Has there been an inflation in crisis coverage in newspapers over the last centuries, and if so, what structural factors drive this change? We utilize computational text analyses along with our own signal detection algorithm to measure the presence of crisis keywords and the emergence of crisis news waves. An analysis of crisis coverage in The Times (U.K., 1785–2020, 183,239 news stories) shows that the share of coverage that uses crisis keywords has increased, though not steadily. The number and salience of crisis news waves tied to discernible events has increased at a slower pace. The hypothesized driving forces—government expansion, mediatization of politics, and the activity of crisis frame sponsors—explain the development well and allow accurate predictions even when ignoring time in the forecasting model. Crisis coverage seems to reflect not so much the problems society faces, but society’s identity, priorities, and outlook on the world.

中文翻译：

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危机报道膨胀？跟踪和解释危机标签和危机新闻浪潮显着性的变化 1785-2020


在过去的几个世纪里，报纸上的危机报道是否出现了膨胀？如果是，是什么结构性因素推动了这种变化？我们利用计算文本分析以及我们自己的信号检测算法来衡量危机关键词的存在和危机新闻波的出现。对《泰晤士报》危机报道的分析（英国，1785-2020 年，183,239 条新闻报道）显示，使用危机关键词的报道比例有所增加，但并不稳定。与可识别事件相关的危机新闻浪潮的数量和显着性增长速度较慢。假设的驱动力——政府扩张、政治媒介化和危机框架发起者的活动——很好地解释了发展，并且即使在预测模型中忽略时间时也可以进行准确的预测。危机报道似乎反映的并不是社会面临的问题，而是社会的身份、优先事项和世界观。