Audiovisual Infotainment in European News: A Comparative Content Analysis of Dutch, Spanish, and Irish Television News Programs

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Paper Session: Journalism Studies Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This study investigates to what extent audiovisual infotainment features can be found in the narrative structure of television news in three European countries news. Content analysis included a sample of 639 news reports (or reporter packages) aired in the first three weeks of September 2013, in six prime– time TV news broadcasts of Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands, one public and one commercial TV news broadcast in each country. The findings of the study show that Spain and Ireland included much more technical features or characteristics of infotainment in television news compared to the Netherlands. The findings also show that that the use of infotainment techniques is more often present in public, than in commercial (or private) broadcasting. Regarding the use of audiovisual narrative features in soft news and hard news topics, the finding indicates that the news sections/topics as coded in the present study do not properly reflect soft versus hard news.

Authors

• Amanda Paz Alencar, University of Amsterdam

• Sanne Kruikemeier, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School of Communication Research ASCoR