Reporters as Sources: To What Degree Do Broadcast News Personnel Offer Expert Testimony in News Stories?Rhonda Gibson & Joe Bob Hester[WJMCR 5:1 December 2001]
Sections:
Abstract This study examines the extent to which broadcast news personnel have taken it upon themselves to interpret the news. Specifically, this study looks at the extent ofspeculation as to the outcomes of events covered in the news and the motivations for actions. A content analysis was conducted of two weeks of evening network newscasts from ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, a total of 483 news stories. In 32.7% of the stories, either the anchor or a correspondent made some type of prediction, generally an absoluteprediction with no type of qualifying language. Of the news stories containing predictions, 79.1% predicted consequences or outcomes of events, whereas 37.9% included speculation about motivations. The role of sources in the production of news has been debated for as long as news has been produced. As Sigal1 notes, "News is not what happens, but what someone says has happened or will happen." The use of expert and "person-on-the-street" sources to answer the questions of who, what, where, when, why and how is common journalistic convention, designed to produce accurate and objective accounts of events divorced from reporter bias. In the modern news world, objective reporting has meant avoiding the overtintrusion of the reporter's personal values and minimizing interpretation in writing the story. This concept has been embraced by many in the field, dismissed by others, and modified by some. In 1947, the Hutchins Commission issued standards for the news media that called on them to be more responsible and to provide a fair, balanced, and complete account of events, a reaction to the partisanship then in some newspapers. Many media scholars and practitioners read the Commission's report as a specific demand for increasedobjectivity in news reporting, and one suggestion to accomplish this goal was to "balance" news stories by citing multiple, often competing, sources rather than relying on editor or reporter interpretation. Other scholars, such as newsman Walter Lippmann, were not totally comfortable with the notion of objectivity. Lippmann had previously advanced a version of objectivity that challenged the assumption that reportable reality is independent of thereporter's subjective states. He argued that the role of the observer/reporter isalways selective and usually creative, but that this creativity helps news consumers make better sense of their often confusing world. He proposed three press responsibilities: (1) "to make a current record," (2) "to make a running analysis of it," and (3) "on the basis of both, to suggest plans."2 Finding even less merit in the concept of a press without "bias," many journalism scholars fully scoff at the notion of objectivity, citing interpretation andassignment of meaning as among the field's greatest contributions. Carey3 argues that journalists need not apologize for interpreting events for their readers or viewers and that all writing, even scientific writing, is a form of storytelling aimed at imposing coherence on the otherwise chaotic flow of events. Mayer likewise argues that well-respected news organizations are sometimes most valued for abandoning objectivity: "The greatness of the New York Times derives not from its efforts at creating the 'record' or maintaining an authoritative objectivity but from a century-long often interrupted yet eventually renewed struggle to acquire the expertise necessary to broaden, sharpen, and deepen the perceptualapparatus of the institution."4 This exploratory study is designed to examine the sourcing and interpretation patterns of broadcast news personnel. Specifically, this investigation looks at the degree of personal speculation and/or prediction by broadcast news anchors and correspondents as to the outcomes of events covered in the news and the motivations for such actions. Rather than quoting sources who are selected for their expertise on a given subject or using anonymous sources with "veiled" identification, to what degree are broadcast news correspondents and anchors serving as sources themselves, giving testimony about why events have occurred or what will happen next? The answers to these questions have serious implications for those concerned about issues of media credibility and will be part of the ongoing debate between advocates of objectivity and those who argue for a more interpretative journalist role. A number of academic studies have addressed the role of sources in broadcast news. Many of these studies suggest there is a disproportionate focus on elite orinstitutional news sources, while women, minorities, and the working class are often under-represented.5 Those of higher socioeconomic status are more likely to beused as sources of information on TV news than are "ordinary people." Whitney, Fritzler, Jones, Mazzarella, and Rakow6 report that only about one-fourth of quoted sources in network news are private individuals. Other studies have examined the use of anonymous attribution in the news. Although some in the journalism field link the use of unnamed sources to a decline in perceived industry credibility,7 one study has showed that readers perceive a controversialstory to be more accurate and fair when no source or an unnamed source is quoted than when a named source or two conflicting named sources are quoted.8 Wulfemeyer and McFadden9 argue that the frequency of anonymous attribution might help explain why readers seem to accept the practice. Culbertson10 and Wulfemeyer11 found that about 33% of newspaper stories and between 70% and 85% of newsmagazine stories contain some type of "veiled" attribution. In a study of broadcast news, Wulfemeyer and McFadden12 found that about 55% of stories in network television newscasts contained at least one anonymous quote. Thus, the frequency of anonymous attribution on broadcast was about 20% more than the frequency and about 20% less than the frequency in newsmagazines. Although most journalistic codes of ethics caution against the overuse of anonymous sources, research into the acceptability of such practice has not been consistent. In one study, about 60% of the respondents disapproved of anonymous attribution,13 whereas in another, about 40% of the respondents disapproved of quoting an unnamed source, even in an investigative report.14 In general, readers give reasonably high credibility ratings to unnamed sources.15 Industry practice generally dictates that whether cited by name or anonymously, news sources are chosen for their expertise on a given topic, their involvement with a particular event, or occasionally even for their usefulness as a"person-on-the-street" interview. But regardless of the type of source used in broadcast news, research shows that the duration of sound bites from these sources is shrinking while television news correspondents are taking up more airtime with increasingly longer appearances in news stories.16 As Grabe et al17 note, "Today's television news is much more 'mediated' than the news of the sixties and early seventies." Patterson18 argues that this enhanced role of the reporter, especially in the arena of political news, is a result of the public's reduced trust of government officials and a resulting expectation that the news media are "obliged to inspect the candidates' platforms, judge their fitness for the nation's highest office, and determine their electability." This tendency toward interpretation has transferred to coverage of issues other than politics. Hallin19 argues that reporters no longer view official sources as authorities to be taken at their word and instead believe thatreporting now requires the journalist to provide his own interpretation of the "facts."The proliferation of news magazine programs, 24-hour cable news channels, and talk programs may also have contributed to the tendency of reporters and anchors to view themselves as experts. With hundreds of hours of programming to fill each week, these shows are likely to call upon photogenic and camera-savvy news personnel to appear as analysts and commentators. Unlike the brief appearances of correspondents in nightly newscasts, the longer format of news magazine programs allows for more in-depth analysis on the part of the broadcaster, possibly contributing to the tendency of the reporter to put his or her own spin on information and provide a personal interpretation of events. Source credibility theory suggests that the increased visibility of news anchors and correspondents on trusted news magazine programs and talk shows is likely to enhance their overall credibility. Source credibility is generally thought to be a function of expertise and trustworthiness.20 The news magazine genre of programming continues to be rated as more trustworthy than any other source of news in the United States. According to Sawyer,21 51 percent of the viewing audience trusts the information on news magazine programs, whereas 43 percent trusts the information on nightlynewscasts, and only 37 percent trusts national newspapers. Given their frequent appearance on shows that viewers consider to be trustworthy, these news personnel are likely to "absorb" some of this credibility themselves. Simply by being presented as experts on the various news magazine and talk shows, these correspondents may be likely to be viewed by the public as actual experts, regardless of whether they have actual training or experience in the topic at hand. And, although reporters are not always seen as unbiased,22 they nevertheless are not affiliated with any political or social cause, as many news sources are, so they may be considered neutral enough to be credible. As credible individuals who have access to millions of viewers who tuneinto the nightly news, these broadcasters could wield considerable influence if allowed to do more than simply report the news. Given these compelling issues, this study attempts to begin to quantify the degree to which news personnel provide their own testimony in news stories. The followingspecific research questions were proposed. R1: How often do news anchors and/or correspondents speculate about or predict the outcome of news events without citing a source? R2: How often do news anchors and/or correspondents speculate about or predict the motives of individuals in the news? R3: Is news personnel prediction more likely to be presented as absolute fact or somehow qualified? R4: In what types of news stories are news personnel most likely to predict outcomes and/or motives? The broadcasts for the content analysis consisted of two random weeks (Monday - Friday) of evening network newscasts from ABC, CBS, and NBC, plus The World Today on CNN (5 p.m. central time). A purposive sample of consecutive-day broadcasts was created by videotaping each 30-minute newscast during the weeks of October 4, 1999 and July 26, 2000. Due to a technical malfunction, the CBS newscast on June 26 was replaced with the broadcast from the following week, July 3. A total of 40 newscasts was recorded and analyzed.The unit of analysis was the individual news story. A news story could be an anchor alone reading copy about a topic or a package with one or more correspondents involved. Each story was coded by topic, name and gender of anchor and/or correspondent(s), and length in seconds. In addition, each news story was coded for the presence and length in seconds of prediction by either the anchor or thecorrespondent(s). Two types of predictions were coded: prediction of outcome/consequences and prediction of motive. Prediction of outcome/consequencesoccurred when the anchor or correspondent predicted what would happen next or sometime in the future. Prediction of motive occurred when the anchor or correspondent speculated about why something happened or someone did something. Predictions made by a news source were not coded. Predictions were coded as either absolute or qualified. An absolute prediction was one in which no uncertainty was indicated by the predictor and no qualifying wordswere used. A qualified prediction was one in which some type of qualification was used to indicate the possibility of the prediction. For qualified predictions, qualifying words such as 'possibly, probably, maybe, most likely, could be,' etc. were recorded. Predictions were also coded by catalyst for the prediction. For instance, does the anchor ask for speculation by the correspondent, or does the correspondent provide it on his/her own? Or, does the anchor simply state the prediction? Finally, each story was coded by presentation as either a singular incident or part of some social phenomenon. Singular incidents were one-time occurrences that did not tie directly to any social issue. A plane crash or the death of a famous person would be examples of singular incidents. A social phenomenon story, on the other hand, addresses some larger social issue, even though it might be illustrated by a specific case study. For example, a story may open with information about a homosexual couple being denied insurance coverage but then address the larger issue of gay rights. After a one-hour training session, the news stories were coded by three graduate students in mass communication. Each student coded approximately one-third of the news stories. Once the coding was complete, a random subsample of 50 stories (10.4% oftotal stories) was coded by one of the authors to determine intercoder reliability. Simple agreement for story topic was 98.0%. Simple agreement for all other codingcategories ranged from 94.1% to 100%. Scott's Pi was then computed for the five dichotomous coding categories where simple agreement was less than 100%. With theexception one category, Scott's Pi was greater than 0.85. For this category, absolute versus qualified speculation about motive, Scott's Pi was 0.79 , which is still acceptable.23 A total of 483 news stories was analyzed for a total of 718.3 minutes of program time. The mean story length was 1.49 minutes. Table 1 indicates the totalnumber of stories, mean number of stories per half-hour broadcast, and mean storylength for each network. The news stories were most often presented as a package with one or more correspondents involved (57.3%, n=277). An anchor alone reading copy about a topic accounted for 42.7% of the stories (n=206).Table 1. Number of stories, mean number of stories per broadcast, and mean story lengthby network.
Prediction by anchors/correspondents.
Prediction by network.
The third research question asks whether news personnel prediction is more likely to be presented as absolute fact or somehow qualified. The majority were presented as absolute. Absolute predictions comprised 67.7% (n=107) of the stories in which a prediction was made, while 49.3% (n=78) were qualified in some fashion. The fourth research question asks in what types of news stories are news personnel most likely to predict outcomes and/or motives. Of the 483 news stories in the sample, the majority 22.2% (n=107) covered international news or foreign affairs. Of these, 23.36% (n=25) contained some type of prediction. All categories of stories contained some type of prediction, ranging from 15.69% of stories about accidents and/or disasters to 100.0% of stories about immigration. At least one-half of the storiescontained predictions in these five categories: immigration, education, domestic politics, medical/health, and agriculture. Table 4 shows the percentages of stories containing predictions. Table 4.Percentage of different types of news stories in which predictions are made.
Rhonda Gibson and Joe Bob Hester are assistant professors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the News Division of the Broadcast Education Association. |