News framing: following Belgian news from Tenerife.
News framing: following Belgian news from Tenerife.
Soon we will have been living in the Canary Islands for two years.
And yes, I still follow Belgian news every single day. Alongside Naast Radio Televisión Canaria, of course. I am doing my best to integrate.
Recently, friends from Belgium visited us. At one point they said: “You actually know more about what is happening in Belgium than we do.”
I found that genuinely amusing. I live on an island off the coast of Africa, yet I know who is arguing in Brussels, which policy is changing and when the next strike is announced.
Coincidence? Not at all. Context is part of my work.
Why news framing fascinates me
As a Virtual Assistant, I work for Belgian companies. My clients operate within that reality so I follow politics, economic developments and social regulations closely.
But what continues to intrigue me is how strongly news framing differs depending on where you read it. The facts are often identical, the tone is not. That difference in tone, emphasis and wording is exactly what news framing is about.
El Teide and the difference in reporting
A few weeks ago, my sister called me sounding slightly worried. She had read in a Belgian newspaper that the volcano El Teide had become “more active,” with a real possibility of an eruption.
Here in Tenerife, the reporting remained calm, factual, no dramatic undertone.
Yes, there are daily earthquakes, many of them, but they occur so deep underground that I have not felt a single one. And yet, the story made Belgian headlines. News shortage? More likely: news framing in action. Not incorrect, just filtered differently and tailored to a different audience.
News framing influences how we perceive reality
News is rarely just a list of facts, it is selection, it is context, it is perspective.
What do you highlight, which words do you choose, what headline do you write?
That is what ultimately shapes how we interpret events.
Living in Tenerife while following Belgian news has made me more aware of news framing than ever before. I will continue to follow Belgian news but always with attention to news framing (and with a clear view of a volcano that currently looks remarkably relaxed).
Do you read the news as pure fact, or also as framing?
And do headlines sometimes pull you in more than the content itself?
