5/4/2013
Is Television news a ‘window on the world’? BTEC Media Essay
Connor Sartain
Connor Sartain
Is Television news a ‘window on the world’? BTEC Media Essay Television news is said to be unbiased and impartial, but is that the truth? In this essay I will be covering this question and how the news is not just a window on the world.
Starting sequences, sets and presenters. In the opening sequence of the news it is implied that the news is just a window of the world there is several different ways in which this is done
The Starting Sequence There are several connotations to the starting sequence that imply impartiality, for example the starting sequence has fast pace and music with a beat to imply urgency and that it is the fastest news. Another connotation in the starting sequence is that news is a window of the world this is implied by having transparent objects like windows. Another connotation in the starting sequence is rushing graphics this connotes urgency as well implying that they are the first to get the news stories.
The Sets The set is metallic and shiny this shows that they are modern and up to date; the background in the example below is a window that shows the studio this implies that they hide nothing suggesting that they are impartial
The presenters After the starting sequence the presenter I already behind their desks this connotes a sense of urgency as they are ready to give you the news straight away. The studio news reader speaks in Standard English accents and with Received Pronunciation this is seen as a neutral way to speak and would not connote anything about the news reader. While speaking the news reader uses a limited range of facial to reinforce the idea that The set and the Presenter.
they offer no opinions about it and is unbiased.
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The legal and regulatory framework The law states that television news should not be impartial and „refrain from expressing its views on matters of public concern‟ while showing accuracy and balancing the views of all of the sides but is not fully true as they would show the show the murders as evil because this is the view of the public but this does not so objectivity.
Ofcom Ofcom is a regulatory body whose job it is to „ensure that news, in whatever form, is reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality‟ and „to ensure that the special impartiality requirements of the Act are compiled with‟ „ “Due” is an important qualification to the concept of impartiality. Impartiality itself means not favouring one side over another. “Due” means adequate or appropriate to the subject and nature of the programme‟ Ofcom Impartiality Rules.‟ http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcastcodes/broadcast-code/impartiality/ This means that a news story may be impartial but where it is appropriate to the subject and nature of the programme.
News Selection Processes The way news is selected is the first thing that suggests that television is not impartial. There are thousands of stories happening every minute but in a news programme there are say around five stories. So there is some selection in what gets shown. Who decides what gets shown on the news. The stereotype for those who chooses the news is a middle-age white man who went to oxford or Cambridge university so the opinions on what should be shown on the news is different to say a working class female who went to a public school. There are six stages of the news selection:
News Sources If it doesn‟t happen in one of the covered areas that are monitored regularly it is less likely to be in the news. Some of the areas that are monitored regularly are Politics, Science, Sports, Technology and Trade. Most stories not covered by these areas monitored regularly will no feature in the news programme.
News Values Galtung and Ruge devised a set of news values that would increase the chance of a story being on the news.
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The Galtung and Ruge News Values are; Frequency is when an event fits in the cycle of the news broadcast, it cannot be out of place for example a fast and urgent story will not be in the same broadcast as a story of a slow development. Threshold is about the size of the story, the bigger the event the more likely the event will be shown on the news. Unambiguity is when a story has to be simple and easy to understand you never want the viewers to struggle when watching your broadcast. Meaningfulness is when a story has to have meaning for the target audience; the audience of a ten o'clock news will be older so having more mature stories is adding meaning. Consonance is if an event fits in with the expectations of recent journalists or newspapers it is more likely to appear on the news. Unexpectedness is if a story is of a subject that people don't see coming for example, "dog bites man" is predictable and ordinary not major but "man bites dog" is weird and unexpected and would be more likely to be on the news. Continuity is if an event or story appears on the news it is more than likely to appear again at some point. Composition is the structure of the broadcast, balancing the variety and type of story is important as to not overwhelm the viewer. There is usually a „and finally storyâ€&#x; which is a light hearted story to Elite Nations are nations that are more powerful than others globally making them "Elite" First World countries and countries in the northern hemisphere are more likely to be on the news. Elite persons are individuals that are famous or well-known stories about them will be broadcasted although it may have happened to one hundred people like you and I. Personalization is if a story can be told from the point of view of an individual it will strike the hearts of the viewer than a story from a larger point of view, example a hurricane affected 1,200 people or A story of a woman looking for her child strikes at our hearts making the story more relatable and also makes it seem like a narrative. Negativity is that bad news makes the best news. Disasters make the news more than happier incidences because they fit the dramatic style of the news.
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Economics of news production The next step in the news selection process is Economics; this depends on the time in the financial year, this can affect the coverage of news stories. Coverage is an expensive process with the equipment, crew and presenters if a news company does not have enough money to cover a story they simply cannot cover that story.
Imperatives of competition News organizations reference their work to rival organizations and judge their work on this. News organizations will cover the same stories; if a news organization has a story that another one does not they will be considered more up to date.
Newsroom Routines Sometimes there can be problems during the airing of new stories for example losing the links to the studio can lead to a story being dropped.
Late Breaking Stories If there is a late breaking a news story would have to be dropped this is because news stories are made up into packages with library footage, coverage of the event and links to the studio so when a new one comes in they cannot just cut down a story they have to remove the whole story to fit in another. So this means someone has to choose which one is the least important, how can this be impartial someone who has a different opinions to you or me on what is important to show on the news.
Overview So how can news be unbiased when there is someone who decided which news stories that we see on the news and as I mentioned before the person who decides this has different views on what they call important stories to show on the news therefore it cannot be impartial and just a window on the world.
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News Construction Processes Another way in which the news is not being just a window on the world is the way that the news construction process. This is the way in which the news story is set up including Narrative Structure, Edits and the realism this creates.
Narrative structure In fictional texts they follow a structure in which a hero it follows “hero” on their path to resolution to fix a problem:
Hero
Problem
Path to resolution
This is also evident in news stories; they want the viewers to connect to the “heroes” of the news and form an emotional connection with them. This also adds a narrative to the stories, this implies that news is not just a window on the world as they are changing the way that we see the news. Also in TV news we can see a sort of narrative between the various stages in a news story – The studio news readers set us up, handing us over to field reporters, who then lead us to actuality footage and sometimes witnesses, then often then back to the studio for comments by experts or interviews. This narrative structure creates a sort of hierarchy of truth of what we are being told, with „actuality‟ footage at the top, even though the footage is only a representation of the event, rather than the „actual‟ event in itself.
Editing in the news In the news they edit to disguise cutaways this make the news look more professional and creates realism in the news stories but this is not the same as reality, this breaks away from the reality of the news, editing the news also changes the way that we the viewer sees the news so this mean that the news is not just a window on the world.
How selection and construction show that the news is not a transparent mediation of reality Both the news selection process and the construction process are both full of explicit opinions of the people how make and edit the news, if these explicit opinions are what determines what is shown on the news and how it is shown then how can the news just be a window on the world with no bias and being impartial when so much opinions go into making the news. 5
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But does this really matter? Does this really matter that the news is not really fully impartial? In my eyes it does not really matter with the new technology like the internet even more stories are posted that can be shown on the news, it allows us as the viewers to have a bit of control on what news we get to see with sites like twitter stories that are known by the consumer can be instantly shared across the world. Videos shot on phone camera can also be quickly shared across the internet with websites like YouTube or Vimeo. But without the control and variety that the internet gives us the point that there is a higher person deciding what goes into the news program. I think that this is wrong that the viewers should have some control over what is shown and that a specific, I also believe that we should have at least some control of what we get to see on the news but this is difficult as the news is a constructed process by professional so as consumers of the news it is very difficult for us as viewers to moderate the professional TV news channel.
The effect of technology on television news Twitter has become one of the most popular social media sites with millions of users, this allows for consumers of the news to share the news and comment making news travel even faster than before social media sites like this also allow for the consumer to “create” news stories of their own another advantage of having the news shared on social media sites like twitter is that it allows the consumer to control what news they see this means the news that they see will be more personal to the viewers because they can see news that is in their local area or news that they are interested in rather than the specific stories on the news. Another website that affects the news is YouTube and the consumer products like video cameras that are affordable and these allow consumers of the news to record local news themselves, amateur footage is now more common with video cameras on mobile phones, that can upload straight to the internet this can allow footage of a certain event to be uploaded and reported on before the news stories. But does this really affect the TV News…? Well not really as there is always a need for the professional TV News, even if technology is making it easier for the consumer to make news there will always be a market for the television news. The technology does not make TV news obsolete it allows the viewers to have some influence on what news they watch.
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