WHEN NEWS HURTS

Abstract

A content analysis of more than 3400 news items published in national and regional Dutch (quality) newspapers, in combination with ethnographic audience and production research, has allowed us to explain when, how and why news can hurt. A longitudinal ethnographic case study of two highly mediatized urban areas shows how residents claim to lose touch with everyday reality as a result of continuous one-dimensional and sensationalized news coverage of their neighbourhood. This case study also illuminates how participatory media enable residents to negotiate, make sense of and give meaning to alternative, more “realistic” readings of everyday life. Finally, the research suggests how professional journalistic routines might have to change in order to prevent news from being unnecessarily painful: from citizen participation to citizen facilitation, from an accent on negative news and a critical tone of voice to doing justice to the multilayered reality of neighbourhoods, from a focus on extraordinary events to explaining everyday occurrences.

Keywords:

• audience studies
• content analysis
• ethnography
• hyper local journalism
• journalistic routines
• participatory media

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Tanja Dreher for extensive conversations about this subject. Special thanks also for the constructive remarks of two anonymous reviewers. Assistant researchers Jolien Arendsen, Mariska van der Sluis and Mark Merks contributed substantially to this research and I am grateful for their input. The paper profited in addition from critical remarks by Ton Brouwers, Diana Kreemers and Eva van Mossevelde. The study is part of an ongoing research project “Reinvention of Quality Journalism in the Digital Age” conducted under the auspices of CAmeRa at the VU University of Amsterdam. Irene Costera Meijer is the director and principal investigator of the programme. Part of the research was subsidized by the initiators of U in de Wijk and the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Neighbourhoods and Social Integration (WWI).

Notes

1. The neighbourhood television project called U in de Wijk (You in the Neighbourhood) was developed in partnership with VU University in Amsterdam and Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in Zwolle. This project involved working with both its initiators and its sponsors: housing corporation Mitros, the city of Utrecht and regional public broadcaster RTV Utrecht.

2. For an extensive description of the quantitative and qualitative content analysis, see the appendix of the research report: http://www.windesheim.nl/~/media/Files/Windesheim/Research%20Publications/111006_Een_leesbare_wijk_De_impact_van_wijktelevisie_32.pdf.