The "battle in seattle": U.S. Prestige press framing of resistance to globalization

Globalization affects the wealthy industrialized countries and the developing world in different ways. According to Giddens (1990), it is the "intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa" (p. 64). These intensified international relations lead to struggles to incorporate the meaning of global issues into the context of national and/or local life. Among the numerous concerns raised by the globalization process are the questions of the international economy, how it is presented by the First World countries into Third World areas, and its effect on global trading efforts. As a result, it is important to examine how globalization is depicted in the mass media. The World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle, Washington, in 1999, and the demonstrations opposing it, was a key historical moment in the process of globalization, a juncture of articulation of a hegemonic process and a counterhegemonic resistance. More importantly, the examination of the coverage of the Seattle demonstrations brings issues of social class to the foreground of the discussion on globalization.