Europe as Other: Difference in global media discourse

Abstract

For centuries, Russia and the Arab world have taken turns as Europe´s most significant Other. This study asks what happens when the discursive gaze is turned in the opposite direction, and what insights the answers may give into the dynamics of global mediated society. Its aim is to explore the role some media could be playing as harbingers of cosmopolitan democracy by comparing news broadcast to global audiences by established European television channels (BBC World, Deutsche Welle and Euronews) and those known as ´counter-hegemonic´ (Al Jazeera English and Russia Today). In focus is the tension between ´othering´ mechanisms, which can be thought detrimental to democracy, and respect for and representation of diversity, which can be thought to promote it. Complementing previous research on how European media have gazed outwards and depicted others in the global environment, the project asks what is involved in reporting difference and differently.