Through qualitative content analysis of breaking and traditional news coverage of the balloon boy hoax, this article expands on research that explores how journalists craft resonance through storytelling. Scholars haven’t applied resonance to breaking news; yet, it is an important context in which to study resonance—news values and routines differ, and the impact on audiences is greater. Because journalists apply different news values and storytelling techniques in breaking news, this storytelling context heightens resonance.
AllanS.ZelizerB. (2004). Rules of engagement: Journalism and war. In AllanS.ZelizerB. (Eds.), Reporting war: journalism in wartime (pp. 3–21). New York, NY: Routledge.
2.
AllenC. (2004). Sold American: US news consultants and news issues abroad. In AndersenR.StrateL. (Eds.), Critical studies in media commercialism (pp. 84–100). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
3.
AltheideD. (1996). Qualitative media analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
4.
AufderheideP. (2004). Big media and little media: The journalistic informal sector during the invasion of Iraq. In AllanS.ZelizerB. (Eds.), Reporting war: Journalism in wartime (pp. 333–346). New York, NY: Routledge.
5.
BarthesR. (1977). Image, music, text. New York, NY: Hill and Wang.
6.
BerkowitzD. (Ed.). (1997). Social meanings of news: A text-reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
7.
BerkowitzD. (2005). Suicide bombers as women warriors: Making news through mythical archetypes. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 82, 607–622.
8.
BirdS. E.DardenneR. W. (1997). Myth Chronicle and Story: Exploring the narrative qualities of news. In BerkowitzD. (Ed.), Social meanings of news (pp. 333–350). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
CookP. S.GomeryL.LichtyL. W. (1992). The future of news: Television, newspapers, wire services and newsmagazines. Baltimore, MD: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
14.
DurhamF. D. (1998). News frames as social narratives: TWA Flight 800. Journal of Communication, 48, 100–118.
15.
EdelmanM. (1993). Contestable categories and public opinion. Political Communication, 10, 231–242.
16.
EntmanR. (1992). Blacks in the news: Television, modern racism and cultural change. Journalism Quarterly, 69, 341–361.
17.
EntmanR. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43, 51–68.
18.
EttemaJ. S. (2005). Crafting cultural resonance: Imaginative power in everyday journalism. Journalism, 6, 131–152.
19.
GamsonW. A. (1988). A constructionist approach to mass media and public opinion. Symbolic Interaction, 11, 161–178.
20.
GamsonW. A.ModiglianiA. (1989). Media discourse and public opinion on nuclear power: A constructionist approach. American Journal of Sociology, 95, 1–37.
21.
HertogJ. K.McLeodD. M. (2001). A multiperspectival approach to framing analysis: A field guide. In ReeseS. D.GandyO. H.JrGrantA. E.. (Eds.), Framing public life: Perspectives on media and our understanding of the social world (pp. 139–161). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
LindlofT. R.TaylorB. C. (2002). Qualitative communication research methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
24.
LuleJ. (2001). Daily news, eternal stories: The mythological role of journalism. New York, NY: Guilford.
25.
LuleJ. (2005). News as myth: Daily news and eternal stories. In. RothenbuhlerE. W.ComanM. (Eds.), Media anthropology (pp. 101–111). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
26.
MillerA. (2006). Watching viewers watch TV: Processing live, breaking, and emotional news in a naturalistic setting. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 83, 511–529.
27.
PanZ.KosickiG. (1993). Framing analysis: An approach to new discourse. Political Communication, 10, 55–73.
PostmanN. (1985). Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
32.
ReynoldsA.BarnettB. (2003a). This just in: How national TV news handled the breaking “live” coverage of September 11. Journal of Mass Communication Quarterly, 80, 689–703.
33.
ReynoldsA.BarnettB. (2003b). ‘America under attack’: CNN’s verbal and visual framing of September 11. In ChermakS.BaileyF.Y.BrownM. (Eds.), Media representations of September 11 (pp. 85–1010). Westport, CN: Praeger.
34.
SchudsonM. (1989). How culture works: Perspectives from media studies on the efficacy of symbols. Theory and Society, 18, 153–180.
35.
SchudsonM. (2005). Four approaches to the sociology of news. In CurranJ.GurevitchM. (Eds.), Mass media and society (pp. 198–214). London, England: Hodder Arnold.
36.
ShoemakerP.ReeseS. D. (1995). Mediating the message: Theories of influence on mass media content (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Longman.
37.
SmithR. R. (1979). Mythic elements in television news. Journal of Communication, 26, 93–97.
38.
TankardJ. W.Jr (2001). The empirical approach to the study of media framing. In ReeseS. D.GandyO. H.JrGrantA. E. (Eds.), Framing public life: Perspectives on media and our understanding of the social world (pp. 95–106). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
39.
TuchmanG. (1978). Making news: A study in the construction of reality. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
40.
TuggleC. A.HuffmanS. (1999). Live news reporting: Professional judgment or technological pressure? A national survey of television news directors and senior reporters. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 43, 492–505.
41.
TuggleC. A.HuffmanS. (2001). Live reporting in television news: Breaking news or black holes?Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 45, 335–344.
