“Works of creation” and “diabolical proceedings”: Fact and idology in Irish news discourse about Italy (1738-1800)

In this chapter, a qualitative investigation was conducted of the main frames through which the Belfast Newsletter and the Freeman’s Journal reported on Italy over the last 60 years of the eighteenth century. Evidence reveals the presence of five frames, two of which are attested as majority frames. By showing “what the speaker sees as relevant to the topic at hand” (Chong and Druckman, 2006: 100), these frames—i.e., “Italy as a theatre of war” and “backwardness and superstition”—shed light on two crucial aspects: first of all, how facts were presented, not least with a view
to the reliability of sources and perceived journalistic standards; secondly, how news texts reflected specific ideological commitments, e.g. the Newsletter’s radical anti-Catholic agenda.