Research note: Sensationalism in Dutch current affairs programmes 1992-2001

Item does not contain fulltextBoth news critics and scholars often contend that increasing competition in the news market urges journalists to sensationalize their stories. Starting from this hypothesis, this article investigates changes in the level of sensationalism in three Dutch current affairs programmes that merged in 1996 as part of a strategy to fight increasing competition. A content analysis of these programmes in 1992 and 2001 shows a partial trend towards greater use of sensationalism.12 p

Explaining effects of sensationalism on liking of television news stories: The role of emotional arousal

Contains fulltext : 73160.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)This study investigates the appeal of sensationalist television news. News stories were content analyzed to measure the presence of sensationalist features. In addition, the stories were watched and evaluated by participants to measure the degree to which the items elicited emotional arousal and the degree to which the items were liked. As predicted, the findings showed that emotional arousal mediates effects of sensationalist features on liking and that the relationship between emotional arousal and liking takes the shape of an inverted U.20 p

News in an age of competition: The case of sensationalism in Dutch television news, 1995-2001

Contains fulltext : 56468.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Trends in sensationalism in Dutch television news were investigated through a content analysis of 3 Dutch TV news programs in 1995 and 2001, a period when the competition between Dutch TV news programs increased. Indicators of sensationalism were derived from 4 categories: tabloid packaging, basic needs content, concreteness, and proximity. Results showed a trend toward the use of more sensational production techniques in Dutch TV news. However, these increases were not found on all indicators nor in all newscasts. No trend toward more sensational story subjects could be observed.14 p

Kynurenine pathway enzymes in guinea pigs

In some animals, the administration of repeated doses of tryptophan can cause death. It has been reported that guinea pig does not survive repeated doses of tryptophan, due to the absence of the hormonal induction mechanism of liver tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO). Therefore, it was of interest to investigate if guinea pig is an animal model suitable for studying tryptophan metabolism. The activities of the enzymes of the kynurenine pathway were determined. Liver TDO was present only as a holoenzyme; kynurenine 3-monooxygenase showed similar, but very high, activity in both liver and kidney. Liver and kidney kynureninase values were also similar, whereas kynurenine-oxoglutarate transaminase activity was higher in kidney than in liver. 3-Hydroxyanthranilate 3,4-dioxygenase gave similar, but very high, values in both liver and kidney, whereas aminocarboxymuconate-semialdehyde decarboxylase activity was double in kidney with respect to liver, but much lower than that of 3-hydroxyanthranilate 3,4-dioxygenase. Total and free tryptophan concentrations in serum were also determined. The free fraction was about 10% of total tryptophan

Soft news with hard consequences? Introducing a nuanced measure of soft versus hard news exposure and its relationship with political cynicism

The possibly detrimental consequences of soft news are subject of popular and academic debate. This study investigates how watching particular news genres—soft versus hard—relates to cynicism about politics among Dutch citizens. A nuanced and novel scale measuring relative exposure to soft versus hard news is introduced using nonparametric unidimensional unfolding. The analysis of three public opinion surveys demonstrates a strong relationship between people’s position on this hard versus soft news exposure scale and political cynicism. People who watched relatively more soft news were more cynical about politics than people who watched relatively more hard news. This relationship was not conditional on individuals’ level of political knowledge and interest