TV News Blog Report

Is TV news a window on the world?

This question is asking whether the news has a neutral viewpoints on the world events. This means the news organisation must not have any bias towards any particular viewpoint, therefore acting like a window on the world, telling the story as it actually happened.

TV news certainly attempts to present itself in this way, as a provider of factual, neutral, unbiased information about the world. We can see certain common features within news programmes such as the starting sequence and the news reporters themselves. Below is a link to my evaluation of these two common feature.

http://gcrossbtec.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/news-task-itv.html

The idea of authenticity and unbiased representations is also backed up by the impartiality of laws and regulations such as OFCOM and the BBC code of practice.













Below's a link to the BBC code of practice, which highlights the guidelines of their news broadcasting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/how-we-work/business-requirements/code-of-practice.shtml

And finally, even the structure of a news story itself backs up the notion of simply 'showing us reality'. There is a hierarchy of truth, where actuality footage is at the top.

However, TV news cannot, simply show reality in a neutral, unbiased and impartial way. All news corporations have to undertake a process called 'the gatekeeping process'. It consists of around 6 stages:

1) News sources - these are where the news stories are looked for, usually places which hold controversy or power, for example, police stations, political buildings, iconic destinations etc.

2) News values - A study thought up by Galtung and Ruge in 1965, these are the values by which a news corporation should stand by. Frequency (short term news stories are preferred rather than long term developments as they are quick to cover for example the recent death of amateur boxer Lance Ferguson-Prayogg at a nightclub in Nottigham). Threshold (Bigger is better, results in higher viewings, e.g a dancing dog may be removed from the list of stories to air due to Brasil losing to Australia in the World Cup final). Unambiguity (stories covered should have good a level of understanding and not unclear). Meaningfulness (relevance and appropriate to our culture e.g Royal Mail becoming a company rather than a government service). Consonance (stories that match the expectations of journalists, also known as correspondence). Unexpectedness (elements of shock/surprise, for example the unfortunate death of Rik Mayall). Continuity (ongoing situations/continuance of a news story, for example the ongoing war in Iraq). Composition (the structure of the show, will include a sense of balance, not too much happiness as well as not too much doom and gloom). Elite Nations (places of importance, more likely to be mentioned due to fame and power for example The White House in America). Elite Persons (people of importance, more likely to be mentioned the higher popularity and power they have e.g David Cameron, George Clooney). Personalisation (Personal stories, acts of individuals e.g recently an East Norfolk school bus encountered a collision and the students were brave enough to attempt to retrieve bodies from inside of a car involved). Negativity ( Bad news is good news, the worse the story is the more coverage the story will get for example the Boston marathon bombings in April 2013).

Another value which has been identified since Galtung and Ruge is visuality (due to recent technology we have the ability to receive artistic shots and provide great visualisation for audiences).

3) News gathering routines - This process will consist of a number of steps. First is hearing/learning about the event/news then a news team will be sent out to cover the story and discover as much information about the event, which could then lead to searching for more research relevant to the news story. For example, an aircraft recently crashed near the M1 in Nottinghamshire and the two men inside died. A news team will hear about this event and go to the scene, this will then lead to questioning witnesses, possibly the Air Accidents Investigation team and possibly interviews involving people who knew the two men. Furthermore as previously mentioned, frequently, stories are cut due to breaking news stories, for example there is a high chance a story was in hand to be broadcast until the breaking news came about regarding pop legend Michael Jackson's tragic death in 2009. Also there are certain legal constraints the news corporations must abide by to prevent certain stories being broadcast due to sensitivity etc.


4) Finance - Financial issues also play a part when it comes to deciding which stores a news team will report. An old yet great example of this situation was when a civilian man stood in front of a column of tanks in protest in Tiananmen square (Beijing) on June 5th 1989.


As news corporations have different financial years, it means they are given their yearly budget at different times. At this point of the year certain news companies failed to cover the story as they did not have the financial capability due to being at the end of their financial year.

5) Competition - Competition is also a very important factor. This is because each news team is trying to cover the story first and receive the most information on the story therefore hopefully resulting in a higher audience. News corporations tend to cover the same stories, this is due to the stories importance. A news crew will not wait at one side of Downing Street whilst every other news crew stands at the other end, it will join the other crews and try to capture the situation of which the rest are capturing therefore resulting in audience commonly receiving the same information. Another example is the World Cup in Brasil, all news teams attempt to cover the most on the world event due to its current importance and popularity. Out of all of the stories that could be covered the news owners choose to express the same stories as each other therefore revealing a very narrow view on the world.

6) Technical problems - These are not uncommon when it comes to the news. As many of the broadcasts are live, technical problems/glitches can happen at any moment, possibly due to weather, possibly due to mistakes, its dealing with the problem which is important. Viewers do not want to be left waiting as they will turn over the channel or access another news website.

TV news also uses 'fictional' narrative devices such as continuity editing and narrative structures to make 'events' into 'stories'. This is an attempt to create more of an interest from the viewers, often used to create sympathy. A good example of this was a recent story on the news regarding a young couple with a small child who were struggling to pay their increased gas bill. This story used a number of typical devices for example a shot of the baby looking upset and then a look at a short conversation between the husband and someone who works at a gas company.

Media in general is a representation of reality, it attempts to be a window on the world but cannot fully do so. Problems that prevent this include manipulation of editing, bias, and choices. Choices which are made simply due to the news creators (typically white, middle class, middle aged, male, university educated) beliefs, therefore we are being exposed to stories which reflect the choosers values/opinions.

However, does this problem even matter in a society where we receive our news from different sources? We all understand major events and stories are taking place everyday, by which only a small amount of these stories are covered by the news providers, we are aware of this regardless of whether a news team is broadcasting it. Many stories are undiscovered or simply not approved of by the news creators. Although it attempts to,there is no possible way of the news being balanced or impartial because of this. We as human beings attempt to seek the complete truth however we are influenced by the white, middle aged, middle class, university educated, southern, heterosexual males who broadcast the same stories that reflect their similar morals and beliefs.