Selection and presentation of the news Flashcards
Why is the news socially constructed?
Media cannot report all events and issues happening everyday in the world, so the news is selected and processed instead as they cannot wait for it to be ready and collected.
Glasgow Media Group
Shown in studies that over many years the selection and presentation of the news isn’t a neutral process the media is selected with dominant ideologies
Herman and Chomsky
Propose a propaganda model of media. Mainstream news is influenced by powerful social interests that control it. Structural factors like ownership, market forces, profit orientation, and advertiser dependence create interconnected relationships among the media, newsmakers, and those with power. These elements shape journalists’ perceptions of newsworthiness and the underlying assumptions in their work.
Influence of owners
Owners of media often impose their own views on their editors, directly/indirectly. Political views of these owners are conservative
Influences owners have on content
-Give instructions to editors, like where camera crews should be and whether they need to cover stories in certain countries or not.
-Journalists do not question owners preferences and recommendations so that they do not lose their jobs.
-Owners are concerned with profit, and want to bring in large audiences as the media is extremely competitive global market. Because of this news gets turned into unthreatening, inoffensive infotainment. This encourages the development of media culture in which unethical journalistic practices can thrive, e.g intrusive paparazzi.
Barnett and Seymour and Curran and Seaton
Important to appeal to everyone in order to attract a wide readership/audience. Means that minority and unpopular opinions go unrepresented in the media, and this helps to maintain the hegemony of the dominant ideas in society
Barnett and Gaber
This pressure to attract large audiences leads to a ‘dumbing down’ or tabloidization of news content. Serious hard news is replaced by human interest and celebrity stories, and gossip and scandal. Leads to a more conformist, less informed and less critical approach to reporting politics.
Philo and Berry
Found many British TV reports on the Palestinians were suppression of stories, or biased or inadequate news reports.
Bivens
Citizen journalism through mobile phone pictures and videos at the scene of news events is transforming traditional journalism. Sharing news has become more instant through social media, and can grab global attention. Happens to expose governments/celebs who have higher power in the media. However citizen journalism also suits the mainstream media as they can obtain news and supporting videos at little cost to themselves.
Breaking news
People now expect to be able to access news at all times through devices and the internet, meaning the intensity of the news has changed, with news becoming rolling ‘breaking news’, with digital news running constantly, changing bulletins all day.
Social networking like facebook and twitter are now used to release news stories on a global scale, and also to shape the reaction of others to them through commentaries.
Breaking news
Competition means news organisations have to work within very tight time schedules to meet shortening deadlines, meaning shortcuts to news gathering need to be taken. Greater emphasis on getting the news story first, rather than getting it right. They aren’t checklisted as carefully anymore, to verify facts.
Agenda Setting
The media’s influence in laying down the list of subjects, or agenda, for public discussion. Different news corporations will set different
McCombs
The news in the media now increasingly not only tells us what to think about, but also what to think about certain topics, such as the image of politicians.
Philo
During the 2008 global banking crisis, the media effectively directed the anger towards the bankers while promoting solutions within the existing financial system. Alternatives to this system were ignored, and anger was diverted from bankers to ‘workshy welfare scroungers’ as a scapegoat for the crisis.
Gans - Gatekeeping
Editors act as gate keepers because they decide what is news an what is not. A filtering process. Sometimes based on practical considerations, e.g space on page, and other times it will be political/cultural or based on news values.
The issues that are not shown are those that are typically most damaging to the values and interest of the dominant social class. Some issues are not covered as journalists and editors think they lack interest to readers or viewers, or because they’re too offensive/controversial.
Welfare benefit fraud by the poor is widely reported, but not tax evasion by the rich. Result of this is that there are calls for tightening benefit claims procedures, rather than strengthening those agencies concerned with chasing tax evaders.
Norm Setting
How media promote conformity to social norms while marginalizing non conformists through negative portrayal.
How is norm setting accomplished?
1.) Encouraging conformity - behavior like obeying the law, helping others, and not going on strike is promoted. Advertising reinforces gender stereotypes.
2.) Discouraging non-conformity - media sensationalizes violent crimes, riots, and other rule-breaking behaviours. Consequences for breaking social norms are emphasized.
Galtung and Ruge - The News Values
The way in which journalists and news corporations attach significance to a particular story and judge its ‘newsworthiness’. Prioritisation of stories based on a number of different pieces of criteria, done by different journalists and new corporations . Different values might prevail in different organisations or at different times.
News Values
Stories are more likely to be published if they are:
Unexpected, about well-known/important people, bad news, timely, simple, brief, big, able to be personalised, has continuity from stories that have already been told, familiar, about elite countries.
Jewkes - News Values
Added the importance of celebrity, graphic images, and the involvement of children as features that would ensure a story was included in a bulletin or newspaper.
AO3 - Presenting the news
This process is less to do with news values and more to do with straightforward ideology, according to marxist sociologists. Argue that agenda-setting and gate-keeping practices are intended to transmit ruling-class ideology/ to establish hegemony. See the choices about which news should be broadcast, and which voices heard, as being entirely political.
The making of news
The presentation of news items significantly influences public perception. Factors such as a story’s physical placement in media, the order of importance in broadcasts, headline choices, accompanying visuals, and camera angels all affect the attention given to specific issues. The space available in a newspaper or TV programme will influence whether an event is reported or not. Some issues may not be covered at all if journalists or camera crews are not available, especially in international news reporting.
GMG - The making of news
Shown how in the reporting of industrial disputes, employers are often filmed in the peace and quiet of their offices, whilst workers are seen shouting on the picket lines or trying to be interviewed against a background of traffic noise. Gives the impression that employers are more calm and responsible people and have a better case than workers.
Language - The making of news
The media create false or biased impressions by the sort of language they use in news reporting.
Emotive language may be used to liven up a story, placing a dramatic angle on events, e.g through using words like ‘troublemakers’, ‘thugs’, ‘rioters’ - encourage people to have a negative view of the people or events reported.
