre-Coran», de DjemilaBenhabib,vlb éditeur.«Islamophobieou légitimedéfiance?»,de Mireille Vallette, Ed. Favre.
i«L’islamophobieest devenue le motmagique pour verrouillertous les débats»Djemila Benhahib, auteure du livre«Ma vie à contre-Coran»
i«L’UDCm’a invitéeà enparler,mais il n’estpas venuà l’esprit
des socialistes oudesVerts de le faire»Mireille Vallette, auteure du livre«Islamophobie ou légitime défense»
«Ilnefautpassetromperd’allié»
Eric Besson nie toute censure.
Yvain Genevay
Chris
tian
Bonz
on
AFP/
Thom
asCo
ex
CONCLUSION
The purpose of this work was to find out, by deploying quantitative and qualitative re-
search methods, how the newspaper Le Matin represents foreigners to its readers.
The findings of the quantitative approach – classic content analysis – allowed us to
establish some fundamental traits of LM’s representation of foreigners.
LM’s representational practice can best be described as one that gives the subject
of foreigners in Switzerland very frequent, considerably salient and highly professional
treatment. LM represents foreigners to its readers as not only an omnipresent subject,
but one that is worth their attention.
A determinant feature is the association of foreigners with crime, violence and
misdemeanor activities. This lawbreaking profile heavily influences how the newspaper
construes the foreigners. Their depictions are dominantly marked by negative connota-
tions.
Within this context, foreigners are represented to a significant extent as a subject
of policy debate and legislation. Young foreigners tend to be seen as a concern or threat.
In addition to the lawbreaking profile, asylum-related types are very prominent in
LM’s representational practice, especially in stories in which foreigners are the ‘focus’.
Even though LM paid significant attention to Muslim foreigners within the period
of our study, our findings suggest this is not a central feature of its ‘regular’ representa-
tional practice. Muslim foreigners are construed as a matter of concern, but also as po-
tentially ‘integrable’.
There is evidence suggesting, if not a contradiction, at least a potentially more nu-
anced approach. Notably the representation of ‘binationals’ points towards a certain
openness to foreigners through a model of ‘integrability’.
The range of sources resorted to by LM is heavily dominated by state and govern-
ment representatives, which confirms the representation of foreigners as a subject of
policy debate and legislation. Expert knowledge is also resorted too, although to a lesser
extent. State law-enforcement agencies play a significant, pervasive role. ‘Political’
[110]
sources belong mostly to centre-right and right-wing tendencies. Male sources are pre-
ponderant.
Foreigners themselves, as well as sources related to them, do not get too loud a
voice, although they are not completely silenced either.
The qualitative methodology – semiotic analysis of photographs – allowed us to
identify some of the elements operating at the level of deep-seated cultural myths.
We identified the idea of a society besieged from within by foreigners who do not
‘abide by the rules’ before the passivity of the political elites. We explored the concerns
of a society feeling helpless in the face of a ‘flood’ of aliens that take their jobs. We
looked at the fears of a society worried about the ‘culturally other’ in its midst, but still
willing to maintain a self-representation linked to a ‘humanitarian tradition’.
Limitations. For the quantitative approach, its main strength is also a limitation: broad
trends and patterns do not allow for more nuanced and detailed accounts of how certain
features of the representation of foreigners are concretely built.
In certain cases, it was not possible to explore in detail the representation of specif-
ic foreigner types – asylum-related, frontaliers, sans-papiers – given that, despite their
significant role in the big picture, the data gathered specifically on each of them was in-
sufficient to say something beyond some general statements.
The qualitative methodology, besides the always possible impressionist insight or
interpretative derailment, turned out to be partial, if for no other reason because of the
fragmentary evidence it can handle within a limited space. Other photographs would
probably help tell a more nuanced story.
Further research. We would suggest exploring the representational practice of LM
with qualitative research methods – e.g. discourse analysis – in order to establish a more
nuanced account of its subtleties – particularly with regard to issues where we detected
actual or potential openness to the ‘otherness’. On the other hand, as readers certainly
‘take meaning’ through their encounter with texts in varied ways, audience research
[111]
could contribute to an understanding of how they concretely ‘negotiate’ the representa-
tion offered by the newspaper so as to establish their own.
If “to relate with the otherness” is for many “one of the most taxing anthropological
tests” (Windisch 2002:215), it is easy to understand that representations of the ‛Other’
can only be “a form of cultural polemics; they are contested and are themselves a form
of contestation” (Pieterse 1992:232 cited Ferguson 1998:80). When they happen to be
built within “fluid, often contradictory” media discourses (Ferguson 1998:132), the en-
deavours of the media researcher are both endless and fascinating.
[112]
Appendix I
Sampling Calendar
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo
Apr. 2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
May 2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Jun. 2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
July 2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Aug. 2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Sep. 2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Oct. 2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Nov. 2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Dec. 2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Jan. 2010 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Feb. 2010 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Mar. 2010 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Apr. 2010 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
May 2010 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Appendix II
Annotated Coding Schedule
I. Identifer categories
1. Story ID: Year / Month / Day / Page / Sequence within page, without spaces
(e.g. 20090426072: 26 April 2009, page 7, second story that qualifies
for our corpus on that page).
2. Headline: Reproduced verbatim.
3. Date
4. Page number
II. Editorial treatment
5. Linked: Indicates if the story is mentioned somewhere else in the paper. Values:
0 / No Not linked
1 / Page1 Front page
2 / Story Another story in the same edition
3 / Prev A story in a previous edition
4 / Sect Opening page of a section
6. Newspaper section: Reproduced verbatim from newspaper’s nomenclature.
7. Story genre: Values:
1 News
2 Feature
3 Interview
4 Editorial
5 Opinion
7 Profile
8 Colour
9 Feed-back (responses to questions posed by the newspaper)
10 Letter
11 News FD (see page 76, notes 21 & 22)
12 Brief FD (see page 76, note 21)
13 Highlight
[114]
8. Position of the story within the page. Values:
1 Upper half
2 Lower half
3 Full page
4 Double page
9. Headline size. Values:
1 < 1/2 page
2 1/2 page
3 > 1/2 page
4 Full page
5 > full page < double page
6 Double page
10. Layout salience index. Values:
1 Headline < 1/2 page, anywhere on page
2 Headline ≥ 1/2 page, on lower half even page
3 Headline ≥ 1/2 page, on lower half odd page
4 Headline ≥ 1/2 page, on upper half even page
5 Headline ≥ 1/2 page, on upper half odd page
6 Full even page
7 Full odd page
8 Double page, incomplete
9 Full double page
11. Layout salience index binned. Values:
1 Very low (Layout salience index = 1)
2 Low (Layout salience index = 2 + 3)
3 Medium (Layout salience index = 4 + 5)
4 High (Layout salience index = 6 + 7)
5 Very high (Layout salience index = 8 + 9)
12. Photographs of any kind. Values:
0 / No None
1 / S Small (width ≤ 1/4 page; if height > width, measure height)
2 / S+ Small + additional photo (of any size)
3 / M Medium (width > S ≤ 1/2 page; if height > width, measure height)
4 / M+ Medium + additional photo (of any size)
5 / L Large (width > M ≤ 3/4 page, if height > width, measure height)
6 / L+ Large + additional photo (of any size)
7 / XL Extra large (width > L ≤ full page; if height > width, measure height)
8 / XL+ Extra large + additional photo (of any size)
[115]
13. Photographs of foreigners binned. Values:
0 / No None
1 / S Small (regardless of quantity, consider biggest photo)
2 / M Medium (regardless of quantity, consider biggest photo)
3 / L Large (regardless of quantity, consider biggest photo)
4 / XL Extra Large (regardless of quantity, consider biggest photo)
14. Story byline. Values:
0 / No None
1 / Staf Editorial staff
2 / Agency News agency
3 / Reader Reader’s letter or feed-back
15. Signature. If staff byline, reproduce name verbatim.
16. Story focus on foreigners. Values:
0 / No It does not match criterion below (for 1 / Yes)
1 / Yes It includes an explicit mention or reference to at least one
type of foreigner in either its headline, sub-headline or lead paragraph.
17. Number of sources
18. Number of foreigners amongst the sources
III. Themes
19. Main theme (inductively established on the basis of headline, sub-headline, lead paragraph). Values:
2 Celebrity
10 Integration
11 Politics / participation
12 Solidarity / mobilization
14 Humanitarian situation
16 Children protection / exploitation
18 Political manifestation
20 Misdemeanor / vandalism
22 Hate speech
23 Prejudices / racism
24 Crime / violence
26 Unemployment / labour competition / undeclared work
[116]
28 Asylum
31 Education
32 Labour supply
35 Economy / finances
37 Taxes
38 Sport
41 Religion
42 Life styles
47 Arts
48 Freedom of expression
51 Policy / legislation
52 Naturalization
55 Business / innovation
58 Military
20. Most prominent amongst secondary themes (inductively established on the basis of the whole of the story). Values:
3 Society values
4 Standard of living
10 Integration
11 Politics / participation
12 Solidarity / mobilization
15 Life conditions sans-papiers
21 Discrimination / exclusion
22 Hate speech
23 Prejudices / racism
24 Crime / violence
26 Unemployment / labour competition / undeclared work
27 Social assistance
28 Asylum
29 Over-representation
30 Health
31 Education
32 Labour supply
41 Religion
42 Life styles
43 Language
44 Gender
45 Media treatment
46 Youth
[117]
50 National identity
51 Policy / legislation
52 Naturalization
54 Swiss abroad
56 Diversity richness
57 Identity/ies
58 Military
100 Missing
IV. Foreigners
21. Foreigner type. Values:
1 Collective (general, les étrangers)
12 Religion (implicit definition of foreigner)
13 Student
15 Lifestyle (implicit definition of foreigner)
20 Refugee (final stage in the asylum process)
21 Asylum seeker (entry level in the asylum process)
22 Provisionally admitted (a stage in the asylum process)
30 Expatriate (UN, NGO, international companies’ staff & families)
31 Rich (well off people)
32 Bi-national (when one nationality being Swiss)
40 Illegal immigrant (sans-papier)
41 Nationality / region (when no other descriptor is given but this one)
42 Ethnic / racial (implicit definition of foreigner)
50 Cross-border commuter (frontalier)
90 Other F (a variety of cases, for instance non-residents who work in Switzerland incidentally, e.g. truck drivers based in other European countries)
22. Foreigner characterization. Values:
1 Non-specified
10 Artist / show biz / sport person
11 Celebrity
12 Poor
20 Worker / employee
21 Professional
23 Undeclared worker
24 Business person
27 Bank depositor
32 Child/ren
[118]
34 Illiterate
40 Social / political activist
41 Religious person
51 Politician
60 Family member
61 Naturalized
63 Young person
64 Muslim
70 Criminal
71 Social assistance abuser
74 Non-integrated
75 Young criminal
76 Offender (responsible for a misdemeanor)
77 Terrorist
80 Unemployed
82 Beggar
23. Foreigner origin. Values: Each country/region was assigned a number, we omit the list here.
24. Foreigner photo. Values:
0 / No1 / Yes
IV. Sources
25. Source type. Values:
10 Federal councillor
14 Government agency specialized in foreigners
15 Police
16 Judiciary
17 Education sector
19 Journalist (individual)
20 Politician / Parliament member
21 Civil society organization
22 Civil society organization specialized in supporting foreigners
23 Foreigners’ organization
26 Lawyer / representative of foreigner
27 Trade union representative
28 Employer of foreigner
33 Private sector (in general, excluding employer of foreigner)
[119]
34 Government agencies related to Police / Justice / Penitentiary
35 Government agencies related to Economy / Employment
36 Government, other agencies
40 Expert (all fields)
51 Individual foreigner (excluding naturalized / bi-national)
52 Individual (excluding foreigner and naturalized / bi-national)
53 Individual naturalized / bi-national
70 Media (any kind, excluding individual journalists)
90 Other S (mainly sources abroad, e.g. a lawyer in Germany)
99 Anonymous
26. Source name. Reproduce verbatim.
27. Source political affiliation. Values:
0 Non-specified
1 UDC
2 PSS
3 PRD
4 PDC
6 PLS
7 PLR
8 PSN
9 UDF
10 PEV
11 PBD
99 Non-applicable (e.g. organizations)
28. Source photograph. Values:
0 No
1 Yes
2 Non-applicable (e.g. organizations)
29. Source gender. Values:
1 Male
2 Female
3 Non-applicable (e.g. organizations)
[120]
Appendix III
Data Reliability
According to Krippendorff, the only type of reliability that can be measured when
quantitative data is gathered by only one observer or coder – which is the case in this re-
search – is ‘stability’. Stability measures the extent to which a “coding procedure yields
the same results on repeated trials” (2004:215). The assessment of stability is based on a
test-retest procedure and is able to determine the degree of intra-observer inconsistency.
Being the “weakest form of reliability”, stability “is insufficient as the sole criterion for
accepting data as reliable”, but still “may be an analyst’s first step in establishing the re-
liability of data” (2004:215).
We re-coded a group of five randomly chosen stories of our corpus. The data was
used to calculate Krippendorff’s α coefficient following the procedure established by
Hayes and Krippendorff (2007) (Table 41).
For the whole set of variables, we obtained α = 0.8662.
Given the fact that not all of the variables have the same ‘weight’ in our work nor
do they present the same challenges when being measured, we calculated α for different
sub-sets of variables.
For variables measuring aspects of the editorial treatment of the stories (position,
photo and headline sizes, byline, etc.) we obtained values of α between 0.9114 (all edit-
orial-related variables) and 0.8674 (when excluding photos).
For variables related to ‘content’ aspects of the stories (focus/non-focus, themes,
foreigner and source types, etc.) we obtained values of α between 0.8380 (considering
all content-related variables) and 0.7740 (considering only variables measuring the main
and secondary themes and the focus on foreigners, which is the most astringent scen-
ario).
According to Krippendorff, an acceptable level of reliability requires α = 0.8000;
with values of α between 0.6670 and 0.8000, he suggests the data allows the researcher
to draw “tentative conclusions” (2004:241).
[121]
Table 41: Krippendorff’s α for different sub-sets of data
1. All variables:
Run MATRIX procedure:Krippendorff's Alpha Reliability Estimate
Alpha Units Obsrvrs PairsNominal .8662 146.0000 2.0000 146.0000
Judges used in these computations: Re_test First_test
2. Editorial variables, all:
Run MATRIX procedure:Krippendorff's Alpha Reliability Estimate
Alpha Units Obsrvrs PairsNominal .9114 59.0000 2.0000 59.0000
Judges used in these computations: Re_test First_test
3. Editorial variables, no photos:
Run MATRIX procedure:Krippendorff's Alpha Reliability Estimate
Alpha Units Obsrvrs PairsNominal .8674 35.0000 2.0000 35.0000
Judges used in these computations: Re_test First_test
4. Content variables, all:
Run MATRIX procedure:Krippendorff's Alpha Reliability Estimate
Alpha Units Obsrvrs PairsNominal .8380 87.0000 2.0000 87.0000
Judges used in these computations: Re_test First_test
5. Content variables, themes and focus:
Run MATRIX procedure:Krippendorff's Alpha Reliability Estimate
Alpha Units Obsrvrs PairsNominal .7740 15.0000 2.0000 15.0000
Judges used in these computations: Re_test First_test
[122]
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Index of Tables, Charts and Figures
Figures
Figure 1: Switzerland’s linguistic regions .................................................................. 8
Figure 2: Photo published in LMD, 26.04.09. Credit: ‘Keystone/Str’ ......................... 98
Figure 3: Le Matin Dimanche, 26 April 2009, p. 3 .................................................. 100
Figure 4: Photo published in LM, 16.12.09. Credit: ‘Keystone/Salvatore di Nolf’ . . . 101
Figure 5: Le Matin, 16 December 2009, p. 12 ........................................................ 103
Figure 6: Photo published in LM, 18.07.09. Credit: ‘Sébastien Féval’ ...................... 104
Figure 7: Le Matin, 18 July 2009, p. 7 ................................................................... 106
Figure 8: Photo published in LMD, 08.11.09. Credit: ‘Keystone/Peter Klaunzer’ ..... 107
Figure 9: Le Matin Dimanche, 8 November 2009, p. 16 ......................................... 109
Tables and Charts
Table 1: Nationals and foreigners in Switzerland in 2009 .......................................... 7
Chart 1: Foreigners with permanent residence in Switzerland 1900-2009 .................. 7
Table/Chart 2: Occurrence of ‘all stories’ by edition ............................................... 28
Table/Chart 2b: Frequency ‘all stories’ by edition ................................................... 29
Chart 2c: Test of normality for frequency of ‘all stories’, Q-Q Plot ........................... 29
Table/Chart 3: Occurrence of ‘focus stories’ by edition .......................................... 30
Table/Chart 3b: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by edition .......................................... 31
Table/Chart 4: ‘All stories’ by layout salience index (binned) .................................. 32
Table/Chart 5: ‘Focus stories’ by layout salience index (binned) ............................. 32
Table/Chart 6: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by size of photographs of foreigners ........ 33
Table/Chart 7: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by size of photographs of foreigners .... 33
Table/Chart 8: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by type of byline ....................................... 34
Table/Chart 9: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by type of byline .................................. 34
Table/Chart 10: Types of byline by type of story (‘all’ and ‘focus’) .......................... 35
Chart 10b: Types of byline by type of newspaper
(political reporting, Swiss press, 2009) .................................................. 35
Table/Chart 11: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by main theme .................................. 39/40
Table/Chart 12: Frequency of four main themes by edition (all stories) ................... 41
Table/Chart 13: Frequency of ‘all stories’ by secondary themes ........................ 42/43
Table/Chart 14: Frequency of three secondary themes by edition (all stories) ......... 44
Table/Chart 14b: Cross-tabulation secondary themes ‘Policy/Legislation’,
‘Identity/ies’ and ‘Youth’ by main themes ................................... 45
[129]
Table/Chart 15: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by main theme ............................. 46/47
Table/Chart 16: Frequency of ‘focus stories’ by secondary themes ................... 48/49
Table/Chart 17: Frequency of foreigner types in ‘all stories’ ................................... 54
Table/Chart 18: Frequency of foreigner types in ‘focus stories’ .............................. 55
Table/Chart 19: Frequency of foreigner characterizations in ‘all stories’ ........... 56/57
Table/Chart 20: Frequency of foreigner characterizations in ‘focus stories’ ....... 58/59
Table/Chart 21: Origin of foreigners, ‘all stories’ .............................................. 60/61
Table/Chart 22: Origin of foreigners, ‘focus stories’ ......................................... 62/63
Table/Chart 23: Types of sources (that refer to foreigners, ‘all stories’) ............ 69/79
Table/Chart 24: Stories by type of source, ‘all stories’ ...................................... 71/72
Table/Chart 25: Cross-tabulation Source type by Layout saliency index,
‘all stories’ ................................................................................... 73
Table/Chart 26: Political afliation of sources (‘all stories’) ..................................... 74
Table/Chart 27: Gender of sources (all stories) ....................................................... 75
Table/Chart 28: Occurrence of all stories linking foreigners
to lawbreaking activities by edition ............................................... 79
Table/Chart 28b: Frequency of Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories .............. 80
Table/Chart 29: Crime/Violence plus Misdemeanor stories by genre (‘all stories’) ... 81
Table/Chart 30: Secondary themes associated to Crime/Violence
plus Misdemeanor stories (‘all stories’) ......................................... 82
Table/Chart 31: Types of sources in Crime/Violence
plus Misdemeanor stories (‘all stories’) ................................... 83/84
Table/Chart 32: Types of foreigners in Crime/Violence
plus Misdemeanor stories (‘all stories’) ......................................... 85
Table/Chart 33: Le Matin, Actors by nationality
in all Crime and Misdemeanor stories ........................................... 86
Table/Chart 34: Le Temps, Actors by nationality
in all Crime and Misdemeanor stories ........................................... 86
Table/Chart 35: Occurrence of Muslim-related stories by edition ........................... 89
Table/Chart 35b: Frequency of Muslim-related stories ........................................... 90
Table/Chart 35c: Frequency of Muslim-related stories
excluding minarets-related stories ............................................. 90
Table/Chart 36: Muslim-related stories by genre ................................................... 91
Table/Chart 37: Source types in Muslim-related stories .................................... 92/93
Table/Chart 38: Political afliation of sources, Muslim-related stories .................... 94
Table/Chart 39: Secondary themes associated to Muslim-related stories ................ 95
Table 40: Types of foreigners in Muslim-related stories .......................................... 96
[130]
Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to my wife Gabriela and to my daughter Am-
paro for their loving and unfinching support during the time
dedicated to the research and writing of this dissertation. This
work would not have seen the light without their bearing with me,
but the blessing they are in my life goes far beyond that.
I warmly thank my academic tutor, Dr S. Das, as well as the fac-
ulty and administrative staf of the Department of Communica-
tion at the University of Leicester for their always helpful support.
I am deeply grateful to many good friends who in diferent ways
and at diferent moments encouraged me to complete this dis-
sertation and achieve the MA degree. Amongst them I would like
to mention Sara and Alexander, who supported my application to
the University, while the former also read the dissertation pro-
posal and made useful comments on it; Alejandro, who ‛pushed’
me all along the way; and Libby, who generously proofread the
dissertation for the purpose of making it available online.
While studying for the MA degree and working on this disserta-
tion I benefted from the staf development programme of the
World Council of Churches, my employer at that time. Nothing in
this dissertation engages the WCC in any manner.
Juan MichelGeneva, October 2010
© Juan Michel 2010