A General Pattern of Newsworthiness? Analyzing News Factors in Tabloid, Broadsheet, Financial, and Regional Newspapers

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

Abstract

News value theory, which describes the journalistic selection procedure, is argued to apply generally. There are, however, reasons to assume that different types of news outlets rely on news factors differently. Using a large scale quantitative content analysis (n = 3,909), the current study investigates whether tabloid, broadsheet, regional and financial newspapers differ in their use of seven news factors. The results suggest that tabloid newspapers, just as regional newspapers, particularly rely on factors of personification and negativity. The news factor geographical proximity is of the strongest importance for regional newspapers and of least relevance for financial newspapers, which by contrast focus on the factor of facticity. Broadsheets, furthermore, tend to employ a very general pattern of news factor use. These findings, altogether, suggest and urge news value theory to move from a general idea to become more detailed with regard to different types of news outlets.

Authors

• Mark Boukes, University of Amsterdam / ASCoR

• Rens Vliegenthart, U of Amsterdam