Framing terrorist attacks: A multi-proximity model

Guided by the perspective of media framing theory and a newly proposed multi-proximity model, we analysed the content of news reports on five major terrorist attacks from four international news media. We identified three frame packages, each with four functional frames suggested by Entman. Regression analysis revealed the differential impact on media frames of multiple proximities in ideology, religion and bilateral relations. When the media host country and victim country are bound by close relations, the news frames applied to such attacks will be more negative. The same is true for religious proximity between the media host country and victim country. In contrast, close religious proximity between the media host country and the attacker group will lead to the adoption of a less negative news frame for an attack. Interestingly, the proximity of ideology between the media host country and victim country did not show the expected explanatory power for the media frames.