Il racconto mitico delle differenze. Obiettività ed emozionalità nel trattamento dicotomico di 25 anni di casi di cronaca

Research on media and diversity rarely compares portrayals of Us and Them across the news. The present study does a content and discourse analysis of stories on women’ victimization that differ only in respect to the role performed by national or foreign characters. The main pillars of fact-based, “objective” journalism are thus quantitatively scrutinized in their dichotomic application to these two different sets of protagonists. A similar, qualitative analysis is then made on more emotional news based on storytelling. Finally, we explain the bias that emerges considering the shared cultural backdrop that pre-exists newsmaking routines, commercial considerations, and political bias.