<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Research on news organizations’ handling of ‘what-a-story’s proposes that journalists find routines for handling these events based on their previous experiences of similar situations. Still, conceptual discussions on how to define extraordinary events or ’what-a-story’s have thus far attracted limited interest. In response, the present article proposes a definition of ‘what-a-story’s in order to provide an understanding of what events become a part of news organizations’ historical case banks. Accordingly, the aim of the article is to present a definition of crisis news events from an organizational perspective, which can help distinguish critical news events of importance to news organizations’ learning and preparedness. The article argues that crisis news are to be understood as surprise events that challenge key organizational values and demand a swift response. Based on interviews with Swedish broadcasting media managers, the article illustrates how the September 11<sup>th</sup> terror attacks can be defined as a crisis event.</p></abstract>

Research on news organizations’ handling of ‘what-a-story’s proposes that journalists find routines for handling these events based on their previous experiences of similar situations. Still, conceptual discussions on how to define extraordinary events or ’what-a-story’s have thus far attracted limited interest. In response, the present article proposes a definition of ‘what-a-story’s in order to provide an understanding of what events become a part of news organizations’ historical case banks. Accordingly, the aim of the article is to present a definition of crisis news events from an organizational perspective, which can help distinguish critical news events of importance to news organizations’ learning and preparedness. The article argues that crisis news are to be understood as surprise events that challenge key organizational values and demand a swift response. Based on interviews with Swedish broadcasting media managers, the article illustrates how the September 11th terror attacks can be defined as a crisis event.

Defining Crisis News Events

Ph.D., Researcher, Department for Communication and Media, Lund University

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Defining Crisis News Events"}

Research on news organizations’ handling of ‘what-a-story’s proposes that journalists find routines for handling these events based on their previous...

Defining Crisis News Events

Publié en ligne: 30 janv. 2017

Pages: 87 - 101

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0122

Mots clés
crisis, journalistic practices, media, attacks, September 11, organizational learning, decision-making

© 2010 Eva-Karin Olsson, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Defining Crisis News Events

Publié en ligne: 30 janv. 2017

Pages: 87 - 101

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0122

Mots cléscrisis, journalistic practices, media, attacks, September 11, organizational learning, decision-making

© 2010 Eva-Karin Olsson, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mots clés
crisis, journalistic practices, media, attacks, September 11, organizational learning, decision-making