News in a Globalized World

1. News in a Globalized World

2. Defining news What is news? "God knows! I don't know!" Definition problems: is it what we see on TV, radio, newspapers, internet? Is it something new and unexpected? If we cannot define what news is let's research how they are made instead

3. Importance and interest - Henry Mayer News is something that is: • Important and interesting • Unimportant and interesting • Important and uninteresting • Unimportant and uninteresting

5. What is news - Frank Luther Mott • timeliness • proximity • prominence • probable consequence

6. What is news - Galtung and Ruge (1970) • Big events • important people • clear and unambiguous events that happened recently • easy to gather and fit to the audience expectations • elites, nations and negative ocurrences • standard news categories - politics, sport, economics, education, culture, lifestyle and finance

7. What is news (Ezra Park - 'News as a form of knowledge') • Timely • Unsystematic • Perishable • Concerned with the unusual and the unexpected • Tailored to fit what the journalists expect the audience will find interesting • way of orientering people towards issues and events • Predictable

8. If we cannot define what news is let's research how they are made insteadSelection process (Galtung and Ruge - 1970) • Elite nations • Elite people • Personalization • Negative consequences

9. Concepts in news production Primary definers Secondary definers Framing Centre-periphery relations

10. The changing scenario of media professions • Media professions are changing due to internal and external pressure. • "Intellectual craving and commercial need" (Will Irvin, 1988)

11. Development of on-line news On-line journalism has developed from being a shadow of the paper version to a more independent being, with news and content specifically designed to the internet.

12. Push technology Content tailored to each user - news feeds, Google reader, de.li.ci.ous ...

13. News gathering - fish-net or blanket "Potential news reports may be compared to zillions of fish in the ocean of time and space. The media's news net is organized in such a way that it tends to fish certain news reports out of this ocean and let countless others slip through." Van Gineken Sources: authority, credibility (according to journalists), Availability (Comm. studies)

14. "It is still the same fish - but then it isn't" What is the relation between the world we see through the media and the "real" world?

15. Closed mesh (Gaye Tuchman)

16. Massive derailment - the more acute the crisis, more exotic the location the grater the risk Limits of local infrastructure during crises - Tsunami. Nature of the patterns of interaction

17. Threats and threatened "...if major US, UK, French and other media often make themselves subservient to the proclaimed interests of their own countries, whereas these same media heavily influence coverage in the rest of the world, do they not get a slanted view of who is threatened and who is the threat?" Van Ginneken

18. Political Labels Liberal, conservative, radical, republican, militant, extremist. Meanings can change depending on the location

19. PR Symmetrical and asymmetrical communication : the changing role of the PR professional from a technician who was not involved on the decision making process to a position where she can have an impact on the attitudes of the organization.

20. Models of Public Relations • Press agentry • Public Information • Two way asymmetrical • Two way symmetrical

21. Foreign / International news At CNN, the use of the term "foreign news" is forbidden, the network advise the use of international news instead because no one should feel foreign when they watch CNN. Ulf Hannerz - Foreign News