Audience Approach. The Performance of the Civic, Infotainment, and Service Roles.

Abstract

Based on a conceptualization of the audience as citizens, spectators, and clients, this chapter assesses how journalism approaches the audience by comparing the performance of the civic, infotainment, and service roles in news from 18 countries. We found significant inter-country variation in the performance of different analytical sub-dimensions of these roles. Data also reveals that the materialization of elements of these roles is context-sensitive and varies across political regimes, media organizations, and news topics. Finally, we analyze how the three roles correlate in news content, showing different trends in role hybridization.