Please read the following article for the week of Feb. 5.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9tKhDO0adInSzgtUzFVQWV1Y0E/edit
For Callahan, please focus your reading on how values are expressed in news. What does this mean for international news stories? Please post your comments by noon on Thurs, Feb. 7.
Have a great week!
Although journalists strive for truth, as the article states "truth is the first and most confusing principle of journalism." Both the writer and the reader's personal backgrounds will determine how they react to the story. When stories are written cross-culturally, a lot can be lost in translation and as a result, journalists must be more careful to make their points clear to their audience. Along with this, journalists must keep in mind the nature of their publication, policies of institution and quality of competition with other forms of media.
ReplyDeleteJennifer Riggs
The article points out that news has been defined many ways and reported for various reasons since recorded news existed. As technology continues to advance and online news reporting becomes available to a larger public, these ambiguous reasons for reporting have continued to grow. In some ways, the constant accessibility seems like a point of improvement in that international stories can have multiple authors and points of view in a relatively short amount of time. On the other hand, the reasons for reporting and the accuracy of the writing can come into question when any random citizen is given the opportunity to participate. The article points out that "all journalists and consumers of news do have a basic, or almost instinctive, notion of what news is," but do not necessarily understand how to present that information in a way that a global audience might benefit from it. Lack of understanding between cultures can impact the way international stories are written, thus changing the initial intent of an article addressing an international audience.
ReplyDeleteDebeer’s article takes its time to adequately represents all angles to the complex and vastly ambiguous topic of what constitutes news. Among some of the theories I felt that what best represents true news to me are the values listed by Harriss, Leither and Johnso: conflict, progress, disaster, consequences, prominence and novelty but I would also add the socio-psychological element because I think it makes a huge impact. In the end though these values are simply what journalist should strive for but do not necessarily amount to what media corporations care the most about which is money through readership, subscriptions, etc. In the latter viewpoint the three key values are time, distance and some notion of being able to relate to the subject in the reader’s perceived version of the world. This last one can be explained through socio-psychological elements such as Americans caring more about Iraq when loved ones could possibly be there or even what is or isn’t expected of a country such as yet another scandal in a corrupt country.
ReplyDeleteThe last thing that adds to the vague nature of the value of news, particularly in international news stories, is that of objectivity. This article shined more light on how objectivity, although noble in nature, is very difficult if not impossible to achieve. Cillie best described news as not a mirror of what is happening but rather a portrait with its own subtle interpretations, views or values through things such as agenda setting and the order and omission of information. While all of what was presented by Debeer in this article makes the issue rather difficult to solve it does pose important questions and at least force us the reader or journalists alike to take another look at what is being presented in the world today as “news”.
This article talks a lot about what constitutes news and then after that, how to best present that said news. However, one of the primary problems this article addresses is that "it is not so much the topics of news themselves that cause problems but rather the way journalists see and experience news". Every person who experiences the same event will have a slightly different view point, which inevitably makes it impossible to be 100% objective. In terms of international news, the aspect of the article that most stood out to me was the various factors that make a news story "big" or not. One of these was distance/proximity--the closer you are to an event the higher the news value it has. This can negatively affect news internationally because often, especially to the US, other countries are not close at all, which means the news stories have to rely on other factors like magnitude or novelty factors. Journalists today are faced with these issues, and are most successful if the news story has multiple strong factors on its side.
ReplyDeleteA variety of cultures define “news” differently. For some news is discovered, for others it is created. As far as values are concerned, some believe that journalists are the ones responsible for disseminating ideas, while others believe in various theories meant to articulate why the media behaves in certain ways, in reality translating to its underlying values. Today however, journalists are hired and succeed in their line of work based on a different set of skills then one would consider when trying to academically define their profession, “news.” Journalists are hired to generate fast stories that increase the profit of the organization. The problem with international news is that it frankly isn’t interesting to most people. They aren’t interested in other cultures values like conflict, progress, and so on. This means that quality news, discounting large-scale destruction, doesn’t really get reported that much across borders.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot in this article that can be focused on, the most interesting part for me what the "news value" section.
ReplyDeleteValues are expressed in news as professional codes in selecting, constructing and presenting news stories. There was a list of news values that these authors believe constitute news. The list includes, conflict, progress, disaster, consequence, prominence and novelty. The more values a story has, the more likely that story will become news. I know the article gives many different definitions of news, but if we based news on these values, there can be numerous international news stories that make "big news". If journalist follow these values, in the US and internationally, they can write the most successful stories.
News is something that we cannot really define because there are so many dimensions to it. I think that the way values are expressed in the news contributes a lot to the complexity of news. The reading shows a list of some values (conflict, progress, disaster, novelty, etc). I think that international news stories are even more complex because of the mix of values and culture. Every culture has values that are important and those determine the nature of the news and media in that country. I think that it is interesting to realize that the way the news is presented has a huge effect on people's opinions. That being said, I don't really think that there is a way to deliver a completely unbiased news report.
ReplyDeleteWe have talked about agenda setting over and over again throughout our communications classes. This principle means that the different media outlets we subscribe to choose not what we think but what it is we think about. However, how do those outlets choose what is indeed news? This article talks a lot about what constitutes news and then the best ways to disseminate what it is they deem newsworthy. The difficulties with this however, is the fact that every person has their own opinions, values and belief system. With that in mind, is the news really ever that objective? Many different outlets can write about the same event or topic, but it is always expressed in a different way or in a new light because it is hard to completely rid yourself of bias and opinion. In terms of international news, with the great advances we've made in technology, literally every person who has access to a computer or smartphone can become an online writer. They just need to post their opinions on a blog or in response to an article, etc. But with that, reporting and accuracy of information can be called into question when anyone can just post their opinions.
ReplyDeleteThere are many different characteristics that make an event "newsworthy." The article lists many of the values that make events turn into news. Some of these values are conflict, progress, disaster, consequence, prominence, and novelty. This list of values was complied by authors of journalism textbooks when asked what they believe constitutes news. The article also says that time and distance are major factors in determining what is valued as news. This means that stories that have just happened and stories that happened close to a news source will have the most prominence and coverage. What this means for international news is that the international stories that will make it into U.S. news are those that are breaking news and those that have some tie to the U.S. Because there is such a large distance, without one of these two criteria, international news stories will likely not get much coverage.
ReplyDeleteThe definition of news can be ambiguous and is more than simply a presentation of facts and events. The most interesting point I found in connection with this idea of how values are expressed in news was that of German sociologist Max Weber. He discussed the role and function of journalists as disseminators of ideas in the form of news. News is a reflection of an event and a journalist’s own value system has an impact of the angle of a story.
ReplyDeleteValues expressed in news in particular can have an impact on international stories because the structure of the news outlet and the factual circumstances of the journalist’s reality have a direct impact on the types of stories that are published. The article highlighted this problem by mentioning how executives struggle to balance presenting stories to an uninterested audience. It is a constant balance between organizational and personal values, what is deemed interesting and most importantly than anything what will sell.
The most fascinating part of this article for me regarding values is when it discusses how journalists and executives see the values of journalistic practices as more important than the values of sound judgment of what actually is news. This means that journalists who can mass produce "reflections" of what's going on in society, type quickly, meet deadlines, and I would even add "can deliver this with a convincing tone" rise above those journalists who take a moment to think, "Is this really news?" This gap in values in the newsroom affects the news that permeates our society, especially because most people have picked up on the notion that you can't believe everything you hear on the news. That right there shows us that values in news are more difficult to come by than they should be.
ReplyDeleteAs far an international news is concerned, I feel like our values are different. In fact, international news doesn't permeate our newscasts, even on days that arguably, it should. Most international news connoisseurs know very well that if you're looking to find news about a European nation, you don't read an American newspaper. This doesn't match up with the value systems in other countries though because you'll always find U.S. news in foreign newspapers. This shows that our values when it comes to international news go something like this, "If it doesn't affect me, don't bother me with it."
It wasn't too surprising to me that people in Western countries tend to be less interested in news coming from other countries. I don't think that people don't care at all, but they really don't want to spend extra time on it unless it's something that is enormous in impact(revolutions from a couple years ago). I think a lot of people tend to hear about bad or sad things happening elsewhere and they can't relate the same way as they might if it were local.
ReplyDeleteAs far as values being expressed from news sourcing, I thought it was interesting that they talked about journalists who are fast at pumping our a story and meeting a deadline. While their story has been mulled over less, it is often more valued because it is timely. By the time the story gets out from the guy who mulled over it, it no longer is of interest. This means that unless the quick story strikes gold, we may never really get best stories.
It is hard to determine what news really is. As the article states, journalists struggle with this concept also. So when it comes to values being expressed, it becomes complicated. The ideas of being a 'disseminator' was intriguing to me. Upon evaluation, this seems to be very true. Of course, personal values and opinions are expressed, as well as interpreted.
ReplyDeleteFor International news, I feel that there should be no reason that this cannot be big news more often. In England and Australia, we would often have US story lines become the big news of the day. I just feel that different countries values are different in this regard.
I really liked the article. From the historical background, to the existing uncertainty of what news is. When we can't really define something, we can't define the values corresponding to it. I lived in another country my whole life before college, and I know that it is true how some values in the US are not valid in Honduras, or even France. The way people react to certain things around the world is different. For example, Honduras is very violent, thus people are used to seeing very graphic pictures on the news/papers. I believe that if those kind of images were published in the New York Times for example, the reaction would be the opposite. People would flip the page as soon as they could, and probably wouldn't even try to read the new.
ReplyDeleteI believe that values has to do with one's culture, which like we mentioned in class, is not as easy to describe as it sounds. I personally hate seeing violent pictures on the news, because my parents taught me that it is a lack of respect of the people who were attacked, but again, my country as a whole thinks the opposite. What to international news report? I feel that at least one or two news about the US was always present in a news show, or paper. Every culture sees the world differently, and I believe that's why we see values differently.
The values of the news are the values of the person or entity that is diffusing the news. Nobody can agree on what news really is. The article states that news is the attempt of journalists and their media corporations to retell stories in the form of news reports. They need to have their stories to be interesting to their audience. The main problem in international news is that people are not necessarily interested in whats going on in countries that audiences cannot even spell. It is a "guessing" game for journalists to find out what people are wanting to hear about.I really found the news value paragraph interesting. The scales and the lists of characteristics are ways for journalists to determine what news should be published.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest point I took from this article is that truth is different to all people. Some people think what they read in the news is complete truth, while other people think what they read on the internet is truth. I think truth is in the eye of the beholder. My opinion of truth is different than other people I meet. This same aspect going for journalists. Every journalist has a different opinion of truth.
ReplyDeleteIt also does not shock me that news is not as important to Western countries. News is readily available for Western countries and we have the opportunity to find news on our own. Other countries may only have to opportunity to learn from the news that is provided to them.
The news has never really had a definition, and because of this odd things like "typing fast and reaching deadlines under pressure is more of a value [of journalism]." Instead of things like truth, and accuracy. The real values of journalism are things like time and distance. Its more important to news gathers now that information reaches people quickly, than accurately. Interestingly enough news journalist are supposed to suppress their own values and beliefs when sharing news. As to keep it unbiased.
ReplyDeleteThe reading brought up an interesting point, which i agree with. "The practice of merely processing information into news before a certain deadline is reached should be abandoned." Now how this effects international news. Because time and distance is so important news gatherers are not only racing with people within their area- but essentially the world. As it talked about in the reading, now with the capability and the acceptable of cell phone pictures and video being used in the news. News can be captured by anyone, and essentially sent anywhere. And news journalist are become less concerned about where the content came from and more concerned with how it will be dispersed. All in the name of money.
Understanding the values expressed in news is like trying to understand abstract art. To some it may be considered objective because there are certain standards or rules that need to be followed, but to others it will be consider subjective because it can be perceived differently by the reader, viewer, or listener. In this article we got the adage of "old news is no news" other definitions like "News is what newspaper men make it," or "News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising." By attempting to define what news is we can see the value it holds. And a lot of that value is projected by the value different international news media gives it, or its reporters or its people. We all perceived news differently. I personally can never related to school shootings, 9/11, or other major disasters because it's outside my sphere and there is not much I can do about it. If I lived in the area I could participate in groups that can help with relief or if I friend was involved I could comfort them. But being miles away I can do nothing and to me it all becomes a propaganda machine and infotainment. I know that are country and others tend to report on what they feel is newsworthy be it some new health fad while the ticker is showing the death rate of another country or talking about Gangnam Style while North Korea continues to oppress its people. It all comes back to being responsible and informed individuals to see what actually matters and where something can be done. International news stories will continue to sell headlines as long as their is an audience to eat it up.
ReplyDeleteI once heard the phrase no news is good news. I sort of like it, not sure if it's because it has a deeper meaning or because I heard it on Robin Hood: Men In Tights.
One thing that I really liked in the article was where it said, "News is only the reflection or image of an event." I think this is very true, especially when we consider international news and how it is reported. Another point that I liked was the article trying to define what news is. The response to both of those statements is the news is defined by who reports it. If five people from five different countries all witnessed the same event, there would be five different spins on it depending on their perception and their values.
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting that the reading focused on occupational values. Not only are values different in different cultures, but Journalists have different values than PR people. Journalists want the story done as fast as possible whereas PR people want everything to be unfolded at the time that is best for their organization. Both values can alter the way the news is reported, making it difficult to know the objective truth.
As many journalists and theorists have mentioned, news is difficult to define. What makes news? Is it any event that happens or must it be something that people will find interesting and talk about? Values of news media may have a different meaning than how we think of the terms “values,” but as I read this article, the well-known adage in communication theory that, “the media doesn’t tell us what to think, but what to think about,” kept hitting home. De Beer gave insights from other authors as to what constitutes values that are newsworthy or what should be a part of every news story. Some of these aspects included: Conflict, disaster, progress, sociocultural values, proximity, and time. One thing that consumption of media does to us is that it creates or builds normative beliefs of how life and culture should be. When we see a news story and see a conflict or disaster or a resolution we will see these values as important because it is being reported. Values that are not reported will be thought of as not important. Much of the news in America today focuses on what is being done domestically. As an American citizen I know very little about what is going on in the world and what issues are facing other places. Because international news is usually showing conflict or just left out all together, my concept of what is going on outside of my native country is limited and not very positive. I am sure there are some great things going on in international news but it is not being relayed to me. This shows why news reporting and programming are important. By highlighting, framing, or disregarding certain stories, media (specifically news) drives that certain values, subjective norms, and normative beliefs are more important than others.
ReplyDeleteEric Vincent
I thought the section on news values was very interesting. It is interesting to look at the things that journalists and news outlets value. Time is for sure a huge influence in the news. Without the story being timely, it isn't news. But journalists also have to weigh the other values of news like cultural significance or location of a news event. Though sometimes certain values are objective, I can see how some journalists view some values as subjective. Each journalists has their own idea of news, and so do readers. The audience of the news medium also has a different idea of value and their own set of values for their news. To me, I like news to be timely. For international news this can certainly be a challenge. The great distance that separates me and other countries around the world requires journalists to be even more timely in their reporting so that it reaches other parts of the globe in a timely manner.
ReplyDeleteHall stated “News values are one of the most opaque structures of meaning in modern society. All journalists are supposed to possess it; few can or are willing to identify and define it.” I believe values in the news depends on the journalist ,and the entity he is working for, and the country. As people always say there is always different points of views of a story, depending who is telling the story. For foreign news an important value is the closer the event, the better. People are not going to be interest about news that are not relevant to them or not occurring near them. Also the society,and its customs, news must be written in a way that the culture is focusing on is attracted to it. However, from this important value we can infer that proximity is a problem in international news. Most people do not watch the news of their own country, and there are many countries who are disconnected from the world. Even though these countries have a great news occurring its indifference with the world would not let the news reach as many people.
ReplyDeleteThe article basically says that news is what we think it is. This complicated statement means that news isn't really a thing that can be defined. People determine what they think news is in their own lives. For some of us it might be something as small as a roommate passing an exam or a class we were supposed to attend getting cancelled. The things that multiple people value as news are often expressed in more mass media, broadcast types of networks. This can even include things that the journalists or producers themselves value.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that can impact this the most is culture. International news stories are affected by culture. It can affect how we perceive them, how much importance is given to them, etc. For instance, a story that is closer in proximity to those it is being told to is generally more important than a story that is far away. Your neighbor's house burning down might seem more news worthy than a house across the world burning down.
This article addressed a question that is sound so simple when asked, yet it gets so complicated when trying to answer. What is news? The section in the reading about how news values are expressed in news discussed many aspects of news values. For starters, there is the identification of different news values that constitute news. Some intrinsic values that constitute news according to the article are conflict, progress, disaster, consequence, prominence, and novelty. It is the responsibility of the journalist to connect these values with the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the news story.
ReplyDeleteAnother point made in the article was about how the nearer the news event & the higher the intensity of the news event, the bigger the news value should be. This helps answer how values in news affect international news stories. Since international events are occurring from a larger distance, the intensity of the event will have to be very great in order to compensate for distance and therefore gain news value.
Ultimately, the control over news values is in the hand of the journalist, who acts as a disseminator of ideas in the form of news. The journalist's individual values definitely influence how they see, experience, and present the news. As the article mentioned, individual journalistic values make objective journalism impossible. Their values unavoidably affect their reporting of the factual circumstances.
The article also talks about deadlines in line with the values of journalists. I know that we struggle with this in the industry because yes we want to be the first with the news and we want to keep our audience informed on what information we have, but we also need the time to verify the facts. If we aren't pumping out the best stories quickly, we'll go under. Also, making people care about international news is difficult too. As we talked about in class, the "international" news in the US isn't very international. We only report on things that effect Americans. Other countries have a more broad variety of news from around the world. Even when I pick out storied fro Eleven News I sometimes don't see the point in choosing stories that don't directly effect my viewers.
ReplyDeleteOkay...I'm on someone else's account. ^watchdog is Lizzy Early
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn the digital age today the concept of news shows more about our values as a society and a world than ever before. Thinking about the globe, it really is true today that "news is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress." There are plenty of countries that don't make the news. Often times the ones that do are doing something that the US public in general disagrees with. It is interesting to me that the genocide in Darfur gets ignored. Apparently, since the majority of the world has already heard it as news, it's not news anymore. People are still dying, but it stops phasing us because we already know. To be news there must be conflict, progress, disaster, consequence, prominence, and/or novelty. If Justin Bieber died, everyone in the world would know. If a thousand children die it can be overlooked. What makes news shows our values and how the public in general is entertained. Different values and cultures change what is important to the public of each nation. How many countries reported the Connecticut shootings? 30 helpless 8-year-olds being brutally massacred should be important, but if other countries aren't close in proximity to the US, then it doesn't make nearly the same impact. This is logical. We must factor into what makes news the distance scale and intensity scale. The intensity of the story of 9/11 definitely made news worldwide. Overall, I am curious to read other papers from different nations and see how they control what their nation thinks about.
ReplyDeleteThe main news values in this day and age are time and distance. Others that play an important role in the news world is prominence, conflict, intensity, cultural proximity, etc. I found it interesting that in the article that journalist don't take so much value in the news being accurate, as they do in the news being fast. With technology the way it is news can be seen instantly, so the faster news is posted the better it is for that news medium. These news values effect countries differently than one another. What one country may think is intense or a conflict another country may find no big deal. I think news values vary by the different perceptions in each country. This to me is why there isn't a clear definition of news for the whole international media systems.
ReplyDeleteAs I read this article I couldn't help feeling grateful that I am not going to be a journalist. When reporting the news, there are so many decisions that must be made about how to approach the stories and what news to report. What is important to one person may be irrelevant for someone else. It was reassuring to read the news values that were pointed out by Harriss, Leiter, and Johnson that include: Conflict,Progress, Disaster,Consequence, Prominence,and Novelty. If reporters evaluate news stories based on this type of criteria I am confident that we will hear about the stories and events that are most important for us. Unfortunately, much of the decision making is made by a few leaders in major corporations. This can be dangerous for the public because large corporations often have their own agenda and focus more on making profits than supplying us with important news. Thankfully, new technology has created a solution for this by allowing the public to publish news and give feedback. Hopefully this new development in the news industry will help us to be better informed on international and national issues.
ReplyDeletePreston Wittwer
ReplyDeleteFrom what I could tell, the article was delving into the main idea behind this quote: "One of the main problems media executives struggle with is to present international news to audiences who are not really interested in news events occurring in countries whose names they cannot even spell." The chapter did a great job at explaining to complexities of finding, shaping and delivering that news, but I was disappointed they didn't talk more about how they can overcome that problem and focus on telling actually newsworthy international stories that don't generate as many clicks as gossip/celebrity news.
This is what I think the chapter was talking about when they said, "journalists have not adapted to the world they helped create." Instead of trying to educate their public and share news in the traditional sense of the word, international news only is seen as worth reporting if there is a connection to the home country or carries some great impact on their culture. From my reading of the chapter and my personal experience I think the it means that international news has been mostly ignored by modern journalists, as they worry less about reporting worthwhile news and focus more on job security and clicks. And that isn't a slam against journalists, I think they are doing what they need to do to survive but it is sad that international news has been largely forgotten because of the changes in the media landscape.
The article brought up some interesting points that should be noted. First of all, news is very hard to "define" because it all depends on the viewpoint of the observer. An event that happens somewhere could mean one thing to one person and a completely different thing to another person, depending on where they're from, what their culture is, and how they were raised. The second thing that could be noted about this article is the fact that news is news because it is reported quickly. To a journalist, speed is the number one factor, not necessarily accuracy. To go with that, PR people want to really develop the truth and make it sound good while building up their company, and advertisers just want the most creative and persuasive message. Both those professions don't put so much of a deadline pressure on their employees.
ReplyDeleteThe word journalist has changed so dramatically in the last 10 years that maintaining journalistic values is almost impossible. Since any person with a Internet connection can report news, journalistic values are not being taught. These professional codes of conduct are lost when people, with little or no training, are reporting news. This has made the values so arbitrary because there is no international code of conduct agreed upon by all journalists. The definition of what constitutes news is even debated. Talking heads like Pierce Morgan are attempting to stretch what is news. Celebrity gossip, argumentative discussions and funny pieces are becoming common place in many journalistic worlds. Values such as clarity are being pushed aside as the definition of what is news is being stretched more and more. Cultural proximity is also hard to define as the world becomes smaller and smaller. With the rise of technology, news stations can easily report about a conflict in Tunisia and a shooting in California. What is cultural proximity to me as a student in Utah who is from Alaska? Is it Utah news, Alaska news or United States news? It is hard to define. Internationally, it becomes more difficult as you embrace different cultures and their perspective of what news values are. The bigger the picture gets, the more difficult it becomes to maintain consistent journalistic values.
ReplyDeleteNews continually gets more and more ambiguous as we as its audience also become is source. As I mentioned in class, I mainly collect my news from twitter, this does not necessarily mean it all comes from "reputable" sources but rather from friends or other random citizens. So even though major corporations may be controlling main stream media, if we are really interested in some specific news topic there will be someone "reporting" about it. So similar to music we now have what I would like to call "indie" or underground news. This is hopefully a solution that will help keep media moguls in check and help disperse news that they are trying to supress.
ReplyDeleteThere is a basic problem with international news. Most people have so much going on in their lives they only have time to focus on domestic news. this is especially true with Americans. I know for me specifically it is very rare and hard for me to focus on international issues when there are so many issues in America that I focus on. This is a big issue for making international news relevant.
ReplyDeleteMost people find it hard to care about what is going on in Africa or Asia especially when it doesn't directly impact them. I think international news would be much more effective if it was able to cater international news to all viewers and show them how this news is applies to them. This of course is easy to write and very hard to actually do. Until international news can do this, it will always have issues grabbing a large viewership.
I thought it was interesting to see the differences in news outlets and what they deem “valuable”. The more of these “values” a story has, the more likely it is to become news. Just like everything else in life, what is deemed as news and how the news takes place is all about perspective. I like the point that news is simply an image of an event. The news is just a reflection of how the journalist sees what happened and how it happened. “There were studies showing how difficult it is to capture the news reality.”
ReplyDeleteBecause journalists are the ones reporting the story, their experiences and values are portrayed in the news story they are telling, often without the journalist even knowing. If journalists follow what is deemed as values better news stories will be written, but on an international level it will change the audience that the article was originally written for.
There is no finite definition for news. News consists of a variety of ideas, concepts, opinions, and agendas. With the vast increase in social media, national news is being disseminated at greater rates through our opportunities to send picture messages, tweet, and communicate opinions in seconds. Many critics believe that news is manufactured and controlled by a select few who set agendas and tell the people what to think about. As we avidly search out news articles or journalistic reports we are seeking information and trying to gain knowledge and understanding of the world around us. Journalists must make sure that their information is important and relevant, inviting conceptual understanding. It is extremely important for journalists to become ethical and educated. They are the ones putting the news in media. They are the gatekeepers and they can sway opinion or persuade people to think a certain way based on how they portray the subjects. Journalists must be sure that their reports are unbiased. The article also mentions the point that the public should be sure to distinguish between objectivity and reality.
ReplyDeleteChandler Anderson
I found the values outlined in this article very similar to the ones we learn in Comms 211 and 321. The things that drive news selection are roughly the same (we learn it as prominence, proximity, timeliness, human interest, conflict and consequence/impact). The exact list seems to vary, but in general it represents the same idea: news, by definition, is anything that contains several of these elements.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem of defining something as “news” or “not news,” especially in a global setting, is that something that qualifies as news in one environment will not qualify in another environment. Local news will not always resonate nationwide, and will rarely be seen as news internationally (unless it satisfies another requirement, such as conflict, prominence, etc.). It is clear, however, that although one particular news story is not in and of itself universally consistent, the values behind it are. Although citizens in Uzbekistan probably don’t care about a local school parade in Beavercreek, Oregon, they DO care about the general ideas of human interest, local events, etc. So the values of newsworthiness are consistent. The pieces of news themselves are not.
Another set of values discussed by this article was the expression of objectivity and reality. I know that some countries have varying standards of objectivity in news, and that the U.S. tends to value more objective stories, but I think that the world in general universally values honesty. However, in our country, we are often less inclined to believe that someone is being honest if they are not being objective.
This is a very difficult subject to define as truth often changes depending on personal bias and culture. I liked the quote, "truth is the first and most confusing principle of journalism." I am grateful to have taken Media Law and learned that there is a morality issue presented when reporting the facts. News consists of "need-to-know" social issues, world news, opinions, etc. and often this creates a problem.
ReplyDeleteJournalists have to deal with job security in an ever decreasing field. Therefore, I can understand some of the issues this article presents as to the conflicting idea of reporting a breaking story that might cost them their career or create a few more years of job security. Journalists are constantly shaping what is "newsworthy" depending on their upbringing, education, and social situation.