Psychology of News Decisions

This article is about causal explanations for the way journalists report the news. In its first part, the article reviews traditional and current models or theories of journalists’ news decisions, concentrating on news factors, institutional objectives, the manipulative power of public relations by news sources and the subjective beliefs of journalists. It comes to the conclusion that most of these approaches do not explain the underlying processes leading to news judgements. Starting from these shortcomings and from the assumption that most of journalists’ work is about perceptions, conclusions and judgements, it then attempts to apply psychological theories to news decision-making. The author holds that two general needs or functions involving specific psychological processes can explain news decisions: a need for social validation of perceptions and a need to preserve one’s existing predispositions. Empirical data from several surveys and studies among journalists are used to demonstrate the appropriateness of this approach to journalists’ behavior.