The Jeremiad Over Journalism

esearcher to put forth his or her results in relation to the entire sample size instead of merely
selecting a few examples that support or dispel the researcher‘s argument.
Additionally, the following section argues that Danish news outlets between 1968 and 2001
increasingly have moved towards a descriptive, issue-based, and balanced approach to political
news coverage (on the front page), which leads to a potential revision of the hypothesis that Danish
political news coverage has become increasingly Americanized, in terms of commercialization,
which is thought to lead to greater focus on strategy, interpretation and opinion in news coverage.
5.1 Hypotheses to be tested
As we saw in the second chapter, Hallin and Benson, among others, have pointed to the American
news media system being more commercialized than its European counterparts and note that,
―differing relations to the economic and political fields have formed distinctive journalistic
traditions‖ between the media systems. 481
Yet, despite the distinctive journalistic traditions, Hallin and Mancini argue that the differences
between European and the Anglo-American media system, to a considerable extent due to
commercialization, will diminish over time and one should therefore expect Danish news frames to
resemble American news frames over time. 482
Increased market-driven decisions concerning journalism are argued to lead to less focus on topics
such as ―government, international relations and education,‖ at the expense of celebrities, crime and
scandal which are thought by business leaders to be more in line with the public‘s demands.
Consequently, the focus on substantial public service issues are argued to be vaning compared to
more populist, entertaining stories. 483
481
Hallin and Benson, "How States, Markets and Globalization Shape the News: The French and US National Press,
1965-97." Page 28-29. Benson and Hallin here point to increased commercialization as the foundation for such a
hypothesis. See also Hallin and Mancini, Comparing Media Systems. Three Models of Media and Politics. Page 8. ―One
cannot understand the news media without understanding the nature of the state, the system of political parties, the
pattern of relations between economic and political interests and the development of civil society, among other elements
of social structure.‖
482
Hallin and Mancini, Comparing Media Systems. Three Models of Media and Politics. Page 76, 282-287 and 301-
304.
483
Randal A. Beam et al., "Journalism and Public Service in Troubled Times," Journalism Studies 10, no. 6 (2010).
Page 336-337.
158