MDS - News Unit

Misinformation

Incorrect or misleading information, which can be unintentional (unlike disinformation, which is deliberately spread to deceive) - Can include inaccurate, incomplete, or false information as well as selective truths or half-truths

Role of News Media

1. Inform

2. Communicate (Information)

3. Knowledge

4. Entertainment

News Values

Proximity - Being closer to the audience is better

Threshold - Impacting a wider audience is better

Predictability - Less predictable is better

Oddity - More odd news is better

Personalisation - Being able to resonate with the audience is better

Frequency - Long-term event reported on regularly

Elite Persons

Elite Nations

Continuity - Ongoing story

Unexpected - Out of the ordinary

Size and Scale - Bigger is better

Ordinary People - Human Interests

Uniqueness - Event that rarely occurs

Demand - An event we want to happen

Closeness to Home - Relative/Relevant

Negative Stories - Bad news is more common in news

Note: Stronger News Values = Higher chance of being published

Polarisation

The divergence of opinions, particularly in news and social media, into opposing ideological extremes - It can look like the clustering of individuals into distinct, often opposing, groups with limited overlap or agreement

Newsworthy

An event, fact, or person that is considered to be interesting enough to be reported in the news

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, favour, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values

Sensationalisation

The presentation of events and topics in a way that is intended to provoke public excitement and interest - Often at the expense of accuracy and objectivity

Moral Panic

The reaction of communities to new media forms, texts, or developments - Characterised by fear, mistrust, and the belief that social decay will follow

Bothsidesism

A media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence suggests - When equal weight is given to both sides of an argument when in reality, one side weighs more than the other due to the evidence

False Equivalence

When someone makes an unreasonable comparison between 2 things falsely asserting that they are equivalent when in reality, they have significant differences

Mediascape

The global distribution and flow of media (including electronic and print media, and the images, narratives, and information they convey) - It's the landscape of media that shapes our understanding of the worlds

4 News Biases

- Dramatisation - Instead of facts

- Fragmentation - Instead of Context

- Personalisation - Instead of a Wider Picture

- Authority/Disorder - Asking who is to blame for the "loss of order"

Media Ecology

The study of media, technology, and communication, and how they affect human environments - It explores the environments created by media and how these environments influence us

Alarmism

Using excessive or inflated language, including an urgent tone and imagery of doom, to capture a real of imagined threat

Summary of Bothsidesism, Distortion (News Biases), and ...

Summary of Why Alarmism and Doom-and-Gloom Messaging is Bad to Use with Climate News

- Alarmism and Doom-and-Gloom messaging invokes feelings like guilt and fear in people

- When people feel feelings like guilt and and fear, instead of thinking about the issue and dealing with it or taking action, they tend to want to put the issue away and not think about it

- Using Alarmism and Doom-and-Gloom messaging is not the way to go about representing or talking about climate change as it makes people not want to think about the climate issue at all - and therefore not take any action too

- Instead, we need to inspire change by utilising the fact that humans are competitive, social creatures

- We also need to show both our achievements and shortcomings as a society to show that we are improving in some aspects and that there is hope, and to also show everyone where we need to change

Why Humans Struggle to Think about Climate Change and Take Action

- Climate change is too complex

- "Climate change doesn't affect me, only far away places like Antarctica" type of thinking

- Climate change is slow and gradual - Humans have difficulty perceiving these types of gradual, long-term issues as a real threat which needs action now

- People view climate change as an issue for the future and future generations

- "Out of sight, out of mind" type of thinking