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SENSATIONALISM AND POLITICAL HEADLINES: AN EXPLORATION OF FRONT-
PAGE HEADLINES
_______________
A Thesis
Presented to the
Faculty of
San Diego State University
_______________
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
in
Political Science
_______________
by
Daniel E. Brandenstein
Summer 2011
iii
Copyright © 2011
by
Daniel E. Brandenstein
All Rights Reserved
iv
ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS
Sensational and Political Headlines: An Exploration of Front-PageHeadlines
byDaniel E. Brandenstein
Master of Arts in Political ScienceSan Diego State University, 2011
This research examines the relationships of political headlines and sensationalism innewspaper front pages. This paper examines headlines in historical context and as afunction of decision making models and public opinion, the history of headlines and theroles of the media in society. A random sample of newspapers were coded for content andsensationalism. The results showed that the majority of all headlines, political and non-political, are sensational or sensationalized.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................................iv
LIST OF TABLES.........................................................................................................................vii
LIST OF FIGURES...................................................................................................................... viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................. ix
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1
Hypothesis............................................................................................................... 1
Introduction to Discussion...................................................................................... 1
2 NEWSPAPER JOURNALISM............................................................................................ 2
The Media: Political Science Perspective and Relevance ....................................... 3
Why a Focus on the Sensational: Readers Prefer Sensational Content ................ 4
The Media: Financial and Socio-Political Motivations ........................................... 5
3 SENSATIONALISM: THE NEWSPAPER FRONT PAGE...................................................... 7
Media as a Political Tool in History......................................................................... 8
Newspapers and the Sensational Nature of News and Headlines ......................... 9
Socio-political Agendas': Headlines and Media Executives, Elites andEditors ................................................................................................................... 11
Headlines and Political Change: A Case Study...................................................... 11
4 THE WHIMSICAL NATURE OF THE PUBLIC: A HISTORICAL REVIEW............................ 16
Myth of Capricious Change................................................................................... 16
Modern Views of Information .............................................................................. 17
5 METHODS SECTION..................................................................................................... 20
Theme Groupings.................................................................................................. 20
Definitions and Variables ...................................................................................... 20
Sample................................................................................................................... 21
Coding Control ...................................................................................................... 23
vi
Intercoder Reliability............................................................................................. 23
6 RESULTS....................................................................................................................... 25
Exploratory Results ............................................................................................... 26
Conclusion............................................................................................................. 28
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 29
vii
LIST OF TABLES
PAGE
Table 1. Nominal Variables ..................................................................................................... 21
Table 2. Proportional Frequencies for Nominal Variables...................................................... 25
viii
LIST OF FIGURES
PAGE
Figure 1. Feedback loop. ........................................................................................................... 2
Figure 2. Decision making models. ......................................................................................... 19
Figure 3. Frequency of content by paper. .............................................................................. 26
Figure 4. Frequency of sensationalism by paper. ................................................................... 27
Figure 5. Ratio of sensational to non-sensational content by paper. .................................... 28
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to first and foremost offer my thanks to Carole Kennedy for her patience,
friendship and ongoing assistance in what has been a great exploration. To my second
reader Dr M. McCall for their compassion and understanding in a time of great need, my
many thanks and undying gratitude. Finally, to Allen Greb for his dedication to the ISCOR
department and his special ability to reach out to students, myself in particular. To my wife
Tamie for her long time support, commitment and companionship during what has been
many years of sacrifice and hardship.
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
HYPOTHESIS
This research hypothesizes that newspaper front-pages will contain more
sensational or sensationalized headlines than not. Further, I hypothesize that political
reports will also have more sensational headlines than non political headlines. The
hypothesis is based on the assumption that first and foremost readers prefer sensational
content, and that newspapers cater to readers' preference for sensational content (Blake
2009). Further, that editors, executives and elites use power of position to solicit support
for socio-political agendas by sensationalizing content (Neuzil 1996).
INTRODUCTION TO DISCUSSION
In this research I will examine front-page headlines from an assortment of national
newspapers, and examine the amount of sensational content in headlines and political
headlines. Some may argue that studies of headlines and sensationalism fall under the
realm of journalism and not political science. This research is more specifically focused on
political headlines and the amount of sensationalism used in political headlines. Headlines
are simply one form of information that voters are privy to, and in political science
information is a key component of decision making models like rational choice, and also as a
function in the formation of public opinions. Voters and non-voters alike are both
consumers of newspaper content. This literature review will therefore focus more on the
political aspects of the media, information and change in political terms.
This literature review will examine the basic function of journalism, and discuss in
terms of political science how journalist affect the political world. I will review the different
opinions that surround decision making models and the formation of preferences. Finally, I
will explore how history, via journalism, focuses on significantly different and non-
sensational events, rather than the ordinary and uneventful routine of the status quo.
2
CHAPTER 2
NEWSPAPER JOURNALISM
Newspapers are reports of current events and opinions of the day, and are
published day after day. From the world of events, newspaper operators choose some
content and intern create a product for consumption in the market for goods. In political
rhetoric, individuals acting as consumers pay some price, or suffer some cost to obtain the
entire paper, it may be money, time or just an opportunity cost, while others just "free ride"
and may glance over headlines while the paper is in a newspaper or newsstand box. When
a reader "consumes" or reads a paper or headline, some amount of information or
misinformation can be used in the formation of preferences or an opinion. In aggregate
these opinions or preferences form a measure of public opinion, and complete feedback
loop when the opinions of rational actors affect the world of events (Östgaard, 1965).
Figure 1 describes how the feedback loop of information plays out.
Figure 1. Feedback loop.
A review of literature surrounding this model has been conducted to highlight the
important aspects of political science and in general social science. The next section will
discuss the roles of the media and the elites of the information industry. This literature
review will explore the historical use of sensational or sensationalized reports by the media,
to entice readers and further political agendas.
World of Media Newspaper Individuals Preferences Decisions/ActsEvents Front Pages Consumers Pub Opinion World of Events
3
THE MEDIA: POLITICAL SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE AND RELEVANCE
The media at its simplest gathers information about events; it prioritizes this
information and stories are reported to a population of some sort (Stepp 2000). Regardless
of what a newspaper publishes, in a world of events, some events are sensational and some
are not. The information an individual receives from their newspaper may be accurate or it
may not. From a macro point of view it is important to point out that the media can be
thought of as a broker of information, a deliverer of information and is one of the primary
sources of information for a citizen (Hofstetter and Dozier 1986).
In a world of rational actors, individuals interact in an environment and events
occur, the media processes information and reports are distributed. Individuals receive
information and make decisions. This rational action leads to long tree game theory models
for both individuals and group activities (Clark 2002). Individuals process this information
and make a decision that best suit themselves. Traditionally, this example is described with
a discussion of The Prisoners Dilemma. In a Prisoners Dilemma scenario, it is the prisoners
lack of information, and the authorities ability to control and manipulate information, that
leads to the successful predictions of aggregate probability (Shepsle and Bonchek 1997;
Clark 2002). The authority an information source has, i.e. the media, is granted to it by its
readers and subscribers. The media in general, and more specifically individual journalists
accept this as fact and strive for accuracy to maintain reader trust. As Walter Cronkite and
Walter Lippmann both believed, readers will choose media sources that supply the most
accurate information (Cronkite 2000; Neuzil 1996).
Traditionally, as early as elementary school, a main role of the media is discussed as
part of a system filled were entities check and balance each other, the media functions as
more than just an information source or as a business, but also as a "watchdog" always on
the lookout for corruption, illegal activities, or other news relevant to the day to day affairs
of state. The media is expected as a part of our democracy to offer some equitable
distribution of accurate information about the current state of political affairs, while still
acting as business entities with financial obligations to both employees, stockholders and
advertisers (Peake 2007).
4
WHY A FOCUS ON THE SENSATIONAL: READERS PREFER
SENSATIONAL CONTENT
Sensational events are events that break from the norm, are different,
extraordinary, strange, odd, unusual, unexpected, astonishing, amazing, bizarre, weird and
generally uncommon. Further, sensationalism is the practice of writing to entice, attract,
stimulate, arouse, exaggerate and generally provoke an emotional response in readers
(Garst and Bernstein 1982). The assumption that readers prefer sensational stories, and
that newspapers cater to this demand was explored by Morris G. Caldwell's 1932 paper,
"Sensational News in the Modern Metropolitan Newspapers". Caldwell picked six major
newspapers over a two month period, and coded for 22 themes, and their sensational
nature. Caldwell found that newspapers appear to cater to this preference, specifically on
front-pages , as compared to the entire paper. Caldwell found that from 29 to 47 percent of
all front-page stories were sensational; while sensational levels throughout the entire paper
were lower. This idea that people liked to be entertained, and are most entertained by
sensational stories can be arguably traced back to the earliest stories and oral traditions of
many cultures. From the time that news and information was first shared by the nightly
fire, to the earliest written mythologies and onward to the present, the individual
fascination people have with the extraordinary stories lies in imagination and individual
psychology.
From a political science perspective, the idea that the public prefers dramatic
emotional stories rather than hard facts and information was enunciated in the colonial era
by the United States "Federalists" (Popkin 1994). As will be discussed later in this paper, the
Federalists believed in the idea that people are more subject to passions than knowledge;
an idea that is seemingly embraced by media leaders of today. The assumption that the
public is short in attention span and shallow in interests is often perpetuated by journalist
themselves, who describe Americans as being more interested in short and sensational
snippets of information, than they are in accurate news. In an era of television, video and
internet, individuals can change a channel or click away from a site, with ease and lack of
thought.
5
There is a common adage: people like dirty laundry. It is the dramatic, sudden or
out of the ordinary that really entices readers. While there are appropriate methods of
verification required during the gathering or investigative phase of journalistic research it is
the practices of editors and executives that prioritize and edit reports that most applies to
this research. The journalistic code of ethics outlines appropriate professional conduct in
each of the three areas of journalistic endeavor. This research will examine how editors and
executives, who have the authority to direct the activities of the journalist under their
supervision, and the power to select, prioritize and report in a fashion that suits the
newspapers business and or their political agendas (Karolides, 2006).
THE MEDIA: FINANCIAL AND SOCIO-POLITICAL MOTIVATIONS
It is at this point that it is important to focus for a moment on how newspapers
function as financial entities. Executives, administrators and editors must not just deal with
the ethical aspects of their craft, and their role as "watchdogs", but also the financial
success or failure of the business.
I return again to answer the question, "Why a focus on the sensational?" The
assumption that newspapers cater to readers, and in this case voters, desire for sensational
content, is reinforced by the understanding that newspapers are financial institutions that
must generate revenue; while circulation numbers do not generate the most revenue they
do determine and validate advertising costs (Peake 2007). On March 17, 2009 the Seattle
Post Intelligencer ran its last print edition, ending its 148 year history of print media and
switching permanently to an online digital version. Just days before that last edition of the
Seattle Post, the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism hosted a panel and discussion
group titled, "The Future of Newspapers". The discussion of the panel centered on how
traditional methods of newspaper management were changing to embrace a new digital
era. The advent of the Internet and increasingly popular development of wireless
technologies are changing the way American consumers and voters get their information
and in turn will force changes to occur in the world of newspapers. Revenue losses
combined with lower subscriber levels and advertising shortfalls are forcing what were
6
previously profitable newspapers to consider ending print operations (Stewart, Swartz, and
Pearlstine 2009).
Some writers and journalists have begun to wonder if newsprint in its traditional
form is headed for extinction, and that the "paper" part of newspapers will only survive in
name (Meyer 2004). Newspaper capitalists, of course, will not let their niche of the industry
die off or disappear easily. Newspapers as entities, corporate or otherwise, have
continually changed and adapted with the times to find more ways of inciting readers, and
thus advertisers; newspaper's will no doubt do what they must to remain in business (Brunk
1973). As long as the demand for sensational stories remains high, newspapers will
continue to use dramatic effect to get readers interested in an article (Brunk 1973). While
every headline is not necessarily sensationalized for effect, the practice of sensational
reporting will match the demand for it in turn (Hodgson 1993). The need, in a competitive
market, to keep readers enticed will tempt writers to sensationalize, exaggerate or
dramatize headlines and stories. The need to maintain a competitive edge, outweighs lofty
idea's of journalistic ethics proposed in the halls of Academia (Garst and Bernstein 1982).
7
CHAPTER 3
SENSATIONALISM: THE NEWSPAPER FRONT PAGE
The "front-page" is in many ways the newspaper's "Standard", its flag, its family
crest and shield; it is a symbol of what the paper stands for. The front-page of a paper is
analogous to an event poster. It is the newspapers most powerful advertising tool when
attempting to engage the impulsive shopper. Some may recall historical images of a
paperboy standing on a New York street corner, holding a newspapers front-page for all to
see, while he shouts out the day's headlines. Like a vendor at the ball park, headlines are
shouted to entice and remind customers that this is a must have product. While, a common
scene at the end of World War II, a person would be hard pressed to find newspapers being
sold in this fashion today. However, the idea that sensational and interesting headlines sell
newspapers, is still active today (Patten 1986).
Just as titles have been an important part of any book, essay or thesis, in the world
of media headlines are just as important of a tool for both journalists and editors.
Headlines are designed to create interest in the story, they are an advertisement and an
announcement. Garst and Bernstein in their 1982 book, Headlines and Deadlines: A
Manual, discusses the importance of creating interesting or dramatic headlines for every
story. His advice is to create interest without going so overboard as to disgust readers.
Along with many editors Garst believes that the creative spirit of journalists is cut short
when headlines are changed or altered by editors and censors alike. In fact, it was the
shortly after the muckraking era in the early to mid nineteenth century, journalists began to
debate amongst themselves over the levels of sensationalism in the news. It was at this
time that standards and practices began to be more widely accepted (Starr 2004).
Newspaper Editors throughout history have known that the front-page is of vital
importance to the editor, to give a summary of the day's most important news, and to
stimulate daily circulation (Stepp 2000). The front-page is what the consumer sees first, so
8
it is also a marketing tool to fuel sales. The editor, among other duties, approves or
disapproves a headline to go with a story and its content. Gilmore (1976) also discuss in his
book Modern Newspaper Editing, the problems that editors face when creating interest in
stories and warn that editors should use care when deciding how to depict headlines.
Gilmore states that while editors have the power to change or reword an author's headline
they should refrain from the temptation to exaggerate or misrepresent the content of the
article.
MEDIA AS A POLITICAL TOOL IN HISTORY
Pulitzer winner Paul Starr in his book The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of
Modern Communication (2004), outlines the formation of media as a tool for political ideas,
and the proliferation of those ideas. Early sensationalism fed the fuel of revolution in
France, and again in the New World as the colonies rebelled against England. It was
revolutionary to think of equality for "everyone". Headlines and articles advocating equality
for the masses, especially the lower classes, were considered to be outlandish and
insurrectionist at the time. This kind of thinking in Europe spread to colonies and was based
on a general consensus of colonists who felt that they all shared in the idea of equal
opportunity in the new world. These views alienated the elite of the time who felt
themselves superior to the masses (Starr 2004).
The first newsletters and journals were appealing to the majority of people who
endured and lived under similar circumstances. As the revolutionary war progressed, so did
the size and scope of the information network. The need to both inform and solidify the
public opinion was political and not commercial in its mission, a point often overlooked in
history. Starr states that it can be argued that each stage of media development in the
United States, previously thought to be fueled by technology or the free market, also had
strong political origins. The development of the networks themselves lies solely with
political entities. Funding of technologies like the telegraph, telephone and eventually
wireless television, come from groups and individuals with political power (Starr 2004).
9
NEWSPAPERS AND THE SENSATIONAL NATURE OF NEWS AND
HEADLINES
Years before the American Civil War began journals, pamphlets, and story books
sensationalized and dramatized the exploration and expansion westward. Glorification of
pioneers and criminals alike, fueled a fascination with the west that lasted well into the
beginning of cinematography and the birth of movies. Gunfighters, bandits, lawmen and
the sort found themselves in many front-page headlines of eastern newsprint. The high risk
and dangerous nature of the west was sensationalized, fictionalized and used to create
profit for the early producers of media (Brown 1986). While debate over journalistic
standards began around the same time, the development of the Society of Professional
Journalists did not occur until 1901; and the formation of the Society did little to change
media practices of the day (Brown 1986).
Throughout the early part of twentieth century, technology expanded from the
telegraph to radio and then to film. After the end of the first World War, no one could have
predicted that most of the twentieth century would be one of exponential technological
development. However, by the beginning of the second World War, the United States
would have a leading grasp on the influence that film and media could have on public
opinion, and more importantly to those leading the war effort and public morale.
The relationship between political entities and the media is most evident during the
period surrounding World War II. Never before, nor after, have the goals of both the
government and the media seemed to coincide so succinctly. The use of political messages
in the media, to create nationalistic feelings and support for the war effort was widespread
in both allied and axis states (Davies 2006). The decline of the newspaper in post war
America was in part due to the increased use of radio and television. By 1965, former
subscribers had many different alternatives to the traditional daily newspaper (Meyer
2004).
During the late 1960s and throughout the Vietnam War, the media tried to
transform itself to suit American sentiment, but cultural clashes and national divisions
created niches in the news market. Sensational headlines in both newsprint and video
10
dominated the daily news and evening broadcast news. Nick Ut, working for the associated
press as a reporter, covered the napalm bombing at Mai Lai. Ut captured a photo of a
burned child running down the street. J. M. Hamilton and George A. Krimiski in their 1996
book, Hold the Press! describes the dilemma editors have when determining whether or not
to use sensational leads or images, when faced with the decision to publish the Mai Lai
tragedy photos. Ut’s photo showed full frontal nudity, as well as the charcoaled and burnt
skin of a little girl. Editors believed that this type of photo would upset and even outrage
many readers, who would have considered it inappropriate for public consumption. The
editors decided to print the picture. In the case of Nick Ut, the picture won a Pulitzer, and
became one of the primary images of the war (Hamilton and Krimsky 1996). Sensational
information potentially increases sales, and informs the public, but may come with some
ethical considerations, but even fears of a public backlash rarely stop editors from
publishing horrific or grotesque images or stories.
War is a common area of sensational studies. Andrew Blake's 2009 work examines
news coverage of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack and the media "frenzy" and
"speculation" that followed. Blake examines the use of wartime rhetoric, and
sensationalism during the first years of the War's in Afghanistan and Iraq. Blake shows how
sensational stories of journalist beheadings, casualty and bombing reports and other
sensational stories remained dominant in coverage for years. While appearances of
government and military media blitz's in the form of briefings and press releases declined
quickly in the first year. It is the non-sensational nature of military briefings, which supports
the statement that non-sensational stories will not be reported on as often, and therefore
the saliency of public opinion, in those perspectives will low.
Having discussed a brief history of the media, as well as some of the financial
reasoning behind the focus on sensational, it is equally important to explore in more detail
the role that individual socio-political agendas have upon this process. It is during the
prioritization of news, that some events are overlooked or bypassed, and when editors add
emphasis to support their political agendas. Some stories are bypassed either because they
are deemed not relevant or unimportant. More importantly, some stories may be sidelined
11
because the story may support causes or opinions contrary to the editors opinions
(Karolides 2006). Further, the prioritizing of stories applies even more to the front-page of a
paper, where only the most dramatic and sensational or special of events is reported
(Caldwell 1932; Hodgson 1993).
SOCIO-POLITICAL AGENDAS': HEADLINES AND MEDIA EXECUTIVES,ELITES AND EDITORS
Walter Cronkite, the well known CBS anchor, in a speech given in early 2000, stated
that he was "deeply concerned" about the state of media responsibility in America. He
further explains that editorial practices and mega mergers via acquisition of media sources
by a few powerful entities creates an environment of self censorship or worse yet,
corporate censorship. Cronkite states that the policy of placing the needs of advertisers and
corporate interests above the priority of producing "reliable information"... "deteriorates
the Press and democracy itself" (Cronkite 2000).
Walter Lippmann's 1922 work Public Opinion, is an often referenced work for
editors, journalists and academics alike. Lippmann's book is a subjective description of the
importance of forming public opinion, through debate, editorial practice and the collection
of data to support positions and validate change in policy. Lippmann believed that the
public was capable of forming sound opinions on issues, and that as consumers in a buying
public they would be attracted to the most accurate sources of information. Further,
Lippmann was a well practiced debater and used his position to advocate for his political
views, as this research will explore later. Lippmann used his position as editor of the New
York Times to bring attention to the issues that he found most relevant. He saw no ethical
boundary in maximizing dramatic events to create support for his views and causes (Neuzil
1996).
HEADLINES AND POLITICAL CHANGE: A CASE STUDY
Mark Neuzil in his book, Mass Media and Environmental Conflict (1996), describes
how sensationalism and sensational events affect change in political thought and policy.
This is directly relevant because this case involves all of the factors we have discussed, the
12
role of editors and elites, sensationalism in headlines and a change in public opinions that
led to policy changes in government.
As the United States was developing through the industrial revolution, factories and
industries were booming. So were the environmental impacts on the people and the
environment. While people at that time may have worried and wondered about the effects
of the chemicals and pollution coming from the many factories, there was no consensus for
change, no prevalent public consciousness.
Neuzil points directly to the sensational nature of industrial tragedies, and the
sensationalism in newspapers that brought to the surface a new awareness or “idea” of
environmental issues. These opinions were a result or a byproduct of the industrial
revolution, and were becoming a dominate issue in many local communities but had not
manifiested as a solid national sentiment. Workplace issues and safety concerns
increasingly dominated industrial workers concerns and politicians and media moguls tried
to tap into this public sentiment. In a period historians refer to as the Muckraker period, of
the late 1800s and early 1900s politicians began to realize the media was their best tool
against opponents. The earliest of these mudslinging contests were based on issues
surrounding the industrial changes most everyone was experiencing.
Neuzil states that it was the highly dramatic nature of headlines that sparked public
outrage, and was the precursor to change. Headlines that depicted the death of women
workers in the factory, headlines that told of children sick and dying from factory
byproducts and headlines that pointed to the rich and privileged owners of companies as
the culprits of these tragedies.
Neuzil discusses how several key elites of the media and interest group societies join
in alliances that stimulated a change in American consciousness. Neuzil studies seven cases
involving an idea of the environment. The role of the media elite, well connected and
influential people working together with specialized interest groups that eventually lead to
change. The development of Yosemite as a National Park, the case of the Radium Girls, the
San Francisco Damn Project, the ethyl leaded gas debate and the dramatic events of killer
smog in Dora Pennsylvania were all cases that shared similar influencing factors, like the
13
involvement of the media, elites, and interest groups; however, it is these individuals and
interest groups ability to use sympathetic stories, editorials and rhetoric to seduce the
public into supporting their points of views, that proved the most important aspect of
political change in the formation of an political- environmental movement.
Neuzil points out that the sensational nature of the stories, the emphasis on
dramatic events, the strife and suffering of persons just like the average reader that initially
allowed for change to occur, even if that change took a substantial amount of time. Of the
cases that Neuzil explored, it is the case of the "The Radium Girls" that sheds light on the
power that editors have to shape headlines and how headlines stimulated public interest.
Editors in conjunction with other groups who shared a "vested interest" or agenda used
money and connections to create a change in public opinion. In the case of the "Radium
Girls verse Standard Oil", it is the sensational nature of women dying from unknown causes
that first enticed readers. Eventually, all of the women in the case had died or suffered
years of illness before their deaths; historians agree that this case demonstrates how the
media could inform citizens whose opinions did effect change.
Neuzil follows the story of Grace Fryer, who along with other women, whounknowingly suffered Radium poisoning while performing what was said to be"perfectly safe" tasks and duties. In 1917 Fryer started working at the RadiumCompany in Orange, New Jersey. She, along with other women painted the dialsof watches with Radium mixed white paint, which would glow in the dark. Neuzildiscusses how society had little understanding of radium or the effects ofradiation. Radium was the fad substance of the day; among other things it wasused by girls to paint their fingernails, and was considered a miracle cure forcancer. The girls who worked in the factory, would lick the paint brush tip tokeep it sharp and pointy for detailed work. These women were never told thatRadium was dangerous, instead told that there was no danger at all. Therewere, at the time, several legitimate authors stating that radium was dangerous,nonetheless most of American still considered radium to be harmless. GraceFryer started worked in the factory for three years, and quit in 1920, two yearslater her health, along with many of the other girls began to deteriorate.
Even though the truth about radium was available for those with theexpertise to locate it, mainstream media was not paying much attention to theissue related to Radium. What coverage there was supported the belief thatradium was harmless. Grace Fryer and the “Radium Girls”, as the media calledthem, had two primary allies on her side, the Consumers League and a publichealth doctor Alice Hamilton. They had little money for which they could launch
14
a campaign from and very little resources at all. For years Hamilton searched fora lawyer to take this case, and eventually in 1927, an attorney Barry Reed, ofNewark agreed to take the case against U.S. Radium.
Scientist working for the U.S. Radium Co. stated that the girls were gettingsick from something else, in the case of the first worker to die; Amelia Maggia,Radium Co. experts claimed that Maggia had died of syphilis. Berry brought inthe medical examiners from both New Jersey and New York, and found that MissMaggia had in fact died from Radium poisoning. Alice Hamilton however, whohad been working for years to help clean up the mess of the industrialrevolution, felt that winning just this one single battle would go a long way in hergreater war. Hamilton wanted workers reform, in the form of workplace safetyand employee rights, if she could get the news out into the public, she believedmore people might be spared.
When Walter Lippmann, long time friend to Alice Hamilton and editor of theNew York World a liberal newspaper focused on worker and public issues, heardabout the victory in court, which proved that Maggia had died from the Radium.Lippmann rallied around the “Radium Girls”; Lippmann was so disgusted by thestory he had heard from Alice Hamilton that detailed the horrid health problemsthese girls were enduring, he began a series of editorials bashing Standard Oiland U.S. Radium. With the evidence showing Radium as the cause of the deathsand suffering Lippmann published opposing and informative editorials, whichcaused public outrage, and public opinions that favored regulating the workplacebegan to swell.
More and more frequently scientist and medical professionals began tospeak-out about the negative effects of Radium. The more the story wascovered the greater the public demand was for justice, enough so that U.S.Radium felt necessary to offer a settlement to the “Radium Girls”. The “RadiumGirls” did accept a deal, for much less than they originally wanted. However, it isthe effect of their efforts that historians see as having a larger impact onworkplace and factory reforms (paraphrased from Neuzil 1996).
In the stories of the Radium Girls, there was first and foremost, highly dramatic and
sensational headlines, photographs and detailed descriptions off the horrific effects of
radiation on the body that sparked public interest. The media helped to sustain the interest
in this issue because readers were repeatedly captivated by the sensational stories. The
two sides of the story were very different with experts from both sides giving opposing
evidence. On the one hand U.S. Radium scientists were saying that there was no danger.
On the other hand, sensational reports of the "Radium Girls" dying or withering away were
run repeatedly. There was according to Neuzil: a trend of thought or an "idea" of a cleaner
15
safer workplace taking shape in America. Workplace issues were common in news stories
at the turn of the century, and sensational stories rallied those with little or no social or
economic power to vote according to these issues (Neuzil 1996). This story highlights the
importance of headlines in political change and reinforces the argument that a study of
political sensationalism is not just an area for journalism students, but also students of
political science.
16
CHAPTER 4
THE WHIMSICAL NATURE OF THE PUBLIC: A HISTORICAL
REVIEW
Samuel Popkin in his work, The Reasoning Voter (1994), examines more closely the
mythic idea that the American public is whimsical and quick to change their minds starting
with a review of the Federalist arguments about the public, and public opinions. Since the
end of the American Revolution, and throughout the development of the U.S. Constitution,
arguments over how to structure the new government raged furiously. One argument that
is at the center of the debate is the belief that the public was unable to wisely choose or
understand government policy, and generally speaking questioned the average person’s
knowledge and understanding of what a society needed from finance and law to political
and international affairs. The Federalists, primarily Alexander Hamilton, James Madison
and John Jay generally felt that the new American public were easily misled and subject
more to passion than to logical reasoning (Campbell 1960; Popkin 1994) . This belief would
support the argument that sensational stories would easily and quickly affect the reader
and thus the voter. The Federalists, therefore, believed that it was their role as elected
officials to choose policies for their whimsical publics (Page and Shapiro 1992).
MYTH OF CAPRICIOUS CHANGE
Political science is concerned with the public's policy preferences and how change
occurs. Do the voting public suddenly change their voting habits? Does public opinion
affect the behavior of politicians? Are the voters that read sensational headlines whimsical
and quick to change, or do these readers rely first and foremost on their party affiliations
when forming an opinion?
Change did not occur overnight or even quickly in the before mentioned cases; in
the ethyl leaded gasoline debate, it would take nearly a hundred years before actual
legislation would end the use of leaded gasoline. Page and Shapiro (1992) in their book, The
17
Rational Public: 50 Years of trends in American policy preferences, examine the last century
of political thought and theories surrounding public opinion and voter motivations. Page
and Shapiro (1992) address what they call the "Myth of Capricious Change", a myth that
sustained the belief that the public was subject to frequent, rapidly and arbitrary shifts in
policy stance. Shapiro and Page offer that while short term fluctuations may seem
arbitrary, in longitudinal studies these fluctuations become a stable baseline of American
public opinion.
Page and Shapiro (1992) collected as much data as they could in an attempt to
compile the most comprehensive and long term study ever conducted. They collected data
from thousands of surveys conducted by different agencies nationwide. While they could
not get every possible survey ever conducted, they did manage to compile the largest study
of its kind when it was published. They searched the surveys to find any questions that
were repeated, similar or the same "word for word". From a pool of 10,000 research
questions they chose about 1128 questions to from which they could derive concise data.
The question taken from five large organizations dealt with and covered the entire
American political arena. They would measure the amount of change by a percentage of
6%, and 173 questions we classified as a subset because they were repeated the most
often, they could see if opinion fluctuated significantly back and forth in the short term.
The results showed that in the 1128 questions repeated there “was no significant opinion
change at all: this is, no change of 6% or more” (Page and Shapiro 1992). This suggestion
that opinions change little would seem to undermine Neuzil's position; however, there are
still opposing views on the role and formation of public opinion.
MODERN VIEWS OF INFORMATION
Information is a key component in two primary theories of political science: public
opinion and decision making. However, between these two different realms of political
science there is little agreement. There are four primary theories on how decisions are
made. Public opinion is torn between two schools of thought, one being that public opinion
has little effect on politicians or policy, and a second that believes the opposite. The only
common denominator among these competing theories is the importance of information
18
including misinformation. In the last twenty-five years many refinements have been
applied to these theories. While there is still some debate, and skeptics still stand firm,
much consensus has been achieved. It is generally agreed that opinions are formed with
the acquisition of new information or experience and then a preference or decision is made
(Campbell 1981; Key 1961; Oskamp and Shultz 2005; Popkin 1994).
There are according to Richard Lau and David Redlawsk in their 2006 book, How
Voters Decide, there are four main models describing voting behavior (see Figure 2). The
first model is that of "Rational Choice" based on maximum self-utility in which information
is actively sought out until the cost of seeking new information is too high. The second
model is the Columbia schools model proposed by Shapiro and Page, based on early
socialization and "Cognitive Consistency", in which information comes primarily from the
media and is weighed with previous biases acquired earlier in life. In the third model,
labeled "Fast and Frugal," individuals only seek out a little information for which they really
care and ignore everything else. The fourth of these models is "Bounded Rationality" in
which individuals only seek out as much information as they need and use cognitive
shortcuts and decision heuristics to make decisions. Each of these models could include
headlines as a source of information, regardless of how that information is cognitively
processed or how it pertains to voting decisions (Lau and Redlawsk 2006).
It is the common assumption of all four models that individuals receive information
that they use to make decisions; individuals either seek out information or receive
information passively. It is here that the relevance of headlines in political research is most
clear. Headlines are the shortest form of information acquisition for voters. Additionally,
headlines most often come in a form that is less than a complete sentence. This only
amplifies the number of meanings readers can ascertain form any given headline.
Headlines can be consumed with just a glance, and as was discussed by Blake in "Media
Generated Shortcuts” (2009), many readers do not read the article itself. Many readers
browse headlines and use limited information heuristics in the formation of an opinion. The
models above demonstrate the importance of headlines as information and validate a
political exploration into the content of headlines.
19
Figure 2. Decision making models.
Headlines are but one kind of shortcut that fill the void in a decision making process
due to a lack of interest in gathering more information. For this research it is most
important to say that regardless of how a headline is used, for readers of headlines it is an
information input into their individual decision making model.
20
CHAPTER 5
METHODS SECTION
The primary source for the research method is taken from H. Russell Bernard's,
Social Research Methods : Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches (2010). Bernard
Discusses content analysis in chapter 12, when he informs researchers that "content
analysis does not have to be complicated to be effective" (Bernard 2010). Bernard
describes a grounded theory approach, identifying the categories and concepts that emerge
from the text surrounding this research. Bernard instructs researchers to search for the
presence and absence of themes when reviewing data. Once Identified these themes
become nominal level variables.
THEME GROUPINGS
This analysis addresses two themes in newspaper headlines. Political and
Sensationalism, two global level groupings of political and non-political, and two sub-
groupings of sensational and non-sensational. The process of coding for politics is taken
primarily from taken from Richard C. Hofstetter and David M. Dozier (1986) in their study of
misinformation. While their study separated content into 4 global level groupings and this
study has only two; their study also formed a simpler sub-grouping matrix of sensational or
non-sensational.
DEFINITIONS AND VARIABLES
The main grouping of political is defined for this study as; a headline that is political
in nature, it must discuss some aspect of politics or political institution; a political headline
is a headline that mentions some aspect of political parties, interest groups, campaigns,
government institutions and policy, political polls, politicians, candidates, elections and or
other national or local political events; all other headlines will be classified as non-political
including headlines that mention business and economics , crime and corruption, human
21
interests, entertainment, social and sports events, personalities or celebrities or any other
non-political person or event.
The sub-grouping of sensational is defined by Hofstetter and Dozier (1986) as
including, "crime, violence, disasters, accidents or vignettes about individuals or groups...".
Sensational is defined by Merriam-Webster's Colligate Dictionary (1998) as "arousing,
attempting to arouse", "...quick and intense.. stimulus or feeling of emotion." For the
purposes of this research political headlines must contain some level of sensational wording
or vocabulary. Sensational headlines are headlines which use dramatic emphasis, to
stimulate or create interest in a story. Some natural events are sensational by nature, but
even those stories contain some entertainment value and may be sensationalized. All
headlines regardless have a probability of being sensationalized or exaggerated with prose
or rhetoric as outlined in the literature review.
Other models of sensational measurement have been done using ordinal measures,
to gauge a level of sensationalism, these studies demonstrated coders find stories of
interest to be more sensational than those with no interest. Therefore, to control as much
as possible for this bias and to facilitate inter-coder reliability, this research will use a simple
model of two nominal variables (Blake 2009; Table 1).
Table 1. Nominal Variables
SENSATIONAL- 1
NON-SENSATIONAL- 2
POLITICAL1
1-1 1-2
NON-POLITICAL
2
2-1 2-2
SAMPLE
Media companies have had to face the ever growing population of internet users,
user groups and sharing networks. As discussed, in order to maintain some profitability,
22
newspapers' and other media resources have tightened their copyright securities and now
charge for archive access. Unfortunately, that makes gaining access to images of front-
pages difficult and expensive. Some free sources exist on the internet and libraries carry
microfilm of newspapers, but those run a year or so behind print editions; as discussed by
Jeffrey Peake in his 2007 article, "Presidents and Front-page News: How America's
Newspapers Cover the Bush Administration." Peake's research was limited to single day
selection, as offered by Newseum a online newspaper museum, which offers one day
limited access to front-page images of approximately 700 newspapers; Peake was forced to
choose from the available days only. The dates for this sample however, were selected at
random, eliminating the use of Newseum as a data source for this study.
A random start date was generated by using a bingo set. The year of 2010 was
assigned to allow for easiest access to recent front-pages and to make the data pool as
recent as possible; the numbers 1 to 12, and then 1-31, were spun and two numbers
selected to correspond to a month and day, date. From the date of January 5, 2010 and for
a two week period after, newspapers were selected to an end date of January 18, 2010. As
in Peake's study (2007), a list of newspapers ranked by circulation was obtained as reported
by U.S. News and World Report (Wikipedia 2010). Due to limited resources and time,
fifteen of the top thirty newspapers were selected at random to represent the population.
The newspapers in the sample are The Boston Globe, The Chicago Times, The Denver Post,
The Detroit Free Press, The Houston Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times,
The Philadelphia Inquirer, The San Diego Union Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The
Newark Star Ledger, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, and all images were
collected between September 10th and November 17, 2010.
The front-pages reviewed come in many different designs, some will be three or four
columns wide with both headlines and running lines sometimes referred to as headers or
"deck runners" (Peake 2007) For the purposes of this study headlines or "deck runners" in
bold font or larger font, will be included in the sample. Images were collected and the
headlines of each page highlighted and numbered. A total sample size of 196 pages and
975 headlines were collected. Some images were not accessible; 14 pages in total were
23
missing from the sample. These images of front-pages could not be located without paying
a fee, which exceeded the budget for this research.
CODING CONTROL
To control for bias coders were randomly assigned a single newspaper to code at a
time. Additionally coders were given a twenty minute tutorial, with notes and examples
before coding began. Additionally, coders were not asked to code for content that had
been sensationalized, but rather were instructed to code for any indicator of a sensational
nature. Coders were shown an ordinal measure ranging from slightly sensational to
extremely sensational, and told that any indicator including those or in between should be
considered as sensational.
During this sample, there was a extremely large earthquake in Haiti. The headlines
of this date should demonstrate a larger magnitude of sensational headlines than a day
without such a sensational and dramatic event, but were not controlled for, or removed
from the data set.
INTERCODER RELIABILITY
In this research there are only two cases to measure: political content and
sensational or not. When examining headlines only and not the content of an article it is
difficult to know the true nature of the content. With limited time and resources it would
be a fallacy to think that any single individual would know the name of every politician in
every city or in every race that could possibly be discussed in a sample of many national
newspapers. Further, even if a very knowledgeable researcher could without error correctly
code every headline without checking an articles content, the ability for other academics to
reproduce or re-conduct the experiment would be difficult. Even for myself, I had to check
the content of some articles because I could not determine the exact relevance of some
headlines. Many hours were spent determining the content of each headline, while far less
time was required to quickly judge whether a headline was sensational or not.
The primary question which this researcher faced was which of the inter-coder tests
to use, Holsti's r, Scotti's pi or even perhaps Guetzkow's U? Matthew Lombard and Jennifer
24
Synder-Duch of Temple University in their 2004 work, "Practical resources for assessing and
reporting intercoder reliability in content analysis research," outlines the strengths and
weaknesses of Holsti and Scotti's tests. The final consensus is that neither is "better" than
the other, and both are equally used in the realm of academia. It was this researcher's
opinion that both would support the survey methodology of simplicity and less
categorization, therefore both tests were conducted. Additionally, while Guetzkow's U does
not take into account the possibility of chance agreements in cases like where there are
there are a small number of categories. Guetzkow's U would be at least sufficient and is
suitable to the simplest of exploratory endeavors. While Guetzkow's U can lead to
questions of reliability in retesting, it is still a valid method of testing matching percentages
of unified data. With no definitive solution to the issue as to which reliability test to use,
this research will examine all three of above mentioned techniques.
Holsti's r is a test of the agreement between two coders in that r = 2M/N1 + N2,
where “M is the number of coding decisions on which the two judges are in agreement, and
N1 and N2 refer to the number of coding decisions made by judges 1 and 2, respectively”
(Lombard and Synder-Duch 2004). Guetzkow's U is a measurement of the disagreement in
that U=C₁-C₂/C₁+C₂ where C is the observed occurrences or a instance (Lombard and Synder-
Duch 2004) Lastly, Scotti's pi includes a measure for the probability that agreement may
happen from pure chance in that pi = (C₁/C₂)-probability of chance / 1- probability of
chance; or in other words, pi = % observed agreement - % expected agreement / 1 - %
expected agreement (Kennedy 1998; Krippendorff 1980).
Holsti's r = 2(167)/174+167 = 334/341 =.979
Scotti's pi = (167/174) - (.50) / 1 - (.50) = .918
Geutzkow's U = 174-167 / 174+167 = .0205 inverse .980
This yields a Holsti r score of .979 for agreements of sensational headlines, a Scotti's
pi score of .918 which includes a measure of .5 for the likelihood of accidental agreement
between two measures, and a Guetzkow's U score of .02 with a 98% reliability. All three
measures indicate that the observance of sensationalism can be reproduced in future
research.
25
CHAPTER 6
RESULTS
The contingency chart shown below summarizes the results and their proportional
frequencies. Of the 975 headlines collected, 701 (72%) were sensational and 274 (28%)
were not. Clearly demonstrating that the majority of headlines are sensational or
sensationalized. Of the 247 (25%) headlines coded as political content we find that 174
(70%) of political headlines were coded sensational and 73 (30%) were not, again
supporting the hypothesis that political headlines are also more often sensational or
sensationalized. However, there seems to be no evidence that political headlines are more
likely to be sensational than any other type of headline (see Table 2).
Table 2. Proportional Frequencies for Nominal Variables
SENSATIONAL1
NON-SENSATIONAL
2
TOTALS
POLITICAL1
174 (.25) (.70) 73 (.27) (.30) 247(.25)
NON-POLITICAL
2
527 (.75) (.72) 201 (.73) (.28) 728(.75)
TOTALS 701 (.72) 274 (.28) 975(1.0)
A Chi square test with a alpha of .05 in a single sided test, with a critical value of 3.84
yielded a Chi Square score of .341 and means that the null hypothesis cannot be rejected
and that these two variables are truly independent of each other, or simply that a change in
one does not indicate a change in the other.
26
EXPLORATORY RESULTS
While this research does not directly make hypothesis about the levels of
sensationalism or political content beyond their proportional relationships, analysis of the
data shows that the daily mean and median number of headlines per page is 5 and the
mean number of sensational headlines per page was 2; specifically the mean number of
political headlines per front-page was 1 as was the mean number of sensational political
headlines on front-pages. In layman's terms when a reader picks up a newspaper he or she
will on average see at least one sensational political headline and that headline is likely to
be sensational or sensationalized.
An exploration of data by individual paper for a two week period shows that some
papers squeeze more headlines on to the front-page than others in the sample, as the chart
below demonstrates. The New York Times, Philadelphia Times and the San Diego Union
Tribune regularly have more headlines than the rest of the sample. Additionally, some
papers have more political content than others, The New York Times and the Washington
post have far more political content than the rest of the sample. However, all of the
newspapers in the sample demonstrated that non-political content still dominates the
majority of all coverage. Figure 3 shows the frequency of content by paper.
Figure 3. Frequency of content by paper.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
BG CT DP DFP HC LAT NYT PI SD SF SL ST USA WSJ WP
TotalH
TotalPol
TotalNP
27
Figure 4 gives a visual depiction of the levels of sensational material in each of the
papers in the sample. It clearly demonstrates the results that the majority of headlines
throughout the sample (72% of the entire sample) is sensational or sensationalized content.
Further, hand in hand with the papers that had the most political content, the NYT and the
WP both had the highest frequencies of political sensationalism. Only two of the papers in
the sample, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Denver Post, had even close the equal
amounts of sensational coverage.
Figure 4. Frequency of sensationalism by paper.
The most interesting of the exploratory results is revealed when the ratio of
sensational content to non-sensational content is measured. The sample clearly revealed
that the majority of all political content is more often of a sensational nature as compared
to other types of headlines. While 75% of all political headlines where coded as sensational,
the ratio of political sensationalism to other headlines was much lower at only 33%, and
over all content, the level of sensational non-political headlines to non sensational political
headlines in aggregate was 39%, as seen in Figure 5.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
BG CT DP DFP HC LAT NYT PI SD SF SL ST USA WSJ WP
PolSens
OtherSens
NonSens
28
Figure 5. Ratio of sensational to non-sensational content by paper.
CONCLUSION
It appears that levels of sensationalism have not decreased since Caldwell's 1932
study of metropolitan newspapers. In fact this study would seem to suggest that the use of
sensationalism has increased in the last 80 years. With the development of the Internet,
smart phones and other electronic resources, the competition for readers or content
consumers will undoubtedly increase. If trends continue levels of exaggeration and
sensationalism will more than likely flourish. As competition increases and the business
information of changes it will be increasingly difficult for researchers to have cheap and
easy access to historical images and content, not just of newspapers but of other forms of
media. In this researchers opinion, I find this quite troubling.
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
BG CT DP DFP HC LAT NYT PI SD SF SL ST USA WSJ WP
PSNS
PSOS
SNS
29
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