News factors and news decisions. Theoretical and methodological advances in Germany
-
Christiane Eilders
Abstract
News value research has contributed a great deal to the understanding of news selection. For a long time scholars focused exclusively on news selection by the media. Yet, more recent approaches — inspired by cognitive psychology — have conceptionalized news factors as relevance indicators that not only serve as selection criteria in journalism, but also guide information processing by the audience. This article examines the theoretical and methodological developments in the German research tradition and discusses selected results for newspaper and television news. Its theoretical perspective focuses on the conceptionalization of news factors as either event characteristics or characteristics of the reality construction by journalists and recipients. This article explores how and why news factors affect media use and the retention of news items. Finally, this contribution's empirical perspective discusses various modifications of the assumed factors and presents methodological advancements in the measurement of news factors in selection processes.
© Walter de Gruyter
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Introduction to the special issue: News decisions and news values
- News factors and news decisions. Theoretical and methodological advances in Germany
- Predicting news decisions. An empirical test of the two-component theory of news selection
- The theory of newsworthiness applied to Mexico's press. How the news factors influence foreign news coverage in a transitional country
- Frames, schemata, and news reporting
- Political parallelism in news and commentaries on the Haider conflict. A comparative analysis of Austrian, British, German, and French quality newspapers
- News and newsworthiness: A commentary
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Introduction to the special issue: News decisions and news values
- News factors and news decisions. Theoretical and methodological advances in Germany
- Predicting news decisions. An empirical test of the two-component theory of news selection
- The theory of newsworthiness applied to Mexico's press. How the news factors influence foreign news coverage in a transitional country
- Frames, schemata, and news reporting
- Political parallelism in news and commentaries on the Haider conflict. A comparative analysis of Austrian, British, German, and French quality newspapers
- News and newsworthiness: A commentary
