Intentional and unintentional transnationalism: Two political identities repressed by national identity in the news media

Abstract

This article explores how the powerful mechanisms of nation-state discourse in the news media obscure emerging constructions of transnational political thought and action. With the aid of empirical examples from qualitative media studies on critical events extensively covered by the news media, the article demonstrates how national identity in the news media represses transnational political identities of the intentional as well as the unintentional kind.

Keywords:

• news media
• national identity
• political identity
• intentional transnationalism
• unintentional transnationalism

Notes

1. The hegemonic status of national identity does not, however, necessarily mean that other, competing identities are eliminated. See, e.g., Olausson (2010) for an analysis of a budding European political identity in the news reporting on climate change.

2. For a more detailed account of the methodology, see Berglez (2006); Olausson (2005). Quotations from the empirical material function illustratively only and are part of a larger empirical body. For a more comprehensive empirical substantiation, see Berglez (2006); Olausson (2005, 2007).

3. These processes of exclusion are general in character and do not exclusively affect ‘transnational people’. Situations characterised by antagonistic relationships towards the national context might also cause other forms of subnational interpretations (see Olausson, 2007). It is reasonable to suggest, though, that the identity positions of ethnic minorities are especially vulnerable to these mechanisms of exclusion.