TV News Assignment

Question: Is TV News a"window into the world"?To what extent does TV News shows reality, and to what extent does it construct it for us?

For most of the people who think about the news think it is a bias and not impartial to the stories they are talking about making it one sided and try to make the audience fall on their belief of the story. Bu to other people can see the news as a "window into the world" or a way in which they can find out the information that isn't in their local area or in their country allowing people to feel more informed and that also that the news is impartial, meaning will not take sides or try and persuade their audience to join their side of their belief of the story.

The first sign we get form the news about telling us about what they think they are doing is in the starting intro sequence to the news as in most of the first scenes we see is usually the showing of the title of the news with a a moving background either being the world or a cinematic of a camera flying through their stations location, like London. An example of this is the image to the right, which is from the start of an old ITV news intro sequence and you can see that starts with the title of the news station and also has a moving background which is the world to signify that they cover
the news stories from all over the world and that the audience can look over where they are and feel like they will have the knowledge of everything that is happening the world , you can also tell something else about the title as you can see that it is transparent and that its the news station trying to show that they are impartial or neutral, that the news they present is unbiased and unedited.

Its not just the nicety of the new station's heart to make it their news impartial, the news has to follow the laws set by the government which say they have to make their news impartial to their audience and if they didn't making impartial then they would be breaking the law and their station will mostly likely be taken down. The laws were set by a government approved company called "OFCOM" which stands for the office of communication which sets the rules which media creator including the news have to follow in order to be allowed to put on TV in the first place. The main rules that the news has to follow is they have to make sure what they present is accurate and impartial

The code also states that if the news makes a mistake that they have to correct themselves on air as soon as possible with or as quickly as possible and they have to scheduled it as well and also makes sure the audience knows what they're apologizing for.

Although everyone has their different opinions on whether or not he news is impartial or not but even though every news station tries to go out and say that they are from their intro sequence to their stories and to the script, but even though they try to be it is impossible to actually to be fully what they say as they have only a strict time line to follow in order to get the news done but not all of the news of the world will be able to fit in it, so they have to pick and choose which ones they want to be in the show and this goes through a long process to see if it will make it or not. So in 1973 two media researcher named Galtung and Rung, to which analysed international news stations to find out the factors that each one had in common with each other and also the factors which would placed to the stories top of the new's agenda worldwide, to which they created a list which had all the common factors they found, so if a story scored highly one each part of the list then it will most likely end up on the news, but stations usually have different ways of what make the top of their agendas. 

The start of the the news value is Immediacy which is whether or not if the story has happened recently as short term stories will win over a long term one, an example is if someone has been murdered 3 hours before the start of the news, that would make it in because it was so soon near the start of the show and it would also win over something like global warming as that has been a story for quite a while and hasn't had any significant changes over the years that would be news worthy. The next news value is Familiarity or Threshold, which means did this story occur near the news station or the same country, so something that has happened in Britain would win over something that had happened in Spain, unless what has happened is Spain is more negative or important that what has happened in Britain. The third value is Amplitude or which means the quantity of who it happened to, so if a an story happens to a small number of people and then another one happens

to a even larger group of people, that will most likely make it into the news. The fourth value is called Frequency which means whether or not if it has happened repeatedly, like people winning the lottery and the news talks about it, but its more likely for something that doesn't keep happening to be put on the news so it doesn't seem that the seems is repeating the same stories. The fifth Value is unambiguity which is easier enough to allow the news station to be able to simplify it for their audience so they don't get too confused, an example is something as complicated as politics, especially something like the election, the news station will have to simplify it, so their audience can understand it as well. The sixth value is predictability, meaning did we expect it to happen like back to the election talk as most expect one party to win, in which they did, which was the conservatives, but something in which no one expected then that will most likely make it into the news as it will surprise their audience and might make them want to watch more to see if there is anymore surprises later on in the program.

 The seventh value is called surprise which is if the event is rare or unexpected, which is like predictability, but if the news story is rare and doesn't often happen, ever news station will try and cover it because of its rarity, especially if its an unexpected rarity as it will be even better, an example is that in the Belgian zoo a rare miracle panda cub, as the panda is rare endangered species.

The eighth value is continuity, which means has it been previously defined as "news" in the past, so something that was relevant, like a sport or a certain trend and now has become more popular in the world, the news will want to cover it as it new and fresh and will want to be able to pass it on to their viewers. The ninth is called Elite Nations/ People which is pretty straight forward something that has happen to either a first world country or to a A list celebrity will win over something that happened to a random person, so something like whether or not David Beckham and his wife have split will win over something like a man saving a women life, due to fact of how well known David is and his status compared to a normal person. The tenth value is personalisation which means basically, is if it has interest to humans that relate to them on a personal level, something like a car crash will might relate to some people who have gone through something like that and that feel sorry for that person or when someone had died like some recently in Great Yarmouth had a car accident whilst having a cardiac arrest, in which he sadly died and now there is flowers near the locations as people have relate to losing someone and feels sorry for his friends and family and wants to show their sympathy. The second to last new value is called Negativity in which means whether or not if the story is bad or not and usually bad news will make it into the news but linking to the last news value which is called balance and means to also have some fun stories and not just have negative news on it, so with a murder they will something happy to lift the spirits of their audience so they don't leave because of all the bad news.

Its not just Galtung and Ruge new values theory which allows stories onto the news it also goes through a process in the news station as well and it decides whether or not if they story will be able to fit on the timeline of the news and helps regulate the news, this process is called gate keeping. With gate keeping there are many gate keepers for which the new story has to go through in order to make it into the news in the first place, the first process is the news source its self, so where did it come from and will it be good enough for the news that night, that is decided by the journalist who goes and get to the story and also depending on if the news station sent them out there to get it like its a expected event so they can get the best footage for it, the next gate is the economics, which is whether or not the new station can afford to take the risk of the story especially if its for one

they haven't planned for and its last minute before the news starts, this is very important as when the news station do they finances for the year they have to mange it well to last for the year and make sure its not wasted on pointless stories, one incident occurred with this as one news station done there finances and had organised a lot for other stories and one big story came across and the news station wasn't able to get the best footage and the people who handle that year's expenses was fired because of it. The next process is competition, so it competing against the other news stories when the "gate keepers" meet to see which story they will use for that night and see also for the reserve stories, just in case anything goes wrong with the main stories. The second to last process of gate keeping is the news gathering process which is if the stories they have chosen follow under certain things like whether or not the story has already been covered and if it has it might lose it place no the news and it also if it doesn't tick most of the boxes in the news values that they have or the ones Galtung and Ruge discovered it might not make it, another thing is whether or not you can get the sources for the news and can they get them on time as well. The last process each story has to go through is the newsroom routine which is whether or not the the presenter are okay with this story and if they are able to understand and keep themselves in check and maker sure that the story follow the values of the news.

With all new stations there program obviously follows a narrative structure with a set continuity system as well, with the narrative structure, the news want to tell as if it was a movie in some terms as they want to discuss the problem in hand and how it coping with the victims life and the lives around them and then talk about the resolve of the situation as well to make it seem like the story has a happy ending. An example of this is a story from Detroit in America in which a news journalist was helping get rid of illegal squatters inside a home in which they were squatting there for over six months and you see the problem at first as the journalist has drink thrown on her by one of the squatters and then the news discusses about the problem the squatters called and how the hero of the story which is the journalist helps to get them out when the police won't until fast forward when happy ending comes when the squatters are finally evicted from the premises.

The same goes for the continuity of the news as well you can always see when they are talking about something news they sometimes change to face a different camera to keep things interesting and not to bore to the audience into changing channels to something different. The same thing about the continuity applies to the news stories as we don't just focus on one shot of the journalist it changes from her talking to a video of the squatters and then changes to the break down why the squatters are being evicted.

In conclusion relying back to original question how ever much to news tries to say how they are impartial from either the intro sequence to the news they present or how they present it and the way they speak about it, the news isn't a window into the world, its constructed to be as because of the news values that were discovered by Galtung and Ruge in 1973, you see that even now ever news stories follows the same values, whether it be a murder or election or even a person helping a group of senior citizens cross the street they will still go through the new value process and also the gate keeping process that every news station has, with little difference or preference in their stories. Maybe in the future thing might change the news will become entirely impartial but that is a long way away, because as long as there is news its going be in way impartial as the stories that are in the news are selected by the process of the new station and what they think people have to see not what want to see, meaning if someone wanted to see something about the person who helped a group of seniors cross the road but unless it ticks more boxes in Galtung and Ruges new values than something life a murder that happened 2 hours after then the murder is going to be in most likely. So the finish off it is impossible for the news to be entirely impartial and always obstruction in way of it.