ABSTRACT
In recent years, the seemingly dichotomous distinction between hard and soft news has become widely used to capture developments of news coverage in various countries around the world. Some scholars see the softening of news as an example of the damaging effects of commercialization on the quality of journalism, and they fear negative consequences for democratic discourse. In contrast, others point to possible positive effects of soft news, such as the inclusion of audiences usually less interested in political affairs (for a synoptic account, see Reinemann, Stanyer, Scherr, and Legnante 2012). However, despite the concept's popularity, no consensus exists on its definition, and internationally comparative research and large-scale systematic comparisons are few and far between. Due to these problems, the factors that determine the character of news items remain obscure. Against this backdrop, this chapter investigates the character of the news using a multidimensional approach inspired by Reinemann and colleagues (2012). They use three dimensions to distinguish harder from softer news: (1) the political substance of the matter covered (topic dimension), (2) specific aspects of emphasized events or topics (focus dimension), and (3) the way events or topics are presented (style dimension). Moreover, they argue that the topic dimension forms the bedrock on which the other dimensions rest. This chapter seeks to explain differences in the character of news between countries and news outlets drawing on this model. It starts by examining the relevant literature to identify the factors that may help to explain the hard or soft character of political news across the media outlets and countries investigated here.
