The study, How News Happens, involved several different methodological phases. All aspects of the analysis were performed in house by PEJ staff researchers.
Identifying the Media Universe
The first step was to identify all the local media outlets in the Baltimore, Md. metropolitan area. This occurred in the summer of 2009.
[1]
[2]
For outlets with multiple programs or broadcasts, researchers selected appropriate news programs, including both traditional news programming as well as talk or interview programs.
Specifically, PEJ chose news segments—radio headlines and local TV newscasts—that air when most people are getting their news.
For headlines on the radio, that’s the morning rush hour commute.
[3]
[4]
Broad Sample of News Outlets Studied (July 19-25, 2009)
Newspapers (6)
The Baltimore Sun (Frequency Sun.-Sat.; captured every day)
Baltimore City Paper (weekly)
The Baltimore Times (weekly)
The Baltimore Afro American (weekly)
The Towson Times (weekly)
The Washington Post (Local content in the Baltimore edition; captured every day)
Newspaper Websites (4)
[5]
Niche Print (2)
The Maryland Daily Record (Frequency Mon.-Fri.; captured each weekday)
The Baltimore Business Journal (weekly)
Niche Print Websites (2)
The Maryland Daily Record (MdDailyRecord.com; captured twice daily at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.)
The Baltimore Business Journal (baltimore.bizjournals.com/Baltimore; captured retroactively)
Local TV Evening Newscasts (4)
(Each weekday newscast downloaded from the TV Eyes Media Center)
WBAL-TV (6 p.m.-6:30 p.m.)
WBFF-TV (5:30 p.m.-6 p.m.)
WJZ-TV (6 p.m.-6:30 p.m.)
WMAR-TV (6 p.m.-6:30 p.m.)
Local TV Websites (4)
ABC2News.com (WMAR ; captured twice daily at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.)
FoxBaltimore.com (WBFF; captured twice daily at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.)
WBALTV.com (captured twice daily at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.)
WJZ.com (captured twice daily at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.)
Public TV News Programs (2)
Direct Connection (MPT; captured via DVR July 20, 2009)
State Circle (MPT; captured via DVR July 24, 2009)
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WBAL (captured each weekday)
WCBM (captured each weekday)
Radio Talk Shows (7)
[7]
Radio Websites (3)
WBAL.com (captured twice daily at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.)
WCBM.com (captured once daily at 4 p.m.)
WYPR.org (captured retroactively)
New Media/Blogs (10)
[9]
Capture and Content Retrieval
Researchers captured and saved all news content from July 19 through July 25, 2009.
Hard copies were used for all newspapers that were available in print in the Baltimore area.
Using automated software, radio programs were captured through online streams of the shows. The purpose of this method is to ensure that we have a version of the program in a manner that represents the way a typical listener would hear the program with commercials and newsbreaks. WYPR could not be captured using this method. PEJ coded talk shows from podcasts made available on the station’s website. The station does not post digital copies of its daily local headlines.
Local TV newscasts were downloaded and digitally archived from the subscription-based online media monitoring database TV Eyes.
All content was then coded by a member of PEJ’s staff who watches or listens to the archived version of the program.
The frequency of website captures was determined by how often content was updated and how news stories were archived. Websites that updated content frequently throughout the day were captured twice daily at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Websites that updated less frequently but did not archive news stories were captured once a day. Blogs and other sites that archived all content were captured retroactively the week of July 27.
First Level of Analysis
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Housekeeping Variables
Story Date
Source
Placement
Print Only Variable: Story Word Count
Broadcast Only Variables:
Broadcast Start Time
Story Start Time
Story End Time
Headline
Main Variables
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Trigger (Designates the action, event or editorial decision that makes this news, thus triggering its publication. What was it that caused a story to be published on this particular occasion and this particular day?)
Cited Person(s) (The first five named human sources—no organizations as sources)
Level of Involvement of Cited Person (specifies the level of involvement of a source with a news story)
Expertise/Position (The expertise/position of the highest level source in a news story)
Newness (Indicates how much information, if any, has been added to a particular storyline)
Footnotes
1.Outlets or programs that specialize in sports or arts and entertainment coverage were excluded from the study.
2. Outlets not included in the study were either inactive or could not be captured.
3. More recent data for 2009 show that late night newscasts had slightly bigger audiences than for early evening newscasts.
4. Direct Connection and State Circle
5. Stories from this source were analyzed in the study of the six main story threads but were not included in the first level of analysis because no new relevant content was produced within the specified time frame.
6. PEJ could not capture radio news headlines from WYPR due to technical issues.
7. Due to technical issues, this program was coded from a podcast available on WYPR’s website.
8. Due to technical issues, this program was coded from a podcast available on WYPR’s website.
9. A post from this source was referenced in the study of the six main story threads but was not included in the first level of analysis because no new relevant content was produced within the specified time frame.
10. Codes for this study were adapted from the PEJ News Coverage Index.
11. Stories that fell outside of the broader three-day sample were coded for housekeeping and main variables as listed above.
