Emotions engaged reporting: A

content analysis of online

newspaper coverage of Lindt
siege
Abstract
This study is primarily a quantitative content analysis of online
coverage of Lindt siege, as the hostage crisis gained great amount
of social as well as political attention. Forty stories from four news
agencies were analysed to see the attitude of press reporting the
siege. Result found that reporters are more sensationalised with
words in reporting this incident to attract readers and ensure their
articles are seen or read.

Introduction
Multiple news sources including print, broadcasting, online and
mobile media coexist and together build up mainstream media in
this mobile age (Schrder, 2014). People have more ways to get
access to news and they no longer need to stick to a single
platform, thus media are more stressful in getting audiences
because they are not the only choice.
This article will discuss whether the ways journalists write changed
in todays cross media society to ensure their stories are seen. The
study will generally focus on online reporting of Lindt siege in 2014,
when eighteen people were held hostage by a gunman in a cafe in
Sydney. Three people, including two hostages and the gunman,
were killed during the raid (Ralston and Partridge, 2014).Three
specific research questions are posed to discuss the dominant
reporting attitude, the relationship between attitude and readership,
and whether the introduction of mobile news affected the way in
which journalists write respectively.

Methodology
This article focuses on online coverage only, and samples taken
didnt include the online articles which require subscription. Four
news agencies reporting are taken into account, including The Age,
news.com.au, The Australian and Daily Telegraph. Statistics of Daily
Telegraph and Herald Sun are combined because they belong to the
same company and conduct under the same code.
Sampling Methods

To conduct the sample, different search terms including Lindt

siege Sydney hostage crisis were entered in the databases of the
four news outlets. The first 10 articles appeared in terms of
relevancy were taken into consideration and an ultimate sample size
of 40 was formed. The date chosen was from December 15 to 18,
2014, encompassing the whole duration of the siege.
Coding System
The study focuses on the attitude of journalists reporting the
hostage crisis. Coders determine the degrees to which the news
articles are neutral or have some emotional attachments. The 40
articles are catagorised into three categories, which are neutral,
appealing to fear and appealing to sympathy.
The over-emotional words and sentences were seen as indicators of
the articles attitude. For example, Herald Sun on December 16
described the move of Tori Johnson as the final heroic act of his
life (Longmaid, 2014) as Johnson tried to protect other customers
from the gunman. Similarly, They began the day as strangers
only to become bonded for life (McClellan et al., 2014) appeared to
describe victims sharing of sorrows. Articles like these are defined
as appealing to sympathy as they thoroughly depict the sufferings
of victims and suggest that readers stand on the same ground of
hostages.
Seidel and Smith (2014) suggested in their news.com.au post that
A gun, knife or bomb attack usually has only one goal: To kill as
many as possible, as quickly as possible. Their work and similar
ones were counted as appealing to fear as they build up a
depressing atmosphere and cater to publics fear towards terrorism.

Analysis
Forty articles from four news agencies were analysed and the
distribution of their reporting ways are showed in the graph below.
Neutr Appeal
to Appeal
to
al
Sympathy
fear
The Age
60%
10%
30%
News.com.au
50%
20%
40%
The Australian
70%
10%
20%
Daily
Telegraph/Herald 50%
30%
20%
Sun
*One of the articles in News.com.au caters to both sympathy and fear.

Dominant Reporting Attitude

Distribution of Reporting Attitude

7; 17%

11; 27%

23; 56%

Neutrality is widely accepted as one of the philosophical basis for

journalistic enterprises (Fenby, 1986). However, in the online
coverage of Lindt siege, 43% posts have emotions engaged. Neutral
posts count only 57%, which is presumed to take up a more
dominant percentage. Though reporting attitudes vary from news
agencies, the highest percentage of neutrality among the four, is
70% for The Australian. The percentage of neutral to non-neutral
reporting is not overwhelming.
Relationship between reporting attitude and readership
The respective percentage of neutrality and their average net paid
digital sales in the fourth quarter of 2014 according to Audited
Media are showed in the graph below.
The Age

60
%

135,776

News.com

50
%

Online only publication

The Australian

70
%

65,739

Herald Sun/ Daily Telegraph

(News Corp)

50
%

322,666

Among the four, The Australian has the biggest number of neutral
reporting, yet its circulation is the smallest. Herald Sun and Daily
Telegraph has a relatively low percentage of neutral reporting, yet it
has the largest circulation. Results suggest preference of public
towards emotionalized reporting, where colorful words and writers
emotional tendencies are more obvious.

Change of Reporting Ways

Developments of mobile functions have brought about growing
variety of Web resources (Sheth and Thirunarayan, 2012). Online
approaches have enlarged the way in which journalists report, in
that more content can be retrieved with links, graphs and even
videos. Journalists tend to report in a more flexible way, with more
supplementary resources used and emotions engaged.
Emotions let readers emphasize with the articles. In the case of
Lindt siege, the sympathized articles suggest that writers and
readers stand on the same ground. Journalists assume that they
cater to the needs and thoughts of public, thus the articles are more
to publics taste. Their articles either appeal to sympathy, in which a
conception of equality, loyalty and friendship is embodied, or appeal
to fear, because terrorism is threatening normal people
indistinguishably. Chomsky (2002) argues that terrorism has been
one of the major social control mechanisms since the collapse of
Soviet Union in 1991. Fear explains as one of the filters in a
propaganda model, which explains why neutral reporting can be
declining in mobile agemedia serves in a decentralized market
system of control and processing nowadays.

Conclusion
The study examines the online reporting attitudes in the coverage of
Lindt siege. Results showed that reporters cater more to the need of
general public in ways that more sensationalized words are used,
with a will that they are standing on the same ground with their
potential readers. Statistics showed that news outlets with more
emotional reporting get a better circulation. However, more
guidance upon journalistic norms are required to ensure that
journalists are there to inform the truth, rather than insist too much
on getting readership.

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