Met de poten in bluswater en tranen. Het NOS-Journaal en de branden in Amsterdam (1977) en Volendam (2001)

In 1977 the hotel Polen burned down leaving 33 dead and 46 wounded most of whom were foreigners; in 2001 a fire destroyed the café 't Hemeltje causing the death of 14 people and leaving hundreds wounded many of whom were young people. This contribution analyses the way in which the news programme journaal reported these two disasters the second taking place nearly 25 years after the first. The analysis shows clearly that during those years the Journaal's approach has changed and that involvement and emotion have grown considerably which reflects of the development of the public's preference. The approach in 1977 - just a few news broadcasts in which the victims hardly had the opportunity to speak and were filmed in a detached way - had evolved by 2001 to an approach of concern with a lot of attention given to the victims the causes the experiences and the question of fault. Compared with 1977 emotion clearly played a far more important role in television news in 2001.

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