Back to the Studio: National News Coverage in NOS Foreign Correspondence on the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This research examines the function of foreign correspondent items of NOS Journaal in constructing national news on the global COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on the main national news organisation of the Netherlands and the transnational event of the spread of the Coronavirus disease in 2020. In doing so, this study explores the presence of the inherent tension between nationality and transnationality of television as theorised in recent television studies. Moreover, it considers what this tension means for the news coverage of a global health crisis.

Through a textual analysis of foreign correspondence items, this study demonstrates that these items provide information about distant places with varying degrees of familiarity and novelty to the national audience. This proves that NOS Journaal oscillated between the national and the transnational in its broadcasts. For coverage of COVID-19, this fluctuation facilitated access to information of high importance to public health while accommodating this public’s televisual experience.