Framing the U.S. news media as a threat: President Donald Trump’s securitising move

Authors

  • Henriette Strand Etholm University of St Andrews

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15664/jtr.1554

Keywords:

Securitising move, Securitisation, Framing, Donald Trump, Twitter, U.S. news media, The news media as a threat, Democracy

Abstract

While securitisation theory sees that the news media can be both a securitising actor and audience, the existing literature has not explored cases where the media are framed as the threat. This article illustrates how former President Donald Trump framed the U.S. news media as a threat, and argues that this constitutes a securitising move. Discourse analysis informed by framing theory is applied to a sample of tweets posted by Trump. These examples illustrate how Trump has continuously framed the media as a threat, highlighting the referent object as being a threat to the truth, the people and the country, thereby undertaking a securitising move.

Author Biography

Henriette Strand Etholm, University of St Andrews

Henriette Strand Etholm holds a Master’s degree (MLitt) in International Security Studies with Distinction from the University of St Andrews. She graduated with honours from Webster Private University, Vienna, in 2017 with a B.A. in International Relations.

STAGES in Security: Vol 1

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Published

2022-09-06

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2022): STAGES in Security. Contemporary Voices

Section

Online First

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