The Hierarchy of Influences Model describes the many things that affect the news content that audiences see, hear, and read. The model was proposed by media scholars Pamela Shoemaker and Stephen Reese in their 1996 book, Mediating the Message. The crucial intervention of this model is that it helped formalize the idea that there are a number of different factors that influence news content, and that those factors operate across different levels of analysis, from the micro to the macro.
Put differently, individuals operate within larger social, economic, political, and technical systems and structures. Those systems and structures in turn influence how journalistic actors think and what they can do, which in turn influences the journalism that they produce.
The model isn’t intended to propose or explain causal relationships, like if X happens then Y will happen. Instead, it is particularly useful in helping us simply appreciate that journalism isn’t only shaped by journalists or the organizations they work for, but also by a number of other factors.
The Model identifies five levels of influence: the individual level, the routine level, the organizational level, the social-institutional level, and the social systems level. These levels are ordered from the micro (smallest in scope) to the macro (broadest in scope), and the model presents them as a series of concentric circles.
The individual level refers to the biographical, psychological, and sociological characteristics of an individual social actor. For example, that individual’s age, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and class status can all impact the news they produce because previous life experiences associated with those attributes may color that individual’s interpretation of an issue or what they choose to prioritize when covering it. That individual’s personal values and beliefs—for example, their religious beliefs or political attitudes—may similarly impact how they think about things. Even their role orientations, or what they think the purpose of journalism is or how it should be done, will impact how an individual will seek to cover an issue.
These factors, like many others in the model, are not always conscious influences. For example, a journalist may not knowingly decide that they have to adopt a particular story angle because they lean toward liberalism or conservatism. Instead, that political preference may subconsciously orient them toward a particular story angle precisely because they believe certain philosophies—like personal choice or social good—are especially important, which is what led them to that political preference to begin with.
The routine level refers to the patterned, repeated practices, forms, and rules that journalistic actors use to do their jobs. For example, this may include news values, or the set of criteria journalists typically employ to determine the newsworthiness of information. If they deem controversy to be a news value, then they may be more likely to cover issues and events that are controversial, especially when there is disagreement among institutional elites, such as political party leaders, regarding a topic. Another such factor may be an institutional preference to appear balanced by offering both sides of an issue an equal voice, which may result in coverage that positions both voices as equally legitimate, even when that is not be the case. Yet another such factor is a preference for certain styles of presenting information to audiences, such as the inverted pyramid style of writing that organizes information from most recent and important to least recent and important—sometimes at the expense of developing a compelling narrative. These factors operate at a higher level because they reflect what is seen as appropriate or normal among fellow journalistic actors.
The organizational level refers to the policies, unwritten rules, and economic imperatives within journalistic organizations (or whatever other entity a journalistic actor works for). Organizations must balance commercial with professional concerns, reflecting the goals of their ownership. This is most acute for for-profit organizations, but even non-profit media have to work within a set budget to remain viable. As such, media ownership is often an important influence, with some owners (or ownership groups) being fairly hands-off as long as economic objectives are met, while other owners (or ownership groups) are more active in dictating coverage priorities and becoming directly involved in the reporting of certain issues. Additionally, the primary medium associated with a news organization—that is, whether they see print as their primary product or if they are web-first—may also impact how they present information. After all, you wouldn’t expect an organization that focuses on print journalism to invest much in interactive data visualizations. A third factor might be the geographic location where that organization is based and whether they have news bureaus (satellite offices) elsewhere. For example, if a news organization is based in a major East Coast city, the social make-up of the journalists will be more likely to reflect the values and priorities of that place, even when they cover stories elsewhere in the country or abroad.
The social-institutional level refers to the norms, individuals and organizations that operate outside a given journalistic organization. There is some overlap here with the aforementioned routines level, but this level includes information sources, other journalistic organizations, advertisers, and media policy, among other actors. For example, information sources—such as the people a journalist may interview—can shape a news product by virtue of the words they use, the information they may selectively share, or more simply by being willing or unwilling to talk to the journalist in the first place. Some journalistic organizations can influence coverage by serving as ‘pack leaders’ that other journalistic organizations seek to follow or imitate, or by publishing stories that competing organizations may then choose to avoid because those stories will be thought of as ‘already having been done.’ Advertisers can impact coverage by demanding that their ads only be shown alongside positive coverage, because they do not want their products to be associated with negative emotions or connotations. Conversely, advertisers can threaten to withdraw ads if they perceive a journalistic organization to represent values that do not reflect their own. Media policy can restrict what journalistic organizations can report on, or how they may report on those things. For example, some countries have strict national secrets laws that prevent journalistic organizations from publishing anything that the government deems to be threatening to national security, which in turn can have a “chilling effect” on what journalists choose to write (or write about).
The social systems level refers to the symbolic frameworks of norms, values, and beliefs that reside at the societal level. This is the most macro level, and it simply reflects the sorts of ideas that are more generally accepted within a broad society. For example, in the United States, capitalism remains the dominant economic system, which often results in the framing of different issues with regards to how they might affect private ownership, free markets, and the pursuit of profit. Similarly, democratic values remain dominant within United States politics, which in turn lead to ideas that the role of journalistic media is to inform citizens so they may better participate in self-governance.
The Hierarchy of Influences Model does not presume that any of the levels discussed here is more important than another. It also makes no claims about the directionality of influences—as in the social systems level being the one that shapes individuals, as opposed to the other way around. Instead, it views those levels as frequently acting upon one another: Individuals collectively shape values and norms at the social systems level, even as those values and norms help enable and restrict the behaviors of individuals within that society.
Similarly, each factor can operate independently from the other factors or in conjunction with one or more. For example, the influence of advertisers on a particular organization may be entirely independent from the dominant presentation style of that organization. Regardless of who is advertising or how much advertising there is, the organization may continue to use the inverted pyramid style of writing. However, if an organization is for-profit and has aggressive profit targets, then the existing influence of advertisers may become even stronger.
It’s important to note that this lesson has only covered a few of the factors identified by the Hierarchy of Influences Model. There are dozens more, and you can read about them in the most recent edition of Mediating the Message. While it is less important to know how to classify each of those factors into the appropriate level, it is valuable to simply recognize that a great many things can influence journalists and journalism, and that these influences can emanate from individuals to society as a whole.
Finally, it is important to note that journalism is rapidly changing as new social actors, technological actants, and journalistic activities become central to it. For example, companies like Facebook and Google have staked important positions within news production and distribution, even if they claim not to be media companies themselves. Similarly, some new digital advertising technologies have made it harder for advertisers to know exactly where their ads will be placed online, and for online news organizations to know which ads will appear alongside their stories.
In short, as journalism—and the environments it operates within—changes, so do the factors that might influence it, and the nature and extent of the influence those factors exert. However, what remains unchanged is that journalism continues to be influenced by an array of different things.
The Hierarchy of Influences Model describes the various factors that affect news content, organized on a continuum from a micro level to a macro level.
The model identifies five levels: the individual level, the routine level, the organizational level, the social-institutional level, and the social systems level.
The model does not presume that any one level is more important than another, or that influence runs in one direction. Instead, all of these forces are simultaneously acting upon the production of news content.
Journalism is rapidly changing, and the nature and extent of each influence is changing with it.