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The Role of Sensationalism, Tabloidisation and Diversity in News Coverage of
Immigration and Attitudes: Public and Commercial Television News Compared
Laura Jacobsa & Cecil Meeusenb
University of Leuven
[email protected], [email protected]
Paper prepared for ECPR General Conference, Université de Montréal 26-29 August 2015
- First draft, please do not cite -
Abstract
Public and commercial news have a distinct logic and adhere to different goals. In this paper,
we evaluate the effect of this duality in the case of television news coverage on immigration and ethnic
minorities. First, using survey analysis, we investigate whether individuals with a preference for public
versus commercial television news differ in their attitudes toward ethnic minorities and immigrants.
In a second step, we hypothesize that this attitudinal gap is reflected by differences in content between
both types of broadcasters. Relying on a content analysis of Flemish (i.e. the Dutch-speaking region
of Belgium) television news (2003-2013), we compare coverage of ethnic minorities and immigrants
between public and commercial news. We consistently find that individuals with a preference for
commercial news hold more negative attitudes toward ethnic minorities and immigrants. The content
analysis shows that, despite the overall negativity bias in coverage, commercial news focuses more on
sensational news content, stressing negativity and conflict, and contains more tabloid characteristics
like episodic news coverage and soft news topics. In line with its democratic function, public television
news offers a more positive view on ethnic minorities and immigrants. We propose that these
differences in news content can offer an explanation for the attitudinal gap between public and
commercial news consumers. In this regard, we conclude that public broadcasters still have an
important tolerance-enhancing and informative role to play in society.
Key words: Ethnic minorities, Television, Public service broadcasting, Commercial news,
Sensationalism, Tabloidisation, Anti-immigrant sentiments
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The gradual shift to more sensationalism and ‘tabloid’ characteristics in news coverage
is a well-documented phenomenon (Esser, 1999; Grabe, Zhou, & Barnett, 2001; Norris, 2000;
Slattery, Doremus, & Marcus, 2001). From a democratic perspective, scholars have expressed
concerns that this trend may lead to a loss of quality and may eventually even undermine news
media’s traditional democratic and ‘enlightening’ functions (Blumler & Gurevitch, 1995).
Indeed, in democracies, news media have the goal to inform citizens about social and political
issues, such as immigration and diversity (Iyengar, 2009). Studies show that, generally, in
Western Europe public opinion toward ethnic minorities and immigrants is negatively biased
(Ceobanu & Escandell, 2010; Rustenbach, 2010). Prior research has emphasised patterns of
negative stereotyping of ethnic minorities and immigrants in news content as an important
contextual determinant of negative attitudes (Boomgaarden & Vliegenthart, 2009; Schemer,
2012; Schlueter & Davidov, 2013).
Past studies, however, have adopted a uni-dimensional approach when assessing news
depictions of ethnic minorities and immigrants and its relationship with public opinion, without
systematically differentiating between various types of news broadcasters or specific news
content. However, the ‘dual effects hypothesis’ (Aarts & Semetko, 2003; Strömbäck &
Shehata, 2010) suggests that not all news media may yield similar effects. More specifically,
there is evidence in Western Europe that individuals differ in their civic attitudes and behaviour
according to their preference for public or commercial television news (Holtz-Bacha, 1990;
Hooghe, 2002; Schmitt-Beck & Wolsing, 2010). This observation has traditionally been
attributed to the distinct logics and goals both types of broadcasters adhere to, which would be
reflected in their respective news programming content. Public service broadcasting (PSB) is
expected to fulfil a democratic role in society and therefore adopts a ‘public logic’, whereas
the commercial news production process is more dominated by a market-oriented logic (Brants,
1998). The specific way both types of broadcasters cover news on immigration and ethnic
minorities may reflect these different logics (Van den Bulck & Broos, 2011). Commercial news
content is expected to stress more sensational news features, such as a focus on emotional
expressions and conflict, and to contain more ‘tabloid’ characteristics than public television
news content (Esser, 1999; Vettehen, Nuijten, & Beentjes, 2005). In line with its goal to serve
public interest, public television news is anticipated to depict ethnic minorities and immigrants
in a more positive way, focusing more on background and context, and stressing the added
value of diversity for society (Van den Bulck & Broos, 2011).
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The hypothesis about different in news content on public and commercial broadcasters,
however, has never been formally evaluated in the case of ethnic minority and immigrant
coverage. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to assess whether there is a difference in
negative attitudes toward ethnic minorities and immigrants between individuals with a
preference for public versus commercial television news. In a next step, we suggest that this
attitudinal difference can be attributed to differences in specific news content on both
broadcasters. We assess this proposition by relying on an in-depth content analysis of Flemish
television news (2003-2013), systematically comparing specific news content on ethnic
minorities and immigrants between commercial and public television news. This is done by
applying insights from the debate on the quality of news and journalism, such as trends toward
sensationalism and tabloidisation, to news coverage on immigration and ethnic minorities. As
such, we aim to investigate whether systematic differences in news content are related to the
presumed gap between public and commercial television viewers in terms of attitudes toward
immigrants and ethnic minorities.
A Dual Effects Hypothesis: Public and Commercial News Compared
Attitudes toward ethnic minorities and immigrants
Western Europe has a long-standing tradition of public service television (Bardoel &
d’Haenens, 2008). Despite substantial cross-national differences in the modalities of public
service broadcasters, several common features can be distinguished (Syvertsen, 2003).
Generally, public service media can be considered as ‘a major pillar of the democratic process’
(Iyengar, 2009). Public broadcasters are usually at least partly state-funded, which liberates
them to a certain extent from commercial pressures and diminishes the dependence upon
advertising revenues (Syvertsen, 2003). In return for this privilege, they have a vested mandate
to deliver a range of public services while adhering to democratic principles and values
(Curran, Salovaara-Moring, Coen, & Iyengar, 2010; Holtz-Bacha & Norris, 2001). The
provision of citizens with balanced information and education on societal issues are core
functions (Aalberg, van Aelst, & Curran, 2010). Moreover, they are often entrusted with the
stimulation of pluralistic values and the reflection of a nation’s diversity (Rogers, O’Boyle,
Preston, & Fehr, 2014). Commercial broadcasters do not have a similar obligation to serve the
public interest and, by lack of public financial support, need to be market-oriented, increasing
their dependence on profit and audience maximization (Allern, 2002; McManus, 1994). By
lack of official guidelines, larger freedom and a profit-making logic, commercial news has less
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incentives to report on minorities and diversity in a balanced manner (Rogers et al., 2014).
Moreover, theories in political communication suggest that, due to competition, commercial
broadcasters are susceptible to report more sensational news stories and to disseminate more
soft news, such as crime and ‘tabloid’ stories, stressing news values such as conflict and
negativity (Norris, 2000; Vettehen et al., 2005). An increased tendency toward sensationalism
in immigration coverage has been documented in commercial news (Benson, 2002).
Media effects studies gauging the impact of television news consumption on a range of
civic attitudes and behaviours, have taken these differences in objectives as a starting point to
examine the possibility of a ‘dual effects hypothesis’ (Aarts & Semetko, 2003; Strömbäck &
Shehata, 2010). The underlying idea is that public broadcasters, due to their public service duty
and outspoken function in informing citizens, may be more effective in fostering civic attitudes
and behaviours than commercial broadcasters. This hypothesis has been confirmed in various
Western European contexts: contrary to exposure to commercial television and commercial
news, frequently watching public television and public news is positively associated with
political knowledge, interest and social capital (Aarts & Semetko, 2003; Holtz-Bacha & Norris,
2001; Hooghe, 2002; Schmitt-Beck & Wolsing, 2010; Strömbäck & Shehata, 2010). Although
previous research found a close relation between news content and public opinion on ethnic
minority immigrants (Boomgaarden & Vliegenthart, 2009; Schemer, 2012), differences
between types of news broadcasters remain an underexplored area in this regard. Therefore,
the primary aim is to assess whether broadcaster preference is related to attitudes toward ethnic
minorities and immigrants. We hypothesize the following:
H1: Individuals who watch public television news have more positive attitudes toward
ethnic minorities and immigrants than individuals who watch commercial television news.
News content
In this paper, we suggest that attitudinal differences can be attributed to differences in
news content, which reflects the different logics of both broadcasters. More particularly, we
rely on concepts of political communication – such as sensationalism, tabloidisation, and
reflection of democratic values by balanced and objective reporting – to identify how news
content between public and commercial broadcasters may diverge in a way which could
contribute to an attitudinal gap between its viewers. It is important to note here that we only
focus on actual news content as especially substance is considered crucial (Walgrave & De
Swert, 2002), and do not consider any differences in formal news features. Moreover, we
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restrict ourselves to those ‘sensational’ or ‘tabloid’ aspects that are applicable on news
coverage on ethnic minorities and immigrants.
First, an important aspect of news content on ethnic minorities and immigrants which
may diverge between public and commercial news is its ‘sensational’ nature (Benson, 2002).
Sensationalism is a vague and hotly-debated concept with many definitions (Grabe et al., 2001;
Slattery et al., 2001; Uribe & Gunter, 2007). Studies often relate sensationalism to an emotional
and dramatic discourse by defining it broadly as ‘emotionally arousing features in the news’
(Grabe et al., 2001; Pantti, 2010; Uribe & Gunter, 2007). It can be applied to content and formal
news features (Grabe et al., 2001). With regard to content, news topics such as crime, conflict,
terrorism, disaster, human interest and showbiz are considered to be ‘sensational’ because they
can stir emotions (Davis & McLeod, 2003; Slattery et al., 2001). In a related manner, another
aspect of sensationalism refers to the prominent position in news coverage of emotional
expressions, e.g. explicit emotional appeals, at the expense of a more rational discourse (Pantti,
2010; Uribe & Gunter, 2007). Generally, sensationalism has a negative connotation, as it is
often associated with a decline in news quality due to the increased market-oriented logic of
news production and journalism (Allern, 2002; McManus, 1994; Plasser, 2005). Some political
communication specialist have expressed concerns that more dramatic and sensational styles
in news reporting may even undermine news media’s democratic functions (Blumler &
Gurevitch, 1995). There is indeed evidence that in commercialized environments, news
contains more sensational elements (De Swert, 2007; Djerf-pierre, 2000; Slattery et al., 2001;
Vettehen et al., 2005). Especially crime tends to a more common ingredient on commercial
television news compared to public news because conflict is considered attractive,
straightforward, accessible and easy to follow and can therefore count on large audiences
(Lowry, Nio, & Leitner, 2003). We hypothesize that:
H2: commercial television news content on ethnic minorities and immigrants contains
more elements of sensationalism than public television news content.
Another potential difference between public and commercial television news – and
somewhat related to sensationalism – refers to the degree of ‘tabloidisation’. There is no
uniform definition for tabloidisation; the concept originates from the ‘tabloid’ press, and is
used to denote a process toward an increased presence of ‘tabloid characteristics’ in news
media (Hauttekeete, 2007). These tabloid characteristics can refer to specific content or formal
features. In terms of news content, tabloidisation corresponds with a shift in news values from
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more serious, ‘hard’ news topics’, e.g. politics, economics, to more trivial, ‘soft’ news topics,
e.g. crime, human interest (Esser, 1999; Franklin, 1997). Hard news is usually considered an
event or issue considered important, whereas soft news tends to be less important or urgent
(Palmer, 1998). Moreover, hard news would be mainly directed at public affairs reporting and
being informative, whereas soft news has mainly an entertainment-value (Baum & Jamison,
2006). Tabloid news generally reduces the complexity of issues, prefers a simplified reading
of events, and lacks in-depth coverage (McLachlan & Golding, 2000; Sparks & Tulloch, 2000).
Furthermore, it has a tendency to focus on personalized narratives to enhance feelings of
closeness and identification (Bek, 2004). The shift toward tabloidisation can be situated in the
broader academic debate on the democratic task and responsibilities of news media. Generally,
the overall concern is that tabloidisation would undermine journalist quality (Grabe et al.,
2001). By focusing less on hard news, citizens would not be adequately informed anymore,
and therefore lack the necessary tools to formulate a well-balanced opinion. Furthermore,
although personalized news coverage may be instrumental in capturing the audiences’ attention
and increasing news accessibility, it fails to place news in a broader societal context and to
elucidate complex matters (Dahlgren & Sparks, 1992). In his seminal work ‘Is Anyone
Responsible’, Iyengar (1991) showed that when individuals were exposed to episodic news,
highlighting exemplars and covering news from a more personalized angle, in contrast to
thematic news stressing the social context, they were more likely to attribute responsibility to
individuals, disregarding societal factors. The increase of tabloidisation is largely attributed to
the increasing market-orientation of news media (Blumler & Gurevitch, 1995; Dahlgren &
Sparks, 1992). It focuses on news-selling and the belief that the audience has lost its interest in
‘hard’ news and prefers soft, ‘easy to digest’ news with a high entertainment value; key aspects
of commercial news reporting (McManus, 1994). Past studies have indeed found that
commercial news tends to incorporate more tabloid characteristics than public service media
(Bek, 2004; Norris, 2000). We therefore hypothesize that:
H3: commercial television news content on ethnic minorities and immigrants contains
more elements of ‘tabloidisation’ than public television news content.
Finally, a last mechanism is more inherent to the nature of the topic under study, i.e.
immigration and ethnic minority reporting, and refers to a potential difference in commitment
between both types of broadcasters to offer a balanced representation of ethnic diversity. An
aspect of public broadcasters’ democratic role is their specific duty to promote a tolerant
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climate for various types of minority groups and to reflect the diverse nature of society in their
programming (Rogers et al., 2014). The multiculturalist and pluralistic initiatives implemented
by public broadcasters across Europe has been the focus of several studies (Engelbert & Awad,
2014; Titley, 2014). In several countries and regions, most notably the UK, the Netherlands
and Flanders, the stimulation of on-screen ethnic diversity and balanced minority portrayals
belong to the explicit responsibilities of public broadcasters (Van den Bulck & Broos, 2011).
Some public broadcasters even maintain concrete target figures to increase minority visibility.
In this regard, especially public service television news is said to fulfil a crucial role in creating
and sustaining pluralist democratic societies in Europe (Iyengar, 2009). Some policies, such as
the Charter of Diversity of VRT, i.e. the Flemish public broadcaster, stipulate the adoption of
an open and qualified perspective, underscoring mutual respect for every identity (VRT, 2014).
Moreover, it stresses the added value of diversity by emphasizing the merits of expanding
horizons: exclusion, stereotyping and discrimination have no place. This all suggests that
public broadcasters will make an effort to report on minorities in a positive manner, and will
try to limit references to problems and negative consequences. It is evenly important, in this
regard, to point out that commercial broadcasters generally do not have this specific obligation
(Van den Bulck & Broos, 2011). Due to their larger freedom, the lack of directives, and their
market-oriented logic, they have less incentives to reflect diversity and to depict minorities in
a balanced way, rendering these newscasts more prone to patterns of stereotyping. We
hypothesize that:
H4: Public television news content on ethnic minorities and immigrants contains more
positive elements than commercial television news content.
The Flemish television market
The media system in Belgium parallels its institutional structure. Belgium is a federal
state in which three language groups are present, i.e. the Dutch, French and German-speaking
communities. Over the years, many competences have been transferred to the regional level
via a gradual federalisation process (Deschouwer, 2009). Since the 1970s, media policy falls
under the communities’ authority, which led to the development of two large and distinct media
systems: the Dutch- and French-speaking community each have their own newspapers,
tabloids, radio and television stations, and media consumption across the linguistic border is
limited (Sinardet, 2013). In this paper, we rely on evidence from the Flemish media system.
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Flanders presents an excellent case study for several reasons. First, Flanders has a dual
broadcasting system where a strong public broadcaster co-exists with commercial players in a
fragmented and competitive television market. In their typology of media systems, Mancini
and Hallin (2004) classify Flanders as a democratic corporatist model: early development of a
mass press, high levels of professionalism, guarantees in terms of press freedom, and the
presence of a strong public broadcaster (Aalberg et al., 2010). The two main players on the
television market are the public broadcaster VRT (‘Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep-
organisatie’) and the commercial broadcaster VTM (‘Vlaamse Televisie Maatschappij’). Their
flagship newscasts attract large market shares every evening. In 2014, ‘Het Journaal’ on VRT
reached a market share of 52.6%, while ‘Het Nieuws’ reached a market share of 42.8%. No
other Flemish newscasts attract similar numbers of viewers (CIM TV, 2014). Second, more
importantly, the state-funded public broadcaster VRT is commissioned by the Flemish
government to fulfil several requirements with regard to diversity in programming, staff and
audience. In 2003, VRT adopted the Charter of Diversity, institutionalizing its commitment to
reflect diversity on and off screen and to promote tolerance in society (Van den Bulck & Broos,
2011). VRT maintains target figures in terms of on-screen visibility of minority groups (5%)
and intends to report on minorities in a nuanced and objective manner. As such, VRT explicitly
adopts an inclusive and pluralistic strategy as part of its general aim to serve the public interest.
The commercial broadcaster VTM does not have similar obligations to take up a gatekeeping
role in stimulating tolerance and in disseminating equal and balanced minority coverage.
Data and methods
Survey analysis
Data. The survey data used to compare immigrant attitudes between public and
commercial news viewers stem from two waves of the Belgian Election Panel Survey 2009-
2014. In 2009, a geographically stratified sample of 4,831 adult Belgians was randomly
selected from the National Register. Fieldwork resulted in 2,331 completed face-to-face
interviews (48.3%). In 2014, the original 2009 sample was updated and 4,488 addresses could
be recovered. After three reminders, 1,542 (34.4%) valid self-administered questionnaires were
returned. For the purpose of this study, only respondents from the Flemish subsample who
indicated that they had watched either public or commercial news were included in the final
sample (N 2009=1,099, N 2014=709, N panel 2009-2014=439). Unfortunately, anti-immigrant
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prejudice was not measured identically at both time points, restricting us to cross-sectional
instead of panel designs.1
Measures. Preference for public or commercial news was measured by asking
respondents which television newscast they had watched most often during the last two weeks.
In 2009, this was administered with a closed-ended question and respondents had to select from
a list of four broadcasters (33.6% commercial news, 66.4% public news). In 2014, television
news preference was registered with an open question that was coded by the authors afterwards
(26.0% commercial news, 74.0% public news). Only 10% of the respondents switched news
broadcaster between 2009 and 2014 (5% from public to commercial news, and 5% from
commercial to public news): preference for a certain television newscasts is very stable.
To check the robustness of the relation between television news broadcaster and
immigration attitudes, we use a broad operationalization of anti-immigrant prejudice and assess
different indicators. The Belgian Election Panel was not constructed for prejudice research,
limiting the number of clear prejudice items. However, because of the detailed media
consumption measures and the availability of the necessary control variables, we deem this
survey suited to address our research questions. In 2009, two prejudice proxies were used: (1)
Attitudes toward asylum seekers (‘Belgium should close its borders for asylum seekers’ – five-
point Likert scale agree-disagree), (2) Attitudes toward immigration (‘Immigration contributes
to the welfare of our country’ – five-point Likert scale agree-disagree). In 2014, more suitable
items were available: (1) Attitudes toward asylum seekers (‘Belgium should close its borders
for asylum seekers’ – five-point Likert scale agree-disagree), (2) Economic threat due to
immigration (‘In general, it is good for the Belgian economy that people from different
countries come to live here’ – five-point Likert scale agree-disagree – reversed scaled), (3)
Cultural threat due to immigration (‘In general, the cultural life in Belgium is undermined
because people of different countries come and live here’ – five-point Likert scale agree-
disagree) (Riek, Mania, & Gaertner, 2006b), (4) Positive feelings toward immigrants (Feeling
thermometer 0-100 scale, higher values indicating more positive feelings).
Importantly, to avoid spurious effects, a whole range of control variables were included
in the analyses. Thanks to the panel design, all control variables were identically measured in
1 Attitudes toward asylum seekers was measured both in 2009 and 2014 (although only with one item: ‘Belgium
should close its borders for asylum seekers’) and was used as a proxy of attitudes toward immigrants. Cross-
lagged analyses showed that preference for public vs. commercial news in 2009 (Time 1) was a stronger predictor
of attitudes toward asylum seekers in 2014 (Time 2), than that attitudes toward asylum seekers in 2009 (Time 1)
was a predictor of the preference for public vs. commercial news in 2014 (Time 2), providing some tentative
evidence of a causal mechanism from news consumption to prejudice, and not the other way around.
10
2009 and 2014. We controlled for gender, education level (six-point scale, 1=‘no degree’,
6=‘university degree’), age, religious denomination (dummy coded: religious vs. non-
religious), economic position (‘how would you describe the economic situation of your family
during the last year’ – five-point scale, 1=‘it deteriorated strongly’, 5=‘it improved strongly’),
left-right ideology (11-point scale, 0=‘left’, 10=‘right’), political interest (11-point scale,
0=‘not at all interested’, 10=‘extremely interested’), frequency of television news consumption
(six-point scale, 1=‘never’, 6=‘daily’), and frequency of other news media consumption
(newspaper, news websites, radio news, six-point scale, 1=‘never’, 6=‘daily’).
Content analysis
Data. Data for the content analysis were collected via the Electronic News Archive
(ENA), a digital news archive founded and financed by the Flemish government. Since 2003,
the ENA collects, codes and analyses every prime time newscast of VRT and VTM. For every
news item, a team of professional coders provided a general description (generally the exact
text as read by the news anchor while announcing the news item), several keywords and the
main themes. Inter-coder reliability tests are conducted on a regular basis and proved to be
satisfactory(De Smedt, Wouters, & De Swert, 2013).
Sample. To select all television news coverage on ethnic minorities and immigrants, a
string of relevant search terms was developed. Using this search string, all news items
containing a reference to immigrant or ethnic and religious minority actors and issues in either
the overall description or keywords were selected, which corresponds with a dictionary-
approach in quantitative content analysis studies (Young & Soroka, 2012)2. This search string
was based on previous research on immigration news coverage (Boomgaarden & Vliegenthart,
2009). Only domestic news was included (ter Wal, d’ Haenens, & Koeman, 2005). Applying
these search criteria on the prime time newscasts of the two main Flemish television stations
for the period 2003-2013 resulted in 6,074 news items. In order to have a sufficiently powerful
sample size 27% of the total number of news item (n = 1,630) were randomly selected to code
into more detail according to the studies’ purposes.
The observation period was from January 2003 until December 2013. This is partly due
to data availability, but also entails several important methodological and theoretical benefits.
2 The key words grasped both references to immigrants and immigrant-related issues, as well as references to
ethnic minorities by selecting mentions of nationality, ethnicity or minority group status, as well as integration
and minority issues, such as racism, religion and integration. Full search string can be requested from authors.
11
First, inclusion of eleven years of news content permits to reach a sufficiently large sample size
to study trends in coverage by public and commercial broadcasters. Second, in the selected
time period there have been societal developments and events with regard to immigration and
minority policy, allowing for enough variation in the news content. Finally, including eleven
years of news coverage corresponds with a large socialization potential, making it possible to
sketch a clear picture of how ethnic minorities and immigrants are portrayed in television news
during one decade. In this way, news coverage for ethnic minorities and immigrants can be
seen as a prevailing narrative by aggregating news stories, or as a general ‘information
environment’ (Boomgaarden & Vliegenthart, 2009; Jerit, Barabas, & Bolsen, 2006).
Coding and Inter-coder reliability. The coding was conducted by a team of
extensively trained researchers. During the training, the study’s goal, general coding guidelines
and the coding scheme were explained in detail. Several examples were collectively coded.
Subsequently, coders were assigned to code a number of test items to apply the training
materials. In a follow-up training session, these codings were compared to identify difficulties
in the coding. In case of ambiguity, the team watched the whole news story and jointly decided
on the coding. In line with common procedure, inter-coder reliability was evaluated by double-
coding a subset of the sample. For all variables used in the analysis, coefficients for inter-coder
reliability were well above the minimum value .67 with an average Krippendorff’s alpha value
of .77, and an average percent agreement of 90.0%.3
Variables. The unit of analysis for all variables included in the content analysis was
the news item. The news content variables were operationalized as indicators of three main
explanatory mechanisms: sensationalism, tabloidisation and balanced representations of ethnic
diversity and immigration (for an overview of the indicators and hypotheses see Table 1).
Sensationalism. Two indicators of sensationalism were coded: the presence of negative
verbalised emotions (fear, anger) and references to conflict. First, negative verbalised emotions
were taken up, because as Vettehen et al. (2005) note ‘explicit references to basic emotions by
anchors, interviewees, or bystanders appeal to basic human needs’. Indeed, sensationalism has
been described as an increase in emotional appeals (Grabe, Zhou, Lang, & Bolls, 2000; Pantti,
2010; Uribe & Gunter, 2007). Based on theories on the role of emotions in perceived intergroup
3 Inter-coder reliability per variable was as follows. For negative verbalized negative emotions: α=0.81, 91.2%
percentage agreement (PA). For conflictual interactions: α=0.87, 92.3% PA. For the type of frame (episodic vs.
thematic: α=0.70, 86.2% PA. For news topic (hard vs. soft) α=.78, 84.3% PA. For negative consequences, α=0.75,
92.3% PA. For positive consequences, α=0.86, 98.8% PA. For references to problems, α=0.71, 93.9% PA. For
cause of problems, α=0.79, 87,7% PA. For tone, α=0.69, 87.6% PA.
12
threat (Mackie, Smith, & Ray, 2008; Riek, Mania, & Gaertner, 2006), anger and fear were
selected as basic emotions. In the codebook, each basic emotion was described by means of
several equivalents (e.g. for ‘anger’, ‘angry’, ‘fury’, ‘rage’, for fear ‘afraid’, ‘fear’, ‘terror’).
The presence of negative verbalized emotions was scored if any of these equivalents were
identified in the news item (Vettehen et al., 2005). This corresponds with a dictionary-based
approach when coding sentiment in political texts (Young & Soroka, 2012). An explicit verbal
reference to anger or fear thus needed to be present in the news item. Second, conflict is also
deemed a key characteristic of sensational news content. Conflict is the expression of negativity
as a news value, easily lends itself to emotional appeals, and has the potential to grasp the
audiences’ attention (Wang, 2012). The presence of conflict was operationalized as conflictual
interactions between minority group and majority groups in the news item. First, it was coded
whether there was any interaction at all, and then it was coded whether the interaction could be
considered cooperative, conflictual or both. Conflictual interactions could range from very
subtle expressions, e.g. a verbal dispute, to more obvious conflict, e.g. physical aggression.
Tabloidisation. For tabloidisation, there were two indicators: the amount of episodic
versus thematic framing, and the reference to soft versus hard news topics. First, episodic and
thematic frames were coded (Iyengar, 1991), because these concepts measure the extent news
contains elements of personalization, a key ‘tabloid’ characteristic. In thematic news coverage
attention is paid to the overall background and general context of an issue. Episodic news
depicts concrete events that illustrate issues, and offer a more individualized and personalized
account of events. Using this definition, coders had to indicate whether a news item was framed
primarily from an episodic or a thematic perspective. Another key aspect of ‘tabloidisation’ is
the shift from a focus on ‘hard’ news to ‘soft’ news. Off course, all news items contain
references to immigration or ethnic diversity actors and issues, but they have links with other
topics as well. As the soft vs. hard news distinction is fluid, subject to criticism and not
uniformly accepted, we adopt common elements from most definitions (Palmer, 1998; Baum
& Jamison, 2006; De Swert, 2004). Soft news are items with high-entertainment value, or
reporting on less important and relevant issues, whereas hard news is more focused on public
affairs and informing citizens. We consider stories on politics, the economy and social policy
issues (i.e. labour and rights) as ‘hard news’, and stories on crime, justice and terrorism as ‘soft’
news. Although many definitions of soft news include showbiz and human interest, it should
be noted that we deal with stories on immigration and ethnic minority issues and actors and
that this classification does not apply. In sum, ‘hard news’ stories were coded when news
13
stories contained references to politics (e.g. negotiations, government and parliament-related
issues, policy, elections), to the economy (e.g. welfare, economic growth, finance and monetary
policy), and to social policy issues, such as labour (e.g. labour policy, unemployment) and
rights (e.g. human rights, racism, equal rights). ‘Soft’ news stories were coded when news
stories contained references to crime and justice (e.g. criminal acts, trials) and to terrorism (e.g.
terrorist acts, radicalisation).
Balanced representation of ethnic diversity and immigration. This last explanatory
mechanism is inspired by the idea that public service broadcasters will adhere more to
democratic principles, reflect ethnic diversity and foster tolerance by disseminating balanced
depictions of ethnic minorities and immigration (Van den Bulck & Broos, 2011). As indicators,
we opted to include the tone of news coverage on immigrants and ethnic minorities, the degree
of problematization, as well as the reference to positive or negative consequences of
immigration and ethnic diversity. First, the tone or general ‘valence’ is considered to be an
important factor which can greatly impact evaluations as it adds an affective component to
messages (Sheafer, 2007). The tone of a television news item was coded using the following
question: ‘Overall, would you say the news item has a positive, negative, mixed or neutral
tone?’ (van Klingeren, Boomgaarden, Vliegenthart, & de Vreese, 2014). For example, a news
item stating that the balance of integration efforts for immigrants is successful, was coded as
‘positive’; a news item reporting on an ethnic minority involved in crime was coded as
‘negative’. Second, the degree of problematization of ethnic minorities and immigrants was
taken into account. To this end, it was coded whether a news item reported on a problem or
not. Subsequently, coders had to indicate whether ethnic minorities or immigrants were
portrayed as cause of this problem. Third, it was coded whether television news items referred
to positive and negative consequences of ethnic diversity or immigration. Positive
consequences could, for instance, refer to enrichment for culture or society, to economic
benefits (e.g. filling shortage occupation, increase of welfare) or commitment to respecting
human rights. Negative consequences could, for instance, refer safety issues (e.g. increase in
crime or terrorism), to cultural and religious contrasts and tensions, or to economic conflicts
(e.g. competition on labour market, increased welfare expenditure, illegal work and abuse of
social benefits).
14
Results
1. Survey analysis
To assess whether individuals who watch public news instead of commercial news have
more positive attitudes toward immigrants, we performed a range of regression analyses.
Results are presented in Table 2, and clearly confirm Hypothesis 1: individuals who watch
public television news are more tolerant toward the entrance of asylum seekers, immigration,
perceive less cultural threat and hold more positive feelings toward immigration than
individuals who prefer commercial television news. Only with regard to economic threat no
significant difference between public and commercial news could be observed, suggesting that
television content contributes less to economic motivations of anti-immigrant prejudice. For
economic threat, one’s own economic situation is more important than news consumption.
Frequency of television news consumption is not significantly related to attitudes toward
immigration, except for a small relation with economic threat. Frequency of other media
consumption has no significant relations whatsoever. Finally, regarding the control variables,
individuals with high political interest, high education and a left-wing orientation report less
prejudice.
15
Table 2. Public versus commercial news and attitudes toward ethnic minorities and immigrants.
Note. Entries are standardized regression results. Listwise deletion. a p < .1; * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .00
2009 2014
‘Belgium should
close its borders
for asylum
seekers’
‘Immigration
contributes to the
welfare of our
country’
‘Belgium should
close its borders for
asylum seekers’
‘Economic threat
of immigration’
‘Cultural threat of
immigration’
‘Positive
feelings toward
immigrants’
B p-value B p-value B p-value B p-value B p-value B p-value
Public tv news (ref. commercial news) -.133 *** .094 ** -.120 ** -.026 -.105 ** .174 ***
Gender (ref. men) .023 .019 -.017 .000 -.071 a .042
Education level -.243 *** .159 *** -.191 *** -.120 ** -.210 *** .126 **
Age in years .045 -.057 .021 -.057 .087 a -.103 *
Economic position -.016 .041 -.040 -.134 *** -.031 .114 **
Religious denomination (ref. no) .033 -.025 .052 -.024 .044 -.030
Left-right ideology .182 *** -.142 *** .227 *** .188 *** .182 *** -.192 ***
Frequency tv news consumption .045 -.054 .073 a .101 * -.003 -.021
Frequency other media consumption -.022 .001 -.003 .018 .003 .000
Political interest -.126 *** .158 *** -.256 *** -.235 *** -.175 *** .197 ***
R² .198 .127 .224 .133 .182 .206
N 1,024 1,020 627 626 626 587
16
2. Content analysis
The survey analysis showed that individuals with a preference for watching public
television news have more positive attitudes toward ethnic minorities and immigrants than
commercial television news viewers. In a next step, we analyse whether we can find differences
in specific news content on immigrants and ethnic minorities between both broadcasters.
Overall, we expected news content on commercial television to be of a more sensational (H2)
nature, and driven by a tabloid logic (H3) than public television news content. We anticipated
that the latter would report on ethnic minorities and immigrants in a more positive way (H4).
The results are summarized in Table 1.
Figure 1 gives an overview of the differences between public and commercial television
in terms of sensational news content (H2). First, the presence of negative verbalised emotions,
is a common ingredient of television news coverage: approximately a quarter of all news stories
contains references to negative verbalised emotions, such as anger and fear. Still, we can
conclude that commercial television news on ethnic minorities and immigrants more often
makes explicit appeals to negative emotions such as anger (+8%) and fear (+7%) than public
television news. Second, references to conflict also present common features of news stories.
However, commercial television news contains more conflictual interactions than public news
(+8%). Hypothesis 2 is thus confirmed: commercial television news reports on ethnic
minorities and immigrants in a more sensationalist manner than public news.
Figure 1. Sensationalism in television news content on immigration and ethnic minorities
Note: Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals
22%19%
13%
30%26%
21%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Anger Fear
Negative emotions Conflict
Sensationalism
Public news Commercial news
17
Figure 2 displays differences between public and commercial television in terms of
tabloid news content (H3). First, when considering the type of framing, we can see that across
broadcasters, episodic frames are more prevalent than thematic frames. This means that news
stories on ethnic minorities and immigrants are less often covered from a general, thematic
perspective, but mainly focus on individuals and specific, episodic events. Still, commercial
television news more often adopts an episodic perspective (+10%) than public news, whereas
public news more often offers a thematic perspective (+9%). This confirms that commercial
news more often offers a personalized vision, focusing less on general background and context.
Second, when assessing which news topics occur in conjunction with ethnic minority and
immigration actors and issues, we observe that overall most news on immigration tend to be
related to issues on crime and justice, followed by politics. This means that ‘soft’ news topics
often find their way to news coverage on ethnic minorities and immigrants. It is also telling
that terrorism is more central to news content than stories on the economy. Again, as expected,
we can observe that commercial news more often contains ‘soft’ news topics, whereas public
contains more ‘hard’ news topics. However, although this holds for soft vs. hard news in
general, this does not apply to all news topics equally. With regard to soft news topics,
commercial news reports more often on crime and justice (+11%), but there is no difference
between public and commercial news in terms of terrorism. With regard to hard news topics,
public news reports more often on politics (+8%), labour (+4%) and rights (+4%), but there is
no difference between public and commercial news in terms of the economy. Overall, however,
we can draw the conclusion that commercial news content has more tabloid characteristics than
public television news content. It thus seems that public television news focuses more on
‘serious’ news and offers a more diverse supply of news topic, whereas commercial television
news more narrowly focuses on crime and justice. Hypothesis 3 is thus supported.
18
Figure 2. Tabloidisation in television news content on immigration and ethnic minorities
Figure 3 presents differences between public and commercial television news content
in terms of a balanced representation of ethnic minorities and immigrants. Overall, the main
conclusion is that television news is heavily negatively biased, with a negative tone, references
to negative consequences and elements of problematization being predominant. However,
again, there are differences between public and commercial television news. First, with regard
to news tone, we can conclude that public television news indeed more often has a positive
tone (+4%) and less often a negative tone (–9%) than commercial television news, although
positive news stories remain scarce overall. Second, although public and commercial news
more or less report evenly on problems, ethnic minorities and immigrants are less often
problematized and portrayed as cause of a problem on public news (–6%) than on commercial
news. Third, public television news more often mentions positive consequences (+6%) and less
often negative consequences (–9%) of immigration and ethnic diversity than commercial
television news. We can thus conclude that ethnic minorities and immigrants receive more
favourable coverage on public television news than on commercial news, confirming
hypothesis 4.
60%
26%
50%
9%3%
37%
15%21%
70%
17%
61%
8%3%
29%
11%17%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Episodic Thematic Crime &
Justice
Terrorism Economy Politics Work Rights
Framing Hard vs. Soft news
Tabloidisation
Public news Commercial news
19
Figure 3. Balanced representation of ethnic diversity and immigration in television news
content on immigration and ethnic minorities
64%
8%
90%
71% 71%
33%
73%
4%
92,00%
77% 77%
24%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Negative Positive Problem Immigrant cause
of the problem
Negative Positive
Tone Problematization Consequences immigration
Balanced representation of ethnic diversity and immigration
Public news Commercial news
20
Table 2. Summary of content analysis indicators and results4
Theory Indicator Hypothesis Confirmed
Sensationalism (H2) Negative verbalized emotions
Fear Public<Commercial Yes
Anger Public<Commercial Yes
Conflict Public<Commercial Yes
Tabloidisation (H3) Framing
Episodic Public<Commercial Yes
Thematic Public>Commercial Yes
Hard vs. Soft news
Soft news Crime & Justice Public<Commercial Yes
Terrorism Public<Commercial No
Hard news Politics Public>Commercial Yes
Labour Public>Commercial Yes
Rights Public>Commercial Yes
Economy Public>Commercial No
Balanced representation of
ethnic diversity and
immigration (H4)
Tone
Positive Public>Commercial Yes
Negative Public<Commercial Yes
Problematization
Problem Public<Commercial No
Immigrant/ethnic minority cause of problem Public<Commercial Yes
Consequences
Positive Public>Commercial Yes
Negative Public<Commercial Yes
4 It should be noted here that we have also assessed whether these trends hold over time, as some have pointed out that– due to commercialization and competition – a process
of convergence of public and commercial news may become evident. Conclusions are that generally commercial and television news follow the same patterns (i.e. when
commercial news focuses more on crime on a certain point in time, so does public television) and thus seem to react to the same real-life events. There does not seem to be an
overall evolution toward more similar news content over time or ‘convergence’. Furthermore, the differences between public and commercial television tend to be fairly
stable over time.
21
Discussion
This study contributes to the broader academic debate on the alleged decline in news
quality by assessing the role of sensational and tabloid styles of news coverage as potential
source of negative attitudes toward ethnic minorities and immigrants. We examined the
possibility of a ‘dual effects hypothesis’ (Aarts & Semetko, 2003; Strömbäck & Shehata, 2010)
by comparing news content and attitudes on ethnic minorities and immigrant between public
and commercial television news viewers. We hypothesized that differences in the goal
attainment of public and commercial broadcasters would be reflected in specific news content,
which in turn would give rise to an attitude gap between individuals with preference for
commercial over public news (and vice versa).
By means of a content analysis of news coverage of ethnic minorities and immigrants
(2003-2013) and public opinion data, we were able to shed light on this research question. First,
validated by various attitudinal indicators, we found evidence that individuals who prefer
public news hold more positive attitudes toward ethnic minorities and immigrants than
commercial news viewers, even when controlling for a whole variety of important confounding
mechanisms. Second, content analytical data seem to confirm that there are particular elements
in news content of both types of broadcasters which may offer an explanation for this attitudinal
gap. Public television news reports on ethnic minorities and immigrants in a more positive
manner than commercial news does: news more often has a positive tone, stressing positive
consequences and benefits of ethnic diversity and immigration for society. Commercial
television news, by contrast, contains more sensational and tabloid characteristics: references
to negative emotions (such as fear and anger) are more prevalent, conflict is more frequently
emphasized and news tends to be more personalized, containing less in-depth coverage and
background, instead focusing predominantly on ‘soft’ news topics, such as crime.
These findings fit in with academic literature assessing the potential detrimental effects
of television and news exposure on civic attitudes and behaviours (Aarts & Semetko, 2003;
Hooghe, 2002; Schmitt-Beck & Wolsing, 2010; Strömbäck & Shehata, 2010). As such, this
study corroborates prior conclusions that public television news may contain distinct features
or specific content elements, which are better suited to foster a civic mind-set. This has already
been shown with regard to political knowledge, interest, participation and social capital. In this
study, we expanded these insights with the conclusion that differences in news content on
ethnic diversity and immigration between pubic and commercial television possibly has a large
potential to shape public opinion on this topic as well.
22
The support of a ‘dual effects’ approach cautiously implies that – even in the current
era of commercialisation, diversification and austerity measures in the public sector – public
broadcasters may still have an important duty to fulfil in society. Whereas commercial
broadcasters seem to firstly approach television viewers as clients or consumers, public
television news seems to address them primarily as citizens. The role of public broadcasters in
stimulating democratic and civic attitudes and setting social norms, such as tolerance toward
ethnic minorities and immigrants, should thus not be easily disregarded. The evidence
presented here suggests there is still an important role to play for public broadcasters in helping
citizens to form an nuanced opinion on ethnic minorities and immigrants. Moreover, it also
highlights that initiatives explicitly taken to promote tolerance, such as the adoption of an
inclusive and pluralistic strategies (e.g. the VRT Charter of Diversity), seem to yield results
and pay off, although it is clear that there still is considerable scope for improvement.
Indeed, some qualification is in order. It should be noted here that differences between
public and commercial news, although significant and stable, remain fairly limited and that
overall both broadcasters do seem to follow similar patterns in news coverage. Public television
news, too, contained a large amount of sensational and tabloid news features, such as an
episodic style of reporting, and references to conflict, problems and crime. News content on
ethnic minorities and immigrants still continues to encompass many negative elements, and
pays only little attention to positive exemplars. The main conclusion simply seems to be that
this negativity bias holds less for public television news. Despite differences in television news
content between public and commercial news, it thus remains clear that the role of news content
as important determinant of intergroup relations should not be overlooked, and that also in the
future efforts should be directed at monitoring news content and its impact on public opinion.
Notwithstanding our contributions, there are several limitations that should be
acknowledged. First, an important caveat relates to the concepts of sensationalism and
tabloidisation. In our study, the emphasis was on differences between public and commercial
broadcasters in actual television news content. However, as pointed out in several studies, the
‘sensational’ or ‘tabloid’ nature of news can also be expressed in formal news features, such
as use of images or audio-visual cues (Esser, 1999; Grabe et al., 2001; Hauttekeete, 2007;
Slattery et al., 2001). Future studies may therefore want to elaborate on this and evaluate
whether we can also find this differences between broadcasters in more formal news features
Moreover, it should also be noted that – although we have taken up several indicators of
sensational and tabloid content about which there is relative consensus – there are many other
23
indicators which we were not able to analyse, and should be included in future studies. Second,
due to data limitations, it was not possible to integrate news content indicators in the survey
analysis. This forced us to adopt a two-step approach, in which we first evaluated differences
in attitudes between public and commercial television viewers, and in a second step compared
news coverage as a potential explanation. Therefore, our suggestion of news content as
explanatory mechanism for attitudinal differences between public and commercial televisions
news watchers remains tentative and needs further investigation. Nevertheless, our study is
one of the first to systematically address the hypothesized difference between public and
commercial news in the case of immigration and ethnic minority coverage. We conclude that
the distinct logic of both broadcaster types is crucial in understanding the relation between
media content and prejudice.
24
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