Paul Hendriks Vettehen

News in an age of competition: the case of sensationalism in Dutch television news, 1995–2001

Trends in sensationalism in Dutch television news were investigated through a content analysis of 3 Dutch TV news programs in 1995 and 2001, a period when the competition between Dutch TV news programs increased. Indicators of sensationalism were derived from 4 categories: tabloid packaging, basic needs content, concreteness, and proximity. Results showed a trend toward the use of more sensational production techniques in Dutch TV news. However, these increases were not found on all indicators nor in all newscasts. No trend toward more sensational story subjects could be observed.

Explaining Effects of Sensationalism on Liking of Television News Stories The Role of Emotional Arousal

This study investigates the appeal of sensationalist television news. News stories were content analyzed to measure the presence of sensationalist features. In addition, the stories were watched and evaluated by participants to measure the degree to which the items elicited emotional arousal and the degree to which the items were liked. As predicted, the findings showed that emotional arousal mediates effects of sensationalist features on liking and that the relationship between emotional arousal and liking takes the shape of an inverted U.

Research note: sensationalism in Dutch current affairs programmes 1992-2001

Both news critics and scholars often contend that increasing competition in the news market urges journalists to sensationalize their stories. Starting from this hypothesis, this article investigates changes in the level of sensationalism in three Dutch current affairs programmes that merged in 1996 as part of a strategy to fight increasing competition. A content analysis of these programmes in 1992 and 2001 shows a partial trend towards greater use of sensationalism.

Challenging the frame in the news: the role of issue involvement, attitude, and competing frames

The present study contributes to the external validity of the framing concept by studying the effects of frames actually utilized in newspaper articles. The study assesses the persuasive influence of such frames on the interpretation of news, and how issue involvement and attitude interfere in this process. A total of 282 participants were presented with one of three experimental versions of a newspaper article about asylum. In the first condition the asylum seekers were implicitly labeled as innocent victims, in the second as intruders. The third version is a mixed condition in which both competing frames were applied. In all three conditions an identical photograph was inserted. The findings indicate that the frame suggests how the photograph can be interpreted. However, no indications were found for a moderating role of the news readers’ issue involvement or attitude.

Measuring Motivations for Media Exposure: A Thesis

The present article discusses the problem of separating the motivation conceptempirically from other relevant concepts in research on mass media audiences.For about half a century, audience researchers use questionnaire items with adistinct format as measurements of motivations for media exposure. It isargued that these motivation items grammatically reflect the nature of themotivation concept as a theoretically intermediate variable between behaviourand its social or mental background, thus constituting the most plausibleindicators of the concept. However, it is also argued that these questionnaireitems are double-barrelled and that any measurement of motivations based onthe items can largely be considered an ambiguous mixture of behaviour and itssocial or mental origin. A study is presented that provides empirical support for this position.The present article discusses the problem of separating the motivation concept empirically from other relevant concepts in research on mass media audiences. For about half a century, audience researchers use questionnaire items with a distinct format as measurements of motivations for media exposure. It is argued that these motivation items grammatically reflect the nature of the motivation concept as a theoretically intermediate variable between behaviour and its social or mental back- ground, thus constituting the most plausible indicators of the concept. However, it is also argued that these questionnaire items are double-barrelled and that any measurement of motivations based on the items can largely be considered an ambiguous mixture of behaviour and its social or mental origin. A study is presented that provides empirical support for this position.

Competitive pressure and arousing television news : a cross-cultural study.

In many scholarly writings about journalism, the idea can be found that competitive pressure urges journalists to make news more arousing. This hypothesis was tested in two cultural settings: the Western European culture and the Chinese-dominated culture. A total of 3028 TV news stories from seven different markets, or 12 different news programs, were analyzed on the presence of arousing news characteristics. High competitive pressure at the market level appeared to contribute to the prevalence of arousing news, but this effect was more pronounced in the Chinese-dominated culture than in the Western European culture. Effects of high competitive pressure at the station level were only observed in the Western European culture.

Taking the full view: How viewers respond to 360-degree video news

Abstract Immersive storytelling technologies in journalism are thought to have the power to boost viewer responses to news in ways heretofore undreamed of. However, research is scarce. This study is the first to investigate what 360-degree camera video as a means for conveying news stories might add to traditional 2D video. A one-factorial between subjects experiment (N = 83) was conducted to investigate the effect of 360-degree news on presence, enjoyment, credibility, recognition, and understanding. The experimental group watched a news video in 360-degree format, whereas the control group viewed the same video in 2D. Results show that 360-degree video is evaluated higher in terms of presence, enjoyment, and credibility, while there are no negative effects of 360- degree video on recognition and understanding. The effects on enjoyment and credibility are mediated by presence. Although 360-degree journalism research is still in its infancy, the current study indicates that this form of news reporting has the potential to involve audiences as never before.

The Relationship Between Media Content Preferences and Political Participation in 25 European Countries: The Moderating Role of Broadband Penetration and Broadband Access:

This study examined the idea that the rise of broadband Internet has contributed to an aggravation of the divide between those who are politically active and those who are not. It was hypothesized that both access to broadband Internet (as an individual-level characteristic) and broadband penetration (as a country-level characteristic) would strengthen the positive relation between relative preferences for political media content and political participation. Analyses were based on data that were collected in the 2010 wave of the European Social Survey (N = 40,582; 25 countries). Political participation was measured both using a voter turnout variable and using a more general political participation scale. Findings from multilevel analyses provide support to the moderating role of both broadband access and broadband penetration, but only when using the general political participation scale.

How Camera Changes and Information Introduced Affect the Recognition of Public Service Announcements: A Test Outside the Lab

This study investigated the impact of formal features on the recognition of televised public service announcements in a real-life setting. Recognition percentages of 193 public service advertisements (PSAs) derived from campaign evaluation studies were related to content analysis data of the ads. Regression analyses showed that formal features of PSAs accounted for 5% to 7% of the variance in PSA recognition. More specifically, the analyses showed that increasing the number of camera changes in PSAs slightly increases PSA recognition if the amount of information introduced by these camera changes is small, but increasing the number of camera changes tends to decrease PSA recognition substantially as the amount of information introduced by these camera changes increases. This finding implies that PSA producers should be reluctant in introducing much new information through fast-paced messages. Moreover, these results indicate that earlier findings observed in controlled, experimental settings do have ecological validity.

Commentary and Debate Special Section Introduction: Defining media diversity

Abstract Against the background of the current European competitive media landscape, the media are more and more compelled to legitimize their activities in their own national context as well as at a European level. Meanwhile, the nature of the media diversity in The Netherlands has changed tremendously; from a society divided along political and religious lines, it has evolved towards a multi-ethnic society. Hence, both the conceptualizing and operationalizing of media diversity from an academic as well as a media practical perspective prove to be hot topics. An expert meeting was held at the Department of Communication at Radboud University Nijmegen in December 2004 in which the contours of media diversity in general and in The Netherlands in particular were explored. Institutional performance as well as program-related aspects linked to the notion of media diversity were discussed. Media diversity was explored from the angle of media economics (How many media actors are there? What about the competition? Is competition deadly or just healthy or somewhere in between?) as well as from the perspective of the program/format level (Is it more of the same? A lot of imports? What about criteria for quality, innovation? Does the public broadcaster make any difference?). In addition, the audience reception perspective (Are these media production and distribution trends followed by media use patterns?) as well as methodologically problematic aspects one encounters when measuring media diversity were assessed. What follows here is a selection of several most pertinent views on this complex topic. We welcome each critical insight from other geographical contexts which might stimulate the debate on measures of open and reflective diversity in the media.