Selection & Presentation Of The News Flashcards
(18 cards)
Factors contributing to the social construction of the news
- Making a profit: stories which are more likely to make more customers buy into the news
- Sensationalism: exaggeration and over-dramatic reporting
- Norm-setting: emphasis on dominant ideology
McQuail: “news” is not objective or impartial
News is biased and the result of a selection process by gatekeepers
How do owners influence the news?
- direct instructions to news editors
- influence resources which are available to cover new stories
- journalists depend on not upsetting owners: self-censorship
- profit: inoffensive, unchallenging, and bland “infotainment”
(-) Pluralists: what is presented in the news is a reflection of the interests in society
Bagdikian: Advertisments
- In order to gain more advertisements, news reports will be presented in a way as to not offend advertisers with some stories being repressed or all together cut off
- Leads to conservatism in the media where minority and unpopular opinions become unrepresented
- Thussu: tabloidisation is becoming globalised
Galtung & Ruge: news values
More news values (criteria) an issue includes, the more likely it is to be covered
- Meaningfulness: events which have great importance to the viewers
- Unexpectedness: unordinary/ unexpected events
- Negativity: bad news is always rated above positive stories
- Reference to elite persons/nations: involving people consumers see as significant
News values lead to Churnalism
- Churnalism: pre-packaged material in press releases provided by sources without further research or fact-checking
- Davis: 80% of stories within leading newspaper companies are wholly, mainly, or partially constructed from second-hand materiak
- Jewell: “advertorials”, content paid for by advertisers but are masked as journalist news articles
Organisational Constraints
- Social media is being increasingly used to spread and release news on a global scale
- Shapes the reactions of others to them through commentaries
- “Rolling breaking news”
Intensity of news has now changed: Constant Rolling
News media companies are forced to respond
1. Journalists produce media first for the web and then for trad media
2. Greater competition: tighter schedules, short deadlines, have to present news first to maximise profit
Lack of time leads to false information, greater emphasis on getting a story out rather than getting a story right
Theoretical views & Organisational Constraints
Pluralists: individuals are not passive recipients of the news
Marxism: false information is purposefully published to distract the working class from their exploitation
Postmodernism (Strinati): trad value of the news is losing its meaning as individualisation is increasing
McCombs: Agenda Setting
- Media only asks a limited range of questions about a topic, limiting the number of perspectives from which an issue is explored
- Some topics aren’t being discussed due to them not being reported
- GMG: media organisations work within dominant ideology to form society’s subjects
-
Philo: global banking crisis, media effective in challenging public anger towards “workshy welfare scroungers”
Neomarxists: hidden agenda e.g. Murdock, Iraq War
(-) Pluralists: active audiences, citizen journalism, profit over politics
Gatekeeping
Media power to refuse to cover some news and to let others through
- “Bad news stories”: GMG, owners construct news by gatekeeping knowledge
- debate over whether this is done out of public demand or ideological considerations
Reasons why media doesn’t cover certain issues:
- lacks interest to viewers
- too controversial, offensive or threatening
(-) may be protecting the needs of the public
Norm Setting
Media reinforces conformity to social norms and seeks to isolate deviancy through unfavourable media reports
- Encouraging conformist behaviour: advertising gender stereotypes
- Discouraging non-conformist behaviour: serious consequences for those who deviate
- Media representation: some news may be singled out for unfavourable treatment
(+) Marxists: ruling class want to control the media
(-) Pluralists: no dominant groups therefore no dominant norms
(+) Feminists: encourages action and challenge of status quo
Moral Panics
- Chambers: news stories do not accurately represent the situation
- Lead to an exaggeration of the event and a prediction of a future, inevitable dystopia
- Inaccurate reporting: organisational pressures
- False reporting: exaggeration and distortion of event
- leads to deviancy amplification
GMG: moral panics over disabled
(-) McRobbie & Thornton: news-gen moral panics are not as common and now have a different reaction
(-) Pluralists: people are now skeptical of mainstream news
(-) Events now have short shelf lives
Hierarchy of Credibility
- Hall: those in powerful positions have better access to media institutions
- News reports what prominent people have to say
-> minority groups are either ignored or portrayed as threats
Political affiliations
- GMG: journalists ignore what they see as “extremist” or “radical” views
- Jones: Spin Doctors, spin a story on behalf of the government aimed at putting a favourable bias to gain support
Social Background of media professionals
- WHITE MIDDLE CLASS MALES
-
GMG: lifestyles of journalists and editors result in them seeing little wrong with the way which society is organised
-> unconsciously side with the powerful and the rick
The Power Elite - Bagdikian
- Media leaders are part of a wider power elite
- Employees of corporations are controlled and are dictated over what stories they can cover
- information is neutralised out of fear that either their superiors or the public is offended
- leads to an official but bland establishment view of the world
NeoPluralists
- objectivity & impartiality is becoming harder to achieve
-
Davies: modern day journalism is characterised by churnalism
-> fail to check facts since they are overworked and over-reliant on spin doctors
GMG: manipulation of news to transmit ideology
