cartoon controversy; why the danish mohammed cartoons could be published

The use of sources in prominent news stories in the Netherlands

Journalism and the Media

Assignment 8: The impact of sources

October 29, 2010

Research team E: Mark Boukes, Liza de Leeuw,

Femke de Koning, Jan Peters & Yasemin Smit

Content Introduction

Research question

Hypotheses

Method

Analysis

Results

Conclusion

Limitations

References

The impact of sources 2

Introduction

Doing a research about the news industry is an open-ended and

fascinating endeavor

Looking at the use of sources is:

extremely important for the construction of news stories and its

understanding by the audience

contributes to this merely under-investigated research field


Research Question

To what extent are there differences in the number of sources

used in prominent news stories published in the Netherlands:

in online versus offline media

(printed newspapers and television)

in national versus regional media (newspapers), and

in subscribed versus free newspapers (online and offline)?


Hypothesis 1

In the online news environment, not just the sender but also the

medium and receiver can be construed as a source of online news

(Morris & Ogan, 1996).

Online journalists collect, annotate and comment upon sources of

news all over the web, focusing explicitly on issues and angles that

they feel the ‘mainstream’ journalists have not covered (Deuze, 2003).

H1: In online media the use of sources is higher than in offline media


Hypothesis 2

Because of under-manned newsrooms, local journalists work in a pressurized environment where they become dependent on the pre-fabricated news from public relations organizations, or rewrites news agency copy (O’ Neill & O’ Connor, 2008, p. 489).

Local journalists rely often on a single source for stories, what is possible reflecting shortage of time and resources, combined with sources’ skills in presenting positive public images. This is a significant contributory factor to uncritical local press. (O’Neill & O’ Connor, 2008, p. 493).

H2: National newspapers use more sources than regional newspapers


Hypothesis 3

According to the Scholten en Ruijgrok (2009):

Free newspaper articles rely for 55% on their own employees; Subscribed

newspapers rely for 83% on their own employees

Half of the free newspaper’s articles rely on press agencies

This suggests that subscribed newspapers use more direct sources than free

newspapers

H3: Free newspapers use less sources than subscribed newspapers

7The impact of sources

Method

Manual quantitative content analysis

Days of analyzing: 21, 22 and 25 October 2010

For those days the following media were analyzed:

5 national newspapers, 3 regional newspapers, 3 free newspapers

3 news broadcasts (1 public, 2 commercial)

14 news websites (online services of the media mentioned above)

Every day 10-12 news stories were coded, of which 10 or less were prominent, for a

medium per day

Resulting in almost 900 news stories (n=896)


Analysis

Recorded in and analyzed with SPSS 15.0

One-Way ANOVA for individual effects of factors

Dependent variable: number of different sources

Independent variables: type of media outlet

Online vs. offline media (newspaper or television)

National vs. regional

Subscribed vs. free newspapers


Results: Online vs. offline media

Less sources being uses in online media (p<0.001)

Significant less use of sources in online media (X=1.89, Sd=1.26)

compared to newspapers (X=2.74, SD=1.98) and television

(X=3.12, SD=2.31)

The difference between newspapers and television is not

significant according to Post hoc Scheffe tests


Results: Online versus off line media

11

News programs on

television used the most

sources.

Online news media

used far less sources

The impact of sources

Results: National versus regional news media


Sources are more used in

national media than in regional

media (p<0.001)

Results: Subscribed versus free newspapers

There was no significant difference (p=0.580) in the number of

sources used in subscribed (X=2.78, Sd=1.95) and free newspapers

(X=2.65, Sd=2.06).


Conclusion

RQ: To what extent are there differences in the number of sources used in prominent news stories published in the Netherlands in online versus offline media (printed newspapers and television), in national versus regional media, and in subscribed versus free newspapers?

H1: rejected - there are less sources being used in online media. News programs on TV use the most (external) sources. The difference in using sources between newspapers and television is not significant.

H2: found a significant effect - national newspapers use more sources than regional newspapers.

H3: the number of sources used in subscribed and free newspapers is not significant different.

14The impact of sources

Limitations

News coverage was studied only 3 days, so a small number of

units of analysis (n), makes it hard to find significant results

Can we make generalizations from the results to:

all news stories (more or less prominent)?

news coverage of a longer period?

media in other countries?

No reliability test for the coding procedure


References

In this research we used the following literature:

Deuze, M. (2003). The web and its journalism: Considering the consequences of

different types of news media online. New media and society, 5(2), 203-230.

Morris, M. & Ogan, C. (1996). The internet as mass medium. Journal of

Communication, 46(1), 39–50

O’ Neill, D. & O’ Connor, C. (2008). The passive journalist. How sources dominate local

news. Journalism Practice, 2(3), 487-500.

Scholten, O. & Ruijgrok, N. (2009). Bronnen in het nieuws. Nederlandse

Nieuwsmonitor.


SPSS syntax

The SPSS syntax that has been used for this study can be found

in the notations space of this slide in the PowerPoint file.


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