Is Television News a Window On The World?

Is Television News a Window On The World? BTEC MEDIA COURSEWORK By Ben Kippen 4/29/2013 Introduction Television news is our way to contact the world and find out what is important in our modern day era, television news is meant to provide the viewers with unbiased ‘window to the world’ seeing stories from a balanced point of view.  By law television news should provide us with accurate and honest truth within the presentation of news stories. But recently I have learnt that the news is not quite what it seems and is not at all impartial and is in fact biaed no matter how hard you attempt it not to be. Within this document I will explain why the news is in fact not impartial. The news claims to be a window on the world but is the news just suggestive and everything is just a claim. I will discuss the news reporters and presenters I will attempt to explain the sets and how they are suggestive and also how ‘real’ the stories are and how they follow a simple Hollywood plot line. Starting Sequences A news starting sequence is created to tell the viewer that the news broadcast is about to begin, but what factors are used to create a subliminal message? A news starting sequence will use satellites to show they cover the world from space showing us that they have eyes on the world and maybe even further. The will use transparent objects on the screen to solidify the ideal that they are a ‘window to the world’ being able to see through the world. They will use clocks to show they are up to date. Using landmarks from cities to create another aspect of covering the globe, they use phallic symbols to show the scale and size of their establishment. Phallic symbols are large towers showing the news towering over the globe and even the opposition.  They use a strong male voice over to show power and the voice over is almost godlike. Beatty and fast paced music often involving brass instruments is used to create urgency and grab the attention of the viewer. The music connotes urgency and that news is urgent and waiting you. The use of rushing graphics and camera movements much like fast paced music creates a sense of urgency and attention grabbing. Using technology connotes that the news are modern and have embraced new technology and want to move into the future. And finally showing the world from space connotes the idea that they cover the globe and can we the world from high up, this also could mean that the news station are a godly figure standing over the world. The news starting sequences also use the footage as a way to show these ideas, for example on the news 24 they use an industrial building of the creation of a car. It starts as metal but at the end you see the completed car this is a clever way to show the finishing of the starting sequence but also the construction of the news broadcast itself. News Presenters The sets within a news broadcast is much like the starting sequence in the sense that they attempt to connote an idea and an ideal they want to portrait. The news reader is wearing formal wear and solid colours that are easy on the eyes. This could be to make it easy for the listener/watching to not get distracted from the news and also adds the how serious the news is, you can't have variations of colours it doesn't fit the serious tone. The colour of the theme of BBC News 24 is a red colour and the presenter has worn a red tie with his suit to reinforce the cooperate image. The news reader is speaking in Standard English with a certain degree of sophisticated lexis but his language is choice is very higher lexis orientated. As for facial expressions he uses blank and shows near no emotions to show the impartiality to the news. Newsroom Sets The news room sets much like the starting sequences as well as the presenters want to connote. The mise en scene of the set is formal, and uses the colour red to reinforce the brand name and the identity of BBC News 24. The colours are metallic and slick to show how modern they are. The background shows a workplace with lots of computers to give the sense of scale of the operation and importance of their jobs. The camera pans out far enough for the viewer to see the camera equipment this allows us to see the amount of equipment required to make the news program giving the technology aspect that connotes that nothing is hidden. To Summarize To summarize then, the news using the starting sequence as well as the sets and presenters to connote their ideas behind their programme. They use strong colours and fast paced music to show urgency and clips of creation to show the stories being made and created as you speak and shots of the world to show coverage the same goes to the transparent objects to solidify the ideal that they are a ‘window of the world’ So the news so far has been suggestive and is claiming to be this window over the globe giving you coverage but how does this link to the legal system? The Legal and Regulatory Framework The news has a legal obligation to provide the viewers with honest and impartial news. That is accurate and makes a story seem different than it seems. This is set in stone by law so why would news companies break these laws? If they are law then they must be followed. Many companies in fact do not follow the law when it comes to news broadcasts because there are no way you cannot be unbiased however way you shoot or script write a news story cannot be biased. Choosing what camera angle to use will create a bias towards one party to the other. There is no way to make news fair; choosing what stories to use cannot not be bias because you leave out hundreds of others. So news broadcasters are in fact suggestive or suggesting the ideas that they are a ‘window to the world’ when thus far we have seen that in fact they are bias and cannot change.  The Idea of impartiality at the heart of the broadcasting law and regulation about the news, various broadcasting acts state that ITV news must show “due impartiality” The Royal Charter for the BBC states that the BBC should “refrain from expressing the views of the cooperation” on current affairs.   The media is often heard talking about ‘balance’ and ‘neutrality’,   while people whcriticise the news often talk about it being ‘biased' Also we have seen that television news starting sequence and presenters connotate and backs up this idea that news is unmediated presentation of facts. But the selection process which the news goes through shows us that it a highly circumscribed view of the world. At any stage the event may not get through, or it may be removed. The News Selection Process Television news is usually broadcasted at the end or at the start of the day at a regular slots or at a 24 hour rolling news where the news is constant and only has a select amount of time to show so how do they decide what stories to pick out of the hundreds given? They have passed through a few gates with certain criteria before which will now be explained. Firstly the sources of the news are monitored and journalists use these sources to gather stories Some examples of where news stories can come from; -          Social Media -          Governments -          Political Conferences -          Word of mouth -          Correspondents a -          And many more After the story has been collected through the sources it needs to be accessed through checking if it contains news values. The news values are judged unconsciously by what two theorists came up with. Galtung and Ruge came up with twelve categories that a news story has to obtain.  Galtung and Ruge’s News Values; 1. Frequency - Is the amount of times a story may come up in a news broadcast it may appear months later with an update. 2. Threshold - the size of the story or the bigger the advent will hinder how likely it is to appear in the news 3. Unambiguity - a story has to be simple and easy to understand you never want the viewers to struggle when watching your broadcast. 4. Meaningfulness - a story has to have meaning for the target audience, the audience of ten o'clock news will be older so having more mature stories is adding meaning. 5. Consonance - If an event fits in with the expectations of recent journalists or newspapers it is more likely to appear. 6. Unexpectedness - stories that people don't see coming for example, "dog bites man" is predictable and ordinary not major but "man bites dog" is weird and unexpected 7. Continuity - If an event/story appears on the news it is more than likely to appear again at some point. 8. Composition - The structure of the broadcast, balancing the variety and type of story whether serious or not serious 9. Elite Nations - Some nations are more powerful than others globally making them "Elite" First World countries and countries in the northern hemisphere are more likely to be on the news. 10. Elite Persons - Elite persons ties in with the elite nations, if an individual is famous/well known stories about them will be broadcasted although it may have happened to one hundred people like you and I 11. Personalisation - If a story can be told from the point of view of an individual it will strike the hearts of the viewer than a story from a larger point of view, example a hurricane affected 1,200 people or A story of a woman looking for her child strikes at our hearts making the story more relatable and also makes it seem like a narrative. 12. Negativity - Bad news makes the best news. Disasters make the news more than happier incidences because they fit the dramatic style of the news. Economics of News Production After the news story has been checked for having news values from Galtung and Ruge it needs to be checked on a money front to see if they have the resources and the ability to pay for the coverage of the story. A news company gets a certain budget each year on producing there broadcast so judging if a story is worth reporting is vital. Because you are going to have to spend your budget on getting interviews and locations and there is a consideration that if a story will come up that you know will be breaking and huge, In this you will need to spend more money which you could have spent on the other story.  So a lot of it is judging if a story is worth it using the values. If a story is not going anywhere and it continuous then deciding whether to keep coverage is vital The Imperatives of Competition The news judge their own stories on the rivals or competitors essentially copying each other, chasing the same stories because they know they will be good news, you would think they would attempt to find their own individual stories to make them different but in the news industry you cannot take them risks due to the amount of money on the line. Newsroom Routines Newsrooms prepare the next day before the next before the next but there is lots of stages to change for example If there are technical problems and leads to stories getting dropped, If you find that you are chasing the same story as the other newsrooms then  you may have to find another or increase the amount of coverage on the story. A good example of this is in the Tienanmen Square protest in 1989 in which students rallied against politics in the country, for days nothing happened so a few news teams pulled out there coverage but later the Chinese government came along and started to gun down protesters so missing this breaking story and coverage chances. Late Breaking Stories Once a news routine and schedule has been set in stone it can be subject to change. If a breaking story breaks out then they will throw it into the schedule sometimes even ten minutes before broadcasting and even whilst broadcasting. This will lead to stories being dropped off and because they are made into a package it cannot be trimmed down to save time. What If a Story is not chosen? If along this process a story does not compute or doesn't fit the values and is not worth spending money on it goes to the dustbin of history, You would think they would be it aside for another programme but the news cannot do that because new stories pop up every day and If they kept them there would be too much news and not enough time. Here is a diagram to help my point. Summarizing News Selection All media is a representation of real life, and involves selection. All selection has a point of bias because someone has had to choose what to select. All points of view are determined by values and beliefs, Therefore cannot “impartial” in the sense of “just showing” unbias reality is impossible The Narrative Structure In The News There are several theories about the way fictional narratives are constructed (the ways they are told) the “classic realist” narrative structure (sometimes called the “classic Hollywood” narrative structure, and based on the ideas of the theorist Todorov. Here is a diagram of the classic Hollywood structure. Applying this to the news; the news wants to connect to the emotional side of the viewers and using the Hollywood narrative this is clever but also destroys the ideas of non-bias and impartiality, Claude Levi- Strauss Levi- Strauss was a “structuralist” theorist who studied the myths of tribal cultures, discovering recurring binary themes such as good/evil, light/darkness. We often see these binary oppositions in news stories. Such simplistic approaches to complex issues reveal underling ideological attitudes. The big question is that is these narrative structures can be found in what we generally consider to be “factual” television. If they can, then what does this say about the boundary between fact and fiction? A classic news story follows many storyline features of a film making the main character have the most close ups to really make you sympathsis with them. Making them the key focus throughout. Technical Codes – Continuity In order for a film or TV fiction to “seem real” the ways in which shots are combined follow some general conventions. The most important of these conventions are; ·         180 degree rule ·         Establishing shots ·         Shot – reverse shot and reaction shots ·         Close ups for characterization ·         Match cutting on eye line and action If a news story is filmed following this continuity plan does not comply with the ideas of continuity and impartial news. Narrative Structure of the News Show as a Whole The television news is organised into a “hierarchy of truth” which further backs up the “realist” claims of TV news. This is the usual structure of a typical report. 1.      Studio News Readers –Studio news readers gives us the facts without opinion 2.      On location field reporters – Usually geographically proximity to the source connotes greater knowledge of the story by relationship to the location. 3.      Links to the Studio – location and geographical links 4.      Interviews with “experts” and “witnesses” – Important to the story is key to people solidifying points and adding knowledge 5.      Actuality Footage – footage from anytime to overlay the interviewer (evidence) or shot at any point ever just related footage 6.      The Composition of the show – composition of the show relates to the Hollywood narrative. Having huge events first and weaker last. (happier stories) Realism VS Realty It is clear thus far that no media text can ever simply “show us reality”. So what about texts that “seem” more real then? These texts are said to contain a greater degree of “realism” but is realism just hiding the construction of a media product? Continuity editing if done well will make us forget that something has been edited together separately. So if a eye line match is used to disguise a edit then the media product is supressing its own artificial nature. Surely this is dishonest when regarding the news because the news is meant to show us impartial and honest representation but how if you have to cover up edits. Going Beyond Bias and Impartiality So, if the whole concept of “impartiality” or “bias” is too simple because any representation of the world and give you an assumption about the world then what can be done to make the news less of a carrier. The problem lies on the persons who make the news. Certain news applies and appeals to certain people, a younger audience will not be interested in the same things as an older person and vice versa. The problem then lies that who makes the news? The answer is white upper class males so this doesn't mean the news can be fair is impartial and is opinionated. New Techonology New technology has affected the way we now work within the news industry and how we're presented it. We can now view the news on tablets and via the internet strengthening the outreach of the news. As for news makers they can do a lot of the making of the news digitally with new editing software to edit together there packages for the broadcast.