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Presentation and impact of market-driven journalism on sensationalism in global TV news

Article in International Communication Gazette · December 2012

DOI: 10.1177/1748048512459143

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Article

Presentation and impact of market-driven journalism

• n sensationalism in global

TV news

Tai-Li Wang

National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Abstract This study conducted a cross-national television news content analysis in 14 countries to compare the elements of sensationalism appearing in four types of media systems. A secondary analysis was further employed to examine the relationship between news sensationalization, news competition levels, and professionalism of these countries. Results reveal that crime-, accident-, and disaster-related news remain the staples of sensational news across countries. Dual broadcasting systems devoted more sensational news coverage than commercial broadcasting systems. Sensational formal features were found to be limited in all broadcasting systems. Celebrities and ordinary people tended to pose as news actors to personalize and dramatize the news more frequently than allowing officials or authoritative sources to legitimate the stories. Furthermore, news competition has been confirmed as an impact to the boom of news sensationalization. More professional journalists report more soft news than less professional ones. Keywords Comparative media research, sensationalism, tabloidization, television news

Research background

A recent theme in discussions about the quality of television news is its pursuit of commercial interests, which drives broadcasters to draw viewer attention by sensationalizing or ‘tabloidizing’ news. Sensationalism originated from tabloid culture

Corresponding author: Tai-Li Wang, Associate Professor, National Taiwan University, Graduate Institute of Journalism, No.1, Sec.4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei, Taiwan. Email: tailiw@ntu.edu.tw

the International Communication Gazette 74(8) 711–727

ª The Author(s) 2012

Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1748048512459143 gaz.sagepub.com

and has become a prevalent phenomenon in television news in recent years. It is more common today to see primetime television reporters wading neck-deep into swirling flood waters mixed with sewage or standing on unstable mountain slopes as rocks tumble dangerously close to them. Other reporters dodge flying debris tossed about by fierce storm gusts. In the same vein, bank robbery stories are given a heightened flavor with the addition of background music adapted from movies such as Dog Day Afternoon, and the details of such robberies are illustrated with vivid, flashy, and animated computer graphics. To summarize, sensationalism can be defined as a tendency to sensationalize news, in which tabloid news topics displace socially significant stories and flashy production styles overpower substantive information (Bek, 2004; Grabe et al., 2000, 2001; Wang and Cohen, 2009). A tendency towards sensationalism is emerging in several countries, including the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Netherlands (Grabe et al., 2001; Hallin and Mancini, 2004; Hvitfelt, 1994; Pfetsch, 1996; Vettehen et al., 2005). Market-driven forces are speculated to be the primary causes behind the spike in sensationalism. These forces or commercial influences degrade TV news professionalism, and arguably decrease the integrity of public TV news in some regions (Curran et al., 2009; De Swert, 2008; Lin, 2009; Vettehen et al., 2005; Yang, 2002). However, more empirical research

• n an international scope has yet to be conducted, regarding how and why TV news tends

to be sensationalized in recent years. Previous studies on sensationalism have focused on the formal presentation of TV news in a single country (Bek, 2004; Grabe et al., 2000, 2001; Vettehen et al., 2005)

• r investigated the impact of packaging sensationalized TV news on an audience

(Grabe et al., 2003; Wang and Cohen, 2009). Some research examines the causes behind the news sensationalization phenomenon. Sparks and Tulloch (2000) argued that increasing media profits/competition have led to decreasing media standards in several markets, including the United States, Britain, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. The deregulation of broadcasting systems was witnessed in the US, Canada, as well as in some European and Asian countries. Scholars suggested that news content which appeals to our ‘basic needs and instincts’ (Davis and Mcleod, 2003: 210) and tabloid packaging techniques which ‘automatically elicit viewers’ orienting responses’ (Vettehen et al., 2005: 284) might universally attract viewers’ attention. Given this existing literature, scholars have advocated that more cross-national studies would be necessary for refining the discourse on journalism (Loffelholz and Weaver, 2008). On the one hand, the homogenization of news production structures and standards can be observed in different countries; on the other hand, the diverse media cultures in different societies represent quite distinct mediascapes. As Davis and McLeod (2003) posited, the prevalence of sensational news may also extend to place as well as time. Given these arguments, this current study focuses on ‘sensationalism’ from a cross-national perspective in order to examine how TV news is sensationalized in many regions of the world. This article compares the elements of sensationalism appearing in TV news in four types of media systems (commercial, public, dual, and state), and attempts to find out if there is indeed a ‘universal’ trend

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• f sensationalism emerging in television news. Depending on the findings, this article

will further investigate the ways in which the trend is ‘universal’, or how countries in various media systems differ in covering sensational news. In addition, this article also attempts to find out whether it is possible to establish a relationship between the speculated reasons for news sensationalism, news competition

• r commercialism, and the emergence phenomenon of sensationalism. Finally, this

article attempts to establish a relationship between the perceived degradation of the news profession and sensationalism. In search of answers, during the first phase of this study, a cross-national TV news content analysis of 14 countries was performed. In the second phase, a secondary data analysis from the Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS) data sets was conducted for these investigated countries to further gauge the relationship between sensationalism,1 news competition levels, and reporters’ professionalism. By combining research findings from both data sets, this study endeavors to portray a more international picture of sensationalism in global television news.

Literature review Definition of sensationalism

Sensationalism in TV news resulted from the tabloid news culture, which originated from the print media. Sensational news can be defined as news content that appeals to our basic needs and instincts (Adams, 1978; Knight, 1989; Slattery and Hakanen, 1994). Further- more, sensational news’s formal features automatically elicit a viewer’s orienting responses through novel and changing tabloid packaging techniques and may universally attract a viewer’s attention (Grabe et al., 2000, 2001, 2003; Vettehen et al., 2005). Also, news of the sensational sort involves actors who tend to ‘personalize and dramatize news by ordinary people’ (Bek, 2004; De Swert, 2008; Wang and Cohen, 2009). Prior to the 1980s, sensationalism in news was primarily conceived in terms of story content, referring to news coverage of ‘crime, violence, natural disasters, accidents, and fires, along with amusing, heartwarming, shocking, or curious vignettes about people in the area’ (Adams, 1978). Since the 1980s, stories dealing with celebrities, crime, sex, disasters, accidents, and public fears have been constantly labeled as sensational (Ehrlich, 1996; Hofstetter and Dozier, 1986; Knight, 1989). In essence, news stories that ‘violate a comfortable psychological distance between audience members and their perceptions of events in the physical world’ could be considered sensational news stories (Grabe et al., 2001: 637) for their potential to provoke more sensory and emotional reactions than what society generally deems proper to experience. Therefore, sensational news stories do not necessarily mean news unrelated to public

• interest. For example, disaster stories could contain information that citizens need to be

well informed, yet such stories are repeatedly viewed as sensational news for their potential to startle and arouse public emotion. This is also the case with war-related

• news. War news stories most certainly pertain to topics that capture public interest. Yet

the representation of war on TV news in recent years has demonstrated a tendency to dramatize the bloody, tragic, and horrific conflicts that may violate an audience’s

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comfortable distance from their perception of the world (Thussu, 2007: 115). In this sense, war news stories could be labeled as sensational news as well. Aside from content, Knight (1989) further defined sensationalism both in terms of story content and formal features. Sensational story content consists of sex, scandal, crime, or corruption, while its formal features include a fast editing pace, an eyewitness camera perspective, zoom-in camera lens movements, re-enactment of news events, the use of music, and voice-over narration. As the literature on sensationalism grows, new research dimensions are developing. A few studies on sensationalism stemming from Europe pointed out the dimension of ‘actors’. These actors, who do the actual talking in sensational news stories, have long been neglected (Bek, 2004; De Swert, 2008). Researchers indicate that while ‘news topics’ (i.e., the ‘what’ question in news) and ‘news formal features’ (i.e., the ‘how’ question in news) have been examined in previous sensationalism research, the actors (i.e., the ‘who’ question in news) have been overlooked. Who are common ‘actors’ in sensational news? Are such actors considered celebrities, experts, politicians, private citizens, or other personae? Since the dimension of actors in television news is relatively underdeveloped, the current study intends to include news actors in the comparative study and to explore the relationship between news actors and the level of sensationalism in TV news. In the existing literature, there is a lack of a clear distinction between soft news and sensational news. This article argues that as news sensationalization becomes more prevalent and diversified, a continuum forms between soft news and sensational news. The differentiating factors may include the tendency to present dramatic coverage (Sparks and Tulloch, 2000), the extent to which the news triggers affective psychological responses in the audience (Grabe et al., 2001), or the presence of emotionality (Uribe and Gunter, 2004). Conceptually, along the continuum, sensational news is news coverage that presents more dramatic coverage, triggers more affective responses, and presents more emotionality than soft news. Therefore, the current study provides measurable definitions of sensationalism summarized from existing literature. For news content, sensational news is defined as news stories dealing with crime-related news, accidents/disasters, sex, terrorism, war, violence, conflict, public fears, or human interest. For news formal features, sensational news has formal characteristics that are linked to sensory stimulation, including pictorial or graphic representation, animated representation, background music, slow motion, speed-up motion, repetition of visuals, gory visuals, soft focus, color change, digitization, distorted human voices, and extreme emotion. For news actors, sensational news stories focus on private citizens or celebrities to personalize or dramatize news stories, rather than allowing officials or more authoritative sources to legitimate the stories.

Media system

While media around the world have become more market- and entertainment-oriented, and national differences in news may be diminishing, Hallin and Mancini (2004)

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suggested that differences among national political systems remain substantial, and tend to prevent the complete homogenization of media systems. Based on the press theories of liberal theory, social responsibility, authoritarian theory, and Marxist theory, Hallin and Mancini (2004) proposed three models to categorize media system characteristics among countries. These three models included the polarized pluralist or Mediterranean model, the democratic corporatist or Northern European model, and the liberal or North Atlantic model. While countries under the same media system share common elements, each society may still represent particular characteristics. For example, the US is a pure liberal model, but the British model is identified as lying somewhere between the ideal type of liberal model and democratic corporatist model (Hallin and Mancini, 2004). Curran et al. (2009) proposed another model to distinguish cross-national media

• systems. Based on the US market model, they divided three distinct media systems:

an unreconstructed public service model in which the programming principles of public service still largely dominate; a dual system that combines increasingly deregulated commercial television with strong public service broadcasting organizations; and the exemplar market model of the US. It is worthy of note that both the model of Hallin and Mancini and the model proposed by Curran and his colleagues are based on North American and Western European cases. Non-western countries are not considered. For example, the state-control model in some Asian countries was not included in the international comparative media system. The operation of state-control media is under the supervision of government and is based on persuasion communication principles, which promote and support regimes as national instruments. However, along with the development of market-driven media, state-control media systems are undergoing changes. For example, after the reform at the end of 1978, China modified its laws and policies of broadcasting and television. The non-journalistic, market-driven television channels have greater opportunities to run more independently. However, the government’s control over news programming has remained strong (Wang, 1998). Another example is Singapore. The ruling party in Singapore has been in power continuously with weak opposition from other parties; thus, the political system has continually influenced the media system. Although considered private, the media system is actually under the government’s control (Ang, 2007). This article proposes to include the state media system into Curran’s comparative media system framework, while dividing media systems into four groups in order to clarify the relationship between media systems and sensationalism in TV news. Therefore, this study intends to answer the following three research questions: RQ1: In terms of news topics, is there any difference in TV news sensationalism among the state, public, dual, and commercial media systems? RQ2: In terms of the formal features of news, is there any difference in TV news sensationalism among the state, public, dual, and commercial media systems? RQ3: In terms of news actors, is there any difference in TV news sensationalism among the state, public, dual, and commercial media systems?

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News competitions, news professionalism, and sensationalism

In the 1980s, Postman claimed that one of the primary factors in the development of sensational news was the increased competition for ratings between news organizations (Postman, 1985). Later, McManus (1994) theorized the impact of news competition as ‘market-driven journalism’. The heart of market journalism is the logic of the marketplace, where people come to buy and sell goods and services. Under the market-driven journalism model, network news becomes more attuned to the demands of viewers, it is briefer and more visually-oriented, and it frequently plays up emotional elements (McManus, 1994). Similarly, Esposito (1996) argued that market-driven journalism may result in news being increasingly structured along themes and in formats originally found in entertainment programs, thus leading to dramatic, fast-paced, superficial presentations and simplistic explanations that focus on personalities, personal relationships, physical appearances, and idiosyncrasies, all aimed at attracting the largest possible audience. A recent Dutch study revealed that the level of sensationalism in current affairs programs emerged as part of a strategy to fight increasing competition from 1992 to 2001 (Vettehen et al., 2006), and concluded that the introduction of some sensational devices, such as increased attention on events of the day and shorter items, appeared to have succeeded against the pressures of news competition. Therefore, the multiplication of commercial TV stations is the consequence of media deregulation, and hence, the primary venue for representing the sensationalized news

• trend. The market-driven commercial media model would give greater prominence to

sensational news to fight increasing competition, and demonstrates distinct features from

• ther news models, which devote more attention to public affairs and consider serving

the public with information a responsibility. Aside from the competition factor, another issue related to news sensationalization is the degradation of journalistic quality. Sensationalism is often related to the degradation

• f media standards. Sparks and Tulloch (2000: 3) contended that serious media entities

are now moving toward the news values of the tabloid media. From print media to electronic media, there has been a ‘journalistic standards meltdown’. Traditional news values have been suspended, and journalistic quality and tabloid media are moving closer together than ever before. In terms of news practice, a more exact and precise concept for ‘media standards’ would be ‘news professionalism’. News professionalism refers to the idea that journalists are independent professionals with technical skills who serve the public by following a set of shared values, norms, and ethical codes in their work (So and Chan, 2007). The shared values or codes normally include objectivity, accuracy, neutrality, fairness, or timeliness (Lo, 2004). Although some values, such as objectivity or neutrality, have been challenged by scholars (Reese, 1989; Tuchman, 1972), professionalism continues to be a core value of journalism school curricula around the world. Although the decline in professional standards is often blamed for the rising trend of sensationalism in news media by critics, it is seldom confirmed by empirical evidence. Based on previous literature, this article proposes two hypotheses in order to disentangle

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the speculation of a relationship between news competition and sensationalism, and news professional practices and sensationalism. H1: News competition levels will be positively correlated with sensational levels of television news. H2: Reporters’ professional levels will be negatively correlated with sensational levels of television news.

Method

Content analysis was used in this study to portray a cross-national outlook of sensationalism in television news in 14 countries. The countries participating in this study included: China and Singapore (state-control system), Germany and Switzerland (public system), Belgium, Canada, Israel, Italy, and Poland (dual system), and Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the US (commercial system). The timeframe for the study’s content analysis phase was set from January to March

• 2008. It used composite week sampling techniques to extract a total of 28 days (4 weeks)

from a public TV station and a commercial TV station with the highest rating in the individual countries. The unit of analysis is an entire TV news story. The content analysis in this study can be divided into several sections: basic news information such as news station names, date, line-up order, etc.; news topics, including first, second, and third topics and keyword descriptions; news forms, including visual material features, sensational characteristics, news scope, including time perspective, geographic scope

• f event, and impacts of event, etc.; and news actors, including the role of actors in news,

actors’ genders, and how they are identified verbally or visually. In this study, for research purposes, news topics were recoded according to several

• procedures. Sensational news items were recoded from crime-related, terrorism, war,

violence, conflict, accidents/disasters, human interest, celebrity, etc. Soft news items were recoded from sports, culture, fashion, tourism, royalty, etc. Hard news items were recoded from internal/international politics, military, economy, and other topics more

• riented toward public affairs.

For sensational news formal presentations, a sensationalism index was devised from the following formal features: pictorial

• r

graphic representation, animated representation, background music, slow motion, speed-up motion, repetition of visuals, gory visuals, soft focus, color change, digitization, distorted human voices, and extreme emotion. For news actors, the ‘actors’ items were recoded to see if there were any differences among countries and stations. Private citizens were recoded from citizens, consumers, workers, prisoners, employees, tourists, sports supporters, culture spectators, religion worshippers, etc. Celebrities were recoded from sports people, entertainment industry people, royalty, celebrity people, etc.2 Officials or more authoritative sources were recoded from experts, politicians, civil service, civil society representatives, etc. Coders were recruited by primary researchers in each country. Most of them were graduate students majoring in journalism or mass communication. The primary

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researchers developed the code books together in several international conference meetings and through subsequent emails. When the code books were finalized, the primary researchers were responsible for training and supervising coders’ work in each country. A test of inter-coder reliability was performed by coders in each country using 10% of the randomly selected news stories. Inter-coder reliability was calculated by Holsti’s inter-coder reliability. Each variable was checked individually. The inter-coder reliability obtained from each country ranges from .85 to .93, with an average of .89. After the content analysis was performed, a secondary analysis of the Worlds of Journalism Study data was conducted among the 14 countries. The selected questionnaire items investigated each country’s media system, including the number

• f news channels competing in the same market, the average educational levels of

television news reporters, and the overall rating of professionalism of television news

• reporters. The average educational level and the overall rating of professionalism among

reporters are together recoded into a three-point (high, medium, and low) index to gauge the professional level of television news reporters.3

Results

The current study investigated how sensational the news topics rated as distributed in TV news across the four media systems. Table 1 reveals the most sensational news was found in the dual media system (35.0%), followed by commercial (28.1%), public (27.2%), and finally state-operated (22.4%). In the dual media system, the five commer- cial TV stations’ sensational news coverage all weighed over that in the public channels. In the commercial media system, only Chile and Taiwan’s commercial TV stations devoted more sensational news coverage than the public TV stations; commercial and public TV stations in Brazil and the US had almost equal amounts of sensational news

• coverage. Hong Kong only had commercial TV stations. Therefore, the differences in

dual and commercial media systems were contributed from the higher percentage of sen- sational news reporting in dual systems’ public TV stations, as well as the lower percent- age of sensational news reporting in commercial systems’ commercial TV stations. Further analysis showed that in state media systems, China featured more sensational news than Singapore. In public media systems, Switzerland featured more sensational news than Germany. In dual media systems, Israel featured the most sensational news, followed by Canada and Italy. In commercial media systems, Hong Kong featured the most sensational news followed by Brazil and Taiwan. It is worth noting that during the sampling periods, the US underwent the presidential primary elections, and Taiwan was holding its presidential election. It is reasonable to argue that during the research period, political news would have been presented more

• ften than usual in TV newscasts, resulting in fewer news stories covering either

sensational or soft news. The second research question investigates, in terms of formal news features, how sensational television news was presented in the four media systems. It was found that the uses of sensational formal features were quite limited in our sample, although some features tend to be employed more in certain countries (see Table 2). For example,

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pictorial or graphics were employed most frequently in the public media systems (17.6%), followed by commercial media systems (15.7%). Animation was another noticeable feature that appeared most frequently in the commercial media systems (12.0%), followed by the public media systems (11.2%). Background music appeared most frequently in the state-operated TV stations (9.3%). Under each media system, when comparing different countries’ formal features, it was found that in state-control media systems, Singapore employed more formal features in TV news than China. In public media systems, except for gory visuals and color changes, Germany employed all the other formal features more frequently than

• Switzerland. In dual media systems, Poland used more pictorials or graphics, animation,

soft focus, digitization, and human voices in its formal news features. Israel used more

Table 1. News topics across four media systems’ television news. Countries N News topics – Public News topics – Commercial Sensational (%) Soft (%) Hard (%) Sensational (%) Soft (%) Hard (%) State China 648 23.8 18.7 57.6 – – – Singapore 846 – – – 21.4 24.0 54.6 Total 23.8 18.7 57.6 21.4 24.0 54.6 Average sensational coverage 22.4% Public Germany 672 15.2 16.5 68.4 36.8 25.6 37.6 Switzerland 1284 22.0 23.9 54.1 43.9 23.4 32.7 Total 20.3 22.0 57.6 40.2 24.5 35.3 Average sensational coverage 27.2% Dual Belgium 1228 26.1 29.0 44.9 35.3 22.8 42.0 Canada 667 35.5 16.1 48.4 42.2 12.6 45.2 Israel 1001 36.2 12.3 51.4 46.4 14.4 39.2 Italy 625 32.1 19.9 47.9 40.1 19.4 40.5 Poland 499 24.6 12.7 62.7 32.2 15.1 52.7 Total 30.8 19.5 49.6 39.7 17.4 42.9 Average sensational coverage 35.0% Commercial Brazil 721 34.9 18.6 46.5 33.9 14.7 51.4 Chile 1451 22.4 50.1 27.4 28.0 42.1 29.9 Hong Kong 600 – – – 38.3 9.5 52.2 Taiwan 1035 15.2 16.6 68.3 33.5 10.2 56.3 US 603 21.1 5.3 73.6 21.0 11.9 67.1 Total 22.9 28.3 48.8 31.5 20.1 48.4 Average sensational coverage 28.1%

Note: w2 ¼ 120.126, d.f. ¼ 6, p < .001.

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background music. Canada’s formal news features employed more slow motion, speed-up, repetition, gory visuals, soft focus, color changes, and extreme emotions. Extreme emotion appeared most frequently in the Italian news media. In commercial media systems, the US used more pictorials or graphics, animation, and speed-up motion. Brazil used more background music and digitization. Chile used more slow motion, repetition, gory visuals, soft focus, color changes, and extreme emotion features than other countries. Finally, human voices were employed most frequently in Taiwan. A post-hoc analysis revealed a number of significant differences in these formal features between the media systems. Commercial systems have the most sensational features perhaps due to digital development in television news industries, such as animation, slow motions, speed motion, or repetition. On the other hand, public systems have the most sensational features, which may be due to higher visual requirements of news, such as pictorial or graphics, color change, or soft focus. Table 3 presents the results of how news actors were presented in TV news in the four media systems. Overall, 29.4% of news actors were private citizens, 11.9% were celebrities, and 58.7% were officials or more authoritative sources. In terms of media systems, private citizens appeared most frequently in the dual media systems (33.3%), followed by the commercial media systems (31.1%), the public media systems (23.5%), and finally, the state-operated media systems (15.7%). In addition, celebrities appeared most frequently in the dual media systems (13.8%), followed by the public media systems (12.1%), then the commercial media systems (11.9%), and finally the state-operated media systems (4.2%). When comparing different countries under each media system (see Table 3), it was found that in state media systems, China featured more private citizens than Singapore. In public media systems, Germany had more private citizens and celebrities than

Table 2. News formal features across four media systems’ television news. Formal features Media systems (%) w2 d.f. ¼ 3 State Public Dual Commercial Pictorial or graphic 6.4 17.6 4.5 15.7 440.879*** Animated 3.6 11.2 5.1 12.0 223.580*** Background music 9.3 7.1 4.0 7.3 78.729*** Slow motion 0.5 4.7 1.6 8.6 350.872*** Speed-up motion 0.3 0.2 0.1 1.6 90.958*** Repetition 0.6 1.1 1.2 4.3 153.900*** Gory visuals 0.4 1.1 1.2 1.9 25.408*** Soft focus 0.5 2.2 1.0 1.5 25.648*** Color change 0.4 3.1 0.9 1.7 65.130*** Digitization 0.2 2.2 1.2 1.1 33.597*** Human voice 0.0 0.3 0.4 0.1 12.247(a)** Extreme emotion 0.7 0.6 3.0 3.1 71.074***

Notes: The number in the cells indicates the percentages of how often the formal features appeared in news. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. N ¼ 13470.

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• Switzerland. In dual media systems, private citizens were more likely to be news actors

in Canada, Israel, and Poland, and celebrities appeared more in Belgium, Poland, and Canada. In commercial media systems, private citizens were found most frequently in Taiwan, followed by Brazil and Chile, and celebrities were seen most frequently in Chile, followed by Brazil and Taiwan. The first hypothesis investigated the correlation between news competition levels and sensational news content in the 14 countries’ TV news. Results showed that high competition news markets had more sensational news and soft news items in TV news programs (correlation coefficient ¼ .047, p < .01) (see Table 4). Sensational news items account for 28.1% for primetime news in high competition markets, compared to medium (26.5%) and low (19.6%) competition markets (w2 ¼ 344.121, d.f. ¼ 4, p < .001). Hypothesis 1 was therefore supported. The second hypothesis examined the correlation of reporters’ professional levels with news content in the 14 countries. Results showed that reporters of medium professional levels (26.5%) reported the most sensational news items in their daily news productions,

Table 3. News actors across four media systems’ television news. Media systems N News actors Private citizens (%) Celebrities (%) Officials or more authoritative sources (%) State China 302 23.7 2.3 73.9 Singapore 603 11.5 5.2 83.3 Total 905 15.7 4.2 80.1 Public Germany 349 27.1 15.5 57.4 Switzerland 794 21.9 10.6 67.4 Total 1143 23.5 12.1 64.4 Dual Belgium 1117 30.8 22.6 46.6 Canada 460 40.6 9.1 50.3 Israel 641 36.6 8.9 54.5 Italy 462 23.6 8.9 67.5 Poland 477 37.7 9.2 53.2 Total 3157 33.3 13.8 52.8 Commercial Brazil 530 35.2 11.2 53.5 Chile 654 32.3 23.6 44.2 Hong Kong 540 23.7 3.9 72.5 Taiwan 702 38.4 9.9 51.7 US 423 17.1 4.1 78.8 Total 3779 31.1 11.9 56.9 Total 8984 29.4 11.9 58.7

Notes: w2 ¼ 236.595, d.f. ¼ 6, p < .001.

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followed by the high professional level (25.3%), and the low professional level journalists (25.6%). However, the main differences were found in soft news areas: highly professional reporters cover more (23.9%) soft news items than medium (12.6%) or low professional level reporters (8.6%) (w2 ¼ 240.048, d.f. ¼ 4, p < .001) (see Table 5).

Discussion

From the preliminary analyses, we found that crime, accidents, and disasters are the staple of sensational news across all countries, regardless of the various media systems. News that bleeds seems to still lead the primetime broadcasts. Previous studies pointed out that news content of Eastern European countries, and communist countries such as China, could be affected by commercial forces on one hand, and on the other hand, international media conglomerates distributing sports or reality TV, resulting in a more ‘infotainment’ trend in the news (Gulyas, 2000; Thussu, 2007: 76–77). The findings of this study confirm that Poland and China have quite a significant level of sensational and soft news in TV broadcasts. While commercialism has obvious impacts on TV news sensationalization, the proportion of sensational news in the commercial media system did not overwhelm the dual system. Further analysis showed that, in dual systems, Canada, Israel, and Italy’s commercial TV stations had more than 40% of news allocated to sensational topics, compared to 35% of their public TV stations’ news offering devoted to sensational

• topics. However, in commercial systems, over 30% of news time aired sensational

Table 5. Relationships between news professional levels and sensational news coverage. Reporters’ professional levels N News topics Sensational (%) Soft (%) Hard (%) High 7287 25.3 23.9 50.8 Medium 2136 26.5 12.6 60.9 Low 1024 25.6 8.6 65.8 Total 10,447 25.5 20.1 54.3

Notes: w2 ¼ 240.048, d.f. ¼ 4, p < .001. Correlation coefficient ¼ .075, p < .01.

Table 4. Correlations between news competition and sensational levels in television news. News competition levels N News topics Sensational (%) Soft (%) Hard (%) High 4778 28.1 16.2 55.7 Medium 4365 26.5 26.8 46.6 Low 2651 19.6 14.4 66.0 Total 11,794 25.6 19.7 54.7

Notes: w2 ¼ 344.121, d.f. ¼ 4, p < .001. Correlation coefficient ¼ .047, p < .01.

722 the International Communication Gazette 74(8)

topics, compared to 23% for their public TV stations’ sensational coverage. Therefore, the differences were contributed from the higher percentage of sensational news reporting in dual systems’ public TV stations, as well as the lower percentage of sensational news reporting in commercial systems’ commercial TV stations. The higher percentage of sensational news reporting in dual systems’ public TV stations may be related to some public TV stations’ current changes. In recent years, most European countries have witnessed a deregulation of broadcasting systems and increasing competition between various broadcasters. Even television programs that provide public information on public affairs also face increasing competition. Public TV broadcasters in dual systems encounter a more competitive environment than private TV in public systems because they will need to be more flexible to remain informative, educationally focused, and at the same time, entertaining (Losifidis, 2007). Studies have revealed that trends toward more sensational TV news in Sweden (Hvitfelt, 1994), Denmark (Hjarvard, 2000), and the Netherlands (Vettehen et al., 2005) provide some support for the sensationalism hypothesis (Vettehen et al., 2006). Therefore, this article argues that, perhaps due to the changes in public TV stations in some countries in dual systems, more sensational news coverage is demonstrated than expected. With regard to the lower percentage of sensational news reporting in commercial systems’ commercial TV stations, it is worth recalling that during the sampling periods, the US underwent presidential primary elections, and Taiwan held its presidential

• election. It is reasonable to argue that during the research period, political news might

be presented more than usual in the TV news, resulting in fewer news stories devoted to either sensational or soft topics. This may contribute to the lower percentage of sensational reporting than usual in commercial systems’ TV news programs. As for formal news features, although the average TV news report may not use as many sensational features as expected, several features such as graphics or animation are common practices in some countries. It is speculated that the maturity of digitalized communication technologies and the technical support from affiliated media conglomerates may help some features to become common practice in TV news. Previous studies pointed out that sensational formal features appear to overpower the substance of news content in some countries (Grabe et al., 2003; Wang and Cohen, 2009). This study finds that while sensational news content is becoming more and more prevalent, the use of sensational formal features tends to be limited. Each country appears to favor certain types of formal features over others, presumably according to different news reporting cultures. While authority figures remain the primary actors in global TV news, there is a growing tendency to use celebrities and ordinary people to personalize and dramatize the

• news. Take the rising celebrity news as an example. As Barkin (2003) pointed out, most

people now live in an age of ‘celebrity journalism’. There may never have been so many news items about rich, famous, and infamous people in primetime news. TV news is now dependent on celebrity news, profiles, and scandals to sustain audience interest. A societal fascination with celebrities may reflect a culture steeped in shallowness or the evaluation of the trivial (Lin, 2008; Nan, 2009; Yao, 2005). For example, in Taiwan, such gossip-based news reporting is judged as the most sensational news. It would be

Wang 723

interesting to see if news audiences in other countries share similar perspectives and what might such similarity or variance imply. Regarding factors contributing to the rise of sensationalism in news, we found that news competition and levels of journalistic professionalism are two influential factors. The speculation that news competition impacts the boom in news sensationalization has endured for some time. However, this study discovered a new relationship between news professional levels and the sensational news continuum. While more professional journalists do not significantly produce more sensational news than less professional journalists, they do report the most soft news. Soft news items may trigger less affective responses or present less emotionality than sensational news along the continuum, but they were viewed as significant elements in the news tabloidization culture as well (Bek, 2004; Sparks and Tulloch, 2000). What emerges from the above analysis may be the apparent gap between the endurance of professionalism and declining performance. This gap may be accounted for by the fierce market competition among the researched countries. When the advertising pie has not experienced corresponding market growth, some news media may adopt a sensational reporting formula in order to stay alive. (McManus, 1994; So and Chan, 2007). In other words, even highly professional reporters are likely to accommodate to market competition and take on tabloid reporting. It is also a gap between the journalists’ professional ideals and actual practices (So and Chan, 2007). Potential problems with the current sample exist, which may limit further interpreta- tions of this study’s findings. First, a constructed month in 14 countries, selected for convenience, has certain impacts on the study’s external validity. Second, dual systems appear to offer the most sensational news. However, the US and Taiwan, representing commercial systems in this sample, underwent elections during the sampling period. Sensational news content was very likely to have been undermined in the current sample. Future studies may try to avoid election periods to get more representative samples. Third, the highest-rated commercial channel may not be the avenue where sensational news is presented most often. For example, in the US, local TV news stations are much more sensational than network news (Barkin, 2003: 137). Take Taiwan as another

• example. Taiwan has six news channels that provide 24-hour news serving 23 million
• viewers. The commercial TV station (TVBS) coded for this project is commonly

considered to be one of the least sensational among the six news channels (Wang and Cohen, 2009). In other words, because of the concern for comparability among the samples, this study only focused on one commercial TV station and one public TV station from each country. However, the 24-hour news channels, or local TV news channels, which are often perceived to provide the primary revenue for sensational news content, were not included in this sample. Future studies may further consider the impact

• f 24-hour news channels, or local TV news channels, on the presentation of sensational

news content, formal features, and news actors. Funding and Acknowledgements

The data for the content analysis in this study comes from the author’s book, Sensationalism in TV News (original in Chinese, funded by Taiwan’s National Science Council), and data collection was aided by Akiba Cohen, the initiator of the ‘Foreign News Around the World’ project. 724 the International Communication Gazette 74(8)

Notes

• 1. The Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS) was founded in 2007 by researchers from 70 countries

aiming at assessing the state of journalism (as well as news organizations and journalists) throughout the world. The WJS has completed a cross-national investigation regarding world views and changes that are taking place in the professional orientations of journalists, the con- ditions and limitations under which they operate, as well as the social functions of current jour-

• nalism. The current article ran a secondary analysis using part of the WJS’s analysis data sets.
• 2. According to Barkin (2003: 117, 121), celebrity news is news stories about ‘the rich, famous

and infamous’, or ‘the subjects of personality-oriented news coverage’. Personality journalism is as old as journalism itself, but the placement of entertainment and lifestyle issues at the center

• f the mainstream news universe is relatively new. By this definition, this article recoded four

sub-categories of actors in the original study’s code book as ‘celebrities’, that is, sports, culture (entertainment industry), royalty, and celebrities (celebrities of great notoriety, less famous celebrities, and other). The other sub-categories are recoded as ‘non-celebrities’, including actors in more public areas such as internal or international politics, business or commerce, industry, military or defense, or others.

• 3. The variable of ‘professionalism’ was measured through four items, including the percentage of

journalists who have graduated with at minimum a high school qualification, or from a college/ university level journalism program; whether a college degree is required to pursue work as a journalist in each country; and the overall level of professionalization among journalists in each

• country. The variable of ‘news competition’ was measured by the number of evening primetime

newscasts that compete for the same audience in the same market in each country.

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