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Uses of the News

Uses of the News. Contextual uses: household activities Times associated with news are naturalized Informational uses: keeping up: issues Legitimating uses Tension: control and distance about issues Feeling of control: agency to do something Diversional uses: visual narrative

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Uses of the News

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  1. Uses of the News • Contextual uses: household activities • Times associated with news are naturalized • Informational uses: keeping up: issues • Legitimating uses • Tension: control and distance about issues • Feeling of control: agency to do something • Diversional uses: visual narrative • Entertainment aspect of news

  2. What is “News?” • What constitutes “news”: • Significance? • Relevance: to whom? • Unusual, sensational? • Useful: for what? • Non-threatening/non-ideological? • Informational vs. analysis?

  3. Personal News Sources • Where do you access what types of news: • TV • Newspapers • Radio • Internet • Late night talk shows • Word of mouth conversation

  4. Audiences for News • Network news/Nightline: older audiences • Problem: younger generation less interested • Younger audiences: desired advertising • Shift in younger generation’s interests • Shift in focus/appearance of news • Increased use of Internet vs. newspapers • Shift in newspaper layout/topics

  5. 7 S’s for Analyzing News (see “activities: news analysis”) • Stories: what’s covered and what’s left out? • Sequence: what gets priority? • Scope: how much coverage/time? • Structure: how organized using what? • Style: how presented by writer/anchor? • Slant: what bias is evident? • Sponsor: content shaped by sponsors?

  6. Analyzing Bias/Slant (see activity: noting bias) • Selection and omission: topics/quotes • Placement • Headline: determines further reading • Photos, captions, camera angles • Names, categories, titles • Statistics/crowd count • Source control: who’s quoted?

  7. Analysis of Objectivity/Balance • Objectivity: difficult to define • Role of bias, subjectivity, agendas in reporting • Balance: preferred criteria for journalists • Use of different perspectives/sources • Understanding all sides of an issue • Problem of who gets to speak/status of sources

  8. Text Design/Structure • What genres (report, narrative, analysis, visual dramatization) are employed? • How is language/images used to represent? • Categories/labels to describe participants • Syntax: active vs. passive • Formal vs. informal verbal style • Image selection/relationship to language

  9. Text Design/Structure • Typeface/type style • Use of BOLD • Typeface/styles varied (tabloid vs. mainstream) • Grid: number of columns • Picture size/uses • Organization: categories of types of news • Masthead, stories, “plugs,” sports, ads

  10. Discourse Analysis: (see ideology and the news) • Ideological assumptions operating in the news industry • public figures have an obligation to answer to journalists and answer their questions • the news media is the fourth estate, playing a watchdog role on government and power. • the most important thing journalists cover are the arenas of government and politics. • that journalists are the messenger only; that they report, rather than acting. • there is an objective account of events that all reasonable observers would agree with. • that journalists should tell both sides. • that journalists can and should leave their biases out of their stories. • that there is no staging or conspiring to improve on stories between journalists and those they cover.

  11. Analysis of Discourses Employed • What discourses are employed/included? • Discourses: ways of knowing/thinking: legal, scientific, political, religious, therapeutic, etc. • How are discourses employed/reported? • Reporting, analysis, quotes • Who employs what discourses for what purpose? • “Government experts” • Political/lobbying groups • “Person on the street”

  12. Differences between Newspapers • National/ “major” newspapers • New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal • Major regional newspapers • Local newspapers/free news magazines • School newspapers • Tabloids

  13. Corporate Ownership and News • GE: NBC, MSNBC, CNBC • AOL/TimeWarner: CNN • Disney: ABC • Viacom: CBS • Murdoch News: FOX News

  14. Aspects of TV News • Narrativization of events • Dramatization of conflict/tensions • Conversational interplay • “happy talk” • News readers as “personalities” • Immediacy: “Up to the minute” • Visual montage: multi-modal

  15. Aspects of TV News • Anchor as primary actor/media celebrity • Personalization of news • Use of direct address/simulated eye contact • Correspondents as extensions of anchor • Links to correspondent “on the scene” • Assumption: being “on the scene” = being better informed about an event • Interviewees • Who’s selected and whom do they represent • Framing/shots to dramatize attitudes (60 Minutes)

  16. Aspects of TV News • “If it bleeds, it leads”: • focus on visual/sensational events • Little contextual analysis of causes/institutional factors shaping events • Issue of community significance/relevance • Texas station selects events based on relevance to the community vs. sensational appeal

  17. Aspects of TV News • Flow of reports • Segmentation/repetition • Reordering traditional notions of time • Direct address: “you” as constructed • Host directly addresses audience • Host conducts simulated conversation with guests • Personality/ “synthetic personalization”

  18. Viewing of TV News • TV news within domestic life • Ritual-like reassurance that “all’s well” • Creates synthetic sense of “community” • Anchors as active in supporting events • Focus on visual display of events • Avoid challenging audience beliefs/ideologies • Need for simulated sense of community membership

  19. Alternatives: Public TV/radio News • PBS Newshour • In-depth coverage of 3-4 stories • Context: institutional forces • Alternative ideological perspectives • NPR All Things Considered • Value of radio: no needs for visuals • Extended interviews for balance • No commercial agendas/bias

  20. Assignment: Comparison of News Media on the Web • Contrast coverage of the same story on 3 or more of the following categories: • Major US newspapers (go to websites) • International newspapers (go to “5000 newspapers” site) • Commercial TV/radio Networks (go to websites) • Public TV/radio (NPR.org/BBC.org) • Local or state newspapers (go to websites) • “Liberal” (Mother Jones) vs. “conservative” (The Weekly Standard) perspectives • Mainstream news vs. tabloid (go to The National Inquirer/Sun websites)

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