A Media Framing Approach to Securitization: Storytelling in Conflict, Crisis and Threat

Presenting securitization as a communication issue, this book combines media framing with the theory of securitization to explain how the discourse of security informs media content and what happens to policy and public understanding when it does.

Because securitization studies the construction of threats to societal structures as well as political-institutional structures, this book addresses security framing as a question of identity and the ability of political-cultural elites and media actors to manipulate it. After setting out how its theories work together, the book turns to news and its effects: How do media accounts make empirical sense of the world when they are bound by the need to make social-cultural sense first? How does "security" look in competing news accounts, and how do securitizing frames affect attitudes toward policies and political elites? Last, the book asks how academics and professionals can address the challenges to a democratic public’s role in decision-making created by the manipulation of security.

Bringing together distinct fields within communication studies to reflect on the pressing issue of securitization, this book will be a key resource for scholars and students working in the fields of mass communication, policy studies, critical linguistics and international relations, as well as risk and crisis communication.

Fred Vultee is associate professor of journalism at Wayne State University, USA. Before earning his doctorate, he was an editor at US newspapers for 25 years. His research concentrates on media practice and its impact on attitudes toward security and credibility.