Outsourcing the News: An Assessment of the Relationship Between Sources, News Agencies, and Newspapers

• In Event: Advances in Content Analysis

Abstract

The allegedly increasing dependence of news media on content provided by external sources and news agencies is rarely empirically verified. This study introduces a novel computer-assisted technique to quantitatively assess the relationship between source content and media content. This approach is applied to the debate about nuclear energy in the Netherlands (2001-2012). Data include press releases from business and nongovernmental actors, as well as articles of news agencies and newspapers. Results show no indication of an increased similarity of newspapers’ content with either source content or news agency content, thus providing no justification for the concerns about an increasing dependency of newspapers on ‘subsidized content’. Contradicting literature, the nongovernmental organization was found most successful in influencing the media debate, with the exception of one regional newspaper that strongly reflects the local organization’s content.

Authors

• Jelle Boumans, University of Amsterdam

• Rens Vliegenthart, U of Amsterdam

• Hajo G. Boomgaarden, U of Vienna