Are Newspapers’ News Stories Becoming More Alike? A Study of Media Content Diversity in Flanders

• In Event: Diversity in the News

Abstract

In recent years, communication scholars have expressed concerns about the diversity of the media content. While we are in an era of ‘media abundance’—the number of outlets and channels has increased enormously—the diversity of the news content seems to have decreased. However, longitudinal empirical evidence is lacking. That is the scientific gap this paper aims to fill. It studies whether newspapers in Flanders (Belgium), over time, have indeed become less diverse in terms of the news stories that they cover or not. Based on data from a content analysis of eight Flemish newspapers (2003-2013), it shows that 1) newspapers have indeed become more alike in terms of news stories; 2) newspapers with a similar profile (elite/popular) are more homogenous than newspapers with dissimilar profiles; and 3) newspapers belonging to the same owner (media concentration) are, and become even more, homogenous than newspapers belonging to different media groups.

Authors

• Kathleen Beckers, University of Antwerp

• Andrea Masini, University of Antwerp

• Julie Sevenans, University of Antwerp

• Miriam van der Burg, U of Antwerp

• Julie De Smedt, University of Antwerp