Thesis 15 ECTS credits – Journalism
The domestic is the elite
A quantitative content analysis on how news are valued in four national Costa Rican newspapers
Author: Liv Stjärnlöv Supervisor: Kristoffer Holt
Abstract
Author: Liv Stjärnlöv
Title: The domestic is the elite
Location: Linnaeus University, Kalmar Language: English
Number of pages: 52
My study has questioned recognized factors of news valuation in the context of Costa Rican newspapers, with the aim at getting greater understanding in how news are valued in Costa Rican newspapers and what factors contribute to making an event the main article of an issue. My research therefore is a snapshot at how the news valuation process is conducted in Costa Rica at the moment.
I furthermore went on to do a quantitative content analysis containing five theories of factors of news valuation, that I have theorised myself as a result of my research containing recognized factors of news valuation.
The data has been selected through a random selection process, and then collected via the national library in San José, Costa Rica. I then went on to carry through a
quantitative content analysis, containing 46 variables from recognized factors of news valuation and an additional five variables from my own theories, on the selected samples.
The variables in my analysis to a great extent tried questioning the theories of Judy McGregor, Henk Prakke, Håkan Hvitfelt and Galtung and Ruge.
The results show that some of the theories created by mentioned scholar do apply in the news valuation process in Costa Rican newspapers. It furthermore show that some factors, mentioned by the same scholar, to have great impact in the news valuation process does not at all impact the news value of an event in Costa Rican newspapers.
This study shows that there is cultural and geographical differences in how events are valued as newsworthy or not, and that the factors that are acknowledged as determining of news value in one region or country, may in fact not at all apply in another part of the world.
The results of my own theories show that there are differences in what factors that affect the news valuation process. My theories state that there are other factors that affect news values and that there can be opposing factors depending on in what
country/region/journalistic area the news are valued.
Keywords
Costa Rica, news values, news prioritization, sensationalism, Judy McGregor, Henk Prakke, Galtung and Ruge, Håkan Hvitfelt, La Nacion, La Republica, Diario Extra, La Prensa Libre
Acknowledgment
This bachelors thesis was sponsored by Sida, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, with a Minor Field Study scholarship.
It was also sponsored with a scholarship from the Linneakademien Forskningsstiftelsen.
The field study was carried out in San José, Costa Rica October 21st to December 19th 2014.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Linneaus University, Sida and Linneakademien Forskningsstiftelsen for granting these scholarships.
In doing this field study I have not only gained greater understanding of journalism but also a greater
understanding of our world, our cultural differences and our many similarities. You have given me the chance of a lifetime and I will always be thankful for this amazing opportunity.
Liv Stjärnlöv
Table of contents
1 Introduction _________________________________________________________ 1 1.1 The concept of news values _________________________________________ 1 1.2 Aim with this research _____________________________________________ 1 1.3 Background to this research _________________________________________ 1 1.4 Demarcation _____________________________________________________ 2 2 Previous research _____________________________________________________ 7 2.1 Research on news values ___________________________________________ 7 2.2 Judy McGregor ___________________________________________________ 8 2.3 Henk Prakke _____________________________________________________ 9 2.4 Galtung and Ruge _________________________________________________ 9 2.5 Håkan Hvitfelt __________________________________________________ 10 3 Theory _____________________________________________________________ 11 3.1 News values in Costa Rican newspapers ______________________________ 11 4 Purpose for conducting research _______________________________________ 13 4.1 Purpose ________________________________________________________ 13 4.2 Questions ______________________________________________________ 14 5 Method ____________________________________________________________ 16 5.1 Random selection ________________________________________________ 16 5.2 Biblioteca Nacional in San José, Costa Rica ___________________________ 17 5.3 Quantitative content analysis _______________________________________ 17 5.4 Loss of content __________________________________________________ 18 5.5 Statistical tools __________________________________________________ 18 6 Results _____________________________________________________________ 20 6.1 The general layout _______________________________________________ 20 6.1.1 The pictures ___________________________________________________ 20 6.1.2 The layout ____________________________________________________ 22 6.1.3 The domestic story _____________________________________________ 24 6.1.4 The inapropriate story ___________________________________________ 26 6.2 Judy McGregor, 4 contemporary criteria for selecting the news ____________ 26 6.2.1 Visualness ____________________________________________________ 27 6.2.2 Emotion ______________________________________________________ 27 6.2.3 Conflict ______________________________________________________ 28 6.2.4 The "celebrification" of the journalist _______________________________ 29 6.3 Henk Prakke ____________________________________________________ 29 6.3.1 Cultural distance _______________________________________________ 29 6.3.2 Geographical distance and temporal distance _________________________ 30 6.4 Galtung and Ruge, 12 factors _______________________________________ 31 6.5 The Håkan Hvitfelt, 10 criteria of news _______________________________ 36 7 Analysis ____________________________________________________________ 46 7.1 Individual characteristics of each newspaper ___________________________ 46 7.3 Answers to my questions ____________________________________________ 46
8 Discussion and summary _____________________________________________ 51 8.1 Factors of value _________________________________________________ 51 8.2 Suggestions of further research _____________________________________ 51 9 References__________________________________________________________ 53
10 Appendix __________________________________________________________ I 10.1 Appendix A: Complete list of answers to all 46 questions. _________________ I Replies in percent. ____________________________________________________ I
1 Introduction
In this section I aim to explain the background to my thesis and furthermore explain my choice of Costa Rica as a suitable country to conduct my field study in.
1.1 The concept of news values
The concept of news values is something that has been at the basis of several thesis for many years. Most research try to explain different methods of conducting news
prioritization and criteria that makes maintains a high value in news.
1.2 Aim with this research
My aim with my research is to bring something new to the table of how news values are practised and maintained in newspapers. I aim to do this by conducting a field study in Costa Rica, concerning domestic newspapers, and by applying well-known thesis in a quantitative content analysis. My focus is to determine which is the main article of each issue selected, and thereafter analyze what the main article consists of and what it's news values are.
1.3 Background to this research
I consider Costa Rica to be a journalistically interesting country in many aspects. The country is a stabile democracy with a high ranking in the Economist democracy index.
(The Economist, 2010)
Costa Rica also has a stable freedom of press and freedom of speech as well as a range of newspapers published periodically. In the latest Reporters Without Borders press freedom index Costa Rica is placed in 18th place of 179 countries, which places Costa Rica in 1st place in Latin America. (Reporters without borders, 2013)
The amount of illiteracy in Costa Rica is low, although poverty is rather widespread.
Never the less Costa Rica is undoubtedly a country in development. (UNPD, 2013)
Based on these facts I am interested in what way the newspapers in Costa Roca conducts it's news prioritization and how the newspapers are valuing it's news. Many more developed countries have financial difficulty with earning capacity in printed newspapers as an effect of the growing competition from internet and new digital media forms. This has effected the news values and factors such as sensational news, so called sensationalism, have taken up a larger part of the newspapers focus. (Rosén, 2005) I consider it to be of great interest to find out if sensationalism in news is a growing factor in Costa Rican newspapers as well.
1.4 Demarcation
I have chosen to focus my research on the four largest newspapers in Costa Rica, that fit the following criteria.
Have between 6-7 issues per week.
Are distributed throughout the entire country.
Aim to cover the news of the entire country rather than just a restricted area of the country.
This has resulted in the following selection of newspapers.
La Nacion (7 issues per week)
La Republica (7 issues per week)
Diario Extra (6 issues per week)
La Prensa Libre (6 issues per week)
1.5 Presentation of the newspapers
I have chosen to focus my research on four newspapers in Costa Rica, and I intend to present them in this section, with both facts and my personal perception of the newspapers through my research .
1.5.1 La Nacion
La Nacion was founded in 1946. (http://www.nacion.com)
The newspaper focuses a lot of it's news towards politics and political reforms that are taking place in society.
In my opinion La Nacion is a newspaper that focuses a lot of it's main articles on politics in all it's forms and the main article is often a large. It is the newspapers that in general has the largest main articles out of the four newspapers selected in this research.
1.5.2 La Republica
La Republica was founded in 1950.
(https://www.larepublica.net/app/cms/www/index.php?id_menu=33)
In my opinion, the newspaper focuses it's main articles on a vast area of subjects, but it is the one of the selected newspapers in this research that has the least amount of quotes in it's main articles. It is not uncommon that the main articles has no quotes at all, and therefore can be perceived as somewhat unfounded.
1.5.3 Diario Extra
Diario Extra was founded in 1979 and is a national newspaper that at times has had legal issues concerning the newspaper's daring way to publish sensitive images, which the newspaper often publishes in news regarding murders and accidents. The newspaper has a recurring section where they present a scantily clad woman, often in a number that is published towards the end of the week.
(http://www.diarioextra.com/, http://wfnode01.nacion.com/2011-07-27/Sucesos/pani- lleva-a-sala-iv--foto-de-colegial-muerto.aspx)
In my opinion, the newspaper focuses nearly all it's force on news that concern crime or accidents of some kind. The main article is often delivered with a set of visualizing images where you as a reader can se victims, wounded or deceased and/or the scene of the crime/accident. In the article information that might be viewed as sensitive, e.g. such as the victims names or the perpetrators name, are often published.
1.5.4 La Prensa Libre
La Prensa Libre was founded 11 June 1889 and it is the country's oldest continually published newspaper. (http://www.prensalibre.co.cr/)
In my opinion, the newspaper focuses the majority of it's news on a wide area of subjects, that often include politics and social issues, and the main article is often a lot smaller than compared to the main article in La Nacion and La Republica.
2 Previous research
In this section I want to explain further the background to the field of news values as well as pointing out where my thesis is of value in this field.
2.1 Research on news values
One of the most established models of news valuation is presented by Henk Prakke (Kommunikation der Gesellschaft, 1969). In this model Prakke shows that news values are determined by three factors: distance in time, geographic distance and cultural distance. This model have proven successful on many levels within the modern journalistic field, but some scholars have pointed out that the model is not complete.
Galtung and Ruge (1965) claims that news values are determined by twelve criteria and factors. Their article on the subject have gotten recognition over the years and been said to be very thorough. Their model among other things argue that news with a high value as a paradox shall contain something unexpected within the frame of the expected. They also argue that news concerning elite persons and elite nations are expected to be of greater interest to the readers.
Marina Ghersetti have a hypothesis that globalisation and commercialisation have been fundamental factors for the expansion of sensationalism and also the dramaturgical adaptation within journalism. (Nord, Strömbäck, 2004)
This theory argues that sensationalism can get a firm grip on journalism in general, because that it has potential to surprise it's readers with something concerning an elite person, and not necessarily because it contains news of great value for the democratic society.
Prakkes theory and Galtung and Ruges thoughts on news values have been scrutinized and debated by scholars over the years. Judy McGregor (2002) pointed out that there are more criteria that affects the value on news. McGregor claims that pictures, emotions and conflict are of value in the process of news valuation.
There are many theories on news prioritization. One theory is that there are two fundamental conceptions that navigates this process: "what the audience wants to get, and what news one considers that the audience should take part of, and not to take part
of" (Nygren, 2011. s. 228). The media scholar Håkan Hvitfelt also has a theory on how news are valued. He has developed a news value process that is controlled by ten criteria, and the more criteria the news consists of the higher the value of the news shall be. (Hvitfelt, 1985)
2.2 Judy McGregor
Judy McGregor concludes in her thesis that the twelve factors, that are suggested to heighten the probability of an event becoming news, are not complete and by some means might even be a bit outdated. In her thesis she presents four additional factors that play a key role in the heightening of an event as news. These factors are:
Visualness
With visualness McGregor claims that the more visual or the more an event satisfies the criteria's of visualness, the more likely it is to become news. It suggests that an event that is accompanied by pictures of the event heightens the value of the news.
Emotion
This factor McGregor claims to be closely related to the factor of visualness.
According to McGregor, the more an event exhibits emotion, through e.g.
pictures, the more likely it is to become news. This emotion can be portrayed through e.g. tragedy, survivors, victims, children and animals. The basis for this factor is the idea that pictures portraying such events have an emotional appeal and can evoke emotional responses in the audience.
Conflict
In the factor of conflict McGregor aims to point out that conflict as a format, rather than just the outcome of something negative, is a factor in the valuing of news. McGregor claims that without a conflict format, an A versus B, journalists cannot satisfy the need of fairness. This is typically noticeable in political
debates.
The "celebrification" of the journalist
McGregor states that the role of the journalist has evolved greatly since the 60's (when Prakke, Galtung and Ruge's thesis's where concluded) and that the role of the journalist today has been shaped by the new media platforms, such as the blossoming television news medias. This suggesting that the journalist today not only brings the consumer it's news, but that the journalist also be a part of the news, to be a source and presenter of the news. (2002)
2.3 Henk Prakke
The model of news values that Prakke has evolved is greatly accepted and acknowledged as thorough, in it's simple but effective manner.
The module is based on three factors, and the smaller the distance of the event is to the three factors, the greater news value the event has. The three factors in Prakkes model are:
distance in time
geographic distance
cultural distance
Worthy of notion is that this model does not take into account events that can be seen as sensational or unusual. (1969)
2.4 Galtung and Ruge
Galtung and Ruge claims that news values are determined by twelve factors and claim that the more an event satisfies the conditions of these twelve factors, the more likely the event is to be valued as news. The factors are:
1 Frequency
2 Threshold/ absolute intensity/ intensity increase 3 Unambiguity
4 Meaningfulness/ cultural proximity/ relevance 5 Consonance/ predictability/ demand
6 Unexpectedness/ unpredictability/ scarcity 7 Continuity
8 Composition
9 Reference to elite nations
10 Reference to elite people 11 Reference to persons
12 Reference to something negative. (1965)
2.5 Håkan Hvitfelt
According to Hvitfelt, the possibility of an event becoming news and even entering the front page of the newspaper increases the more the event concerns:
1 Politics, economy, crime and accidents and
2 if there is a short geographical or cultural distance to 3 events and conditions that
4 are sensational and surprising, 5 concerning certain elite persons and 6 are described simply enough but 7 are important and relevant,
8 unfolds during a short period of time but as a part of a theme 9 and have negative aspects
10 and elite persons as sources. (1985)
3 Theory
In this section I explain what theories lies behind my research and why they are a suitable choice to have as a foundation for my research.
3.1 News values in Costa Rican newspapers
I uphold that through research one can get a clearer picture of how scholars theories and models on news values and news prioritization are put into use in underdeveloped countries. This research can create a clearer picture of how news are valued in rate with the countries development.
I have a theory that the theories mentioned earlier are created with the newspaper landscape of a developed country in mind, but that when they are put into use the result can be quite different depending on the country in question. And that the differences can be all the more visible depending on to what degree newspapers in the different
countries are subject to competition from new media sources via the internet. The way a newspaper values and prioritises it's news says something about the journalists view both on the country and it's inhabitants, and the view on the newspapers position on the news market.
There are many theories on what is relevant for news values. In my research I have decided to focus on four theories that have been developed by previous scholars.
1. Henk Prakkes model for news values.
2. Galtung and Ruges twelve factors.
3. Judy McGregors theory on four more factors for the value of news.
4. Håkan Hvitfelt's ten criteria.
Furthermore I am also considering Marina Ghersetti's theory on the mechanisms of sensationalism (Nord, Strömbäck, 2004)
3.2 Testing my own theories
After completing my research of the theories concluded by Prakke, McGregor, Hvitfelt, Galtung and Ruge, I intend to test my own theories of factors that I believe may have an
impact on news valuation in Costa Rica. These factors will be tested on the same selected articles and in accordance with the same method as the rest of my research.
4 Purpose for conducting research
In this section I aim to explain the purpose of my research and which questions I aim to answer in this thesis, as a result of my research.
4.1 Purpose
The aim for my research is to study the news values and news prioritization in the printed newspapers in Costa Rica.
I want to study if Costa Rican newspapers, along with the countries development, are heading for the same problematic situation with earning capacity as many newspapers in more developed countries are in, and if they fear the death of newspapers. Or if Costa Rican newspapers, along with the countries development, battle the competition of the internet in an inventive manner. If the latter turns out to be the case, then that could lead to that newspapers in previous underdeveloped countries can keep a higher journalistic quality in comparison to newspapers in western countries, which have not yet battled the competition from the internet as successfully.
There is a range of research within the field of news values, but I claim that there is a lack of research on how these different theories and models are used in reality.
Especially in developing countries such as Costa Rica where illiteracy is low and there is a large selection of newspapers. I consider that my study therefore is relevant and that it has potential to point out specifics in Costa Rican newspapers views on news values.
I believe that there can be fundamental differences in how these theories are used depending on what position newspapers in different countries hold.
Research suggests that Swedish newspapers news bills have become more focused on sensationalism. (Rosén, 2005)
This along with the pressure to sell single copies in a situation where newspapers are at risk to lose out on readers in favour of new media platforms via the internet. For a country in development the situation may be different. This is exactly what I am
interested in studying. I want to research how newspapers in Costa Rica, in the midst of the countries development, views the value of their news and how the news are valued and prioritized in their newspapers at the moment.
It lies in the nature of journalism that information about differences in how news are valued in developed and under developed countries is of great importance. Just as it is important to find out how newspapers in under developed countries views upon their future. To gain greater understanding for how and by what means journalism is pursued in different countries contributes to greater opportunities for journalistic co-operations over national borders.
4.2 Questions
The questions that I aim to answer in my thesis are the following.
How are news valued in Costa Rican newspapers?
Does Costa Rican newspapers show tendencies of that sensationalism is a factor in the news values?
What does the most common main article look like in a Costa Rican newspaper?
And what does that say about the focus point of the news values in Costa Rica's newspapers?
Can there be other factors that influence the news valuation process in Costa Rican newspaper, than the factors and theories of the previous scholars included in my research?
4.3 Aditional news values
I furthermore intend to, through my research, conclude new news values that I suspect have an impact on journalism in Costa Rica. I intend to test these theories in a
quantitative content analysis in the same exact way that I will test the theories of previous scholars.
My own variables intend to answer the last question in section 4.2.
My theories formed as questions are the following:
1. Is the main article about politics or politicians in Costa Rica, and contains quoted Costa Rican politicians?
2. Is the main article about the accident, murder or other crime, and are visulized with images from the scene/event?
3. Is the main article about news that are domestic and specifically takes place in the capital?
4. Are numbers often written in the main article?
5. Is the article of individual politicians or political reforms that are planned or implemented, and written in a positive way towards the politician or political reform?
5 Method
In this section I aim to do a thorough description of the methods used in the field study that is the basis for this thesis. I also want to thoroughly describe the ways in which I have conducted the scientific analysis.
5.1 Random selection
To secure that the selected issues of newspapers involved in the quantitative content analysis would be scientifically secured, I chose to single out the issues using a random number generator.
To make the quantitative content analysis at a size that is large enough to scientifically say something about the news values as a whole, I chose to randomly select 14 issues of each of the four newspapers. This would conclude in up to two weeks of every
newspaper, two issues from Mondays, two issues from Tuesdays etc. to create two constructed weeks per newspaper.
The randomly selected dates could be any date from the 18th of November 2013 to the 16th of November 2014.
The process was the following: I used a random number generator that generated two numbers between 1-52. The first two numbers represented the two Mondays of the first newspaper. I then generated two more random numbers between 1-52, which would represent the two Tuesdays of the first newspaper. Then I continued in the same way until two numbers between 1-52 were selected for each of the seven days of the week, for each of the four papers.
The numbers 1-52 represented a week where the first week began November 18th 2013 and week 52 ended on November 16th 2014.
Then, by using a calendar, I looked up the exact date, such as e.g. the date of a Monday in week 27.
By using this method, I constructed two constructed weeks of randomly selected dates per newspaper. From each issue of a newspaper, I then aim to pinpoint which is the main article on the cover of the newspaper, and analyze what that article is in terms of qualities and compared to theories concerning news values. (Bryman, 2008)
5.2 Biblioteca Nacional in San José, Costa Rica
All the material that I needed to carry out my field study on Costarican newspapers could be found at the national library in the capital of Costarica, Biblioteca Nacional in San José. The newspapers could be obtained at the large archive that the national library has, that dates back over 50 years.
To get access to each printed copy of the newspapers I needed, I had to fill out a piece of paper with the newspaper's name, the year and the date it was issued, and information about myself (my name and contact information). After that, the slip of paper, acting as a lending card, was hoisted up with a small elevator to the upper floor, where the newspaper in question was brought out from the archive by staff, who then sent the newspaper down with the elevator. After I was handed the newspaper, I then read and photographed it, and gave it back and applied on a new slip to lend the next newspaper on my list of randomly selected newspapers.
It should be noted that before I began my research at the library, I asked for permission and advice of the staff at the library, whom verified that it was permissible for me to take pictures of the newspapers. Even though the security staff at the library warned me of the risks involved in bringing a camera to the library. Fortunately, it all went well.
The staff was also very helpful with the lending of the 51 copies of newspapers that I came to use in my research.
To get all the information that I needed, I photographed all the newspaper used in my quantitative content analysis. That way I could see the newspaper as a whole and go back iteratively in the process if needed.
5.3 Quantitative content analysis
I have, by the use of previous scholars and thesis's, created a questionnaire with 46 questions to go through each article (10.1 Appendix A). Furthermore I have created a questionnaire of five questions to test my own theories of factors that I during my research have concluded may be factors that affect the news valuation process (10.2 Appendix B).
Each question has solid number of items that represents answers, and that represent all possible outcomes to the question.
The main focus in the questionnaire presented in 10.1 Appendix A are questions concerning the thesis's and criteria's constructed by Prakke, McGregor, Hvitfelt,
Galtung and Ruge. And furthermore questions concerning the layout of the main article in question.
The focus in the questionnaire presented in 10.2 Appendix B are questions that test my own thoughts and theories on criteria that I during my research have begun to suspect to have an influence on the news valuation process. If these factors through my
quantitative content analysis are proven to be factors that influence the news valuation process, this could mean that these could be news values that are unknown to the theories of the previous scholars that I base the rest of my research on (3.1).
Each question in the questionnaire is to be answered by the main article of each selected issue of the newspapers. (Bryman, 2008)
5.4 Loss of content
Due to holidays, I have had a loss of one issue that was selected in my randomly selection of issues. I have simply regarded this as a loss of one issue, as a
disappearance.
As the maximum number of newspapers selected would be 56 issues (14 x 4), I am pleased that I in my research have had the opportunity to include 51 issues.
One issue was lost due to that the date in question was a holiday and the newspaper involved did not print papers on Sundays or holidays.
Further four issues was not included due to the fact that two of the four newspapers do only publish on Mondays through Saturdays. Therefore there is a natural loss of issues on Sundays concerning these two newspapers.
5.5 Statistical tools
To compile the results of the quantitative content analysis I have used Excel. Largely because Excel is a program that is satisfactory for this purpose and is a program that I'm used to. Due to the fact that I think that the statistics are revealed at it's best in the form of charts, I considered that Ecxel was appropriate due to that I can use Excel to create graphs that satisfy my thesis needs (10.1 Appendix A). All in all the compiled file with all the responses contain 2346 responses to the quantitative content analysis
questionnaire. (Bryman, 2008)
5.6 Research ethics
The quantitative content analysis method has its limitations, and like other methods has it's pros and cons. One of the factors that are hard, if not impossible, to avoid is the fact that through the analysis you have to take in account the interpretation of the one doing the analysis. The human factor and the fact that the individual has the ability to interpret the text and content in accordance with it's own perceptions and knowledge.
This can unavoidably include misconceptions and flaws.
A lot of the pros and cons of the quantitative content analysis are described thoroughly by Bryman, who also concludes that a negative aspect of this method is that the analysis in itself can be quite time consuming. It takes time to select all the material needed in a quantitative content analysis and it also takes a lot of time to produce all the variables and all the possible variable values to each variable. (Bryman, 2008)
One of the good things with the content analysis method is the fact that it is relatively easy to describe the way of making the selection and variables. In this way the analysis is very replicable. (Bryman, 2008)
Since I have chosen to analyse articles there is not really any ethical dilemmas
concerning integrity and anonymity of the involved, since the content are not answers given by any specific individual. The journalist that has written the individual articles are not mentioned or registered anywhere in the research or analysis and therefore the journalist becomes anonymous. (Bryman, 2008)
6 Results
In this section I aim to thoroughly describe the results that are the conclusion and result of the quantitative content analysis.
6.1 The general layout
This section aims to describe the characteristics of the main article.
6.1.1 The pictures
When it comes to the use of pictures it is clear that in most cases there is not a lot of it.
Most commonly the main article is portrayed on the front page only in writing, and often accompanied by one or several pictures below, concerning events that are written in considerably smaller letters. It is not unusual that the main article is, on the front page of the newspaper, accompanied by pictures connected to news concerning sports or culture.
At the article in the newspaper, there is most commonly only one or two pictures.
Collages or series of pictures are rare when it comes to the main article.
6.1.2 The layout
The most common main article of the newspapers in question is between one and two full pages, which makes out 60 percent of the cases. Interestingly enough one can notice that all together 18 percent of the main articles are quite small in size, ranging from less than 1/3 of a page up to a maximum of half a page.
Politics is the most common topic of the main article and combining the statistics over articles that concern politics with articles that concern a specific politician, those statistics together are 25 percent of all the main articles.
There is a noticeable difference between the number of times men versus women gets quoted in the main articles. Most often women does not speak at all and if they do they do so considerably less often than the men. eight percent of the time, men get quoted ten or more times in the main article, while that statistics for women is only two percent of the time.
The most common article to be the main article of these newspapers are therefore a political article, with no picture on the front page of the newspaper, one or two pictures in the article and 1-3 quotes from men.
6.1.3 The domestic story
All but one of the articles in this research was domestic, and almost half of those are on topics or events that concern the whole country. It is a clear focus on Costa Rican news and the only article that was not domestic was an article about sexual abuse on girls in a province in India. As the results of this research shows, the elite nation has little to non news value in it self in Costa Rican newspapers.
6.1.4 The inapropriate story
When it comes to the ethics concerning what kind of information that is accepted to print there seems to be considerable difference compared to the Swedish ethical guidelines. Although most of the articles did not stand out of the crowd, some (mostly articles in Diario Extra) published information or pictures that are in clear contrast to the Swedish ethics. Examples are pictures of dead or wounded persons after accidents or murders and publishing of names of persons whom have been in accidents (as injured or dead victims or as causer of the accident).
6.2 Judy McGregor, 4 contemporary criteria for selecting the news
I have chosen to portray the results of all four of the questions concerning the thesis of McGregor's four criteria. This is due to the fact that I consider the results of these variables to be of interest at the backdrop of McGregor's thesis.
6.2.1 Visualness
In 57 percent of the articles included in the research the visualness, or possibility to visualize the event through images was considered easy. This is quite remarkable and consolidates the idea that pictures (at all or at least visualizing) are not a necessity for an event in becoming the main article.
6.2.2 Emotion
When it comes to allude on the emotions, something that to an extent can be symbiotic with the use of pictures in the article, the data from this research concludes that neither
this is a factor that clearly heightens the news value. In 70 percent of the articles the content does not allude emotions at all or just to a small extent.
Noticeable is a lot of the pictures, previously mentioned as unethical according to Swedish journalist ethics, portraying dead or wounded at the site of crimes or accidents are by the definition of McGregors factor of emotion, sorted as largely alluding on emotions.
6.2.3 Conflict
Although over a third of the articles in this study contains conflicts between two or more counterparties, the vast majority does not. This in tells that a conflict in opinion does not necessarily in itself resolute in a high news value.
6.2.4 The "celebrification" of the journalist
In 88 percent of the articles there has been no elements of celebrification of the journalist behind the article, nor personalization. It should on the other hand be noted that there is elements of celebrification in the other 12 percent of the articles. Whether or not those 12 percent are something new, cohesive with the growing competition of new media platforms, it can still be concluded that in the vast majority of articles, celebrification has not been noted.
6.3 Henk Prakke
In this section I aim to compare my research to the thesis of Henk Prakke.
6.3.1 Cultural distance
I am of the understanding that I, whom is not from Costa Rica nor have been living in Costa Rica for an extensive amount of time, will not be able to rightfully determine an articles cultural distance. In the attempt to do so I believe that my view would be coloured by my Swedish point of view. Therefore I have made no attempt on
determining one of the three parameters on Prakke's model, the cultural distance. But I do believe that the other two parameters alone can say a great deal about the news values, and I have therefore chosen to include Prakke's model in the thesis and the analysis.
6.3.2 Geographical distance and temporal distance
When it comes to determining the time at which the event in question took place it is not always the easiest thing. When it comes to 59 percent of the articles in the research there was no actual date or time period mentioned that revealed the temporal distance of the news. But at almost one third of the articles, 29 percent, the event in the article took place the day before publication.
Since 59 percent of the articles does stand as the main article of this day, without the need to precisely clarify when the event took place, I would say that indicates that the temporal distance does not play a very large role in the process of news valuation in Costa Rican newspapers.
As mentioned earlier, in reference to the news being domestic or not, all but one article portrayed events that took place in Costa Rica.
Concluding the two factors that I examined in my research it is clear that the
geographical distance plays a more important role in news valuation than the temporal distance.
6.4 Galtung and Ruge, 12 factors
I have chosen to focus my results from my research, on the thesis of Galtung and Ruge, on the factors that are particularly specific, surprising or otherwise worthy of notation.
All the data from all the 12 factors in question can be found in the appendix (10.1).
6.4.1 A selection of factors that stood out
In a majority of the articles the event in question was not a sudden event, but rather a trend or tendency that has emerged over time. This confirms the image presented in the statistics in question 21. Temporal distance. It seems that a lot of the main articles are not sudden events but not specifically dated events that has emerged over time. I do believe that in this aspect there is a cohesion between the result in Galtung and Ruges factor of frequency and Prakkes model of temporal distance.
In a few articles there was not a clear aim as to why this event was reported as the main article of the newspaper or rather the meaningfulness in reporting this story to the demographic of the newspaper. I do take under consideration that there might be a margin of error in this percentage due to loss of understanding for cultural
meaningfulness, due to the fact that I am not Costa Rican nor have been living in Costa Rica for a long period of time and could consider myself in touch with the news culture as a whole. But never the less, the majority of the articles had a clear meaningfulness to the demographic.
I argue that there is a cohesion and a covariance between this statistics and question 10.
that states that a vast majority of the articles tells of events that are domestic.
Nine out of ten articles in this research does not include any sort of prediction in the news of events that, if it happened, would have the possibility to become major news.
That is, there are seldomly any prediction or plantation of the possibility of further news on the subject at hand. I believe that there are other factors in my research that are involved in this statistics. The fact that a lot of events are not clearly dated or are older than three days before publication, indicates that the temporal distance (question 10) is not a highly regarded value. This combined with the following question (28) that indicates that unexpectedness is only of high value in about half of the events, leads me to the conclusion that the value of predicting news in the news at hand is not of great value. This is due to that there is not a clear pressure of distributing events as news at
soonest possible time and that the value of unexpectedness, is only effective in half of the events. I conclude that there may be a cohesion and possibly a covariance between these three factors.
In one article it was very unclear whether or not the events consisted of something unexpected or not, but apart from that, there was an even distribution over the rest of the articles of events that did, and did not, consist of unexpected events. This noted, it is worthy of attention that half of the news consists of events that are not unexpected. In Swedish journalism unexpectedness is often valued as one of the most important factors in news valuation. (Hvitfelt, 1985, 5.10.)
One factor that seems to not have an impact on the news valuation in Costa Rican newspapers at all is the reference to elite nations. This is in my opinion quite
importance of elite in the news valuation. In Galtung and Ruges factor that the elite nation holds a clear importance in the newsworthiness of an event, it seems that this is quite the opposite in Costa Rica, where a majority of the news are of domestic events and with no reference at all to elite nations. Or rather, in Costa Rican news valuation, it may be that Costa Rica is seemed as the elite nation and therefore considered highly, not only due to the close geographical distance.
Reference to elite people are noticeably more common than the reference to elite nation.
The statistics of my research concludes that 30 percent of all the events that was valued as the main article of the issue had one or several references to elite persons. This clearly state that when it comes to news valuation in Costa Rican newspapers, the reference to persons rather than nations is of greater importance when it comes to the elite.
In almost two thirds of the articles there is reference to negative events or consequences.
These numbers are not surprising due to that both Galtung and Ruge and Hvitfelt criteria or factors include the importance of negativity in the event for the event to more likely become news. In my personal opinion I think that 29 percent of the events not having negative references is a surprisingly high number.
6.5 The Håkan Hvitfelt, 10 criteria of news
I have chosen, just as with the results concerning Galtung and Ruge's factors, to focus my results from my research, on the factors that are particularly specific, surprising or otherwise worthy of notation. All the data from the questions relating to the 10 criteria, that Hvitfelt concludes in his thesis, can be found in the appendix (10.1).
6.5.1 A selection of criteria that stood out
A vast majority of the news in the selected articles are to be seen as news of politics, economics, crime or accidents. If compared to question 8. which more specifically details the basis of the article, one can see that although 80 percent of news are to be seen as news of politics, economics, crime or accidents. One can see that if counted all together, the statistics in question 8. that directly refer to politics, economics, crime or accidents (Politics, Criminality in society with the exception of murder and accidents, Economy, Murder, Political means or authority, A specific politician, One or more accidents) adds up to 68 percent of the articles. This entails that an additional 12 percent of the articles have clear influences of politics, economy, crime or accident although it concerns another topic as well. An example of this is an article concerning labour issues due to a political proposal.
The geographical distance is naturally short due to that question 10. demonstrates that all but one (two percent) of the news are domestic. It is therefore visually clear that there is a covariance and cohesion between questions 10 and 36.
Just as question 32. the statistics of my research shows that about 70 percent of the selected main articles is about or refers to elite persons.
The main article in my research is most commonly described easily. Hvitfelt concludes in his thesis that the probability of an event becoming news increases the more it concerns simple matters. He also notes that simplicity can have several dimensions, among others the events occurring, language used and composition. (1985, 5.13.)
Importance and relevance is one of the keystones in journalism in Sweden, where the fundamental role of news distributors is to provide the consumer with information, making it possible for the consumer to take a stand on social issues. Although it is clear that almost nine out of ten main articles in my research do consist of news that are of importance and relevance, 12 percent of the articles do not demonstrate news of importance or relevance. (Hvitfelt, 1985, 5.14.)
When it comes to sources, Hvitfelt concludes in his thesis that the use of elite sourses increase the chance for an event to become news. Hvitfelt also states that through his research he has found that in the main article, it is most common with oral sources, and among these sources elite people are twice as common as the other oral sources
combined. (1985, 5.17)
This is something that is equivalent also in my research of elite people as sources in Costa Rican newspapers.
6.6 My news values
In this section I aim to describe the results of my own theories concerning factors that influence the news valuation process in Costa Rican newspapers.
6.6.1 The political aspect
Through my research I got the impression that a lot of the main articles in the newspapers did not only concern politics but that articles that concerned news about politics also often had quotes about the news from politics. I got the impression that it was more common that politics was quoted more often by other politicians than other people.
As I suspected, political news are more often quoted by politician rather than other people. But it also reviled that 12 percent of all the articles concerned politics and had no quotes from anyone, no one got the opportunity to have an opinion or come with expertise in the matter.
6.6.2 The image from the scene of the crime
A lot of articles in my research was news about crime and accidents with mostly tragic outcome. Especially the newspaper Diario Extra was keen on publishing images of victims of the accident or crime. I was interested in finding out to what extent the criminal news was a part of the news as a whole. My research shows not only that 22 percent of the main articles concern crime or accidents but that in the majority of the articles concerning accidents or crime, the images visualized victims and/or perpetrators at the scene of the crime. To publish such images is in stark contrast to the Swedish journalistic ethical guidelines and therefore indicates a vast difference between how journalism operates differently in Sweden contra Costa Rica when it comes to publishing of images that can be categorized as being images of a sensitive nature.
(Pressens Samarbetsnämnd, 2010)
To further emphasize the publishing of images that can be viewed as ethically
questionable according to Swedish journalistic guidelines, in the graphics of 2.2 I have excluded all the articles that did not concern accidents or crime at all. 2.2 consists solely of articles that concern accidents and/or crime and out of this selection, a total of 82 percent contain images that visualize e.g. victims at the crash site, victims at the scene of the crime or perpetrators. In there pictures anonymity can not be given or guaranteed for the persons in the images and sometimes the victims and/or perpetrators are named in the article.
6.6.3 The centralisation within the domestic news
Since the first part of my research clearly showed that the domestic news dominate the Costa Rican newspapers news flow, I was interested in finding out if the domestic news was centralized to the capital or to any other part of the country. My research shows that although a majority of the news (53 percent) concerns not only San José but other parts of the country or the whole country, 37 percent of the main articles in my research concerns specifically and solely San José. That sums up that 90 percent of all the news in the research concerns partially or solely San José whiles only eight percent does not concern San José but other parts of the country.
I believe this shows a tendency towards that the news are not only focused on the domestic, but also focusing on a centralization towards the capital.
6.6.4 The focusing on the numbers
According to Swedish journalism standard there is a tendency to try to minimize the amount of numbers and figures in news, due to that writing a lot of numbers has a tendency to make the news more complicated and hard to understand and does not attract reading. During my research I came across quite a few articles that was fairly complex and filled with many numbers and figures, therefore I thought that it was of interest to know to what extent.
In my research I was only interested in finding out how often numbers were written in the article, therefore facts columns, graphics and captions, which by nature often can have more numbers than the article, are not included in this variable.
A majority of the articles did have non or few numbers. 63 percent of the articles had numbers written fewer than 10 times. But never the less six percent of the articles have numbers written more then 30 times, of which the article with the most amount of
6.6.5 The positive spin on politics
Since a large amount of the articles are news concerning politics, I got qurious about the angle of the news. I came across an article that informed about a political refom and in which there were no opinions against the reform but it was presented in an all positive way. This got me interested in finding out in what way the political news was presented.
66 percent of the articles does not concern politics at all, or does concern politics but not politicians or political reforms. Of the 34 percent of the articles that does concern
politicians or political reforms are 20 percent written in an all positive way or mostly positive. 12 of those percent are articles about political reforms and written in an all positive way.
7 Analysis
In this section I will summarise the result of my research with previous research and interpret the conclusions of my thesis. This will be done as a discussion concerning the theories and statistics involved.
7.1 Individual characteristics of each newspaper
Each of the four newspapers involved in this study have had their individual characteristics. This has as a whole affected the outcome of the statistics in this
research. I did at no point attempt to find four newspapers that were homogeneous but have conducted my research on the basis of the four largest (in number of newsstand) newspapers in Costa Rica, that aim to cover news throughout the entire country and that are distributed throughout the entire country. With this in mind the four newspapers used for my study were the suitable choice. Hence the individual characteristics of each newspaper is in fact a valid factor in effecting the outcome of my research.
Characteristics are e.g. focus on political news, focus on crime, focusing on sports, representation of the number of pictures involved in the main article and what kind of pictures used in the main article.
7.2 Methods and factors that does not seeme to apply
The most prominent factors that I have seen that are not applied in the news valuation in Costa Rican newspapers are the factors mentioned in questions 31. 32. and 39. These are factors from Hvitfelt, Galtung and Ruges thesis's. These factors are concerning reference to elite nations, reference to elite people and if the news are about individual elite persons.
7.3 Answers to my questions
How are news valued in Costa Rican newspapers?
In some aspects the models constructed by McGregor, Prakke, Hvitfelt, Galtung and Ruge are noticeably accurate also in Costa Rican news valuation. But in some respects these model doesn't show accuracy at all.
Reference to elite nations and elite persons are two factors that does not
mentioned by Galtung and Ruge (1965)
It is also very noticeable that all but one (98 percent) of the main articles are domestic and with no reference at all to elite nations.
The main focus in the main articles are just as concluded by Hvitfelt, focused on of or relating to politics, economics, crime or accidents.
One thing that, according to me is very surprising, and that can be noted in question 16. is that in 18 percent of the articles there was information and/or pictures published that are in strong contrast to what is ethically considered correct according to the Swedish journalistic guidelines and work ethics.
(Pressens Samarbetsnämnd, 2010)
Worthy of notice is also that men are being quoted much more and more often than women. As portrayed in questions 13. and 14. women are most often not quoted at all (68 percent), whilst men most often get quoted zero to three times.
The percentage in which men are getting quoted ten times or more (eight percent) is also considerably more usual compared to the number of articles in which women are quoted ten or more times, which is zero percent.
Do Costa Rican newspapers show tendencies of that sensationalism is a factor in the news values?
According to Ghersetti the concept of sensation in news can be crucial in news valuation, and that the changing media structure during the last decades have affected the news valuation in the sensational aspect that the product is more commercialized, meaning that the product must first hand be profitable, and secondly informative.
This meaning that the newspapers are more focused towards news that are cheap to produce but at the same time attracts a large audience. (Nord, Strömbäck, 2004)
This concludes that easy news, with less depth and more wow-factor (e.g.
visualness, unexpectedness) are more likely to become news due to sensationalism.
Tendencies towards sensationalism can be seen in my research, mostly related to the newspaper Diario extra, which is the newspaper that mostly relies on
pictures (often with a persons suffering from accidents) and crime or accidents
as main articles.
What does the most common main article look like in a Costa Rican newspaper?
The most common article as a conclusion of my research is domestic, not
necessarily with a short temporal distance, has no picture related to the article on the front page of the newspaper, but does have one picture inside the article.
Furthermore it affects the whole country, it has elite persons as sources but chances are that no woman gets quoted but rather that a man gets quoted between 1-3 times.
The article is most likely to be about politics and without alluding on the emotions of the consumers.
And what does that say about the focus point of the news values in Costa Rica's newspapers?
These findings in my research shows that Costa Rican newspapers in some aspects do value news according to the thesis's of Prakke, Hvitfelt, Galtung and Ruge, but most likely not at all according to the factors presented by McGregor.
In questions 18-20, the result of my research shows that the factors mentioned by McGregor does not apply on the newspapers in Costa Rica, but rather the opposite. The fourth of McGregors factors, visualness, is shown to apply in 57 percent of the articles in my research, and therefore the only one that show a tendency to being applicable in Costa Rican newspapers.
The factor of temporal distance presented by Prakke shows that a large amount of the articles does not state what day the news/event took place. Therefore in 59 percent of the cases, a temporal distance can not be specified. But this also shows that the timestamp, significant to the relevance of temporal distance, is not a crucial thing to include in an article. Therefore the temporal distance can not be crucially relevant to the news value.
But the factor of geographical distance, presented by Prakke, shows to be a very important news factor in Costa Rican news values, due to the fact that in my research all the main articles, but one, are domestic.
Amongst the factors presented by Galtung and Ruge, that are worthy of extra attention in this research, it is worth noticing that a factor such as frequency are
shown that the factor of frequency is in a majority of the main articles working contradictory to the theory presented by Galtung and Ruge. In my research 63 percent of the articles involve news that are not sudden events, but rather events or tendencies that has evolved over time. I believe this is further cemented in the factor of unexpectedness where it is showed in my research that it is only half of the time that the news in the main article is of unexpected nature. I believe that both the factor of frequency and unexpectedness are affected by the fact that a lot of the main news as a whole in Costa Rica focuses on the political work and evolving reforms that are news that are evolving over time and therefore not unexpected. I further believe that news involving accidents and crime, mostly published in Diario Extra, is a large portion of the news that do work in consonance with the factors of frequency and unexpectedness.
And another interaction of factors that are largely at play in Costa Rican newspapers is the factors of reference to elite nations and elite people. In my research it shows that in 100 percent of the main articles there are no references to elite nations, but all but one article are domestic. Therefore the total lack of referral to elite nations in my opinion is a way of focusing totally on the domestic news. Therefore the domestic is the elite, in Costa Rican news values Costa Rica is the elite nation. But in 70 percent of the articles there are no references to elite people. Wish further indicates that the factors of reference to elite nations and people, in the way they are presented by Galtung and Ruge, does not apply to the Costa Rican news valuation process.
The factors presented by Hvitfelt are the factors that have been the most in consonance with the news valuation in Costa Rican newspapers according to my research. All of the factors mentioned under section 6.5 show a more or less prone tendency towards the factor theorised by Hvitfeldt.
Can there be other factors that influence the news valuation process in Costa Rican newspaper, than the factors and theories of the previous scholars included in my research?
Yes, I strongly believe that there are other factors that affect the news valuation process that has not yet been concluded. I believe that my five questions
concerning factors, that are different from or in total opposition to the factors theorised by Prakke, Hvitfelt, McGregor, Galtung and Ruge, are indicators that
there are other factors that affect news valuation. I furthermore believe that news valuation differ quite a bit depending on where in the world the news valuation is done, therefore I argue that factors that affect news valuation are not fixed and global, but rather affected by journalistic history of the country/region, culture, and possibly other factors. I believe that my research showcase that factors that are seen as normal and efficient in e.g. Sweden, are not entirely efficient in Costa Rica, but that there are other factors or in some cases oppositions to these factors that effect the news valuation process.
6.6.2 show that there is a opposition between the way crime and accidents are regarded and valued in news valuation. I believe that it is the sometimes gruesome images of the scene of the crime/accident that affects the event and makes it to a main article in Costa Rica, mostly in Diario Extra. I believe that if the images could not be published, the article would not become so large and therefore not a main article. And I believe that is the case in Swedish journalism, that the ethical boundaries concerning images makes a lot of accidents and crime into a lot smaller articles than it would be if the images were allowed to be published.
Whether or not it is right to publish or not publish sensitive images from
accidents and crimes are not up to this research to debate, but what I claim that I can state is that there exists a difference in news valuation or rather a opposition in this case.
8 Discussion and summary
In this section I will discuss my view on the study and research conducted and presented in this thesis. All of the discussed in this section is related to the reserach, analysis, and information presented in previous sections of this thesis.
8.1 Factors of value
What has come across to me during my research is that I believe that my theory mentioned in 3.1 is accurate: "I have a theory that the theories mentioned earlier are created with the newspaper landscape of a developed country in mind. But that when they are put into use the result can be quite different depending on the country in question. And that the differences can be all the more visible depending onto what degree newspapers in the different countries are subject to competition from new media sources via the internet"
I believe that parts of the reason why some factors of news values, that are looked upon as fairly accurate when it comes to e.g. news prioritization in Swedish newspapers, does not at all apply on the news valued as main articles in Costa Rican newspapers, is the fact that cultural and developmental differences between the countries also affect in what way news are prioritized.
There should not really, in my opinion, be any cause of worry due to this. But I claim that it would be beneficial to further explore my thesis concerning this, and if
differences can be scientifically proven several times, light should be brought upon these differences and one could evaluate what is the underlying factors that build up these differences, and what can be taught from one and other.
8.2 Suggestions of further research
It would in my opinion be interesting to do a larger version of my reserach, where one compares the internet based version of the newspapers with the printed newspapers.
This way one could find out further more how sensationalism might be a factor in printed and/or online news, and how the evolvement of online news affects the printed news and vice versa.
Further research in which conducting interviews with the journalists and news editors on there opinion on news values and the competition of online news, could also bring
interesting information to the table of how news are valued and prioritized.
A study more solely focused on the ethics involved in journalism and how this may vary according to culture or publication. This could be conducted through both quantitative content analysis and interviews with journalists and/or news editors, or preferably in a combination of the two methods.
I further suggest that it would be of great value to study if there are other factors of news valuation that are in play, in e.g. Costa Rica, that are unknown to journalists in Sweden. A greater understanding of news valuation can lead to greater understanding of the landscape of journalism globally.
9 References
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