2
News in an Age of Competition: Sensationalism
in Dutch Television News 1995-2001
Abstract
In the second half of the 1990’s, the competition between news programs has rapidly
increased in the Netherlands. The present study focuses on sensationalism in the main
evening newscasts, covering both domestic and international news. In order to attach
construct validity to the concept, sensationalism is defined and measured in terms of the
psychological concepts of ‘vividness’ and ‘salience’. A sample of 698 news items was
analyzed. The analyses revealed, that according to some indicators television newscasts
have become more sensational between 1995 and 2001, and that the most recently started
program has played the biggest role in this process. Particularly the findings concerning
the indicators which might best represent the ‘vividness’ of the sensationalist news, were
in line with the hypotheses.