The Jeremiad Over Journalism

Ekstra Bladet though this development is not statistically signifant. 580 Consequently, it is obvious
that Danish news coverage over time includes more quoted sources in political articles. Though it
must be noted that the inclusion of two or more sources in a political article does not necessarily
lead to balanced reporting, the previously mentioned examples from Politiken in 2001 indicate that
political actors with opposing viewpoints are included in the two-source articles. 581
The present content analysis provides an empirical foundation for arguing that one-source articles in
Danish political news are rarer than was the case in the 1970s and early 1980s. Balanced political
news reporting has long been the ideal in the United States and it has also become the case in
Denmark. As expected there seems to be a time lag in the adoption of the American ideal of
balanced political reporting. 582
Conclusion
In summary, the selected Danish newspapers have increasingly adopted the ideal of using more than
one source in political reporting on the front page. As opposed to the overall news frame, there
seems to be a similar development between the use of balanced political articles in the United States
and the use of balanced articles in Denmark with a time lag before this development is seen in the
Danish newspapers. Whether the use of at least two sources also leads to balancing sources with
opposing viewpoints can not be determined by the present content analysis, but a sampling of the
political articles from 2001 reveals that the practice of balancing opposing statements was clearly
present in Politiken‘s reporting every time at least two sources appeared in the newspapers‘ political
articles.
A slight decline in descriptive news is detectable for Berlingske Tidende but over time Politiken and
Berlingske Tidende are at least as ―objective‖ as their American counterparts based on the use of
two-source articles, descriptive and hard news. There is, however, a declining tendency of hard
news coverage for all the Danish news outlets but the percentage of hard news for Politiken and
Berlingske Tidende is still comparable to The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. It is
therefore possible to argue that a shift towards the ―objectivity ideal‖ and an appropriation of
journalistic practices, which emanated in the United States, has taken place in Denmark. In the
580 Between 1981 and 2001 Politiken‘s use of zero- or one-source articles declines from 73,9 to 16,6 percent, while the
numbers for Berlingske Tidende is a decline from 87,5 percent to 27,5. Also Ekstra Bladet‘s political articles decline
from 68,4 to 43,3 percent in that period.
581 Meilby, "Discountjournalistik Med En Enkelt Kilde [Discount-Journalism with a Single Source]."
582 Schou, "Postwar Americanisation and the Revitalisation of European Culture." Page 149.
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