Selection and Presentation of the News

What is Selection of the News?

What they show

What is Presentation of the News?

How they show it

What is the News manufactured based on?

News Values - set of criteria which makes a story ‘newsworthy’ enough to be published

What typically do News Values reflect?

reflect the desire to make profit by encouraging ratings, hits, and circulations of news stories

What is the Selection and Presentation of the News based on?

agenda-setting and norm-setting

• both reflect the interests of the media conglomerates

What are the 9 factors of Presentation and Selection of the News?

• social construction of the news

• citizen journalism

• government control of news

• churnalism

• profit

• norms and agenda setting

• moral panics

• propaganda models

• hierarchy of credibility

What is the social construction of news?

News Values - reflect specific criteria which makes a story ‘newsworthy’

What does Spencer-Thomas define news values as?

guidelines that determine the worth of a news story

What does Brighton and Foy suggest that news values do?

defines what journalists, editors and broadcasters consider as newsworthy

• often ‘intangible, formal, almost unconscious elements’

What is the acronym for the News Values Galtung and Rouge identified?

PUNTEEE

What 7 News Values did Galtung and Rouge identify?

• Personalism

• Unambiguity

• Negativity

• Threshold

• Extraordinariness

• Elite persons

• Elite nations

How did Jewkes update news values?

importance of pop culture - celebrities, graphic images, and involvement of children

• features that would ensure a story was included in a bulletin or newspaper

What is Citizen Journalism?

ordinary people being more involved in directly collecting, reporting and spreading news stories due to new technology

What is Citizen Journalism an impact of?

Globalisation

What has increased Citizen journalism led to?

initiated social movements & global awareness

• made censorship much harder for news outlets

What does Bivens argue that Citizen Journalism is doing?

Citizen journalism through mobile phone picture and videos at the scene of news events is transforming traditional journalism

Does the UK Government control the news?

No - very little state interference in what is published

• leads to papers wanting a reasonable relationship with government ministers to gain access to good exclusive stories

How are Newspapers often very Partisan?

Partisan - aligned with a political party

• conservative-supporting newspapers will often cooperate with Conservative governments e.g. Daily Mail

How can the Government issuing a D-Notice control the news?

government notice issued to news editors required them not to publicise certain information for reasons of national security, which can control and censor the news

What is a Spin Doctor?

a person whose job involves trying to control the way something is described to the public

How does a Spin Doctor influence control of the news?

job involves trying to control the way something is described to the public - to influence what people think about it

What is Churnalism?

process of journalists uncritically churning out articles based on second-hand news agency, rather than doing research themselves

• (recycled story)

What did Davis discover about Churnalism?

80% of stories in the Times, the Guardian, Independent, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail were wholly or partially constructed from second-hand material

What does Davis claim the 2 causes of Churnalism are?

• Cost-cutting

• Time pressure

What are the consequences of Churnalism becoming such a big part of the selection and presentation of news?

no critical analysis as a consequence

How does Media outlets make profit?

advertising

• explains the dependence on rating and hits of media products

Why does Bagdikian stress the important of advertising in the selection and presentation of the news?

news reports will be presented in a way that avoids offending advertisers

• censors criticism, etc

What does Curran et al argue about Conservatism in the media?

Conservatism - avoids too much criticism

• minority opinion is under-represented in the media

What is Agenda Setting?

where journalists and other media professionals (e.g. editors) decide what is considered significant or not in the news

• opinions on things people know about is from information that the media provides

What is the media’s influence on Agenda Setting?

laying down the subjects for discussion

• different news corporations = different agenda = different audience = priorities of cooperation

What does McCombs say about the Media’s agenda setting?

media does not only have influence over what we think about, but also what we think about certain subjects

What is Norm-Setting?

the way the media emphasises and reinforces conformity to social norms, and seek to isolate those who do not conform by making them victims of unfavourable media reports

How is Norm-Setting achieved?

• encouraging conformist behaviour

• discouraging non-conformist behaviour

• media representations

What does Moral Panics show?

media’s power to define what is normal and what is deviant, unacceptable behaviour, and to reinforce a consensus about the core values of the dominant ideology, while at the same time making money though attracting audiences

What is a Moral Panic?

(exaggerated) social reaction to a ‘violent groups’ - folk devils created by the media to distract audiences from bigger issues, such as Capitalism

How is the Social Media Ban in Australia an example of a Moral Panic?

worried about youth groups/protecting from media

• government parenting - secondary socialisation

How do Moral Panics begin?

media starts expressing concern over certain activities and the behaviour of certain groups

• exaggerating out of proportion their real significance and harm caused to society

What do Moral Panics create?

public anxiety and hostility towards that group/activity

• encourages agencies like schools, social services, the police, and the courts to stamp down hard and take hard measures against the allege troublemakers

How can agencies reactions to Moral Panics worsen the situation?

often makes what was a minor issue much worse

• e.g. arresting people - cause reaction like resistance and hostility to the police and more arrests amplify the original alleged deviance

deviancy amplification!

Who came up with the concept of Moral Panics?

Cohen

How does McRobbie and Thornton discredit the influence Moral Panics in modern society?

Creation of new media makes moral panics less common

• desensitised

• control of citizens (citizen journalism)

• harder to create a scapegoat

What is an example of a Propaganda Model in the Media?

WW2 we can do it poster

How do Herman and Chomsky suggest the media creates Propaganda Models?

(Marxist approach) structural factors make it so that the mainstream media is used for the interests of the powerful

How do Propaganda Models influence the Presentation and Selection of the News?

mass media shapes public opinion by filtering information to align with the economic, social, and political interests of powerful elites

What is the Neo-Marxism Hierarchy of Credibility?

some individuals seen as having more credit than others

• journalists tend to have a large range of understanding on different topics

• however - unlikely to shown opinions which are not mainstream

How does the Neo-Marxism Hierarchy of Credibility influence the Presentation and Selection of the News?

prioritizing elite sources "primary definers" of reality

favour dominant ideologies - framing topics through a top-down, "common sense" perspective