To investigate what the news is by looking at journalists' practices and sources from a historical perspective, a study conducted a computer content analysis of levels of attribution and institutional sources in "The New York Times" and "The Los Angeles Times" from 1885 through 1985. Using the GENCA program that matches a user-constructed vocabulary list with text files, the study analyzed randomly sampled sentences from the front pages of the two newspapers. Levels of attribution increased over time in both newspapers. The level of institutional sources (defined as all government or state-related sources) also increased over time, and certain types of institutional sources, such as executive-level government officials and anonymous sources, showed a dramatic increase. These trends suggest that although reporters are using more attribution over time, the sources they are turning to are likely to be central, official, government sources. (Author/MM)