Religion in the Media:
News factors in press releases by the Roman-Catholic Church
and the differing media attention they receive: A context comparison
Leah de Boer 11154519
Master’s Thesis
Graduate School of Communication Master’s program Communication Science
Pytrik Schafraad 28.06.2019
Abstract
This study explores the agenda building power of a religious institution like the Roman-Catholic Church, and how this is mediated by a countries religious orientation and different kinds of newspapers. Using agenda building and news factor theory as a theoretical framework, a content analysis of 302 press releases issued by the Roman-Catholic Church in Austria and the Netherlands and 91 corresponding newspaper articles was conducted. This was done to investigate the relation between news factors employed in press releases and resulting media attention and how this is mediated by context characteristics like religious orientation of a country and kind of newspaper, broadsheet or tabloid. Thereby being able to identify differences in religious
institutions agenda building power and being able to make suggestions for
improvement. Results showed that the more news factors are included in a press release the more likely it will be covered in the media, but no significant difference was found in the amount of media attention received in religious and secular countries. However, it appeared the religious countries newspaper articles were more critical. The difference in media attention obtained in tabloids and broadsheet outlets was also not significant, neither was there a difference in tone toward the Church. Implications of these findings are discussed in the conclusion.
Introduction
Reputation management is a central issue in any organization. Especially since reputation is considered a resource and competitive advantage (Deephouse, 2000). It has been found that reputation has an effect on performance of a company (Wæraas &
Byrkjeflot, 2012), as well as on its legitimacy (Patriotta, Gond & Schultz, 2011). To be more precise it is moral legitimacy that grants organizations the right to exist. This moral
legitimacy is derived from the public, where it is constantly renegotiate (Lock & Seele, 2017). This is not just so for corporations, but also for religious institutions, like the Roman-Catholic Church (hereafter: Church). Especially for the Church, if secularization is taken into account. Secularization means the ‘declining social significance of religion’ (Wilson, 1964; as cited in Wood, 2015: 242). To combat this, religious institutions are increasingly present in the public sphere, especially the media. The Church is trying to improve its media reputation. Mass media, do not only record public knowledge and opinion, it can also
influence it (Deephouse, 2000). Therefore, to reverse secularization and gain a favorable reputation, religious institutions try to influence the media coverage about them.
Agenda-setting concerns the ‘effects of news media on people’s attention to, comprehension of, and opinions about topics’ (Carroll & McCombs, 2003: 36). Agenda building theory looks at this from the other end of the spectrum. It is not about the medias influence on people, but an information sources influence on the media. Media do not exist in a vacuum. They can be influenced. This is where public relations enter the picture. By issuing press releases and supplying information to journalists, organizations can influence what, and how things are talked about. But merely offering information is not enough. Journalists need to be convinced of the newsworthiness of information in order for this information to be published (Staab, 1990). Newsworthiness, in turn, can be determined by news values inherent to an event or constructed by the writer (Staab, 1990). News needs
relevance, and that is in praxis often determined by news factors (Harcup & O’Neill, 2017). These news factors are not merely selection criteria four journalists, but also central to information processing by the public (Eilders, 2006).
Religion in the public sphere and even in the media has gained increasing attention in research (e.g. De Maio, Alkazemi & Wanta, 2016; Falkheimer & Heide, 2006, Wood, 2015). But to date not much consideration has been given to news value theory (Harcup & O’Neill, 2017) in this context. By doing so this research paper will explore a gap in literature. The aim of this research is to determine the agenda building power of religious institutions. How does information published by the Roman-Catholic Church influence the media agenda? By identifying news factors employed in press releases and linking them to the amount and kind of attention they received in the media, this can be made measurable. The results will then be compared across two nations with different contexts, to be more specific, a secular and a religious country, as well as different types of newspapers, broadsheet outlets and tabloids. So as to determine how these context characteristic can mediate the relation between newsworthiness and media attention.
The countries chosen fort his purpose are Austria and the Netherlands. These two countries are very similar in their cultural and social construction. This is due to, at least partially, their geographic proximity and location within the EU. But still they are very different in the sense that Austria is a fairly religious country, while the Netherlands are increasingly secular. According to research conducted by Berghammer, Zartler and Krivanek (2017) more half of the 8.8 million people living in Austria (60%) is Roman-Catholic, only about 35% of Viennas urban population of 1.9 million, but nearly 90% of the rest of rural Austria. In the Netherlands on the other hand only 23,7% of the population is a member of the Church, and only 17% were active members (de Hart, 2014). This is a considerable difference for two countries so closely related.
This leads to the following research question:
RQ: To what extend do news factors employed in press releases by catholic news agencies influence the amount of media attention in national news papers and does this differ between secular and religious countries?
This study is of importance as it may help to shed light on increasing secularization of Europe and the role mass media play in it. Results will make it possible to give suggestions on how to improve agenda building and reputation management methods of religious institutions across Europe.
Theory From Secularization to Agenda building
An increasing number of scandals have erupted around especially the Church. More and more people are disaffiliating (De Hart, 2014). The Church is in a legitimacy crisis. Moral legitimacy is what gives organizations and institutions the right to conduct business, the right to exist (Lock & Seele, 2017). This legitimacy is constructed in the public sphere, in dialogue with an audience (Patriotta, Gond & Schultz, 2011). Religion has actually seen revitalization in recent times. It is increasingly present in the public sphere and working together and alongside other institutions (Wood, 2015). This seems to be in contrast with secularization theory. Contrary to popular believe though, secularization theory is not merely about the decline of religion and it’s social significance. It is in fact trying to explain religions changing position in this public sphere. This changing position strives for more media coverage and attention.
A spot in the lime lite, or rather the news agenda is hard to come by. Journalists have fast amounts of information offered to them on a daily basis. But the available space in newspapers is limited. Even online news is limited by the time journalists have to write a
story (Boukes & Vliegenthart, 2017). This competitive environment is attempted to be explained in agenda building theory (Kroon & Schafraad, 2013). Media do not simply reflect reality but rather filters and shapes it (Weaver & Elliott, 1985). Agenda building is concerned with the origin of issues covered in the news, contrary to agenda setting, which is focused on the relation between the media and their audiences (Kiousis, Popescu & Mitrook, 2007). While in political science this means that there is a ‘mutual influence among sources, the media, the public, and other entities’ (Lee & Riffe, 2017:294) in mass communication research the focus lies on the media agenda and its relation with information sources (Lee & Riffe, 2017). For the current study this means: By whom and how can media agenda and the decision making process by journalists be influenced? For some organizations and
institutions this is easier than others. Not every organization is important, or high profile enough to be covered in the news. These organizations need to focus on the how. Issuing press releases and thereby information to the journalist is not sufficient. The content and presentation, or rather formulation of these press releases is what matters (Seletzky & Lehman-Wilzig, 2010; Kroon & Schafraad, 2013).
Newsworthiness and news factor theory
Journalists work under considerable time pressure, especially in today’s time of fast media (Lewis, Williams, & Franklin, 2008). They have to make quick decisions about which topics should be covered and which are not important enough (Harcup & O’Neill, 2017). There has been considerable research into how they go about doing so (e.g. Boukes & Vliegenthart, 2017; Eilders, 2006; Gans, 2004; Harcup & O’Neill, 2017). Part of this process depends on news factors. These factors establish the newsworthiness of an event or a press release (Staab, 1990). News value theory focuses on journalists decisions as to what merits attention (Eilders, 2006). It is not merely the journalist’s personal opinion that
influences his decisions. It is a professional cognitive catalogue (Eilders, 2006). This
catalogue is established through experience, it is conveyed to everyone entering the field and based on organizational structure and socio-cultural surroundings. News factors are what make up this catalogue, and they are shared across the professional field (Boukes &
Vliegenthart, 2017). This theory on news factors was first introduced by Galtung and Ruge in 1965 (Harcup & O’Neill, 2017). In their research they published an inventory of news factors. This inventory has since been edited and added to by a multitude of research, and this in turn has been summarized by Eilders (2006). The news factors of interest in the present study are: geographic location and proximity, eliteness and prominence,
personification, range, surprise, success and failure as well as controversy. These factors
have been chosen due to the fact that they have repeatedly been found to lead to coverage (Eilders, 2006), in different areas of interest, foreign (Harcup & O’Neill, 2001), economic (Schafraad, Van Zoonen & Verhoeven, 2016; Boukes & Vliegenhart, 2017), and scientific news (Kroon & Schafraad, 2013). It can therefore be assumed that they will also lead to coverage in the field of religious news and allow for comparison across the fields.
According to studies by Kroon and Schafraad (2013) as well as Schafraad, Van Zoonen and Verhoeven (2016) and Eilders (2006), an increased amount of news factors employed in press releases may lead to increased news media coverage. Therefore it can be expected that employing more news factors will also increase the likelihood of religious press release contents being presented in newspaper articles. Not just the sheer amount of news factor, but also the characteristics of the individual news factors is expected to have an influence on the amount of media attention.
H1a: The more different news factors are contained in a press releases, the more likely it will generate media attention based on the press releases.
H1b: The presence of the individual news factors in press releases increase the likelihood of generating media attention based on the press releases.
Socio-cultural context
The effects of news factors can be further mediated by audience characteristics (Lewis, 1977). As already mentioned above, socio-cultural surroundings can have an influence on a journalist’s decision making process and cognitive catalogue. In the present case this concerns the prominence and power of the Church and Christian beliefs in society. It has already been established that the Netherlands are a secular country and Austria is a religious one. The percentage of people without affiliation in the Netherlands is among the highest in all of Europe (Kennedy & Zwemer, 2010). The two countries are similar as in both of them religious identity can determine social identity (Kennedy & Zwemer, 2010). But the Netherlands are much more religiously diverse and have seen radical shifts in the relation between religion, society and politics (van Rooden, 1996). While Austria has been rather consistent in its religiosity throughout history, secluded by the mountains and shielded from foreign influence, the Church still holds considerable power within the state
(Berghammer, Zartler & Krivanek, 2017). Austria is among the European countries with the highest regular Church service attendance (de Hart & van Houwelingen, 2018). Scheepers, Ten Grotenhuis and Van Der Slik (2002:158) argue that ‘in shaping an individual’s religious attitudes, the religious character of a nation is an important formative factor’.
This difference between the countries also has a considerable influence on the newsworthiness of religion, and the media attention it receives. It has more meaning, more news value, in the one country, than in the other. Another way to explain this is indexing theory (McQuail, 2005). This theory states that journalists do not usually deviate from official consensus. Instead they adhere to norms shared across organizations and show
national characteristics (Bennett, 1990). In its traditional use, indexing theory argues that journalist are naturally inclined to portray the view of their countries leading politicians, since this is the one people have voted for. If the political elite is in consensus about an issue media will portray the issue the same way. This theory can therefore be used to predict news content (Bennett, 1990). Here in this current case, this would mean, in a country like
Austria, where the Church still holds a central part in politics and governance, religion and Christian believes are more readily talked about. They are more present in peoples everyday lives. It can therefore be expected that here, in Austria, the Church holds more sway over the media. Especially taken into account the high degree of professionalization and opinion journalism that can be found in Austria (Seethaler & Melischek, 2006), it can be expected that journalist in this country express their religious believe more openly. For all of these reasons, this leads to the formulation of the following hypothesis:
H2a: Press releases issued by the Roman-Catholic Church in a religious country are more likely to generate media attention based on the press releases than in a secular country.
Not merely which press releases receive media attention, but also the kind of media attention they receive is of interest here. According to Carroll and McCombs (2003) this is second level agenda setting, the characteristics assigned to certain people or issues in the media. This means that not only what is talked about and put on the public agenda can be influenced, but also how these things are talked about. Since religious ideologies have no room in a modern, secularized society with high levels of education and scientific and technological advancements (Reitsma, Pelzer, Scheepers & Schilderman, 2007), it can be expected that:
H2b: Newspaper articles based on press release issued by the Roman-Catholic Church published in a secular country are more likely to be critical toward the Church than those published in religious countries.
Media outlets
Aside from bigger, socio- cultural influences, organizational orientation or newspaper identity can also influence a journalist decision to give attention to certain issues.
Newspapers outlets can be split into two groups, quality or broadsheet papers and tabloid or popular ones (Boukes & Vliegenthart, 2017). Tabloids aim for a broader audience and are more profit and market driven (Skovsgaard, 2014). Quality newspaper journalists on the other hand are more focused on spreading knowledge and enhancing insights (Strömbäck, Karlsson & Hopmann, 2012). They have a different identity and their target audience is different, namely a more liberal and less religious one. Harcup and O’Neill (2001), as well as Boukes and Vliegenthart (2017) suggest, that certain news factors have different effects on the two groups of newspapers. Tabloids are less likely to publish foreign news, therefore the news factor proximity holds more sway for them. Broadsheet papers, on the other hand, focus less on human interest stories, meaning personification has less weight here. The popular newspapers are marked-driven and concentrate more on commercial news values (Boukes & Vliegenthart, 2017). Therefore, journalists working for these different kinds of outlets make different decisions based on their target audience and broader goals.
Since religion and believe are very personal and community based issues (de Hart, 2014), a majority of press releases issued by the Church focuses on local, human interest stories. Also, religious issues and news items fit better into the profile of tabloids than broadsheet outlet. Profile match has been introduced before as a news factor to be considered (Kroon & Schafraad, 2013). One reason for this profile match is that tabloids are often times leaning
toward the political right, towards populism (Hameleers, Bos & de Vreese, 2017). Which in turn often refers to tradition and local values. Populist arguments are based on national ideologies, with the aim of excluding those that don’t belong to their imagined community (ibid). In Western, European countries, this still implies Christianity. It can thus be expected that:
H3a: Press release issued by the Roman-Catholic Church are more likely to generate media attention in a tabloid than in a broadsheet outlet.
Journalists working for broadsheet outlets tend to focus more on a political perspective and therefore be more critical (Boukes & Vliegenthart, 2017). They aim to enhance the insight and knowledge of their readers. These broadsheet outlets take their watchdog role very serious (Brants & Van Praag, 2006). Tabloid journalists on the other hand aim to please the masses, increase their number of readers, for them costumers, and thereby maximize profit. Being overly negative or critical towards a mayor religious institution like the Church might alienate a big part of this mass. Following the same second level agenda setting argumentation as in Hypothesis 2b, it is then assumed that:
H3b.: Newspaper articles based on press release issued by the Roman-Catholic Church published in a broadsheet outlet are more likely to be critical toward the Church than those in tabloid outlet.
Methods Samplingmethod
content analysis of press releases issued by the Dutch and Austrian Church and the resultant newspaper articles was conducted. Thereby, this study provides insights into the extent to which different news factors influence the succession of press releases in newspaper articles and how this differs across countries. We analyzed all press releases issued in 2018 by the
Katholische Presseagentur Österreich and the Rooms-Katholieke Kerk. Both are official
media channels of the Church in their respective country. These two countries were chosen not only due o their similarity in cultural and social construction as mentioned before, but also due to the researchers personal connection and experience with both. Access was
granted to the online archives of the websites of these two organizations. Systematic samples were taken from booth archives resulting in 106 Dutch press releases and 196 from Austria (N = 302). This way the relative distribution of press releases across the year could be taken into account, which would not have been possible with a random sample. The length of the press releases was between 101 and 1227 words (M=374,48, sd=187,88).
Newspaper articles were sampled from three mayor newspapers in the Netherlands and two in Austria. The decision to include one more newspaper in the Netherlands stems from the higher diversity in the media scape in this country compared to Austria. Dutch
newspapers include De Telegraaf, the largest newspaper in the Netherlands, a center-right tabloid. De Volkskrant, originally with a Catholic background, now a left-leaning broadsheet outlet. Finally, Trouw, which includes a specialist religion section and is also considered broadsheet. Austrian papers are the Krone Zeitung, a right leaning tabloid, which is read by about 46,9 percent of the country (Seethaler & Melischek, 2006) and Der Standard, one of the few center-left broadsheet papers. Newspaper articles were accessed through the LexisNexis database, by employing search terms related to the main topic, person or location of the corresponding press release per medium, in the two weeks following the press release. Only the Krone Zeitung was not available in LexisNexis, the same procedure
was used to search the open archive of the online versions of the outlet. This resulted in a total of 91 news articles for both countries. Newspaper articles had an average length of 414.41 words, with a minimum of 32 and a maximum of 1532 words (sd=273,43).
Codinginstrument
A coding scheme for the recording of news factors was developed, following previous similar studies like Eilders (2006) or Schafraad, Van Zoonen, and Verhoeven (2016).
The news factors deemed relevant for religious news and coded were the following:
Proximity, the location of the event ant its distance to the country of origin of the press
release. This was coded in a four-point scale from ‘not mentioned’ to ‘home country’, ‘within Europe’ and finally ‘on a different continent’. Eliteness means the social power and status of a group or individual mentioned in the press release. The news factor was also coded on a four-point scale, from ‘not mentioned’ over ‘low’ and ‘medium’ to ‘high
influence’. Prominence refers to the level o publicity of a person independent of political or economic power. Here a four-point scale was used as well, including ‘not mentioned’, ‘ordinary/unknown person’, ‘nationwide known’ and ‘internationally known’.
Personification concerns the projection of complex issues on an individuals actions and was
also coded in three points: ‘not mentioned’, ‘no personalization’ and ’personalization’.
Surprise is a binary variable and was coded when events could not be announced in advance
(Maier & Ruhrmann, 2008). This variable, and all other binary variables were coded with 0 for ‘no’ and 1 for ‘yes’. Range is about the number of people affected by an event. Here, again, a four-point scale was used. These point were ‘not mentioned’, ‘small range’ which is less than 100 people, ‘medium range’ or approximately 100-1000 people, and ‘high range’.
Success was coded when at least one person profited from the event, again a binary variable. Failure in turn was coded when at least one person was inconvenienced by the event
(Eilders, 2006), and is binary as well. Finally, the binary variable Controversy refers to the presentation of two distinct, opposing opinions. For more detail on the operationalization, see Appendix A.
Newspaper articles were coded on their similarity with the original press release (Hijmans, Buijs & Schafraad, 2009) and tone toward the Church or Christian beliefs employed in them. Tone is a three-point scale form ‘negative’ to ‘neutral’ and ‘positive’.
Codertraining and reliability
The author coded the bulk of the collected data. To calculate intercoder reliability a second coder was trained and familiarized with the codebook. After coder training the codebook was finalized and a subsample of 30 press releases and corresponding newspaper articles, meaning about 10% of the collected data, was double coded. Krippendorffs’ Alpha was calculated and all variables were coded reliably, ranging from .67 to .85. According to de Swert (2012), these are satisfactory levels. See Table 1 for more detail.
Table 1
Means, standard deviation, association and reliability
M (SD) 1 2 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. KALPHA 1. Prox. 2.46 (0.86) .83 2. Elite. 3.02 (0.70) .07 .85 3. Promi. 1.71 (0.96) .13* .48* .69 4. Personi. 1.99 (0.49) .01 .14* .35* .77 5. Surprise 1.54 (0.50) .19*b .10 .03 .40* .77 6. Range 2.46 (1.01) .06 .14* .13 .02 .10 .79 7. Success 1.61 (0.49) -.21* -.16 -.11 -.07 .06 -.20* .77 8. Failure 1.28 (0.45) .29* .16 .07 .28* .11 .29* -.74* .75 9. Contro. 1.25 (0.44) .29* .17 .06 .15 .08 .36* -.43* .57* .73 10. Tone 2.45 (0.75) .67
Notes: *p<.05, phi coefficient among dichotomous variables, Gamma for combinations of dichotomous and ordinal variables, Kendall’s tau for all others
Results
From a total of 302 press releases in our sample, 57 press releases where picked up by the news media, which is 18.9%.
To test hypotheses H1a and H1b a logistic regression was used since the dependent variable is dichotomous. Media attention is the dependent variable, and was recoded from the original variable ‘number of mentions in the newspaper’ by turning it into a binary variable. The individual news factors (H1b) and a constructed variable about the amount of news factors (H1a) present in a press release are the independent variables. This was done to predict the likelihood of newspaper articles following press releases based on the number of news factors, as well as the individual news factors included in those press releases. An Exp (B) > 1 indicates the likelihood of receiving media attention increases if the predictor increases. On the other hand an Exp (B) < 1 indicates the likelihood of receiving media attention decreases with predictor increase.
Table 2
Logistic regression analysis to predict media attention by news factors (n = 302).
B s.e. p Exp (B) Wald statistic
Amount NF 1.848 0.413 .000 6.348 20.044 Proximity 1.646 0.538 .002 5.184 9.356 Eliteness 1.820 0.652 .006 6.172 7.653 Prominence 0.719 0.528 .173 2.053 1.854 Personification 1.650 0.625 .008 5.205 6.955 Surprise 1.843 0.538 .001 6.318 11.744 Range 2.055 0.575 .000 7.807 12.753 Success 1.489 0.687 .030 4.432 4.698 Failure 1.733 0.863 .045 5.658 4.031
The logistic regression model was statistically significant, chi-square(9) = 39.965, p< .001. The model explains between 12.4 %(Cox and Shell’s R2) and 20 % (Nagelkerke pseudo R2) of the total variation, The -2 Log likelihood is 252.608. All predictors aside form prominence (Exp(B)= 2.053, p=.173) yielded a significant effect. The probability of a press release being followed by a newspaper article increases if the predictors increase by one unit. This is true for all predictors, since all Exp(B) are >1. See Table 2 for more detail. These findings indicate, support for hypothesis 1a and 1b.
A cross tabulation was used to measure the association between a countries religious orientation and media attention given to press releases issued by the Church (H2a).
Resulting in a non-significant and very weak association between country and media attention, Chi- squared (1, N = 302) = 1.52, p = .217, Tau = .01. In Austria 41 out of 196 press releases received media attention (20.9%) and 16 out of 106 (15.1%) in the
Netherlands.
To determine the association between a countries religious orientation and tone toward the Church a bivariate table was constructed. Results revealed a significant positive weak relationship between country and tone, d = .25, p = .046. Newspapers in Austria are more likely to have a negative tone (16.7%) toward the Church than newspapers in the
Netherlands (12%). More detail is shown in Table 3. This is in opposition with H2b, no support was found for this hypothesis.
Table 3
Cross tabulation of tone by country (n = 91).
Netherlands Austria Total
Tone
Positive 11 12 23
Neutral 11 43 54
Negative 3 11 14
Total 25 66 91
Frequencies revealed that, out of the 91 newspaper articles that were identified, 37 (40.7%) were published in tabloids and 5 (59.3%) in broadsheet papers. To test hypothesis 3a a variable was constructed out of the original variable ‘name of medium’, the measures ‘De Volkskrant’, ‘Trouw’, and ‘Der Standard’ were turned into broadsheet, the measures ‘De Telegraaf’ and ‘Die Krone Zeitung’ were turned into tabloids. Even if ‘Trouw’ is not taken into account, since two Dutch broadsheet outlets might lead to a bias, the number of newspaper articles published in broadsheet outlets, 41 (52.6%), exceeds those published in tabloids, 37 (47.4%), therefore it was included in the calculation. Again, a variable was manually constructed out of the original variable ‘name of medium. This time to show the kind of media attention the individual press releases received, ranging from 0, only by broadsheet outlets, to 1, only in tabloids. A one-sample t-test revealed that it is likely the average religious press release receives media attention in a broadsheet outlet rather than a tabloid (M=0.34, SD=0.41), t(55)= -12.15, p<001, d=1.63, 95% CI [0.22, 0.44]. This is in sharp contrast to H3a.
A cross tabulation, as presented in Table 4, was used again to measure the association between newspaper category and tone. Results revealed a non-significantly negative very weak relationship between tone and newspaper category, d = -.14, p = .137; the majority of newspaper articles were neutral 59.3%, Tabloids were more often positive (29.7%) than
negative (8.1%). No support was found for H3b. Broadsheet outlets were positive only in 22.2% of the cases, and negative in 18.3%.
Table 4
Cross tabulation of tone by newspaper category (n = 91).
Broadsheet Tabloid Total
Tone
Positive 12 11 23
Neutral 31 23 54
Negative 11 3 14
Total 54 37 91
Conclusion and Discussion
The aim of this study was to determine to what extend news worthiness is ascribed to press releases issued by the Roman-Catholic Church and how this differs across countries with different levels of religiosity and news outlets. A content analysis was performed on 302 press releases and 91 newspaper articles in an attempt to answer the question: To what
extend do news factors employed in press releases by catholic news agencies influence the amount of media attention in national news papers and does this differ in secular and religious countries?
Results of the study are in line with previous research into the succession of media attention by news factors employed in press releases (Kroon & Schafraad, 2013; Schafraad, Van Zoonen & Verhoeven, 2016). The amount of news factors employed (H1a) as well as all individual news factors (H1b), aside from ‘prominence’, were found to have a positive influence on correspondent media attention. This means to say that the news factors increase
the likelihood of generating media attention based on the press releases, as hypothesized. Surprisingly, and in contrast to previous research by Schafraad, Van Zoonen, and Verhoeven (2016) even the news factor ‘success’ seems to lead to an increase in media attention in a religious context.
Hypothesis 2a and b were about the comparison of the religious and the secular country in terms of generated media attention (H2a) and tone toward the Church (H2b). Here, contrary to theory, no significant difference in the amount of newspaper articles following a press release issued by the Roman-Catholic Church was found between the religious and the secular country. There was, however, a significant difference in tone toward the Church. Although, contrary to initial expectations, it appears as though Austrian newspapers, rather than Dutch newspapers, are more critical toward the Church.
In regard of newspaper category, the expectations was that Press release issued by the Roman-Catholic Church are more likely to generate media attention in a tabloid (H3a). Results showed that the opposite is true, broadsheet outlets are more likely to write newspaper articles based on press releases issued by the Roman-Catholic Church.
Furthermore, no significant difference was found between which of the two kinds of outlets is more critical toward the Church (H3b). Newspaper categories seem not to differ in a meaningful way in terms of being critical towards the Church.
The results of the current study are rather surprising, especially when compared to other studies with similar designs. It would seem that the news factor success has a
significant positive influence on the succession of press releases by newspaper articles in a religious context. This is in contrast to the stud conducted by Schafraad, Van Zoonen and Verhoeven (2016), which found that the news factor success has a negative effect on media attention based on information subsidies in an economic context. This could be confirmation for the fact that different news factors have different effects in distinct areas, as suggested by
Eilders (2006). It would seem that in the field of religious news, negativity is not superior to positivity of a news item (Boukes & Vliegenthart, 2017). No significant effect on media attention was found for the news factor prominence. The same result was found in a study into the field of scientific news (Kroon & Schafraad, 2013), as well as the field of economic news (Schafraad, Van Zoonen & Verhoeven, 2016). Seeing as three very different research areas have found the same result, this might speak for the changing nature of the news factor in total (Harcup & O’Neill, 2001). The factor may be loosing its importance in the
professional cognitive catalogue of journalists today. One other communality of the three fields, religious, scientific and economic news, is that support was found for the hypothesis that news factor in general increase the likelihood of a press release receiving media
attention.
Even though confirmation was found that the content of press releases, the news factors employed in them, increase chances of the press release receiving media attention, as previous studies with similar research designs have shown (Kroon & Schafraad, 2013; Schafraad, Van Zoonen & Verhoeven, 2016), it would seem that this does not necessarily speak for the agenda building power of an institution. The argument for hypothesis 2a, following indexing theory, was that the Church is more influential in a religious country and therefore receives more media attention. While it is true that the Church hold more power, and is more present in Austria than in the Netherlands, no significant difference was found between the media attention attributed to it’s information subsidies, meaning press releases, in these countries. It would seem rather that the time pressure journalists experience and the nature of the outlet or the profile match with the outlet are more important than the source of the information.
In spite of the fact that, no support was found for the third hypothesis, the received results were interesting as well. Contrary to initial expectations not tabloids, but instead
broadsheet outlets turned out to cover more press releases issued by the Church. This might be due to the watchdog role broadsheet outlets assume. Considering that, as has been argued before, the purpose of a broadsheet outlet is to inform and educate readers, these outlets are more likely to include information from all aspects of society (Boukes & Vliegenthart, 2017). In contrast to tabloids, whose aim it is to reach a broader mass or readers. This aim, in combination with, the finding that Success is significant news factor in a religious context, might offer up an explanation. Seeing as, as has been argued by Boukes and Vliegenthart (2017), tabloids tend to focus on the negativity of event.
It was expected that newspaper articles published in a secular country would be more critical towards the Church, results however revealed that the opposite is true. This might be partially explained by the strong presence of opinion journalism in Austria (Steinmaurer, 2002). No significant difference was found for difference in tone between tabloids and broadsheet outlets. Both of these results might also stem from the way critical was
operationalized. Being critical is not necessarily the same as having a negative tone towards. A different way to do this, would have been to analyze the extent to which press releases were edited before being published in newspapers, as has bee done by Kroon and Schafraad (2013). Since this was coded it was possible to do a post test, which also turned out to be not significant. Further research is needed to confirm all of these suspicions.
The current study is not free of limitations. One of those is that there is a lack of certainty about the connection between press release and newspaper article. Due to a lack of cooperation from the newspapers, it is uncertain if the press releases are in fact the source used as a basis for the article. Additionally, even though there was a certain amount of cooperation from the catholic press agencies, it is unclear how and to whom the press releases were distributed. Therefore it is unclear if they reached their intended targets. Furthermore, the focus on national newspapers can be interpreted as a limitation. Future
research should include regional newspapers in their design, as it appears that more religious news is covered in them. There was also a considerable difference in the amount of press releases published in both countries. While the Church in the Netherland issued only a few hundred press releases, in Austria this number came close to 10.000 press releases issued in 2018. It is very likely that not all of those press releases have been issued by the Austrian Church, but that the Austrian Catholic press agency also distributes news from other sources.
In conclusion, since no difference was found between media attention awarded the Church in the religious and the secular country, no prediction for future developments, in terms of secularization can be made. In turn this speaks for Woods (2015) explanation that religion is not losing prominence or importance within secularizing societies, but rather is changing and working increasingly closely together with other institutions like the media. The practical implications this has for religious institutions and a recommendation that can be made on the basis of the findings are that increases in news factors employed in a press releases improve the chances of an issue or event receiving media attention. Although the point of view the media take on the event or issue depends on context factors like the kind of media outlet.
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Appendix A: Codebook
Codebook: News factors in religious Press releases and their coverage in Newspapers
Research project: Religion in the Media.
News factors in press releases by the Roman-Catholic Church and the differing media attention they receive
Based on: Eilders, 1997; Maier & Reinmann, 2008; Maier & Stromback, 2006; Hijmans, Buijs & Schafraad, 2009; Verhoeven, 2009.
Coder instructions
The aim of this project is to determine the relation between the newsworthiness of press releases by the Roman-Catholic Church and the media coverage inspired by it. The units of analysis consist of news items (press releases) and online news reports (newspaper articles). The entire article should be coded, from the headline to the last sentence. Excluded are pictures or other visual cues. Following are questions about general information, news factors and correlation.
Read the entire article before you start and only then start to answer the questions.
If events or people mentioned in the article are foreign to you, you may look them up online to determine their significance. But additional information should not influence your
answers.
Structure
The structure of this document is as follows: The parts that are not relevant for one of the two kinds of units of analysis should be skipped. Meaning that when coding a press release, ignore questions about newspaper articles (4 +5) and vice versa, if coding Newspaper articles skip over questions about press releases (2+3).
1. General Information
2. Press release characteristics 3. News Factors
4. Newspaper article characteristics 5. Media attention
1. General information
GI1 Coder: 1. Felix 2. Leah
GI2 Date of publication: (DD/MM/JJJJ)
GI3 Article code:
Press releases received a three digit serial number: 001, 002, 003, 101 etc.
The code for the newspaper articles starts with the code for the related press release followed by a hyphen and an additional one digit serial number: 001-1, 076-4, 567-2. The number can be found in the name of the pdf-document.
GI4 Media type 1. Press release
2. Press release characteristics
PC1 Country of origin 1. Netherlands
2. Austria
PC2 Name of publisher/ press agency 1. Rooms-Katholieke Kerk Nederland 2. Katholische Presseagentur Österreich
PC3 How often is the press release mentioned in newspapers
Check the data folder for newspaper articles with the corresponding number.
Insert the number (from 0 to ∞)
PC4 Scope
Word count of the article, only the text including title but excluding footnotes, name of author or text pertaining to pictures or videos.
3. News factors
NF1a Location
Where did the event described take place? If more than one country is mentioned code only the main country, usually mentioned in the title. If main country can’t be determined, code the one closest to the country of origin (Austria / Netherlands)
NF1b Proximity
0 no event location mentioned
1 the event takes place in the home country
2 the event takes place in a foreign country within Europe 3 the event takes place in a foreign country on another continent.
NF2 Eliteness
(following Schafraad, Van Zoonen. & Verhoeven, 2016; Maier & Stromback, 2006)
This factor concerns the social power and status of an individual or organization mentioned in the news item. Every person, group and institution can be encoded. It does not matter whether they are acting, they are interviewed or if there are affected and whether they only appear marginally or they are the main part of the news item. But only encode individuals, who are actually mentioned by name. Only the current influence is encoded. Former influence is covered in prominence. If multiple individuals or organizations are mentioned code the one with the highest status.
0. Not Mentioned
Groups, institutions, their representatives or a single person are not mentioned at all. Instead, a distant “you” is used, or it is a report about events without an acting person (e.g. nature, statistics, announcements e.g. information about the European election given on the phone etc.)
1. low influence
Groups, institutions: on municipal/ local level with low influence (e.g. church council, local politics, regional institutions),
local governments, local courts, acting clubs and youth organizations, citizen’s action groups, smaller regional companies (less than 100 employees), sports clubs below the national level.
Single people: simple/ordinary persons
Single athletes, artists, designer, film directors, actors, show masters or others if they are not mentioned explicitly as part of companies. local politicians (e.g. majors of non state or provincial capitals), simple clergy (e.g. priest), representatives of single sports clubs below national level
2. medium influence (federal state politics, nationwide acting institutions)
Groups, institutions: state courts; Sub-units of national parties; National authorities; Police, Army; Universities; Mass media; Medium companies (100-300
employees); national churches; National Sports associations;
Single people: Chairmen of the mentioned institutions and companies; State politicians, secretaries; Higher clergy (e.g. bishops, cardinal); Agents of sports associations 3. high influence (National/Federal politics, international acting persons and institutions)
international pressure groups (e.g. EU, OPEC, Greenpeace, Amnesty International) international organizations (e.g. UNO, NATO, UNESCO)
Countries, embassies; National governments, national courts; Federal states, federal state governments; International sports associations
Single people: Heads of states, heads of governments; Members of governments, influential national politicians; Heads of national parties; Representatives of supranational organizations and churches (Pope); Members of international sports associations
NF3a Prominence
(following Schafraad, Van Zoonen. & Verhoeven, 2016; Maier & Strömbäck, 2006)
Prominence refers to the level of publicity of a person mentioned by name independent from his or her political or economic power. The most prominent people or groups can be coded here, in order of space devoted to them or in order of appearance. It doesn’t matter whether they are acting, they are interviewed or they are mentioned. Only encode individuals who are actually mentioned by name. If several people with the same level of prominence are mentioned, encode the first appearing name.
0 no person mentioned
1 “ordinary people”/unknown people/people who are only known by insiders
2 Nationwide known individuals (e.g. politicians, athletes, entrepreneurs, bishops etc.) 3 Internationally known people of the sectors politics, sports, culture and economy
NF3b Name of the persons
if possible surname, name e.g. Orban, Victor where necessary with addition e.g. Pope Francis
NF4 Personification
(following Maier & Strömbäck, 2006)
This factor concerns the projection of complex issues on the action of an individual, the significance of single people within a certain event. Where does the main focus lie, on an individual or rather a group or institution. Also are the people in the report mentioned as a individual or do they represent a certain institution. If several individuals are mentioned encode the highest value.
0 not mentioned 1 no personalization
Individuals are mentioned by name but only represent an institution. Always encode here if the group or institution the person’s working for is mentioned in the report. 2 personalization
Individuals are mentioned independently from the role they are playing for a group or institution The focus is on the individuals as such, their viewpoints, actions or
characters. Portraits and interviews always have to be encoded here.
NF5 Surprise
(following Maier & Strömbäck, 2006)
An event is called surprising if it cannot be announced or is unexpected.
Indicators: astonishing, unexpected, debuting, for the first time, despite of, nevertheless, although and analogue terms.
If there are different events in one report choose the central. Usually the main issue is mentioned in the announcement or in the first sentence.
0 no surprise
The event is not spontaneous but can be announced. E.g. openings, civil works, change of employees, yearly conferences, birthdays. If there is no indicator for a
contradiction of expectation, events are encoded here, even if content and outcome are still open.
1 surprise
Event can not be announced, it is spontaneous, the audience hasn’t had any knowledge about the event before. Event contradicts the expectations.
NF6 Range
(following Eilders, 1997; Boukes and Vliegenthart , 2017)
Does the story have any impact or influence on society, on individuals, companies, a group, a region, or a country? Is this explicitly mentioned, in numbers for example.
If the consequences affect different groups of individuals in a positive and negative way, the approximate total number of affected people is encoded.
If there are some different events in one report, choose one central. Usually the main issue is mentioned in the announcement or in the first sentence.
If size of effected group is unclear but they are only mentioned as a very general category code as 1, if it is unclear for whom the consequences are intended code as 0.
0 Missing
1 Small range of relevant people
Individuals , small groups (families), etc. (approximately less than 100 persons) 2 Medium range of relevant people
Single groups or some medium/ large groups are affected, e.g. schools, nurseries, single firms/ companies, clubs/associations, Bundestag/parliament etc. (approximately 100-1000 persons)
3 high range of relevant people (= different groups of society)
firms/ companies/enterprises in general (e.g. civil servants, students, citizens, party members, workers, unemployed persons, unionists, foreigners) and events (party congresses, strikes, etc.). (approximately 1 000-10 000 persons)
Furthermore all groups of persons/ individuals who represent more than a half of the population (e.g. men/women)
statements of heads of states are encoded here. (more than 10 000 persons) NF7 Success/Advantage
(volgens Eilders, 1997; Schafraad, Van Zoonen. & Verhoeven, 2016)
Here you have to encode events, whose positive (potential) consequences for at least one person.
Indicators: advancement, positive development, better, more, privilege, agreement and analogue/similar terms.
If there are different events in one report, choose one central topic on which
usefulness/success is encoded. Usually the main issue is mentioned in the announcement or in the first sentence.
0 no success 1 success
NF8 Failure/Risk
(following Eilders, 1997; Schafraad, Van Zoonen. & Verhoeven, 2016)
Here you have to encode events, with negative consequences or (potential) risk for at least one person. Don’t encode the consequences for the affected people (if so a election
outcomes would be good for one party but bad for the other), but the appraisal, which is expressed in the press release.
Indicators: negative, disadvantageous, unfortunately, fail, injured
If there are different events in one report choose one central topic. Usually the main issue is mentioned in the announcement or in the first sentence.
0 no damage / risk 1 damage
damage (destruction of nature, inequity, sportive failures, election defeat, personal failures...), short-term existential damage (e.g. light maladies, imprisonment). Worsening of central human fields: life, log-term diseases, absence of freedom (=existential damage) and long-term ideal or political damage (e.g. resignation (not election defeat, which can be temporarily)
NF9 Controversy
(Maier & Strömbäck, 2006; Boukes and Vliegenthart , 2017)
The topic of a certain news item is a complex, maybe political, issue that sparks debate. Like maybe contraception, same sex marriage and abstinence.
Controversy is the explicit presentation of different opinions. There have to be at least 2 parties. This does not include journalistic statements that point the reporters opinion. 0 no controversy
1 controversy
4. Newspaper article characteristics
NC1 Name of medium
1. De Volkskrant
2. De Telegraaf
3. Trouw
4. Der Standard
NC2 Scope
Word count of the article, only the text including title but excluding footnotes, name of author or text pertaining to pictures or videos.
NC3 Presentation 1. News article
2. Commentary/Analysis (explicitly labeled so)
3. Interview (Article mainly consists of question-answers) 4. Others
5. Media attention
Journalistic usage (following Hijmans et al., 2009)
There are different ways for journalists to use information they receive. To identify the way a journalist used received information the coder needs to compare the newspaper article with the corresponding press release.
MA1a Adopt content (following Schafraad, Van Zoonen. & Verhoeven, 2016) 0. The newspaper article doesn’t fit this category – check MA1B en MA1C
1. The newspaper article is exactly the same as the press release
2. The newspaper article does not contain any additional information other than the press release, but has been entirely rewritten.
MA1b Add to content
0. The newspaper article doesn’t fit this category – check MA1a en MA1c 1. Additional facts/contexts/ analyses have been added. In the newspaper article
different information than in the press release is recorded. Even if only one sentence has been added. But at least a third of the article should correspond with the press release.
MA1c Entirely new article
0. The newspaper article doesn’t fit this category – check MA1a en MA1b
1. Critical evaluation, reports or substantial interviews have been added to the press release. In newspaper article in this this category information introduced in the press release is compared to other information and critically evaluated. Less than a third of the article is corresponding to the original press release.
MA2 Tone
This is the articles general tone toward the Roman-Catholic Church or Christian believes. Are these presented in a favorable light, as part of tradition and culture, or rather as antiquated and backward?
1. Negative is when the tone is focused on seeing the Church as antiquated or even a danger to progress of society.
Indicators: doctrinaire, moralistic, preach, obstinate, stubborn, deceptive, conservative, …
2. Positive is when the tone is focused on seeing the Church as an asset or integral part of the culture.
Indicators: tradition, support, community, compassion, open minded, … 3. Neutral does not do either of these things or shows a balanced view of both
perspectives. Example: Religious personalities or issues are only mentioned in a byline.
