| This dissertation examines the media's influence in developments surrounding the implementation of the new Scottish parliament and executive in 1999. Focusing on the central role of the Scottish press, it analyzes the changing conceptions of Scottish identity as articulated through the mediated prism of the new Scottish parliament, as well as that parliament's relationship with the United Kingdom and the European Union. It addresses the question of whether the new political institutions of Scottish government could and did have an immediate and discernible effect on media articulations and constructions in two vital areas: first, Scotland's changing political relationships with other European political institutions---particularly the UK parliament at Westminster and the EU Commission in Brussels; and second, Scottish identity politics as it has developed within the contexts set by these changing constitutional arrangements. The dissertation combines quantitative and qualitative research methods to provide a clearer picture of how Scotland's changing relations with the EU and the UK are being framed and presented in the media---specifically the press---as the Scottish nation and its new polity began to redefine itself within these larger entities. A content analysis and source analysis precede a qualitative frame analysis that focuses on the identification of media packages that comprehensively frame media coverage of the subject matter. The study covers approximately the first six months of 1999, up to and including the official opening of the new legislature on July 1 of that year. It explains what UK-level and European-level issues are being raised, and how and why they are being raised, within the context of a sub-nation-state polity being given a partially independent voice for the first time in the modern era. Identity politics play a significant role in this process. Therefore, this study also examines changing conceptions of regional, national, nation-state, and European identity, all of which could be seen as competing for preeminence in Scotland, and across the EU, at the time. |
