prev — main — next
SESSION B. 2 (a) : HANDOUT.
 
SPINNING THE NEWS
 
Selecting and constructing news.
What is news? It is characterised by apparently factual accounts of that which happened recently and that is perceived by media people to be of interest or importance.
·        
There are several aspects of this description that need careful scrutiny. Community media people need to reflect on the relationship of news to the dominant discourses and ideologies. We should examine the hegemonic influences in society, and how these are negotiated as parts of media institutions and are influenced by media ownership.

These relationships and influences lead to three critical aspects of news. (1) It is not transparent, and not 'the window on the world', (2) nor does it offer unbiased versions of events, most news items are culled from reliable, usually powerful sources, and (3) the information disseminated usually serve these dominant interests.

This is known as the 'Agenda Setting' power of the media. The power to set agendas lies, not in the power to tell us what to think, but in telling us what we think about. Chomsky termed this the 'Manufacture of Consent' and outlined ways in which the media achieve this through:
·           Selection of Topics.
·           Emphasis.
·           Framing of Issues.
·           Filtering of Information, and
·           Bounding of Debate.
 
This hegemonic effect results in those within the majority opinion, as portrayed by the media, becoming more vociferously confident, while those who perceive themselves to be in a minority, falling increasingly silent
 
News Values
The theory of 'news values' sees news as the end product of a complex process, which begins with a systematic sorting, and selecting of events and topics according to 'professional news values'. Individual journalists and news teams quickly develop a sense of 'who to rely on' for data. This results in 'hard stories' full of statistics, facts and quotes from official sources.

These emanate from the press office of a government department, a P.R. company for a global corporation or a professional media agency. And generally prove to be the main source of most mainstream news, and are the primary definers of the shape of news bulletins, rather than material generated by lobbying or campaigning groups, or the local participants in an event.     

There is an understandable survival instinct at work among journalists, which senses that 'accredited sources' are less likely to cause libel actions. Thus there is an incestuous exchange of information between the big world news agencies, such as Reuters, Press Association and United Press International.

However, the dynamic of these news-flows tend to favour those who already have enough power to employ press officers, print press releases and publicity, and hire Reuters to make up a VNR (video news release.)
 
Community media activists need to reflect on the wisdom of permitting this form of hegemonic influence free reign within community media.

prev — main — next