Psychology of News Decisions

Abstract

This article is about causal explanations for the way journalists report the news. In its first part, the article reviews traditional and current models or theories of journalists’ news decisions, concentrating on news factors, institutional objectives, the manipulative power of public relations by news sources and the subjective beliefs of journalists. It comes to the conclusion that most of these approaches do not explain the underlying processes leading to news judgements. Starting from these shortcomings and from the assumption that most of journalists’ work is about perceptions, conclusions and judgements, it then attempts to apply psychological theories to news decision-making. The author holds that two general needs or functions involving specific psychological processes can explain news decisions: a need for social validation of perceptions and a need to preserve one’s existing predispositions. Empirical data from several surveys and studies among journalists are used to demonstrate the appropriateness of this approach to journalists’ behavior.

Expert interviews with science communicators: How perceptions of audience values influence science communication values and practices

“…Wolfgang Donsbach describes 12 four main factors that influence journalistic news decisions, or the decisions on what becomes story and how: (1) news values and specific news factors, (2) institutional objectives, (3) the influence of news sources including press releases and (4) the subjective beliefs of journalists. The two that are particularly relevant in this study include news values -or the importance attributed to various news factors -and the subjective beliefs of journalists about the values of their audiences.…”

“…Some of the news factors that have been proposed to increase the likelihood of story selection include sensationalism 19 , frequency, proximity, importance to society, relevance to the audience, unexpectedness, oddity, drama, personalization/personification, negativism, controversy and facticity 12,18,20,21 . More recently proposed news factors include illustration of emotions, sexuality and visualization or the availability of graphical material 18 .…”

“…In his Psychology of news decisions: Factors behind journalists' professional behavior, Donsbach went beyond the identification of specific new factors to a theory for why specific factors might be more powerful than others 12 . The author references Schulz in a partial answer to this question: "The only causal explanation for the existence of news values is journalists' notions of audience interest" 12 .…”

“…The author references Schulz in a partial answer to this question: "The only causal explanation for the existence of news values is journalists' notions of audience interest" 12 . Other scholars echo this concept, that news factors are not only journalistic criteria, but also "general human selection criteria, deductible from the psychology of perception" 18,22 .…”

“…The second explanation is a foundation for the impact of journalists' perceptions of the interests and values of their audiences. While audience influence on news decisions can arise through institutional objectives, "journalists have their own conceptions of the audience and its taste" 12 . In this way, news factors and perceptions of audience interests and values may combine to influence journalists' decisions of what to cover, and how.…”