Lecture Reflections: Lecture 9

Lecture 9: News Values

 

“News values are one of the most opaque structures of meaning in modern society … Journalists speak of ‘the news’ as if events select themselves … Yet of the millions of events which occur daily in the world, only a tiny proportion ever become visible as ‘potential news stories’; and of this proportion, only a small fraction are actually produced as the day’s news …”

 

Stuart Hall 1973

 

So who and what decides which events become the news?

 

Are there defining news values that are universal, or are they specific to culture, audience and outlet?     

 

The concept of news values is dynamic, the values change according to the importance or insignificance of factors that relate to society and the world today. However there are some universal traits within journalism and communication that determine the degree of prominence a story is give in the daily news. Dr Redman asked us to step back for a minute and consider what a day’s news report or front page of a newspaper might look like if the popular news values (that measure an events newsworthiness) were not fulfilled. The news pyramid that directs the reader’s attention would cave in on itself as the most news worthy story would flop dismally. Following Galtung and Ruge’s three hypothesis theory and the exclusion hypothesis, “events that satisfy none of very few of the (news worthiness) factors will not usually become news.”

News Values Defined: Guidelines that decide news worthiness and prominence.

Impact: A news story that is going to have a high impact on a large amount of people. “News is anything that makes the reader say ‘Gee Whiz!’.” 

Audience Identification: A news story that relates to your audience, therefore appropriate to their culture, interests, location, or world news of high interest. 

Pragmatics: A news story that is practical in a reporting sense and often relates to current affairs; a story that doesn’t compromise any news ethics. 

Source Influence: the degree of influence other sources have had on the facticity of the story, the truth, how accessible a story is or how much spin is put into a story. An example of this struggle between reporting truth and source influence is the relationship between journalism and public relations. 

Other general rules within the industry, that are not necessary learned but become instinctive, are “if it bleed it leads” or “if its local it leads”. Stories that feature accidents, death, disasters and danger will lead the headlines; events such as this satisfy news factors such as negativity (bad news) and drama. These are the events that relate well to audience interest but are also stories that conflict with news ethics. This would call for consideration of how a journalist presents a story so as to fulfill these news values but also conform to ethical news reporting.  

Promotions within commercial media focus heavily on local stories and use this news value to draw in their audience by making their local community “the news, seen first on channel nine” for example. This spin on a story satisfies factors like proximity and relevance. 

When looking at how news worthiness is determined in a journalism environment, key qualities that direct this decision making are not always solely the qualities of a journalist.

“A sense of news values” is the first quality of editors – they are the “human sieves of the torrent of news”, even more important even than an ability to write or a command of language.”

Harold Evans -Editor of The Sunday Times 1967 to 1981

As evens says ‘a sense of news values’ is essential to deciding what runs as the news on any given day, he also speaks of the importance of the ‘College of Osmosis’, a concept that works around the practical learning in an industry environment to nurture the instinctive skills or ‘sense’ that direct a journalist’s decision of how to present a story.

The news values acknowledged by editors, journalists and PR personnel alike, can be conformed to a list of a dozen common factors. However, with our ever changing world and the changing of culture, what is current and interesting is not always what has traditionally been important or newsworthy. This is the reason so many professionals and academics have theorised these news values with their own interpretation of important news added to this ever expanding list.  Just a few of the foundation values and some of the newly added, and newly appropriate, values can be seen below. 

Some Newsworthiness Factors:

Some classics! 

Negativity (bad news) 

Proximity (Local News or geographically relevant) 

Uniqueness (New news or an unusual event) 

Elitism (stories that follow people, nations or organisations that are of public importance or have a great deal of power/influence) 

Continuity (a story that has been or has the potential to be of public interest for a prolonged period of time, for example the Olympics) 

And some newly relevant factors! 

Visual attractiveness (stories that can be presented in a visually attractive way, appropriate for TV reporting or online news where use of info graphics etc. can be applied) 

Celebrification of the journalist (how much involvement a journalist has in a story, programs such as ‘A Current Affair’ and ’60 Minutes’ use their journalists as a hook for a story) 

Terrorism (the us and them concept slighting altered to feature the underlying fear or scare factor of terrorism following events such as the September 11^th Attack and the 2005 London Bombings)

The Global Financial Crisis (reports of the stock market are now rarely not reinforced by results of the GFC) 

Lecture Reflections: Lecture 8

Lecture 8: Ethics 

When we think about what guides us morally in our personal life, there are many factors that direct us to right and wrong. Fear of consequence, rationality, instinctive reactions and so on can all affect our decision making. Some people may see an angel or devil sitting on their shoulders or have a Jiminy Cricket character showing them the way, but what happens when our professional duty comes into play in the journalism and communication world where the “right thing” is not always the way our moral compass is guiding us go. 

Ethics fall into place in journalism and communication to help clarify situations that cross over our own boundaries but will ultimately serve the public’s best interests.  Within the industry there are theories of ethics and codes of practice that draw the lines between professional expectations and right and wrong. Some of these theories are as follows. 

Ethics Theories

 

Deontology

 

Deontology is a theory that practices rule following.  Deontologists say that if there is a rule that says whether something is right or wrong or principles that guide you, you can ultimately do the right thing ethically by following these rules

Consequentialism

 

Consequentialism uses a ‘greater good’ ideology to determine whether something is ethically acceptable.  It focuses on getting a ‘good’ or ‘right’ outcome despite how you might get there as the end justifying the means. Consequentialists say that it is the greatest good for the greatest numbers that matters, therefore if you make a decision solely based on the outcome for the greater good, it comes under consequentialism. 

Virtue Ethics 

 

Virtue ethics follows the Aristotelian system of ethics of Virtues and Vices. This theory works with a person’s own morals and asks of a situation ‘does it align with the type of person I want to be?’ Virtues such as courage, temperance, justice and prudence all go towards forming morally good habits in a person’s character that can then determine what is right and wrong. 

There are certain codes that media professionals subscribe to that provide guidelines to what is considered ethically correct. The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance is just one of many codes of ethics provided to journalists. As well as outlining their code of ethics on their website, they provide an excellent statement as to what the professional responsibilities of a journalist are in relation to ethics. 

Media Alliance Code of Ethics 

 

“Respect for truth and the public's right to information are fundamental principles of journalism. Journalists describe society to itself. They convey information, ideas and opinions, a privileged role. They search, disclose, record, question, entertain, suggest and remember. They inform citizens and animate democracy. They give a practical form to freedom of expression. Many journalists work in private enterprise, but all have these public responsibilities. They scrutinise power, but also exercise it, and should be accountable. Accountability engenders trust. Without trust, journalists do not fulfil their public responsibilities.” 

I find myself questioning not only a person’s individual codes of ethics but also larger corporation’s codes of ethics that can easily fall into conflict with bias and agendas. Advertising and commercial media that is advertising funded often have ethics in communication compromised because of their own best interests rather than the public’s best interests. Many a risqué advert has met controversy or been banned because it may offend or impose upon the public’s morals or ethics. Media watchdogs can keep an eye on the level of compromise made in order to reach out to the public when a topic is considered public interest, but where does public interest end and who decides what comes under this safety blanket?

One example that jumps to mind, although not solely a journalistic or media ethical conundrum, is the Wiki-leaks scandal. The information leaked on the site is claimed to be in the public interest which could be seen as falling under the consequentialism theory of ethics, as the divulging of this information serves the greater good. However this situation also contradicts national interest and national security for countries that had confidential government information made public.  Although moral codes and conscience may have won out for Julian Assange and Bradley Manning, from a media point of view the codes of ethics that other professionals follows were compromised.  This situation highlights that in some cases, codes of ethics do fail as there is some much room for concession in some situations. 

Lecture Reflections: Lecture 7

Public Media

The forms, functions and ideals of public media, make it our ultimate public servant. It walks the line between being a government watch-dog and a public informant and keeps public interests best at heart.  

Over the years public media, namely the ABC, BBC, SBS, and PBS etc. have worked to serve their nations media needs.  In a news program form, it is serious news, considers importance over interest to be of higher value and is considered a trustworthy and validating source of news because it is checked, checked and re-checked.  It also covers other areas of media through social programs like cooking and travel shows and of course leaves room for entertainment that connects to levels of interest that commercial media are to conformist to reach out to. For example the types of comedy featured on ABC are far astray from an American style of humour. 

The most defining characteristic of public media compared to commercial media is of course the money and resources available to each form of media through government or licence funding, and advertising funding.  Although some public media channels have recently taken up advertising as a part of their funding, for example SBS and TVNZ, their core values are also what make them differ from commercial media.

Some Values and characteristics of Public media: 

• An embedded public service ethos.  
• Value for licence fee money (in countries when a television licence is required)
• Weighing public value against market impact
• Public consultation
• Universality of appeal (programs that cater for all tastes and interests)
• Special provision for minorities (for example SBS’s focus on multiculturalism)
• Special relationship to the sense of national identity and community
• Distanced from all vested interests (specifically political bias and endorsement from advertisers)
•  Programs competing for good programming rather than competing for numbers and ratings.

 

However these values are in a constant battle with the challenges that public media faces as they often risk contradiction or compromise to be able to survive. For example, what I consider two of the most important values stated above, to be distanced from all vested interests and to strive for good programming rather than good ratings, are core values that are challenged by commercialisation and funding.  For programs like the ABC who have not and will fight to not have to use advertising to sustain their programs, they are solely funded by the government. From a public point of view we idolise the ABC as a guard of truth and a protector of our public interest as they always keep a watchful eye on the government; as we learnt in our lecture “as long as the government doesn’t like the ABC, it means they are doing their job.”  Unfortunately for the ABC, the government does have a level of say as to how the funding they give to the ABC is allocated and how much that can get. The effect of a small budget at the ABC does limit how well their programs are made and how well they connect to the public. They are for the most part well put together in an informative sense but visual appeal is significantly different to commercial media with a budget that adds ‘sparkle’ to their programs.  This means that, for the ABC, the tightrope between serving the public and investigating there fund giver creates a type of media that has a margin of negative opinion; for example they are sometimes being criticised for being ‘boring’ and ‘out of touch’. 

Mark Scott says “the ABC is not accountable for profit but it is for quality”, a very effective rebuttal to the issues of getting ratings and turning a profit rather than serving their audience and the wider Australian public, the ABC did after all set out to be a “nation building project.” This foundation of the ABC and by extension public media in Australia directly correlates with the functions of public media. 

Some functions of Public Media:

• Nation building
• Connected to our national heritage
• Supports and highlights out national identity      
•  Enables national conversations

These functions differ greatly to the functions of commercial media that are centred on profit and ratings. Although the two forms of media differ greatly in orientation, they both need their varying demographics and audiences.  Public media can manage this issue and keep their audiences by continuing to be diligent in what they broadcast and who or what, if anything, it supports. Most importantly it must keep integrity in the public eye, public media must produce quality content that people want to watch, they must make themselves relevant with what they produce and essentially must engage with the democratic process and be vested in public interest. 

Although some research has shown that through programs that identify politically, through interviews and talkback for example, the ABC in particular seems to be fairly strongly left winged. However, as put by Jeremy Paxton, one can be a political person or have a political interest but is not motivated by a political party and can avoid any associated bias. The ABC drums into its news reporters that there must always be a level playing field where both sides of a story are shown and that ‘personal opinion is as taboo as product placement’.  Ultimately public media, in all its forms and functions, works to serves its central values that therefore serve the public values.  

Factual Story Telling

“My heart is in two homes”

A Journey from Fiji to Australia

 

By Lauren Binns

Alena smile’s an unmistakably childlike smile as she remembers the faded paint of the monkey bars in the kindergarten and the washed-out mural of Jesus at the St Christopher’s Children’s Home in Fiji.

Two decades on from that time of her life, she can still remember being a toddler in the home and being held and nurtured by the Sisters that run the home. Her life then changed dramatically when she was adopted at age four and journeyed to Australia to begin the next chapter of her story




Alena at St Christopher’s Home, Fiji 2011

Alena’s eyes search for memories as she continues her story; I see the fuzzy images of her childhood come to life as she retells the stories. For Alena, she is never sure if these pictures in her mind are her own, or artificial memories conjured up from the stories the Nuns have told her since she has revisited St Christopher’s. She resolves to herself that, no matter their origin, these memories are the foundation of her childhood that strengthens the fondness and nostalgia she feels, as many of us do, for our childhood play spots.

“Do you ever think about what life may have been like if you had stayed in Fiji” I ask Alena. She half smiles but her eyes are thoughtful as she tells me that she constantly thinks about what life would have been like, and I know that living here must be an endless reminder of how lucky most Australian’s are to live in such affluence and security.

I’m told that since her adoption the laws in Fiji have changed so that children can no longer be adopted out of Fiji to other countries. The weight of this sits heavy on Alena’s shoulders as we both think of the ‘what if’ scenarios surrounding her life. “What if it were me living on the streets now, sheltered merely by a bus shelter”, she says as she knows this was one of the other children’s plight.

 “I am grateful, however, to both my homes in Fiji and Australia. St Christopher’s means something different to many people, for some it has bitter memories synonymous with abandonment but for me I embrace the opportunities I was given in both places.”  “That is the lesson I want to pass on to children that no longer have the same opportunity I did, to know the potential they have in Fiji.”

Alena returning to Fiji 2011

“Do you feel particularly more Australian or Fijian?” I ask, “Is there as strong a connection to both cultures?”

“My heart is in two places” she replies and nods enthusiastically at my question.  Alena tells me of her recent affirmation of her Identity on her trip to Auckland, New Zealand. 

“I was raised in Adelaide, Australia” she says “where there is not much of an Islander population. I was never made aware of my skin colour or singled out in Adelaide; never made to feel Fijian. But arriving in Auckland where there are many Fijians, Samoan and Papua New Guineans, I was immediately surrounded by a whole heap of islanders and everyone looked like me and then it suddenly clicked, and I was like ‘hell I’m Fijian!’”

“The people kept asking me ‘Sister where are you from’ and I’d say Adelaide, much to their puzzlement. ‘No, where are you from’ they would ask again and it occurred to me to say Fiji. It was then that I realised for this culture, the Island connected to your heritage is your home and identity”

This insight to Alena’s connection to her Fijian culture sheds some light as to why she goes back to visit the children’s home. However she also explains to me that she follows her mother’s example to help people and give back to the community.

“My mother has always encouraged us to give back” she says, “She has been raised in a culture where you take care of others because it’s right in your heart.” 

In Alena’s heart, she tells me, she feels a purpose and a need to help. “It not only because my mother expects us to or because I feel obligated to, but because I want to.”

  Revisiting 'home', Fiji 2011

Alena’s mother has always taught her that giving back is a human responsibility and that Alena need not feel a responsibility because of her start in life, but as an Australian with opportunity and means, feel that it is our duty.

I begin to think about this responsibility and the safe and cosy bubble that protects many a conscience from the injustice of this world. For a person like Alena, her eyes have been opened wide and raw to the realities of how life could have been, and how it still is for the children so close to her at St Christopher’s.  “How do the children feel” I enquire, “about you being adopted?”

“I think the general mood is envious” she says, “I have met some of the girls that were at the home when I was a toddler and they always tell me Alena you’re so lucky! I wish I could have had the same opportunity, wish I could live in Australia, I wish… I wish…”

Alena is studying journalism, studying to be a story-teller. This profession she tells me is inspired by her own story and the power it has to help people see the ‘other side’. 

I ask if there is a particular part of her story, she would like me to tell.  

As she speaks I am taken back to a children’s home in Fiji where a Dutch woman is about to take home two playful Fijian girls. Sister Burns, the head of the home, takes the woman aside and wishes her well for her new life with two beautiful children.

 The sister asks “are you aware though that they have a brother?” 

The woman says “no. I didn’t know, why did no one ever tell me? If I had known I would have adopted the three of them rather than separating the family.

“Where is the brother now” she asks.

“Here in the home” says Sister Burns.

Upon meeting the older brother of her two newly adopted girls, Alena’s mother resolves to adopt them all, much to the Nuns puzzlement.

“I cannot split up a family” she simply says.

 Shortly afterwards, a young Alena, her sister and her brother came home to Australia.

Alena’s story could be enormously different, had her brother been left behind.  The wondering and yearning for a lost sibling could have subdued the passion and purpose she feels to help her other ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ in Fiji. With the strength of a united family, she has a wonderfully powerful platform to tell not only her story, but other untold stories too.

Alena and Sanjuan, Fiji 2011