3-Selection and presentation of the news Flashcards
What is the social construction of news ?
It is impossible to report all the news from around the world.
Therefore the news presented has to be selected.
The way in which the news gets presented depends on:
-The owners of the news organisation, the editors and the journalists.
-Profitability of the news.
-Whether or not the news is of value to consumers.
-If it aligns with mainstream views.
What is agenda-setting ?
Marxists argue that the content of the news is always going to be supportive or at least not too critical of the dominant-ideology or
the ruling class.
The news is also able to shape how the public think about certain topics.
Examples of the social construction of the news:
During the 2008 financial crisis The Sun (Owned by RM) blamed the individuals for the crisis and not the system itself.
Guardian centre-left newspaper - Talks about how Gordon Brown (PM at the time of crisis) saved the UK by helping out struggling banks. The same banks which caused the crisis.
What is Gatekeeping in the media ?
Marxists argue that because the Media get to set the agenda of the news they act as gatekeepers of information that could be critical of the system or damage the interests of members of the ruling class.
What is norm-setting ?
Based on which news stories the media represent and how they
represent them certain social norms (behaviours, ideas and opinions) are emphasised and reinforced.
This leads to conformist behaviour of people agreeing with what the rest of society believe.
What is news values ? and name the examples.
News values are some criteria’s that journalists use to determine which events or stories are considered newsworthy.
Examples:
-Threshold (The bigger the event the more likely it will be nationally
reported)
-Unambiguity (Events which are easy to grasp/understand are more likely to be reported than those which are open to interpretation)
-Reference to Elite Persons (Those stories which show coverage of the famous and the powerful are often seen as more newsworthy than those which feature the general public)
-Negativity (Bad news seems to be more exciting to journalists than good news)
-Extraordinariness (Unexpected or rare events have more newsworthiness than routine events because they are out of the ordinary)
-Personalisation (Events may be personalised by associated a particular celebrity or leader with the specific event)
How do owners influence the news content published ?
They may give direct instructions to news editors – Rupert Murdoch and Harry Evans e.g. telling Evans not to publish the piece which was critical about Thatcher’s economic policy in The Sunday Times.
