Social construction of the news✅

The social construction of the news

• The media obviously cannot report all events and issues happening every day in the world. This means that, rather than simply being out there waiting to be collected, what counts as ‘the news’ is necessarily selected and processed, or constructed by a range of social influences.

• The GMG has shown in a series of studies over many years that the selection and presentation of media news stories is not a neutral process, but that the news is a sequence of socially manufactured messages produced within the context of the dominant ideology of society.

• Of all the happenings that occur, how is the content of the news selected? Who decides which of these events or interests is worthy of media coverage? Who decided who gets on TV and what questions they are asked?

• The content of the media, like any other product for sale is manufactured. What factors affect the production and packaging of this product? Is media content, and particularly the news, biased or does it present a balanced and truthful view?