Abstract
Journalists consider the importance of events and the audience's interest in them when deciding on which events to report. Events most likely to be reported are those that are both important and can capture the audience's interest. In turn, the public is most likely to become aware of important news when some aspect of the story piques their interest. We suggest an efficacious means of drawing public attention to important news stories: dogs. Examining the national news agenda of 10 regional newspapers relative to that of the New York Times, we evaluated the eff ect of having a dog in a news event on the likelihood that the event is reported in regional newspapers. The "dog effect" is approximately equivalent to the eff ect of whether a story warrants front- or back-page national news coverage in the New York Times. Thus, we conclude that dogs are an important factor in news decisions.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 819-823 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | PS - Political Science and Politics |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 6 2014 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science
Cite this
What's a dog story worth? / Atkinson, Matthew D.; Deam, Maria; Uscinski, Joseph.
In: PS - Political Science and Politics, Vol. 47, No. 4, 06.10.2014, p. 819-823.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - What's a dog story worth?
AU - Atkinson, Matthew D.
AU - Deam, Maria
AU - Uscinski, Joseph
PY - 2014/10/6
Y1 - 2014/10/6
N2 - Journalists consider the importance of events and the audience's interest in them when deciding on which events to report. Events most likely to be reported are those that are both important and can capture the audience's interest. In turn, the public is most likely to become aware of important news when some aspect of the story piques their interest. We suggest an efficacious means of drawing public attention to important news stories: dogs. Examining the national news agenda of 10 regional newspapers relative to that of the New York Times, we evaluated the eff ect of having a dog in a news event on the likelihood that the event is reported in regional newspapers. The "dog effect" is approximately equivalent to the eff ect of whether a story warrants front- or back-page national news coverage in the New York Times. Thus, we conclude that dogs are an important factor in news decisions.
AB - Journalists consider the importance of events and the audience's interest in them when deciding on which events to report. Events most likely to be reported are those that are both important and can capture the audience's interest. In turn, the public is most likely to become aware of important news when some aspect of the story piques their interest. We suggest an efficacious means of drawing public attention to important news stories: dogs. Examining the national news agenda of 10 regional newspapers relative to that of the New York Times, we evaluated the eff ect of having a dog in a news event on the likelihood that the event is reported in regional newspapers. The "dog effect" is approximately equivalent to the eff ect of whether a story warrants front- or back-page national news coverage in the New York Times. Thus, we conclude that dogs are an important factor in news decisions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84915781922&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84915781922&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1049096514001103
DO - 10.1017/S1049096514001103
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84915781922
VL - 47
SP - 819
EP - 823
JO - PS - Political Science and Politics
JF - PS - Political Science and Politics
SN - 1049-0965
IS - 4
ER -