Murder Incorporated

Abstract

Research shows that market orientation affects news content. However, very little research examines how market orientation affects the coverage of a particular story. This is the first to examine news content concerning the same story covered by two different organizations: a strongly market-oriented legacy outlet and a weakly market-oriented digitally native news nonprofit. This study employs textual analysis to examine how the New Haven Register and the New Haven Independent electronically covered the Annie Le murder and investigation. While both organizations covered the same story and concentrated on the same aspects of the story, the results appear very different. The Register highlighted the more salacious aspects and focused on speculation and scoops, while the Independent focused more on why it happened and what it meant to readers. The results of this study are analyzed through the lens of gatekeeping theory.

Keywords

online news gatekeeping market orientation textual analysis

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