Thursday 1 May 2008

News: Definitin and Concepts

Concepts of News/Journalism

DEFNITION OF NEWS

News is a report of any current event, idea or problem which interest large number of people BUT it acquires different meanings and concepts in different political, economic and socio-cultural environment.

ELEMENTS OF NEWS
A News report must answer following questions:

WHO
WHAT Generally
WHEN Factual
WHERE

WHY Element of Interpretation
HOW is introduced

CREDIBILITY
Principles to be observed while reporting an event or editing news report

Accuracy
Fairness
Balance
Attribution
Objectivity

NEWSWORTHINESS
How to decide newsworthiness of an event, idea or problem (Evaluating information or any information package)
Audience
Impact
Proximity
Timeliness
Prominence (Size)
Context
Policy Parameters
Specific Informational Value
Unusualness

STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY
INTRO
EXPLANATORY DETAILS
DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ETC.
(In order of descending importance)

Various Types of Journalistic Writings
FACTS
ANALYSIS
VIEWS

 News item
 News Report
 News Analysis
 Interpretative Reporting
 Feature/Featured Reporting
 Interview
 Commentary
 Article
 Editorial
 Profile, Review, Review Article etc.


The investigative process

 Tip –Tipsters
 Formation of story idea
 Formulation of the problem
 Preliminary research feasibility study
 Plan of action-Synopsis
 Minimum and maximum story


Functions of Media
Information
Education
Entertainment
Agenda Setting

Three streams of new media

News- “Page One” journalism
Entertainment – “Page Three” journalism
Education- “Page Seven journalism”

Emergence of infotainment
Commercialization of Media
News: Product
Media as a Profit making business venture
Reader/ Viewer/Listener as Consumer

Information +Entertainment
Combining Factors:
MARKET
INVESTORS
ADVERTISERS

MARKET DRIVEN MEDIA: some key elements
PRIMARY PURPOSE OF NEWS IS TO EMPOWER PUBLIC BY MAXIMIZING ITS UNDERSTANDING OF CURRENT ISSUES AND EVENTS THAT SHAPE ITS ENVIRONMENT. ONCE NEWS IS TREATED AS COMMODITY LOSE ITS INFORMATIONAL VALUE

Profit
Competition
Winning Audience Game

Entertainment becomes dominant replacing informational value of news which in turn might encourage ignorance at the Cost of UNDERSTANDING

MARKET JOURNALISM GATHERS AN AUDIENCE NOT TO INFORM BUT TO SELL IT TO ADVERTISERS. FEW POWERFUL CORPORATIONS WIN AND PUBLIC LOSES
-BEN BAGDIKIAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

COUNTER POINT
MARKET CONTAINS ADEQUATE SAFEGUARDS AGANST ABUSE
-PHILIP MAYER, UNIV. OF NORHT, COROLINA
For citizens and information consumers, it is important to develop the skill of detecting bias: Concepts of “misinformed consumer” and “informed citizen” (Consumer and citizen are one and the same but role differs)

Dominant Models in Today’s Journalism

The Watchdog
CNN Effect
News Management
Thought control
Manufacturing Consent
Mutual Exploitation

Two Major Streams in Journalism

Episodic Journalism
Thematic Journalism

 Reporting Event: What was happening
 Reporting the process that goes into happening of the event
 Explain why it was happening

Role of News Media

How things work
How things are supposed to work
How things normally work

The investigative process

 Tip –Tipsters
 Formation of story idea
 Formulation of the problem
 Preliminary research feasibility study
 Plan of action-Synopsis
 Minimum and maximum story

BASE BUILDING: THE SPIRAL OF RESEARCH

 Written sources
 Experts- the sources of knowledge
 Sources of experiences
 Reportage- Field trips- Observations
 Key interviews

Assessment and analysis

• Conclusions
• Outline of story
• Writing and revising
• Hand in before deadline

Objectivity and Bias

Bias is a small word that identifies the collective influences of the entire context of a message


 Human communication always takes place in a context

 Through a medium, and among individuals and groups

 Who are situated historically, politically, economically, and socially

Journalist attempts to be objective by two methods:

 Fairness to those concerned with the news

 A professional process of information gathering that seeks fairness, completeness, and accuracy


Critical questions for detecting bias

The media applies a narrative structure to ambiguous events in order to create a coherent and causal sense of events

 What is the author's / speaker's socio-political position?

 Does the speaker have anything to gain personally from delivering the message?

 Who is paying for the message? What is the bias of the medium? Who stands to gain?

 What sources does the speaker use, and how credible are they? Does the speaker cite statistics? If so, how and who data gathered the data? Are the data being presented fully?
 How does the speaker present arguments? Is the message one-sided, or does it include alternative points of view?
 If the message includes alternative points of view, how are those views characterized? Does the speaker use positive words and images to describe his/her point of view and negative words and images to describe other points of view?

Kinds of Biases
Commercial bias
Visual bias
Bad news bias
Narrative bias
Status Quo bias
Fairness bias
Glory bias

A presentation by Prof. Subhash Dhuliya

Dominant Models in Today’s Journalism

The Watchdog
CNN Effect
News Management
Thought control
Manufacturing Consent
Mutual Exploitation










Role of News Media


How things work

How things are supposed to work

How things normally work








Some Key Concepts


Journalism: Reporting on government, politics, policies, economics, and other news and issues.

Political Journalism: Reporting on the political process and other government and political entities.

Generate new ideas about scientific reasoning, democracy, and rule by consent of the governed and free criticism of government.

Journalism of Exposure: The process of uncovering information about practices those usually are illegal or unethical.

Objectivity: Looking at a story as though through a perfect lens uncolored by a reporter's thoughts about a subject; trying to view a story from a neutral perspective. Some critics believe pure objectivity is impossible and that fairness and balance are more important.

Narrative Tradition: Journalism as story. Many writers employ fictional techniques in writing nonfiction material.

Knowledge Gap and Media: Some studies show that those with information and access to technology are more likely to increase their knowledge more rapidly than those without access. Technological delivery of information, therefore, can increase the gap between those with information and those without.

Agenda-Setting Research: Media research that seeks to understand the relationship between readers' determination of important issues and politicians' and press's treatment of them. The research focuses not on how media cover an issue but on how they set an agenda through the choice of the issues they cover.

News Values: Newspaper editors and owners try to develop standards of value for determining which events and issues are newsworthy---that is, deserving of being given space in the paper.



The use of computer technology to gather and analyze information for news reports and articles includes the use of the Internet, spreadsheets, and databases. (To be covered in the next session)


Public Journalism: By creating a public conversation through journalism, modern news media hope to inspire “consumers” of news to become more involved in their own communities. The media encourage citizens, officials, reporters, and editors to identify and respond to the issues that confront their neighborhoods and their cities.


Media Convergence Case Studies

The idea of convergence means the combining of communication technologies to deliver a message. Media convergence is a phenomenon as revolutionary to communication as the invention of movable type or electronic communication. Such a monumental revolution has caused media owners, analysts and regulators to re-think the entire structure of information delivery to mass audiences.

The computer has made this convergence technologically possible. Large computers are used to gather, digitize, store, package and transmit information. Smaller, yet still powerful personal computers are used as receivers to bring words, sounds and sights to the audience.

Many scholars and analysts argue that someday people won’t need separate media to receive information. The messages delivered to previous generations through newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, and film will come to future generations through a single delivery system – and it will be digital.

True to their instincts as players in a free market economy, the owners of traditional media saw the future early and in the last two decades have positioned themselves to take advantage of the coming revolution.

In the marketplace of ideas, the marketers of those ideas, and the methods of delivering them, are converging, too. This creates a second definition of the new generation’s term "media convergence."

Teaching Tools: Source Analysis

Source Analysis

WHO-IS-WHO?
Analysis of the Stakeholders

WHO IS:
1. directly affected by the problem?
2. directly involved in the problem?
3. directly involved in the dealing with the problem?
4. indirectly affected by the problem?
5. not involved, but aware of the problem?
6. inspecting the problem on behalf of the public?
WHO MIGHT BE:

1. affected by the problem in future?
2. involved in the solution of the problem?
3. influential on decisions concerning the problem?
4. final decision makers?

WHO HAS BEEN:

1. affected by this or similar problems?
2. part of negotiations and decisions?
3. influential on decisions?
4. dealing with similar problems?
5. researching the problem scientifically?
6. commenting on this or similar problems previously?
WHO REPRESENTS:

1. directly affected and involved persons and groups?
2. persons and groups affected by or involved in similar problems?
3. persons and groups likely to affected or involved?
WHO HAS FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE ON:

1. personal experience with the problem?
2. scientific research or surveys of the problem?
3. decisions?
4. rules and practices in the field?
5. similar problems?

WHO KNOWS:

1. about the causes and background?
2. consequences?
3. decision-makers in the field?

HO WILL GAIN:

1. if the problem is exposed in public?
2. if the problem is solved?
3. by status quo?

WHO WILL LOOSE:

1. if the problem is exposed in public?
2. if the problem is solved?
3. by status quo?

WHO EARNS?
WHO LOOSES?
WHO PAYS?
- always FOLLOW THE MONEY!

WHO CARES ANYWAY?

- remember your audience...

Assess the reliability of the sources

Ask yourself if the sources are:

- real (as existing, not pretending to be)?
- close to the events (in time and space)?
- primary sources (opposite secondary sources)?
- having open or hidden motives (also experts)?
- blinded by opinion, prejudice, interests, fear, personal repression or the like


Mind map more sources

You may also make a mind map on sources. The mind map is a useful tool for journalists to develop our ideas and to find sources for our stories. You can always call on your colleagues to help brainstorming and record it on any piece of paper.

Journalism: Teaching Tools

Functions of Media
Information
Education
Entertainment
Agenda Setting


Three streams of new media
News- “Page One” journalism
Entertainment – “Page Three” journalism
Education- “Page Seven journalism”


Emergence of infotainment
Commercialization of Media
Media as a Profit making business venture
Reader/ Viewer/Listener as Consumer




For citizens and information consumers, it is important to develop the skill of detecting bias


Objectivity and Bias
 Human communication always takes place in a context

 Through a medium, and among individuals and groups

 Who are situated historically, politically, economically, and socially


Bias is a small word that identifies the collective influences of the entire context of a message



Journalist attempts to be objective by two methods:

 Fairness to those concerned with the news

 A professional process of information gathering that seeks fairness, completeness, and accuracy


Critical questions for detecting bias

The media applies a narrative structure to ambiguous events in order to create a coherent and causal sense of events

 What is the author's / speaker's socio-political position? With what social, political, or professional groups is the speaker identified?

 Does the speaker have anything to gain personally from delivering the message?

 Who is paying for the message? Where does the message appear? What is the bias of the medium? Who stands to gain?

 What sources does the speaker use, and how credible are they? Does the speaker cite statistics? If so, how were the data gathered, who gathered the data, and are the data being presented fully?

 How does the speaker present arguments? Is the message one-sided, or does it include alternative points of view? Does the speaker fairly present alternative arguments? Does the speaker ignore obviously conflicting arguments?

 If the message includes alternative points of view, how are those views characterized? Does the speaker use positive words and images to describe his/her point of view and negative words and images to describe other points of view? Does the speaker ascribe positive motivations to his/her point of view and negative motivations to alternative points of view?


Kinds of Biases
Commercial bias
Visual bias
Bad news bias
Narrative bias
Status Quo bias
Fairness bias
Glory bias


Two Major Streams in Journalism
Episodic Journalism

Thematic Journalism

 Reporting Event: What was happening
 Reporting the process that goes into happening of the event
 Explain why it was happening

Dominant Models in Today’s Journalism
The Watchdog
CNN Effect
News Management
Thought control
Manufacturing Consent
Mutual Exploitation


Role of News Media
How things work
How things are supposed to work
How things normally work