Klaus Schoenbach

News sites’ position in the mediascape: uses, evaluations and media displacement effects over time

By means of a two-wave representative panel survey of adults in the Netherlands, this study examines changes in the profile of the online-news audience, how it uses and evaluates online news and how this eventually affects the use of traditional media. The analyses reveal interesting differences in the use of newspaper websites and other, non-paper, news sites. Displacement effects become visible: online newspapers gradually substitute for printed newspapers, other news sites for teletext and non-paper news sites for newspaper sites.

Research Note: Online and Print Newspapers: Their Impact on the Extent of the Perceived Public Agenda

Printed newspapers are known to widen the range of public topics, events and issues their audience is aware of. There are reasons to assume that their online counterparts help increase their audience’s perceived agenda to a lesser extent. The way print newspapers are structured and used is supposed to lure readers into reading stories they may not have been interested in beforehand. Online papers support more activity and control by their users; becoming aware of a narrower range of topics according to one’s individual interests is more plausible. A representative survey of almost 1000 respondents shows it is more complicated than that. Both channels in fact contribute to widening the audience agenda. But whereas online newspapers show this effect only in the highest educated group of society, print newspapers are able to expand the horizon of those whose range of interests is at most average.

Research Note: Distinction and Integration Sociodemographic Determinants of Newspaper Reading in the USA and Germany, 1974-96

Who reads daily newspapers in the USA and in Germany? Despite a steady decline of newspaper reading, the sociodemographic determinants of newspaper readership have been surprisingly stable in both countries since the mid-1970s. A long-term comparative analysis of audience data suggests that newspapers serve different cultural functions: in the USA, they seem to be more and more an instrument of social distinction; in Germany they also maintain a function of social integration.

Politicians on TV News: Getting attention in Dutch and German election campaigns

Different strategies apply in the Netherlands and in Germany when TV channels have to decide how often politicians are mentioned or shown in the news during national election campaigns. Extensive content analyses in the 1990s suggest that Dutch political and media traditions promote a more equally distributed attention to different political positions. In Germany, TV news focuses almost exclusively on the incumbent candidate for the top function of the national government (the office of Chancellor) and his challengers. The likely causes are not only the politicalsystem and the particular circumstances of the 1990s (with the pre-eminence ofHelmut Kohl), but also recent developments in the way in which German journalists define their task.

Interest in News and Politics—or Situational Determinants? Why People Watch the News

This study compared and integrated the influence of motivational and situational determinants on news viewing behavior. Individual people-meter data allowed the unobtrusive study of news viewing situations. The finding is that the viewing context is much more important than motivations. However, interest in the news and politics can reinforce or reverse situational influences. For interested viewers, watching more TV in general mainly explains news viewing, while for less interested viewers, lead-out effects and social viewing are more relevant.

Agenda-Setting, Agenda-Reinforcing or Agenda-Deflating? A Study of the 1990 German National Election:

If an issue is frequently reported in the news, but in a way that diminishes the urgency of the problem, it may cause a decline in salience. In this two-wave national panel study, it was discovered that interest in political stories on television news was positively associated with an increase in the salience of environmental problems as an issue (agenda-reinforcement). Exposure to campaign coverage in Bild, a high circulation national tabloid, was negatively associated with the salience of problems in the former East Germany (agenda deflation). Among other factors, this study finds that the tone of political coverage, as well as its frequency, is important.

News and Elections German Bundestag Campaigns in the Bild, 1990-2002

This article looks at how political reporting has changed over time in the Bild, Germanys most widely read newspaper. The authors content analyzed the political coverage during the seven weeks prior to the federal elections in 1990, 1994, 1998, and 2002. They found increasing emphasis on the campaign in the news from one election to the next, which can be explained by the fact that the elections themselves became more competitive and thus had more news value. They also find increasing negativity toward the two main parties between 1990 and 1998 and toward the SPD (Social Democratic Party) since 1998. The Bilds editorial decision to include more commentary pieces in 2002 is at least in part responsible for the strongly negative coverage of the SPD and the chancellor in that election, but the greater negativity was also due to the increased volume of other political news stories that also contained negative evaluations.

Civic and citizen demands of news media and journalists: what does the audience expect from good journalism?

What do citizens in the Netherlands expect from journalism? A large-scale survey shows that many audience expectations align fairly well with what experts and journalists consider important democratic functions of the press. We refer to these expectations as Civic Demands. In addition, more at odds with the profession’s view, the audience wants journalism to take Citizen Demands into account: the complaints and wishes of citizens. We explore how these demands relate to audience characteristics and news media use. Findings suggest that journalists and citizens could very well cooperate in securing a future for high-quality journalism.

Dynamics of Individual Television Viewing Behavior: Models, Empirical Evidence, and a Research Program

Television viewing often is a sequence of a multitude of activities that can vary tremendously from the moment the TV set is turned on until it is turned off again. Previous models of individual viewing behavior as well as empirical studies have focused on isolated aspects of viewing only, such as the frequency and duration of viewing or patterns of selecting a specific program. This paper draws attention to the complete process of TV viewing. We develop a process model to describe whole viewing sessions. Furthermore, a review of the empirical evidence on viewing behavior and a typology of factors influencing the viewing process are presented, concluded by a research program.

Skipping current affairs: The non-users of online and offline news

In an information-rich environment with ample choice, do citizens still get exposed to what is going on around them in society? Or do they become ‘information hermits’, only interested in their personal hobbies? In contrast to widespread fears, the results of a large-scale survey, representative for the population of the Netherlands, suggest that most citizens still get an overview of what is going on in the world, and that television news is still the most popular source for that information. In addition, news on the Internet reaches those who are unlikely to seek news offline and wish to be entertained instead of informed. In detail, the study examines (1) which factors influence total news-overview avoidance, but also (2) what determines the amount of news exposure for those who do not skip the news.