ABSTRACT
An enduring concern in the study of journalistic practice is the degree to which news is standardized. A number of commentators have noted that various constraints reduce the variability of news available to audiences. Most of these constraints are tangible, concrete and relatively well documented, such as time, “news hole,” or space, money, standardized sources, organizational policy and craft norms. 1 Others are considerably less apparent, and one such “unseen” constraint is the subject of this paper.
