The process model of news initiative: Sources lead first, reporters thereafter

The role of reporters and sources in the initiation of the news is neither unilateral as claimed by models of “hegemony” and “adversarial journalism”, nor reciprocal as suggested by the models of “exchange” and “role relationship”, but rather a combination of the two. According to the process model developed and examined here, the initiative passes from one side to the other in the course of the acquisition of information. In the discovery phase, during which reporters learn about the existence of a potential new item, it is the sources who initiate most of the contacts (0.70). However, during the gathering phase, in which the reporters obtain further information, it is they who initiate most of the contacts (again 0.70). The study, which focused on the Israeli daily press, used an innovative methodology of face-to-face reconstruction interviews, during which reporters detailed how they obtained each of the stories in the sample, determining the instigating party according to the technology used for each contact.