A framing analysis of the representation of the BP crisis in American newspapers: How do American news media frame the BP crisis?

• Author: Jinbong Choi
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1691
• Date: 01 November 2018
• Published date: 01 November 2018

ACADEMIC PAPER

A framing analysis of the representation of the BP crisis in

American newspapers: How do American news media frame

the BP crisis?

Jinbong Choi

Department of Media & Communication,

Sungkonghoe University, Seoul, South Korea

Correspondence

Jinbong Choi, Department of Media &

Communication, Sungkonghoe University, 320

Yeondong‐Ro, Guro‐Gu, Seoul 152‐716, South

Korea.

Email: choi0126@gmail.com

This study aims to identify how American major newspapers frame the BP's Gulf of Mexico oil

spill crisis in 2 major daily newspapers, The New York Times and USA Today. In addition, this

study exams what kinds of themes are used in conjunction with news frames for covering

the BP oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. 489 articles were analyzed, 353 articles for The

New York Times and 136 articles for USA Today. In a pretest, this study identified 6 main

frames and 9 themes used by the collected news articles, and these 6 frames and 9 themes

were used to analyze the collected news articles. Among 6 frames, the most common primary

frame in the New York Times was attribution of responsibility, as compared to the most

common primary theme in USA Today, solution. On the other hand, the most common theme

in The New York Times was stopping the oil, as opposed to the most common theme found in

USA Today, politics.

1|INTRODUCTION

On April 20, 2010, BP Petroleum's Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit,

Deepwater Horizon, exploded in Texas City, Texas, killing 11 workers

(www.reuters.com) and dumping an estimated 4.9 million barrels of

oil into the Gulf of Mexico according to U.S. government estimates

(www.restorethegulf.com). The disaster, deemed the worst oil spill in

history, impacted five states and damaged the Gulf's fishing and tour-

ism industries, costing BP an estimated $694 million to date in restitu-

tion according to the website (Reuters, 2011).

The U.S. news media covered the crisis on an hourly basis, with

24‐hr news shows featuring live shots from the leaking oil rig. The

topic remained a priority news item for 3 months while several unsuc-

cessful attempts were made to stop the leak.

In the meantime, fingers were pointed between BP, Halliburton,

and Transocean over responsibility for the accident, which came to a

head on May 11, 2010, when executives from the three companies

appeared at congressional hearings in Washington and placed blame

on each other's companies. According to Hall (2010), in a July U.S.

travel report, Oxford Economics indicated that after displacing thou-

sands of workers and causing severe environmental damage, the effect

on tourism due to the damage along the Gulf coast could last 3 years

and represent nearly $23 billion in lost spending.

BP tried and failed to cap the leak on a few occasions. The leak

was eventually capped on July 15, 2010, and the crisis ended with

BP president Tony Hayward's resignation. The news media coverage

was mostly negative, and much of it centered around the frames and

themes analyzed in this research, including what was the cause of

the explosion, who ultimately was responsible for the accident, the

impact on those affected by the deaths of the workers, the toll on

the environment and jobs in the Gulf area, capping the leak, and the

future of BP's business. During the 12 months after the oil spill, BP

launched a crisis communication campaign, including launching various

internet sites (e.g., www.restorethegulf.gov) and partnering with the U.

S. government to provide updated data and other information to

inform the American public about its efforts to clean up and restore

the afflicted Gulf region (RestoretheGulf.gov, 2011a).

The placement and specific way the BP crisis is covered in various

newspapers illustrates the efficiency of a crisis communication strat-

egy (RestoretheGulf.gov, 2011b). Previous studies have focused on

the coverage of crises to illuminate the success or failure of the crisis

communication campaigns. However, this research should help further

research works in the area of news media framing by providing a

content analysis of news media frames and coverage of the BP oil spill

crisis in major U.S. newspapers. This enhances understanding of crisis

communication efficiency and planning.

Therefore, the purpose of the study is to analyze how national

newspapers framed the BP crisis. This study uses a content analysis

to identify the different frames and themes used by news media for

covering the BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis.

Received: 30 October 2017 Accepted: 21 November 2017

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1691

J Public Affairs. 2018;18:e1691.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1691

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of6