Reconstructing the news story: gatekeeping, news values and framing in an era of journalist change

Framing has become one of the most popular concepts in the study of news coverage. However, the process of frame-building (Scheufele, 1999), i.e. what factors influence how the news is being framed, has been treated shabbily for a long time (Borah, 2011). Among frame-building studies, the role of journalists and newsrooms remains rather unexplored. This study attempts to bridge the framing tradition with the field of news production. To this end, a multiple-method strategy is adopted: content frame analysis of news stories go together with ethnographic research methods, such as newsroom observations and reconstruction interviews. Thereby, the focus lies on newsrooms in the Low Countries. Following a constructionist approach to framing (Gamson & Modigliani, 1989; Van Gorp, 2007), frames are considered as the unintentional result of journalistic routines, such as the application of news values. The factors that influence frame-building are investigated on different levels (cf. Shoemaker & Reese, 1996), with a focus on individual (e.g., journalistic roles), organizational (e.g., newsroom organization), and institutional (e.g., relationships with sources) influences.