The study appeared in the textbook "Changing Media Markets in Europe and Abroad".
"Overall, it is clear from the present study that the state television vs. commercial television ´divide´ is not very great regarding editors´ ideal and actual news selection/presentation. The responses of both sets of editors were quite similar for ideal and real goals, respectively. As a result, we also found that the gap between ideal and real goals was widespread for both sets of editors, in essence meaning that they uniformly feel deficient in not providing what they believe their audience wants."
There are two main points:
- First is what can best be described as a ´mediagenic requirement´. In the case of television news, the primary demand is visual footage. "If we have a picture, we have a story; if we have a dramatic picture, it will reach the screen. Visual impact is what drives us. A related mediagenic exigency is lack of access to the source or to vital information - especially problematic for television given the ´heavy´nature of production equipment. TV news almost always demands a crew. In short, the picture is both the greatest strength and biggest weakness of tv-news."
- "The second major category involves ´insitutional exigencies´- exogenous and endogenous. Regarding the former, for especiallysensitive issues Israeli Army censorship is a major consideration. There is little actual overt censorship today in Israel because the editors have internalized the rules ..."
"As a result, we conclude that general exogenous and endogenous factors, mediagenic and institutional constraints, are the underlying foundation for an ideal/real gap - far surpassing elements unique to commercial TV news compared to state TV news. It is the specific medium and its environmental characteristics that determine what editors will consider necessary as well as the extent to which they (don´t) succeed in producing the desired result..."
Changing Media Markets in Europe and Abroad – New Ways of Handling Information and Entertainment Content
Schorr, A.; Seltmann, S. (Eds.)