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Explicating Sensationalism in Television News: Content and the Bells and Whistles of Form

Sensationalism in journalism has been a popular topic of fiery discussions for centuries. Yet, it appears that this topic is more often debated than systematically investigated. Indeed, the word, sensational ism, has become an easy name-calling device for those who are in the mood for criticizing the mass media. Even in academic circles, the term has been used with little precision. The goal of this study is to take a step towards explicating the concept. The most common but vague classification of the concept is by content: stories about crime, accidents, disaster, and scandal. A few scholars acknowledge that formal features may play a role in what we have come to call sensational, but precisely how the packaging of stories contributes to sensationalism remains virtually unexplored, especially in terms of television news. This study focuses on both the content and form of two television news magazine programs on opposite ends of the sensational/"proper" journalism spectrum to provide insights into the dimensions of sensationalism.