Presentation and impact of market-driven journalism on sensationalism - PDF document

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258137496 Presentation and impact of market-driven journalism on sensationalism in global TV news Article in International Communication Gazette · December 2012 DOI: 10.1177/1748048512459143 CITATIONS READS 13 174 1 author: Tai-Li Wang National Taiwan University 26 PUBLICATIONS 354 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Online Political Communication and Participant Culture View project All content following this page was uploaded by Tai-Li Wang on 23 June 2020. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Article the International Communication Gazette Presentation and impact of 74(8) 711–727 ª The Author(s) 2012 market-driven journalism Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav on sensationalism in global DOI: 10.1177/1748048512459143 gaz.sagepub.com TV news Tai-Li Wang National Taiwan University, Taiwan Abstract This study conducted a cross-national television news content analysis in 14 countries to compare the elements of sensationalism appearing in four types of media systems. A secondary analysis was further employed to examine the relationship between news sensationalization, news competition levels, and professionalism of these countries. Results reveal that crime-, accident-, and disaster-related news remain the staples of sensational news across countries. Dual broadcasting systems devoted more sensational news coverage than commercial broadcasting systems. Sensational formal features were found to be limited in all broadcasting systems. Celebrities and ordinary people tended to pose as news actors to personalize and dramatize the news more frequently than allowing officials or authoritative sources to legitimate the stories. Furthermore, news competition has been confirmed as an impact to the boom of news sensationalization. More professional journalists report more soft news than less professional ones. Keywords Comparative media research, sensationalism, tabloidization, television news Research background A recent theme in discussions about the quality of television news is its pursuit of commercial interests, which drives broadcasters to draw viewer attention by sensationalizing or ‘tabloidizing’ news. Sensationalism originated from tabloid culture Corresponding author: Tai-Li Wang, Associate Professor, National Taiwan University, Graduate Institute of Journalism, No.1, Sec.4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei, Taiwan. Email: tailiw@ntu.edu.tw

712 the International Communication Gazette 74(8) and has become a prevalent phenomenon in television news in recent years. It is more common today to see primetime television reporters wading neck-deep into swirling flood waters mixed with sewage or standing on unstable mountain slopes as rocks tumble dangerously close to them. Other reporters dodge flying debris tossed about by fierce storm gusts. In the same vein, bank robbery stories are given a heightened flavor with the addition of background music adapted from movies such as Dog Day Afternoon , and the details of such robberies are illustrated with vivid, flashy, and animated computer graphics. To summarize, sensationalism can be defined as a tendency to sensationalize news, in which tabloid news topics displace socially significant stories and flashy production styles overpower substantive information (Bek, 2004; Grabe et al., 2000, 2001; Wang and Cohen, 2009). A tendency towards sensationalism is emerging in several countries, including the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Netherlands (Grabe et al., 2001; Hallin and Mancini, 2004; Hvitfelt, 1994; Pfetsch, 1996; Vettehen et al., 2005). Market-driven forces are speculated to be the primary causes behind the spike in sensationalism. These forces or commercial influences degrade TV news professionalism, and arguably decrease the integrity of public TV news in some regions (Curran et al., 2009; De Swert, 2008; Lin, 2009; Vettehen et al., 2005; Yang, 2002). However, more empirical research on an international scope has yet to be conducted, regarding how and why TV news tends to be sensationalized in recent years. Previous studies on sensationalism have focused on the formal presentation of TV news in a single country (Bek, 2004; Grabe et al., 2000, 2001; Vettehen et al., 2005) or investigated the impact of packaging sensationalized TV news on an audience (Grabe et al., 2003; Wang and Cohen, 2009). Some research examines the causes behind the news sensationalization phenomenon. Sparks and Tulloch (2000) argued that increasing media profits/competition have led to decreasing media standards in several markets, including the United States, Britain, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. The deregulation of broadcasting systems was witnessed in the US, Canada, as well as in some European and Asian countries. Scholars suggested that news content which appeals to our ‘basic needs and instincts’ (Davis and Mcleod, 2003: 210) and tabloid packaging techniques which ‘automatically elicit viewers’ orienting responses’ (Vettehen et al., 2005: 284) might universally attract viewers’ attention. Given this existing literature, scholars have advocated that more cross-national studies would be necessary for refining the discourse on journalism (Loffelholz and Weaver, 2008). On the one hand, the homogenization of news production structures and standards can be observed in different countries; on the other hand, the diverse media cultures in different societies represent quite distinct mediascapes. As Davis and McLeod (2003) posited, the prevalence of sensational news may also extend to place as well as time. Given these arguments, this current study focuses on ‘sensationalism’ from a cross-national perspective in order to examine how TV news is sensationalized in many regions of the world. This article compares the elements of sensationalism appearing in TV news in four types of media systems (commercial, public, dual, and state), and attempts to find out if there is indeed a ‘universal’ trend

Wang 713 of sensationalism emerging in television news. Depending on the findings, this article will further investigate the ways in which the trend is ‘universal’, or how countries in various media systems differ in covering sensational news. In addition, this article also attempts to find out whether it is possible to establish a relationship between the speculated reasons for news sensationalism, news competition or commercialism, and the emergence phenomenon of sensationalism. Finally, this article attempts to establish a relationship between the perceived degradation of the news profession and sensationalism. In search of answers, during the first phase of this study, a cross-national TV news content analysis of 14 countries was performed. In the second phase, a secondary data analysis from the Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS) data sets was conducted for these investigated countries to further gauge the relationship between sensationalism, 1 news competition levels, and reporters’ professionalism. By combining research findings from both data sets, this study endeavors to portray a more international picture of sensationalism in global television news. Literature review Definition of sensationalism Sensationalism in TV news resulted from the tabloid news culture, which originated from the print media. Sensational news can be defined as news content that appeals to our basic needs and instincts (Adams, 1978; Knight, 1989; Slattery and Hakanen, 1994). Further- more, sensational news’s formal features automatically elicit a viewer’s orienting responses through novel and changing tabloid packaging techniques and may universally attract a viewer’s attention (Grabe et al., 2000, 2001, 2003; Vettehen et al., 2005). Also, news of the sensational sort involves actors who tend to ‘personalize and dramatize news by ordinary people’ (Bek, 2004; De Swert, 2008; Wang and Cohen, 2009). Prior to the 1980s, sensationalism in news was primarily conceived in terms of story content, referring to news coverage of ‘crime, violence, natural disasters, accidents, and fires, along with amusing, heartwarming, shocking, or curious vignettes about people in the area’ (Adams, 1978). Since the 1980s, stories dealing with celebrities, crime, sex, disasters, accidents, and public fears have been constantly labeled as sensational (Ehrlich, 1996; Hofstetter and Dozier, 1986; Knight, 1989). In essence, news stories that ‘violate a comfortable psychological distance between audience members and their perceptions of events in the physical world’ could be considered sensational news stories (Grabe et al., 2001: 637) for their potential to provoke more sensory and emotional reactions than what society generally deems proper to experience. Therefore, sensational news stories do not necessarily mean news unrelated to public interest. For example, disaster stories could contain information that citizens need to be well informed, yet such stories are repeatedly viewed as sensational news for their potential to startle and arouse public emotion. This is also the case with war-related news. War news stories most certainly pertain to topics that capture public interest. Yet the representation of war on TV news in recent years has demonstrated a tendency to dramatize the bloody, tragic, and horrific conflicts that may violate an audience’s