ABSTRACT:
This scientific study offers an exploratory insight into knowledge about emotionalization in contemporary television news. It examines the extent to which – and the strategies through which – emotionalization is encoded and manifested in news headlines within the main newscasts of the two most popular commercial television stations in Slovakia: Televízne noviny (TV Markíza) and Noviny TV JOJ (TV JOJ). The study is grounded in the attention economy framework and in concepts such as infotainment/tabloidization, negativity, and dramatization, conceptualising headlines as an initial “attention-grabber”, and simultaneously as a pre-framing of event interpretation. The research combines both quantitative and qualitative content analysis of a sample of 283 headlines from one continuous broadcast week (October 6 – 12, 2025; TV Markíza n=186, TV JOJ n=97). Headlines are coded for the presence of emotionality (including the following types: slogan-like wording, metaphorical framing, expressiveness, confrontation/crisis framing, modality, and vagueness) and for sentiment (negative/positive/neutral), while the occurrence of accompanying studio elements (SG/SA) is also tracked. The results show that emotionally laden headlines constitute the majority (TV Markíza 70.4%, TV JOJ 74.2%) and that negative frames are predominant; however, the broadcasters differ in the typology of emotionalization (TV Markíza shows more slogan-like headlines, whereas TV JOJ relies more on metaphorical framing and modality). The findings suggest that headlines can systematically increase the attractiveness of news content, while simultaneously reinforcing interpretive and polarising framing effects, which may be further amplified by visual studio add-ons.
KEY WORDS:
affective framing in television news headlines, headline mood and emotional valence, negative bias in news reception, tabloidization and infotainment in television news, visual framing
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34135/communicationtoday.2026.Vol.17.No.1.13