4.2 the selection and presentation of the newss Flashcards
What does McQuail(1992) argue about the construction of the news?
- the news is not objective or impartial
- not all events can be reported because of the sheer number of them
- the news is a socially manufactured product because it is the result of a selective process
What are the three broad influences on the process of news selection?
- the news values held by media organisations
- practical, organisational or bureaucratic constraints
- ownership of media newss organisations and its ideological content
How does Spencer-Thomas (2008) define news values?
- news values are general guidelines/criteria that determines the worth of a news story and how much prominence it isa given by newspapers/broadcast media
- thsy define what is considered newsworthy
What do pluralists believe about news values?
- they are of crucial importance because news producers are under great commercial pressure to increase their audience/readership to generate advertising revenue
Who comprised a list of news values?
- Johan Gaultung and Marie Holmboe Ruge
What methodology did Galtung and Ruge use?
- analysed international news across a group of newspapers in Norway in 1965 and identified many values shared by Norwegian journalists and editors as to what constituted a worthwhile news story
What are the news values that Gultang and Ruge identified?
- extraordinariness
- threshold
- unambiguity
- reference to elite persons
- reference to elite nations
- personalisation
- frequency
- continuity
- negativity
- composition
What is meant by extraordinariness?
- rare, unpredictable and surprising events are more newsworthy than routine events because they are extraordinary
- disasters, terrorist attacks or the sudden deaths of young celebrities fit this
What is meant by threshold?
- the ‘bigger’ the size of the event, the more likely that it will be nationally reported
- there is a threshold below which an event will fail to be considered worthy of attention, and will not be reported
What is meant by unambiguity?
- events that are easy to grasp and are more likely to be reported than those that are open to more than one interpretation
What is meant by reference to elite persons?
- the famous and powerful are often seen as more newsworthy than those who are regarded as ‘ordinary’
- a ‘cult of celebrity’ has developed
What is meant by reference to elite nations?
- relates to cultural proximity = stories about people who speak the same language, look the same, and share the same cultural preoccupations
- e.g. events in the US or Australia are more likely to be covered in British newspapers than events in Asia or Africa
What is meant by personalisation?
- if events can be ‘personalised’ by referring to a prominent individual/celebrity associated with them, then they are more likely to be reported
- journalists try to reduce complex events and policies to a conflict between two personalities
What is meant by frequency?
- Dutton (1997) = ‘the time span taken by the event’
- murders, plane crashes, etc happen suddenly and therefore their meaning can be established quickly but structural social trends are often outside the ‘frequency’ of the daily papers because they occur slowly
What is meant by continuity?
- once a story has become ‘news’ it may continue to be covered for some time
What is meant by negativity?
- bad news is regarded as more exciting and dramatic than good news and is seen as attracting a bigger audience
- stories about death, tragedy and violence are always rated above positive stories
What is meant by composition?
- most news outlets will attempt to ‘balance’ the reporting of events
How have Gultang and Ruge been criticised?
- Brighton and Roy = these lists assume that there is consensus among both journalists and audiences as to what is newsworthy BUT audiences are made up of a diverse range of people
- also cultural excpectations about news vary from country to country
Who are ‘spin doctors’ and what do they do?
- their role is to meet journalists to ‘manage’ news stories so they are favourable to the government
What does Davies argue about journalists?
- they should be renamed ‘churnalists because they are largely engaged in uncritically churning out ‘facts’ or stories given to them by government spin doctors
How does Phillips(2010) support Davies’ analysis?
- he points to the widespread practice of reporters being asked to rewrite stories that have appeared in other newspapers or on the BBC or Sky News websites
What does Drudge argue about citizen journalism?
- it ‘allows every citizen to be a reporter and have his or her voice equated with that of the rich and powerful’
- it improves the democratic process and challenges the idea that the news is shaped by news values
What does Bivens argue about citizen journalism?
- it has been used to expose offensive, illegal or corrupt activities by politicians, celebrities, the police and armed forces - CJ has made their activities far more accountable to the public
What are the organisational or bureaucratic routines that exist within news organisations?
- financial costs
- time or space available
- deadlines
- immediacy and actuality
- the audience
- journaliustic ethics
- ownership, ideology and bias