Different revenue incentives, different content? Comparing economic news before and during the financial crisis in German public and commercial news outlets over time

Abstract

Abstract:This study argues that revenue model incentives determine news content. The goal to make profits and the need to sell audiences to advertisers guide journalistsʹ selection and interpretation of newsworthy material and result in commercialised news. We compare the volume, tone, and the obtrusiveness of topics in all economic news stories for the evening TV news of the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, the commercial broadcaster RTL, and the tabloid newspaper BILD from 2002 to 2010 in Germany (n = 26,467). Results indicate that news selection Results indicate that news selection is guided by revenue model incentives since economic news differs by volume and topic between public and commercial outlets. News interpretation, i.e., news tone, stronger varies across the media types TV and print. We conclude that advertising income dependency and observation of competitor behavior transmits to operative journalistic practices and decisions, which in turn determine journalistic outcome.

News Organizations’ Selective Link Sharing as Gatekeeping: A Structural Topic Model Approach

“…Although traditional editorial decisions have been considered to be governed by journalistic norms (Hermida, 2010), there has also been a concern that economic incentives drive traditional reporting toward popularity. This is especially true because Internet technology greatly transforms the news industry (Lischka, 2014). However, the relatively high proportion of several hard topics, such as Economy/Business, Economy/Finance and International/Middle East, on websites illustrates that the market drive is not influential enough to banish hard news from online news dissemination in general.…”

A democracia e a mí­dia — Revisitadas

“…A pesquisa longitudinal documentou uma crescente tendência entre os apresentadores de notícias, em todas as organizações midiáticas (qualquer que seja sua fonte de receita), em se envolverem no chamado "jornalismo explicativo" -isto é, complementar os fatos sobre eventos políticos com comentários interpretativos, expressados por jornalistas (Fink e Schudson, 2014). No entanto, enquanto os repórteres de organizações comerciais tendem a adaptar suas observações à vida cotidiana da audiência, as emissoras públicas -como uma questão de política, organização e pessoal -investiram mais fortemente na análise das notícias e visam, além disso, contextualizar os assuntos, tanto em termos de tendências econômicas, como de implicações políticas (Lischka, 2014). Além disso, pesquisas empíricas sugerem que esta abordagem vale a pena na aprendizagem do cidadão (Fraile, 2013).…”

Democracy and the Media—Revisited

“…Longitudinal research has documented an increasing tendency for newscasters in all broadcasting organisations, whatever their revenue source, to engage in so-called "explanatory journalism"-that is, to supplement the facts about political events with interpretative commentary, voiced by journalists (Fink and Schudson 2014). However, whereas reporters in commercial outlets tend to gear their remarks to audience members' everyday lives, public broadcasters-as a matter of policy, organisation and staffing-have invested more heavily in news analysis and aim additionally to contextualise in terms of economic trends and political implications (Lischka 2014). Moreover, empirical research suggests that this approach pays off in citizen learning (Fraile 2013).…”