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This article suggests that in times of digital mass media, mediatized political issues create a self-perpetuating phenomenon that is here titled a neo-myth. Through combining interdisciplinary theories of Issue-Attention Cycles and Social Dramas, the article argues that the standardized ways that political issues are framed, mass-mediated and consumed in a contemporary society, paradoxically create a cyclical and self-perpetuating pattern. Instead of being linear, rational and cause-to-solution oriented, they become stereotypical, cyclical and performative, thus resembling mythological patterns both content and form-wise. The article discusses how and why these neo-myths form, as well as how political, public and media actors interact within the process. It discusses them in terms of their emergence, structure, causality, processual logics and formal variety, and suggests that the phenomenon falls in line with the findings of recent research on the shifting knowledge patterns in times of digital culture.

This article suggests that in times of digital mass media, mediatized political issues create a self-perpetuating phenomenon that is here titled a neo-myth. Through combining interdisciplinary theories of Issue-Attention Cycles and Social Dramas, the article argues that the standardized ways that political issues are framed, mass-mediated and consumed in a contemporary society, paradoxically create a cyclical and self-perpetuating pattern. Instead of being linear, rational and cause-to-solution oriented, they become stereotypical, cyclical and performative, thus resembling mythological patterns both content and form-wise. The article discusses how and why these neo-myths form, as well as how political, public and media actors interact within the process. It discusses them in terms of their emergence, structure, causality, processual logics and formal variety, and suggests that the phenomenon falls in line with the findings of recent research on the shifting knowledge patterns in times of digital culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of orthorexia nervosa emerged in 1997 to describe a pathological obsession with healthy eating. Before any consensus was reached by the medical community, orthorexia started to appear in the news. But how do news media cover a diagnosis with an uncertain and unofficial status? Based on a qualitative content analysis of 492 news articles published between 1998 and 2016 and interviews with reporters, this paper explores the growth and spread of news interest in orthorexia, and how reporters have addressed the uncertainty surrounding the proposed diagnosis. Findings suggest logics of news production have driven orthorexia coverage, which predominantly depicted the unofficial diagnosis as settled (58% of articles) and legitimate. When the uncertain status was acknowledged, it was usually managed rhetorically, addressed as a minor caveat, and in some cases justified; only rarely was it foregrounded. Interviews with reporters suggest they overwhelmingly perceived orthorexia as legitimate and did not consider its unsettled status an obstacle—for some it added appeal. Based on the findings, I argue for the need to consider news media not only relevant sites in the production of medical knowledge, but actors in and of themselves. I discuss implications for scholarship about medicalization and its intersection with journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides insight into the intensified media attention for fake news in Dutch newspaper articles between May 2016 and April 2017 from the perspective of Vasterman's (2005) theory of media hypes. It was found that speculations about the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States as a result of the spread of fake news caused a news wave. This news wave consists mainly of meta news and contains few news articles about the disclosure of fake news. The news production ismainly driven bymeta news and by news about qualifications of the media as 'fake news'. This article calls for further research into the media attention for fake news in other media than newspapers in the Netherlands as well as in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates fundamental mechanisms generating issue-attention cycles in news coverage with a social simulation approach. An agent-based computer model is developed, which integrates the main drivers of news waves as identified by empirical research. By simulating the model many times under varying conditions, the interaction of the factors to generate the typical issue-attention cycle can be observed. Results suggest that the momentum of news waves is mainly driven by the adaptive reporting behavior of journalists. Sponsors actively supporting issues by initiating events are not necessary to generate issue-attention cycles, but change their typical dynamics. Comparing simulated time series to two empirical cases yields that the model produces more realistic patterns of media attention when issue sponsors are introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]