Critical Thinking Activity #2: Analysis of Reality Show and News Show - Dancer 17
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Chapter 9
News
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Key Idea: News is not a reflection of actual events; it is a construction by news workers who are subjected to many influences and constraints.
Introduction
News is currently undergoing a dynamic change
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Dynamic Nature of News
Desire for news
Dates back to preliterate culture
Mostly personal and local back then
Spread through interpersonal conversation
Newspapers
Started as pamphlets in 16th century
Evolved into daily newspapers in 17th century first in Germany and then throughout Europe
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People have always had a desire for news.
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Dynamic Nature of News
Newspapers
Early audience in Europe--elite class
Journalists corroborated facts for greater credibility
Audience in America: different colonies different political views different newspapers
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The nature of news and its transmission has changed over time.
Early news was shared through interpersonal communication.
Newspapers did not begin until the 16th century in Italy.
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Dynamic Nature of News
Rise and Fall of “Big News”
American Civil War and compulsory education rise in sense of nationhood increase in demand for political news growth of large circulation newspapers rise of “big news”
Radio mass media from 1920 to 1950 followed big news model
Rise of big news--peak in the 1980s
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Following the Civil War, there was increased literacy in the United States.
This was seen as an opportunity to develop newspapers with large circulations.
The era of big news was lasted from increased newspaper readership through the penetration of the radio in the 1920s to the 1970s when it reached its peak.
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Dynamic Nature of News
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Rise and Fall of “Big News”
Decline of “Big News”--after 1980s
Initially slow and then rapid decrease in numbers of:
Circulation of daily newspapers
Journalists
Local TV newscasts
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Dynamic Nature of News
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Rise and Fall of “Big News”
Alternatives:
New blogs
Bulletin boards
Online news websites
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Citizen journalism | Paul Lewis | TEDxThessaloniki
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Dynamic Nature of News
Shift to Online Sources of News
Initially driven by younger people
Illustrates changes in people’s demands:
More efficient access to news
A different kind of news--local, entertaining, and “useful” information for people
Evidence: rise of social networking sites for accessing news
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Some social networking sites used for accessing news: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook
Traditional news markets have been losing their audience.
They are failing to attract younger people.
They face increased competition from alternative news outlets on the Internet.
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Different Perspectives on News
Political Philosophy Perspective
Normative perspective
Built from the first amendment to the U. S. Constitution
Focuses on important events and people in a society
News stories constructed from accurate facts rather than journalists' opinions
Aim--to educate people and help them make informed decisions
Espoused by philosophers and social critics
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Political Philosophy Perspective
The political philosophy perspective specifies what news should be.
This is a normative not descriptive perspective.
News should focus on the most important events and people in a society in order to keep people up-to-date about what is most significant.
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Different Perspectives on News
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Traditional Journalistic Perspective
Journalists believe that their purpose is to inform the public, rather than persuade the public.
This is a normative not descriptive perspective.
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Traditional Journalistic Perspective
Normative perspective
Summarizes the journalists’ view of “purpose and nature of news”
To inform the public rather than editorialize (persuade the public)
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Different Perspectives on News
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There are seven criteria an event must have in order to be considered newsworthy: timeliness, significance, proximity, prominence, conflict, human interest, and deviance.
Timeliness: most obvious criterion for newsworthiness. An even has to be current in order to be considered news.
Significance: magnitude of the consequences of an event.
Proximity: how close the event is to the news audience.
Prominence: how well-known people and institutions are in the event being considered as newsworthy.
Conflict: the degree to which the parties in an event disagree.
Human interest: how strongly the event would appeal to human emotions.
Deviance: the degree to which an event is out of the ordinary.
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Traditional Journalistic Perspective
Focuses on seven criteria to consider an event “newsworthy”
Timeliness
Significance
Proximity
Prominence
Conflict
Human interest
Deviance
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Different Perspectives on News
News-Working Perspective
Nonnormative perspective
Developed by scholars who study what news workers do to gather and present news
Story formulas
Inverted pyramid
Narrative
Simplified extended conflict (SEC)
Guidelines and story formulas--non-definitive prescriptions
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News-Working Perspective
Use of sources
Although news workers are aware of normative news perspectives that tell them what they should do, they frequently cannot achieve the prescribed standards because of unavoidable constraints, such as deadlines, limited access to sources, and limited financial resources.
Over time, journalists develop the “news perspective.”
Story formulas: procedures that journalists learn as shortcuts to help them quickly select and write stories.
Inverted pyramid: Journalist put the information, one after the other, ranked according to importance until all the information is in the story. Developed in the early days of the telegraph.
Narrative: Journalists tell a story told in an entertainment format. It begins with a heated conflict, a gruesome description, or an unusual quote--all designed to grab the reader’s attention in an emotional manner, and then each bit of information is presented in the narrative like a story.
Simplified extended conflict (SEC): Journalists look for a simple angle of conflict while covering a story and play it over for several days. For example, political elections.
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Different Perspectives on News
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Commercialism
News organizations are in the business of constructing large audiences so they can rent those audiences to advertisers.
News organizations present the kinds of stories that audiences want most.
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Economic Perspective
Focuses on how news organizations operate as to increase profits and minimize expenses
Salient features
Commercialism
Ultimate goal of news
Journalists driven to construct stories that attract larger audience
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Different Perspectives on News
Economic Perspective
Salient Feature
Marketing
Journalists directed by marketing managers to present these stories in order to satisfy the existing needs in the market
Reasons of criticism
News confounded with advertising
Change in content of news in a way harmful to the public
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Marketing
News decisions are made by marketers instead of journalists.
It tends to change the content of news in a way that is somehow harmful to the public.
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Different Perspectives on News
Consumer Personal Perspective
Current trend--People seek information about information
That does not conform to the old traditional journalistic perspective on news
Strategically that benefits them
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People are seeking out information strategically that benefits them.
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Different Perspectives on News
Consumer Personal Perspective: Selective Exposure
A psychological concept that says people seek out information that conforms to their existing belief systems and avoids information that challenges those beliefs.
The individual determines for himself or herself what is news rather than relying on an outside authority
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As the audience for news fragments, news vehicles are getting more and more specialized, which is known as hyper-localism.
Selective exposure is a psychological concept that says people seek out information that conforms to their existing belief systems and avoid information that challenges those beliefs.
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Consumer Standards for Evaluating the Quality of News
Objectivity
Separateness from the object being observed so that the object is perceived accurately and that the perception is not distorted by human limitations
Unrealistic standard for journalists
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Objectivity
The idea of objectivity is a very general philosophical concept.
It means a separateness from the object being observed so that the object is perceived accurately and that the perception is not distorted by human limitations.
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Ben Goldacre: Battling Bad Science
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Consumer Standards for Evaluating the Quality of News
Accuracy
Good criterion for judging the quality of news if a story reports one fact and that fact is easy to check
Complicated for stories with more than one fact
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Accuracy as a criterion for news involves truthfulness and neutrality but there is more.
Full set of facts
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Consumer Standards for Evaluating the Quality of News
Accuracy: Completeness
Complicated while judging a partial story, one that is either told from a single point of view or major story of a story isn’t covered though events continue to occur
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Presenting only a partial story is a type of distortion that is not usually regarded as bias.
One form of partial story is when a major story stops getting covered, even though important events continue to occur.
Another type of partial story is when a journalist tells a story from a single point of view.
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Consumer Standards for Evaluating the Quality of News
Accuracy: Context
Helps audiences understand the meaning of the event in the news stories, without which the story has an ambiguous meaning
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Context
Context is what helps audiences understand the meaning of the event in the news stories.
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Consumer Standards for Evaluating the Quality of News
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Consumer Standards for Evaluating the Quality of News
Neutrality
Neutrality means that the story is free from journalistic bias or editorializing.
Observed in terms of lack of bias and balance
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Lack of Bias
Bias is a willful distortion on the part of a journalist, but it is difficult for audiences to recognize when this is occurring
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Consumer Standards for Evaluating the Quality of News
Neutrality: Lack of Bias
Lack of bias means truthfulness
Actual bias means when a journalist willfully distorts a news story and perceived bias means when audiences think that the story is slanted
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Truthfulness
Truthfulness means that the story contains no lies, either by the sources used or by the journalist.
Truthfulness also requires that journalists not make up facts to fill in the gaps of their stories or to “sweeten” their stories.
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Consumer Standards for Evaluating the Quality of News
Neutrality: Balance
Criterion: Journalists present all sides of an issue in an equal manner
Problems
Determining which issues are equally balanced controversies and which are not and who should be trusted to determine the type of issue
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Balance
Fairness requires that journalists present both sides and try to do so with equal weight.
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The future of news media is in our hands | Rickey Bevington | TEDxPeachtre
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How Can We Become More Media Literate With News?
Exposure patterns to news are an unavoidable process of constructing knowledge structures, beliefs, and attitudes
Thoughts on exposure patterns and the implications of those patterns Gain control over the process and make it work in our favor
Becoming more media literate involves the periodic assessment of:
exposure
quality
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How Can We Become More Media Literate With News?
Exposure matters
Shaped by what we consider news from personal to global dimension.
Agenda setting theory
Explains that media are selective in what they present as news and what they emphasize as being the most important news
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Exposure Matters
Our exposure decisions are likely to be shaped by what we consider to be news.
Media literacy warns against a narrow focus.
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How Can We Become More Media Literate With News?
Quality matters
Periodic evaluation of quality of news sources to eliminate the risk of believing we are well informed when in reality we are not
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Quality Matters
If we don’t periodically evaluate the quality of our news sources, we run the risk of believing we are well informed when in reality we are not.
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How Can We Become More Media Literate With News?
Quality Matters
Makes interactive features available that draw people into news and make it more useful to them
The complexity of interactive features increases the likelihood of confusion and frustration.
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Interactive features of news : searchable archives, hyperlinks, discussion forums, and easy downloading of information.
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This Weeks Assignment
Critical Thinking Activity #2: Analysis of Reality Show and News Show
What emotions were triggered when you watched both episodes?
Do you think these emotions were planned by the producers of the show?
If so, what language was used to incite these emotions?
Do you feel like you were led to a particular conclusion rather than left to make up your own mind? How so?
Was information presented in meaningful context when comparing both shows?
Was the information presented in a way that was factual, informative, descriptive, persuasive, coercive? Why?
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Summary
The idea of what is news has undergone many changes over time and has influenced different perspectives, particularly the perspectives of political philosophy, traditional journalism, news-working, economic, and personal. These changes also lead us to question what is a journalist and how should we judge the quality of news? These questions are especially important now that we are in the new media environment where nontraditional news outlets are so prevalent, so niche oriented, and open to so much interactive participation among audiences, journalists, and newsmakers.
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