Selecting And Presenting The News Flashcards
What are practical constraints?
Time, space and money
How is the news influenced by time constraints?
Most easily available stories make it onto the TV/radio news or into the newspaper. Editors and journalists have contacts they use again and again for convenience, meaning a limited number of viewpoints are use. Also, all news organisations have a ‘news diary’ of regular events. This means they can plan coverage of regular events in advance.
How is the news influenced by technical constraints?
Some places are easier o get cameras, microphones and journalists into and these are the places top stories will tend to come from. A story will rise and fall in significance part on how easy it is to report. This can lead big events in other countries not being documented
How is the news influenced by money constraints?
They all run to a budget. Stories and reports from places where they already have reporters or established contacts are cheaper to produce. Many newspapers cant afford to have many reporters of their own so they buy stories from news agencies. These agencies then have a huge influence over what becomes news
How is the news influenced by competition ?
Competition affected the selection of news. Newspaper editors are more likely to publish stories that they believe will make their newspaper the most popular that day. It’s very important for newspaper editors that their paper sells more than their rivals. news stories that can be sensationalised, or celebrity gossip are often popular
What are press releases?
It’s common for celebrities, politicians and groups to issue press releases. This gives the story straight to the newsroom, which makes it much more likely to be used because it saves time and money
What are news values and who said it?
Journalists who report the news learnt to follow certain rules and ideas, which tend to be based on what they believe the general public want to hear about. This was coined by Galtung and Ruge
What are the different types of news values?
Bureaucratic news values- news should be current, simple, brief, big news is better than small news
Cultural news - news should be unexpected, focus on important people, relevant to the audience, bad news is preferred to good news
What is agenda setting?
Journalists and editors ‘control the news agenda’. News only becomes news when journalists and editors select it as news. When a story is selected, journalists choose what angle to take when reporting it. This has a direct effect on how the audience will perceive the story. Agenda setting may not be conscious. It comes from learnt practices of journalism- usually based on what catches the audiences attention
What is gate keeping?
This comes from the work of Gans which describes how the editor decides which stories are featured and how much space given to each story. Gans says its like a gate- the editor opens it for some stories and closes it for others. Dutton says that editors filter the news by choosing which stories to print
What did the Glasgow University Media Group find about bias in the news?
Studied television news over a long time to look for bias. They focused on coverage of workplace strikes. They found-
- the selection of the news was biased in favour of dominant class values- picket line violence was reported more than police violence
- the voice overs were biased in favour of dominant class values- leading terms such as ‘trouble makers’ and ‘pointless strike’
- management were given more access to the media than strike leaders- Tv interviews with management were more frequent and longer than those with strike leaders
- the filming and editing was biased in favour of the police- cameras were often placed behind police lines, showing the police viewpoint
How is the GUMG study useful?
Used to demonstrate bias in the news and in the values and assumptions of the people who preoduce and construct the news. Their work is highly respected because they’ve studied a lot of news in detail. Although it is outdated.
The image of the news as objective reporting of fact makes this bias more important and more powerful. When people think the news is unbiased they are more likely to believe it
What do pluralists think about the news being socially constructed?
Practical constraints are more significant in influencing the the content of news rather than ideological bias. The values o te journalists are common values in society
What do marxists think of the news as a social construct?
The ideological influences are more important. Journalistic values are part of the dominant ruling class
How has new media impacted selection and presentation of the news?
- People don’t spend time reading online news, they click on what looks most intriguing (click bait). Editors tend to select interesting, scandalous or wacky stories and present them with a headline that is interesting.
- Audiences can have their say on the news via online commenting. They may select stories that will stir up a big response.
- There are hundreds of news websites- you can compare and contrast how they present a story
- The widespread use of smartphones means that anyone can films and publicise something that they select as newsworthy- citizen journalism
