Are 'sensational' news stories more likely to trigger viewers' emotions than non-sensational news stories? A content analysis of British TV news

Abstract

This article considers whether 'sensational' news stories are intrinsically more likely to elicit emotional responses in audiences than other TV news stories. The research analyses a sample of British televised news in respect of empirically validated attributes, to identify the presence of particular content elements that audience research has shown to possess emotion-eliciting capabilities. The results show that news stories traditionally classified as,sensational' - a term that implies a dramatic and therefore emotion-arousing imperative - do not necessarily contain more emotionally arousing features than other types of news story. Only crime stories (among the most frequently occurring 'sensational' news categories) and, to a limited extent, political stories (a classic 'non-sensational' news topic) provide clear manifestations of the presence of high and tow emotion-laden attributes. Moreover, those topics containing more emotion-laden material are not the same over time or across public and commercial TV channels.