The function of form in newspapers' political conflict coverage: TheNew York Times'shaping of expectations in the Bitburg controversy

Abstract

Drawing on the example of President Ronald Reagan's 1985 visit to the Bitburg war cemetery, this article argues that form, in the Burkean sense, can operate in a body of conflict coverage to shape expectations for subsequent developments in the controversy covered and to help judge the appropriateness of news "characters'" subsequent choices in the featured drama. The focus on a series of news repons, rather than individual articles, reveals the exercise of progressive and repetitive form in the agonistic dramas characteristic of conflict coverage. The analysis ultimately concludes that news narratives differ from fictional narratives. The news media are not held responsible for satisfying the expectations cultivated by the form of their news coverage and by the unique relationship between news narrators and news "characters." The study further suggests that an understanding of how Burkean form functions in conflict coverage potentially provides theoretical explanations of how some media agendasetting operates.It is well established that how news media select and report information shapes news audiences' interpretations and evaluations of events and people. For example, lyengar (1991) argues that the presentational format the news media use to frame an event as predominantly either episodic or thematic promotes auditors' assignment of responsibility for the situation as individual or systemic, respectively. Altheide and Snow (1979) claim that each communication medium has a unique format that shapes how it presents and interprets phenomena and includes its "grammar," organization of material, presentational style, and means of emphasis (p. 10). As such "media logic" becomes second nature to auditors, it provides for a shared "normalized" social life. Likewise, Postman and Powers (1992) demonstrate how profit motive combines with a medium's capabilities to influence journalistic decisions about newsworthiness and shape that medium's structuring of news.While each of these three analyses, as well as others in the same vein, is

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“…He notes that through form, there is the “creation of an appetite in the mind of the auditors, and the adequate satisfying of that appetite” (Burke, , p. 31). Olson () applies Burke's notion of form to extended conflict coverage in MSM news reporting. She explains that form can be seen as a “serial drama” where conflict emerges through “an agonistic narrative” where “the pains of opposing characters are articulated, frustrated, and overcome” (Olson, , p. 44).…”

“…Olson () applies Burke's notion of form to extended conflict coverage in MSM news reporting. She explains that form can be seen as a “serial drama” where conflict emerges through “an agonistic narrative” where “the pains of opposing characters are articulated, frustrated, and overcome” (Olson, , p. 44). Form works as a symbolic exercise where “patterns of arousal and satisfaction (e.g., complication—frustration—resolution) [are used] in an attempt to produce the experience of expectation and fulfillment for auditors” (Olson, , p. 46).…”

“…She explains that form can be seen as a “serial drama” where conflict emerges through “an agonistic narrative” where “the pains of opposing characters are articulated, frustrated, and overcome” (Olson, , p. 44). Form works as a symbolic exercise where “patterns of arousal and satisfaction (e.g., complication—frustration—resolution) [are used] in an attempt to produce the experience of expectation and fulfillment for auditors” (Olson, , p. 46). This act cultivates a map for conflict where the presentation of information creates and sustains dramatic conflict without needing to introduce new information for audiences.…”

“…In order to advance the drama of a news event, conflict can be created through the linking of various events into a narrative. Progressive form “involves the predictable advance of an idea from premises consisting of promises or commitments created by the plot to subsequent episodes that make a fitting conclusion to those premises” (Olson, , p. 47). Rather than representing a conscious progression of events, Burke () points out that form is predicated on audience recognition of the “rightness after the event” because form creates a “state of mind which another state of mind can appropriately follow” (p. 125).…”

“…Instead, form can be created as a collective act between rhetors. Olson () builds off this notion, explaining that in MSM news:

form emerges most powerfully in a series of news reports written by multiple reporters rather than in individual articles. In a multi‐authored series of reports, individual journalists are even less likely to be conscious of how progressive and repetitive form work in the totality of a news outlet's (or of the news media's) conflict coverage.

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