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Connie de Boer, Recent Books in the Field of Public Opinion Research, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Volume 23, Issue 1, Spring 2011, Pages 117–123, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edr002
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Hestermann, T. (2010). Fernsehgewalt und Einschaltquote.Welches PublikumsbildFernsehschaffendeleitet, wennsieüber Gewaltkriminalitätberichten [Television violence and audience ratings. The audience image of television journalists and its impact on coverage of violent crimes]. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos, 273 pp., ISBN 978-3-8329-5274-7.
Journalists’ image of their audience and its preferences significantly affect their choice of topics and the style of presentation they employ. Hestermann takes a closer look at how journalists’ portrayal of violent crimes is influenced by their impression of the audience. Are they lurid, blood-thirsty sensation-seekers or serene media users looking for serious and valid information? Qualitative interviews with journalists offer some insights into how journalists struggle to make sense of their daily routines. Although journalists refrained from explicitly stating their image of the audience, the citations presented offer a broad variety of implicit assumptions about consumers of news stories. They indicate that the audiences prefer simple narratives with an emotional appeal which they can relate to. Journalists largely reported deriving interpretations of recipients from audience ratings, which they report to study intensively in search for feedback. Hestermann’s attempt to link these statements to a content analysis of coverage of violent crimes does not engross our understanding of phenomena of coverage of violent crimes. However, the excerpts from the interviews alone are interesting, because they show how much effort journalists put into imagining audience reactions, although these anticipations ultimately remain speculations.
