In October 2019, the Belgian government announced the opening of an asylum center in a former retirement home, leading to civic and political protest that escalated into arson. We examine the construction of the events before, on, and after the arson by analyzing 135 articles from Flemish newspapers, the public broadcaster’s news website, and alternative media between October 25 and November 30, 2019 using qualitative content analysis. Our analysis emphasizes journalists’ role as gatekeepers, deciding which actors get access and legitimation in media coverage. Focus is on the dynamic process of how events become discursively constructed through the interventions of journalists and their sources attempting to gain primary definer status. Our analysis confirms that institutional sources remain more likely to achieve primary definer status in legacy news media. Alternative media perform similar discursive interventions as legacy news media but utilize them to provide access and legitimacy to different actors and standpoints. In the first days of news coverage, in particular, the narratives developed in right-leaning alternative media seemed to spread in legacy news media. In the following days, governmental actors and experts, through their interventions in legacy news media, were able to steer the discourse in a different direction.

中文翻译：

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新闻事件的话语建构：比利时反庇护抗议升级的媒体框架的进入和合法性

2019 年 10 月，比利时政府宣布在一处前退休之家开设庇护中心，引发公民和政治抗议并升级为纵火事件。我们通过定性内容分析，分析了 2019 年 10 月 25 日至 11 月 30 日期间佛兰德斯报纸、公共广播公司新闻网站和另类媒体的 135 篇文章，研究了纵火前后事件的构建。我们的分析强调记者作为把关人的角色，决定哪些行为者可以进入媒体报道并获得合法性。重点是事件如何通过记者及其消息来源的干预而被话语性地构建的动态过程，试图获得主要定义者的地位。我们的分析证实，机构消息来源仍然更有可能在传统新闻媒体中获得主要定义者的地位。另类媒体与传统新闻媒体进行类似的话语干预，但利用它们为不同的参与者和立场提供访问和合法性。特别是在新闻报道的最初几天，右倾另类媒体中发展的叙事似乎在传统新闻媒体中传播。在接下来的几天里，政府行为者和专家通过对传统新闻媒体的干预，能够将话语引向不同的方向。