News in an Age of Competition: The Case of Sensationalism in Dutch Television News, 1995–2001

Interest in News and Politics—or Situational Determinants? Why People Watch the News

“…Although RTL Nieuws (a commercial TV news service) is increasingly popular since its launch in 1989, the public service equivalent (NOS Journaal) still attracts a larger audience (SKO, 2008b). These two main news programs are similar in presentational style and selection of issues (Hendriks Vettehen, Nuijten, & Beentjes, 2005). The evening newscasts have an airtime of about 20-30 minutes, and are not interrupted by advertising.…”

The Impact of Melodramatic News Coverage on Information Recall and Comprehension

“…Other scholars speak of infotainment, the trend toward the exacerbation of entertainment in factual programming, thus blending the informative and educational elements of journalism and the appeal of entertainment (e.g., Lozano 2004;Nguyen 2012;Thussu 2008), and others prefer to use the term tabloidization to refer to the decline of high-quality journalistic coverage due to the appropriation of the style of popular media (e.g., Blumler and Gurevitch 1995;McManus 1994). In the case of television, these trends have been linked to commercial interests in the broadcasting industry, with increasing airtime given to spectacular, sensational, or melodramatic news even in public, non-commercial channels (Lozano 2004;Vettehen, Nuitjen, and Beentjes 2005), with emphasis on attractive visuals and emotions over social significance (Lo and Cheng 2015;Thussu 2008), as a means to get higher ratings.…”

The Danger in Sexism: The Links Among Fear of Crime, Benevolent Sexism, and Well-being

“…As news reports of crime become increasingly sensationalized (at least in the US and Europe; Hendriks Vettehen et al 2005;Scott and Gobetz 1992;Slattery et al 2001), it is important to investigate the consequences of the increased prominence of violent crime. Therefore, utilizing a racially diverse U.S. undergraduate sample, in Study 1 we test whether an individual's fear of crime is positively associated with chivalrous beliefs but negatively linked to psychological well-being.…”