Journalistic Views on Hard and Soft News: Cross-Validating a Popular Concept in a Factorial Survey

Abstract

Despite the popularity of the concept of hard and soft news, researchers regularly criticize the vague definitions and inconsistent conceptualizations. Following claims for standardization of concept in journalism research, this article aims to cross-validate the most recent understanding of the concept. We conducted a factorial survey with newspaper journalists to probe the question as to which of the theoretically assumed dimensions of the concept are referred to by journalists to distinguish hard from soft news. We find the dimensions “topic,” “relevance,” “framing,” and “opinion” to exert influence on journalists’ understanding of the concept.

Expanding the Methodological Toolbox: Factorial Surveys in Journalism Research

“…We illustrated the advantages of the method by using data from a FS with German newspaper journalists (Glogger and Otto 2019). However, assessing journalists' understanding of concepts is only one possible field of application.…”

“…Vos (2016) used vignettes to determine whether or not journalists would mention certain members of the Belgium parliament in a news item. Glogger and Otto (2019) analyzed the journalistic understanding of hard and soft news. Lilienthal et al (2014) applied a FS to determine which characteristics of tweets influence journalists' and bloggers' trust and intention for interaction with the tweeter.…”

“…To show the application of FS, we use a dataset which has been gained with German local newspaper journalists (Glogger and Otto 2019). We will use this example to illustrate the necessary steps for an FS: (1) experimental design and vignette design, (2) vignette allocation, (3) measures, and (4) analysis.…”

Deciding What’s News: News-ness As an Audience Concept for the Hybrid Media Environment

“…The decisions made about which details to emphasize and how to characterize an issue/event may lead audiences to consider certain frames as higher in news-ness over others. For example, episodic framing, which focuses on the personal consequences of a societal issue, may produce low news-ness compared with thematic framing, which contextualizes an issue within a larger societal trend (Glogger & Otto, 2019). Likewise, scholars have largely deplored the use of strategic or horse race coverage as a way of making political campaigns more sensational (Aalberg et al, 2012).…”

What is sex journalism or, rather, how does it become? Interviews with news workers on the risk and precarity of a gendered news niche

“…Moreover, the hierarchical ordering of news genres along gendered lines persists (North, 2014) despite the internet’s potential to democratize minoritized and marginalized voices. Given the increased production of soft news catalyzed by the internet, commercialization, and intensified competition in news media markets, these debates are arguably more relevant today than ever before (Patterson, 2000 cited in Glogger and Otto 2019). In her assessment of women’s positioning in contemporary newsrooms, Linda Steiner (2017) argues that women remain in ‘low-status media outlets and beats’, tend to ‘produce “soft news,” human interest stories and features’ and are ‘far from enjoying equity in the online context’.…”