Reporting on remote global events influences local group relationships

Reporting on the Greek debt crisis, the Arab Spring or Iran’s nuclear programme influences our view of the populations involved elsewhere in the world, and at the same time influences our views of groups in our immediate vicinity. These are the conclusions of PhD student Thijs Bouman. He investigated how reporting on remote global events can change local group relationships.

‘Reporting on remove events, such as the Arab revolutions or the financial problems in Greece, evoke feelings of insecurity, and these can turn into local intolerance’, says Bouman. ‘One of my research projects, for example, shows that reporting on the Greek debt crisis not only influences the views held by the Dutch about the Greeks, but that the Dutch also become less tolerant of local minority groups like Turkish, Moroccan and Polish fellow citizens.’

More information

Contact: Thijs Bouman

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