Discourse culture(s) of journalism: Newswriting in Dutch and Iranian handbooks

Abstract

Ten handbooks of journalism most-used in Dutch and Iranian (applied) universities were content-analyzed and compared for their instructions on (crime) newswriting and assumptions behind the given instructions. While Dutch handbooks consider ‘informing’ the optimal function of journalism and news, Iranian handbooks put emphasis on ‘increasing awareness’. Consequently, Dutch handbooks consider news as event and value information on facts, while Iranian handbooks aim for reporting the truth and consider news as on-going process. Specifically, as Iranian journalism handbooks value flexibility and creativity, they view storytelling style in news reports as the preferred journalistic genre and approach crime news as a special genre which should fulfill an educative function.