Who is Making the Decisions? A Study of Television journalists, Their Bosses, and Consultant-Based Market Research

摘要

A controlled experiment studied the effects of decision-makers in the newsroom by studying television journalists from across the country. Participants were presented with three hypothetical stories in one of two conditions; one in which a consultant's market research was relied upon to make news judgments, and another in which a news director's judgments were used to make decisions. The experiment was designed to determine if the newsroom condition motivated participants to choose the consultant or manager as the one in control of story selection. When participants were placed in a situation in which the consultant ruled, they were more likely to agree with consultant decisions versus managerial ones.