Some say the news is a kind of window on the world. By this I guess it's suggesting that not only is the news putting you around the world news, it is also letting you see exactly what is going on at that time and place from the comfort of your own home. This says that the news is accurate, reliable and balanced, but if this the truth?
Each news episode is set of with a starting sequence. The news starting sequences usually consist of some from the following list: Satellites, Eyes and Clocks, Rushing graphics, Fast-paced music and Phallic symbols. The next thing which appears on a typical news program tends to be the sets and then we are finally brought onto see the presenters. All three things set the news up to be something with impartiality (unbiased or in other words no opinion appears) and it is seen to be a representation of the world. Also these three things support the statement about the world being 'a window on the world' because it shows that the news doesn't hide anything and has an objective which is to deliver the news as quick and direct as they can to their viewers.
There are two determinants which act on the news, these are: The law and regulatory bodies, The law gives seven sets of rules which are 'Official Secrets Act', the 'Prevention of Terrorism Act' and the 'Libel laws'. The 'Official Secrets Act' prevents publication of material deemed to the security of the nation, the 'Prevention of Terrorism act' prevents broadcast of material likely to promote terrorism and the 'Libel laws' prevents the broadcast or publication of any unfounded accusations. All of the broadcasting acts over the years set rules for impartiality. Particularly 'Ofcom' say that the news should be presented/reported with accuracy and due impartiality, mistakes made on air must be corrected on air and no politician should be used as a news reader, interviewer or reporter in any news. These rules are all put in place to stop opinions being created on air. There are two regulatory bodies for the news which are 'Ofcom' and 'BBC trust'. 'Ofcom' regulates terrestrial TV such as ITC, channel 4 and channel 5 and also cable and satellite channels. 'Ofcom' are there to ensure that the news is reported with accuracy and represented with impartiality. BBC trust is the main regulatory body for BBC and are not really independent.
For a story to get into a new program is has to go through the 'news selection processes'. This means it has to go through a long process of decisions and possible cuts. The first step/gateway a story has to get past is 'News sources'. This means a news story will only make it through if they are part of one of the news sources which are monitored for example the police and the courts are two main sources. The next step/gateway is 'News values'. To get through this stage an event/story needs to contain enough of the 'Gultung and Ruge' news values which is a list of important factors the two guys which studied it feel a story must have to make the cut. These news values include frequency, threshold, unambiguity, meaningfulness, consonance, continuity, unexpectedness, composition,reference to elite nations, and reference to elite persons, personalisation and negativity. If a story makes it part both of these, it then has to face 'Economics of news production'. The news company need to consider there yearly budget and weather or not they can afford at that point to cover the story they have been given. For example where in the news economical year did a story break and is there going to be enough money at that point to cover a story which is risky and may not amount to much. A great example of this is the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. Unfortunately for ITV it was too late in the economical year to cover it as they had already spent their money on a big break earlier on but BBC had got there and thankfully their economical year had just started. If the story is lucky enough to pass through all three of these then the next step is 'Imperatives of competition'. Often news teams judge themselves based on what their competition are doing and this leads to the majority of news teams covering the same story. Unfortunatly this also means thaht the bulk of important news stories won't get covered. Usually if one news team is covering a story the other teams will follow due to fear of missing out. After this there are two more vital gates to pass through before any story can make it on to the news. The next one is 'Newsroom routines'. This is quite important in the news selection because if the technology in the news room is down and the news story requires a satellite link then the story must be dropped even at last minute. The very last step the story will have to break thugh is 'Late breaking stories'. If another story breaks out later then the current stories and the news producer feels this story is better then another then some of the others will be cute to fit this story in. People may say why can't the producors just trim other stories down to fit in the new one but stories come as packages including the graphics the scripts and the directions meaning you cant just unpick a story without ruining the whole thing. If any of the stories fall out of the running throughout the process then they will end up in the 'Dustbin of history' where everything is forgotten or never known by the world.
News construction processes show the news is not impartial or accurate at all. The first process is the narrative structure. The narrative structure of the news is usually described as the 'Hierarchy of truth'. Included in this is the 'Studio news readers', 'On location or field reporters', 'Interviews with experts and witnesses' and the 'Actuality footage'. The news is very clever in the way it works to convince people it is accurate because of their continuity editing techniques. This is a great example of realism versus reality. There's no possible way for a media text to simply show us reality so these texts have to use a greater deal of realism. This means that they hide the constructed nature of the media product. So in other words the news uses continuity editing to hide an edit. We must remember that realism and reality are two completely different things and by using realism the news could soon be classed as more biased then it already is. As I said earlier the news uses continuity editing such as eye-line match cuts and cutaways to disguise an edit on the soundtrack. Really this suppresses its own artificial nature which is rather dishonest of the news and kind of overrides the statement about the news being a window on the world.
The selection and construction of the news proves to us just how biased the news really is. The window on the world statement is completely false because these points prove how opaque the news is selected is biased around a group of people's opinion (the news selectors) on what is important. As a viewer we don't get a saying what we think is important but the news producers decide for us. The news overall is an opaque window of high selection containing implicit viewpoints of importance and accuracy.
The question is does it matter how accurate and impartial the news is? What difference does it make if the news tells the truth 100% of the time or not? For all the viewers know the news could be the most impartial accurate piece of report they will ever see so what can we do to make it more reality and less realism? We could make sure the news covers events from every angle possible giving equal weight to all parties and points of views. Try to show the processes of selection and construction within the program rather than hiding them away from the viewers. Try to include or involve a more representative cross-section of society for example use more then just white middle class middle aged men try to include women and people of all races. Finally we could be more explicit about which ideological assumptions lie at the heart of selection and construction processes for example you could have a news program with each interest out there.
New technology around the world and on TV news has allowed the world to evolve into a new generation. We no longer have to wait around for the news to be in the papers or on the television but we can go online and check out whats going on in the places we care about the most which makes it more personalized to us. Not only that but its a lot more portable now. I know some people may say its changed for the worse but surely if we didn't have the technology we have now our news reports on the TV we may not have the news stories we get and wouldn't know half of what is really going on in the world we live in. For example if I wanted to know what was going on and the only way I was able to find out at that point in time was the internet then I would just look it up on Google. But if we didn't have this technology I would be able to I'd have to wait to get to the nearest news paper or television to wait for them to tell me on news report. Personally I think the use of technology has brought the world forward and has made it better and easier for us to find out. Yes there are plenty of faults with technology but it has it's positives as well to over run the negatives. No the news may not be the window on the world as everybody thinks it is but I feel as long as we get told the important stuff we need to know then it doesn't matter that much and all the other stuff we need to know we can use the internet to find out.
News construction processes show the news is not impartial or accurate at all. The first process is the narrative structure. The narrative structure of the news is usually described as the 'Hierarchy of truth'. Included in this is the 'Studio news readers', 'On location or field reporters', 'Interviews with experts and witnesses' and the 'Actuality footage'. The news is very clever in the way it works to convince people it is accurate because of their continuity editing techniques. This is a great example of realism versus reality. There's no possible way for a media text to simply show us reality so these texts have to use a greater deal of realism. This means that they hide the constructed nature of the media product. So in other words the news uses continuity editing to hide an edit. We must remember that realism and reality are two completely different things and by using realism the news could soon be classed as more biased then it already is. As I said earlier the news uses continuity editing such as eye-line match cuts and cutaways to disguise an edit on the soundtrack. Really this suppresses its own artificial nature which is rather dishonest of the news and kind of overrides the statement about the news being a window on the world.
The selection and construction of the news proves to us just how biased the news really is. The window on the world statement is completely false because these points prove how opaque the news is selected is biased around a group of people's opinion (the news selectors) on what is important. As a viewer we don't get a saying what we think is important but the news producers decide for us. The news overall is an opaque window of high selection containing implicit viewpoints of importance and accuracy.
The question is does it matter how accurate and impartial the news is? What difference does it make if the news tells the truth 100% of the time or not? For all the viewers know the news could be the most impartial accurate piece of report they will ever see so what can we do to make it more reality and less realism? We could make sure the news covers events from every angle possible giving equal weight to all parties and points of views. Try to show the processes of selection and construction within the program rather than hiding them away from the viewers. Try to include or involve a more representative cross-section of society for example use more then just white middle class middle aged men try to include women and people of all races. Finally we could be more explicit about which ideological assumptions lie at the heart of selection and construction processes for example you could have a news program with each interest out there.
New technology around the world and on TV news has allowed the world to evolve into a new generation. We no longer have to wait around for the news to be in the papers or on the television but we can go online and check out whats going on in the places we care about the most which makes it more personalized to us. Not only that but its a lot more portable now. I know some people may say its changed for the worse but surely if we didn't have the technology we have now our news reports on the TV we may not have the news stories we get and wouldn't know half of what is really going on in the world we live in. For example if I wanted to know what was going on and the only way I was able to find out at that point in time was the internet then I would just look it up on Google. But if we didn't have this technology I would be able to I'd have to wait to get to the nearest news paper or television to wait for them to tell me on news report. Personally I think the use of technology has brought the world forward and has made it better and easier for us to find out. Yes there are plenty of faults with technology but it has it's positives as well to over run the negatives. No the news may not be the window on the world as everybody thinks it is but I feel as long as we get told the important stuff we need to know then it doesn't matter that much and all the other stuff we need to know we can use the internet to find out.
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