Prototyping through Key Events

Since reunification, the German public has witnessed four highly violent riots and attacks against aliens and foreigners. Both at home and abroad, the riots at Hoyerswerda and Rostock, as well as the arson attacks of Mölln and Solingen, have led to fears of a growing hostility against aliens and of an increasing right-wing radicalism in the united Germany. Besides these four key events, the Federal Office for Criminal Investigation (Bundeskriminalamt) recorded approximately 15,000 other attacks, molestations and offences. This study examines the impact of the four key events on subsequent news coverage. Using content analyses and data from the Federal Office for Criminal Investigation, we found that journalists' news selection was influenced considerably by each of the key events. Attacks similar to the key events in terms of victims, location and type of event had a higher chance of being published. Our data suggest that news selection can best be explained by a prototyping process, that is, an interaction between attributes of events and news-gathering routines of journalists.