Comparing news reporting across print, radio, television and online: Still distinct manufacturing houses

This paper suggests that news media remain distinct despite increasingly converging news environments. Print, online, radio and television constitute not only unique packing and distribution houses of similarly obtained raw materials, as suggested by the generic approach, but also unique manufacturing houses of news, as suggested by the particularist approach. The study compares for the first time the news practices across all four media in national leading Israeli news organizations, based on face-to-face reconstruction interviews, during which a sample of 108 reporters recreated how they obtained each of their randomly sampled, recently published items (N = 859). Medium differences were not only statistically significant but also cut across all studied aspects. Patterns of reporting were much less meticulous and more source-dependent in the immediate media (online and radio) compared to daily media (print and television). Contrary to its infamous reputation, the most complex and rich reporting patterns were found on television.