The Jeremiad Over Journalism

As an example of Ekstra Bladet‘s more unconventional soft news and interpretative approach, one
can turn to the following article from September 1971 concerning a campaign stop for the
Conservative politician Erik Ninn-Hansen.
―The time has passed when an election meeting could be handled in a town hall with blunt
words and coffee with pastries (…) Approximately 450 people had made their way to Ninn-
Hansens hour and a half long show which went across the stage in well-groomed, American
style.‖ 561
Later in the article the journalist inserts a ―tee hee how funny,‖ as an ironic comment on a statement
by the Danish politician Erik Ninn Hansen. This tendency towards soft news leads and
interpretative reporting is more pronounced in Ekstra Bladet and Berlingske Tidende‘s articles than
is the case with Politiken‘s coverage.
Based on the above results H1b stating that ―news stories increaingly utilize an interpretative style
of reporting‖ from 1968 and forward can not be supported. There is, however, a statistically
significant rise in interpretative reporting for all the Danish news outlets between 1990 and 2001
(p