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News Values and Inherent Bias in the News

News Values and Inherent Bias in the News.

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News Values and Inherent Bias in the News

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  1. News Values and Inherent Bias in the News For ten years, Herbert J. Gans spent considerable time in four major television and magazine newsrooms, observing and talking to the journalists who choose the national news stories that inform America about itself. Writing during the golden age of journalism, Gans included such headline events as the War on Poverty, the Vietnam War and the protests against it, urban ghetto disorders, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and Watergate. He was interested in the values, professional standards, and the external pressures that shaped journalists' judgments.

  2. Sociologist Herbert J. Gans’s News Values * • In an in-depth analysis and observation of the “CBS Evening News,” “NBC Nightly News,” Newsweek, and Time, Herbert Gans reported that journalists based their reporting on their inherent assumptions about the nature of external reality. • He called these assumptions, six enduring values. Herbert J. Gans, Deciding What's News : A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek, and Time (Medill Visions of the American Press) , Constable, 1980.

  3. Six Enduring Values #1 • Ethnocentrism • Newsmakers value their own nation above all others.

  4. Ethnocentrism in the News • What is ethnocentrism? It is the tendency for an individual to assume that one’s own culture and way of life represents the norm and is superior to all others. The ethnocentric person sees his or her own group as the center or defining point of culture and views all others as deviations from what is “normal.” For example, In India, cattle are sacred. In America, cattle are slaughtered for food. Is India wrong for making a cow sacred? Some would say yes, because there are so many people starving in India. A rebuttal could be that there are also people starving in America and we eat beef daily. Is the American culture wrong and the Indian culture right or is the American culture right and the Indian culture wrong? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you might be an ethnocentric person. Ethnocentrism in the news can be seen when media channels only report stories about their own nations and culture, or when bias towards or against certain values and ways of life can be detected. • Check out this link for a study into which national newspapers are the most inward looking or ethnocentric: http://www.drabruzzi.com/ethnocentrism_in_american_news.htm

  5. Six Enduring Values #2 • Altruistic Democracy • Democracy is the best form of government, and government officials should behave altruistically and citizens should be involved at the grassroots level.

  6. Altruistic Democracy in the News • On a politician’s resignation: Representative Chris Lee of New York was elected in to congress in November 2008, is married and has a son. In addition to serving on the House finance and the Ways and Means committees, he’s been busy surfing Craigslist looking for dates. At lunchtime Wednesday, he was just another Congressman. At 2:30p.m., Gawker posted his picture he used to attract the babes. By 6 pm, he was an ex-Congressman when a clerk read his resignation on the House floor. Part of his resignation read “I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness.” • Check out this link for an example of altruistic democracy influencing the way a story is told: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tony-blair-deserves-to-be-wealthy-but-to-profit-286299

  7. Six Enduring Values #3 • Responsible Capitalism • Unions and consumer organizations are accepted as countervailing pressures on business and are judged negatively. • Economic growth is a positive phenomenon; government regulation is bad.

  8. Responsible Capitalism in the News • On the collapse of Monarch Airlines in the UK: Labour said Monarch collapsed “because of a litany of failure by government and regulators”. The shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald, said the bankruptcy had “left huge losses on the shoulders of the public ... staff, pensioners, customers and taxpayers rather than shareholders who will pay the price.” • Click on this link to see an example of a news story in which economic development, expansion and growth are all assumed as positives for a country: http://punchng.com/mobile-broadband-drives-economic-growth-report/

  9. Six Enduring Values #4 • Small-town Pastoralism • The rural and anti-industrial value of Jefferson are found in the news. Nature and smallness are desirable — environmentalism.

  10. Small Town Pastoralism in the News • From the report of Hereford defeating Newcastle United in 1971: Picking up the ball in the mudbath of a midfield at Edgar Street, Radford played the ball into his forward who tapped it back first time. Running on to it at pace, Radford unleashed a right-foot drive from 30 yards that flew past the goalkeeper and into the roof of the net, stunning everyone who saw it. Radford's celebration - two hands held aloft - has also entered FA Cup lore, as fans from all corners of the ground ran on the pitch to celebrate with him. • Click on this link for an example of Small Town pastoralism in action. See how the whole story is framed as a ‘fight’ in which the town is the ‘underdog’: https://www.nationofchange.org/2017/01/03/small-town-refused-settle-wal-mart-last-local-grocery-store-closed/

  11. Six Enduring Values #5 • Individualism • Preservation of the freedom of the individual, “rugged individualism” and self-made people are admired.

  12. Individualism in the News • From an ‘On this Day’ feature in the Daily Telegraph: William of Wykeham was born in Wickham, Hampshire, around 1324. Not a lot is known of his family, except that it was not privileged, and his education was most likely funded by two benefactors. His early career is opaque. He was at Irstead in Norfolk for a while, before moving into King Edward III’s service, where in 1356 he was listed as the clerk of works on two royal building projects. He was clearly already someone, as later that year he was entrusted with overseeing major royal building work at Windsor castle and park. By 1359 he was made chief keeper and surveyor of most of the country’s royal castles, and around this time he was also involved in royal finance, especially trading discounted exchequer tallies. He had come from obscurity to be one of Edward’s most trusted advisors. • Click on this link to see how a news story champions a rugged individual who succeeds against the odds: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/magazine/a-small-town-police-officers-war-on-drugs.html

  13. Six Enduring Values #6 • Moderatism • Discourages excess or extremism.

  14. Moderatism in the News • Following the North Korean Nuclear Missile story: The announcement on the North Korean state news service KCNA came at the end of two days of brinksmanship which began with the leak of a US intelligence report that Pyongyang had developed a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a missile. This was followed by Trump’s warning of “fire and fury”. On Thursday, the US secretary of defense James Mattis, who was traveling in California, took questions from reporters about the president’s ramping up of rhetoric over North Korea. Thinking in silence for a number of seconds before answering, he said: “You can see the American effort is diplomatically led. It has diplomatic traction, it is gaining diplomatic results.” • Click here to see the negative presentation of somebody who holds an extreme opinion in the news: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-repeats-false-350-11181716

  15. Inherent Values: conclusion • If there is bias in the news, it is probably toward these inherent values and inherent biases as much as it is political. • With exceptions such as Fox News and certain blog sites.

  16. The Elements of Journalism * • Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth. • Its first loyalty is to citizens. • Its essence is a discipline of verification. • Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover. • It must serve as an independent monitor of power. • It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel,The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should kNow and the Public Should Expect, Crown Publishers, 2001.

  17. The Elements of Journalism * • It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant. • It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional. • Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

  18. The Elements of Journalism • “Kovach and Rosensteil contend that newsgathering and reporting on the Web, or any other platform, can be measured against these principles. They acknowledge that reporters won’t meet each standard on every story, but those who succeed more often than they fail are worthy of being called journalists.” Robert Berkman, Digital Dilemmas, p. 69

  19. Questions for further discussion/writing • Are bloggers journalists? • Is the news really helping to improve public life? • Compare/contrast some of the ways electronic news media differs from print news media.

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