ABSTRACT
Press articles and broadcast news shows or magazines frequently incorporate different types of information to describe a problem. Summary-type descriptions of reality are based on a broad set of data and are, therefore, usually valid, but frequently not graphic or vivid. On the other hand exemplars, that is, personal descriptions by people who are concerned or interested in an issue, are vivid, but often not very valid, because in selecting exemplars, a journalist doesn’t necessarily care about representativeness. Journalists frequently use exemplars as a device to illustrate particular assertions about the state or the urgency of particular social problems. Exemplars depict people concerned about a problem who speak their mind about it, or who repeat the opinions of people who are involved in a problem, or of the “man in the street.” Journalism manuals (e.g., Brendel & Grobe, 1976; Haller, 1987) recommend using exemplars to make a report authentic and vivid and, at the same time, make a complex and abstract issue interesting and comprehensible for the recipients. Aside from exemplars, news reports often also mention figures and facts that quantify the importance of a problem. Case-type illustrations are thus presented along with summary-type descriptions of reality.
