Lecture 9. Valuable Stuff.

Lecture 9 – News Values

Hello, hello, hello. I’ve made it to Lecture 9 of Intro to Journalism! And I actually remember mentioning today’s topic in one of my (much) earlier blog entries. If I do recall correctly, Skye Doherty, our guest lecturer for Telling Factual Stories using Text mentioned the term ‘news values’ and I was a little confused. I mean, I got the general gist of what it meant, but I didn’t really know what they were or how they were used in newsrooms.

Today I learnt that there really isn’t a cement definition of what news values are. They are many things to many people, and the week’s readings and lecture described several of these. First of all we were given a list of four (don’t worry Carmel, I’m not going to post every single list!) that looked a little like this:

1. Impact
2. Audience Identification
3. Pragmatics
4. Source Influence

Looking at this first list alone I was able to grasp a little better what the whole concept was about. I think though that it would be a difficult task as an editor to make decisions on what to cut down and what to leave in, but I’ll return to this point a little later.

These values or similar lists of values are what underpin news journalism. When a potential story comes up it is critically considered as to whether it will be ‘news worthy’. But will what is newsworthy to me, be the same as what is newsworthy to you? No, of course not and the same can be said across different news services and across different countries or cultures. In fact, what is newsworthy to an Australian middle-class audience could be completely inappropriate or offensive to an overseas nation.  This is what makes observing news values so intriguing I think. 

The above (source: http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/304/210) is just one comparison of what type of stories feature in publications in different countries. From this it is able to be extrapolated what type of news values are held in the respective nations. While Canada and the US are not extremely different to each other, there is still quite a difference in their news values. For example, English Canadian press focuses more on Human Interest than the US and the US has just under double the amount of war stories then English Canada (percentage wise). You can only imagine how extreme the differences would be between nations such as China and the US.

The inverted pyramid was once again discussed today, and it seems that more and more, the punchy headline and opening sentence is being relied upon. To lure readers in the first place and to urge them to continue reading the story. Sites such as Twitter may be a factor at play in this. Media consumers want to get straight to the point and know what’s held in an article in a succinct manner. In summary they want...TO. THE. POINT. 

To the side are just two more lists of news values created by academically minded fellows: 

Galtung and Ruge went one step further in their creation of a list, they made some hypotheses! The first being the Additivity hypothesis:

            The more news value factors a story includes, the more popular the story will be.

There is the Complementarity hypothesis:

Certain factors will tend to exclude each other. So it generally isn’t possible to have a news story that ticks all the boxes.

Aaaaand, last but not least the Exclusion hypothesis:

            Pretty obvious one considering the two above, BUT, this one pretty much means that if a story doesn’t fulfil any of the values it’s probably not going to make great news. Weow.

Craig Thompson (no, not that Craig Thompson), an editor at a UK newspaper talks about news values below:

 I include this video because, while watching it I noticed he actually mentioned many of the values in the lists of news values given in the lecture. Impact, locality, emotion. It demonstrates that yes, in fact, news value are a high consideration in actual day to day newsrooms. In fact, Craig Thompson, is a ‘human sieve’! Like the Harold Evan’s quote referred to in the lecture. A lot of this ability to decide what should or should not go into the day’s would come from experience but I think in order to have a real knack for it you’d have to have some degree of natural instinct.

Although these news values may seem pretty steadfast, I can say that I never really considered them when I looked at newspaper headlines or what was on the local news every night. It is due to the fact that average, everyday citizens don’t critically analyse news that threats to newsworthiness are coming about. Australia and the world all over are not demanding enough of high quality news and so what is a result of this? I’ll tell you what a result of this is! …Well actually Dr Redman told me, but I can tell you as well.

• ‘Churnalism’ and junk news is clogging our media
• Too much lazy journalism
• Influence of public relations are causing tabloidisation
• AND there is a hypercommercialisation of outlets

A big reason all of those above things are happening is that press releases are just being cut and pasted, no facts are being checked, and no analysis is being done by the journalists.

We need to somehow start returning to the idealised journalistic world of obligation to truth, independence and fact! If we don’t our news and public knowledge in general is going to start going downhill stat! And while returning to this world we must adjust to new aspects of a changing world. One where the audience are no longer silent bystanders. The can comment or perhaps even write stories themselves on blogs. There’s a new balance of power and media organisations have to work with the fact that the ‘audience’ is not less fictional, more able, less predictable and they’re realer! People may start to define their own news values in blogs and find that the larger public connect with them, over the traditional values. Or some people could hold some extreme values and get a  small but loyal following.

Only time will really tell what the new balance of media power will mean for news values or whether it will really have an impact at all.

Ciao for now.

x

                                          

Factual Story Assessment

Navigating her way through dark Japanese streets, a girl of merely 15, attempts to find her way home. Home is a term used very loosely. Disregard thoughts of warm, enduring hugs. Eliminate feelings of relief as you step over the threshold. Coming to this home after a day in the real world offers no respite. Home in the sense that Hannah feels, is just an extension of darkness, if not the source. She isn’t abused and she isn’t neglected but she is not where she belongs.

Travelling from Australia on her own, Hannah took a risk that many wouldn’t. So many elements were left up to chance when she decided to go on Student Exchange – language barriers, home stay families and schooling life. If considered as a whole, the trip was a remarkable experience. Only one element could truly be faulted, and unfortunately it was the family of whom Hannah’s care was in the hands.

All seemed fine at the initial meeting. Awkward but friendly greetings in stunted English and Japanese were what Hannah had been expecting and it’s exactly what she got. The initial politeness lasted only a couple of weeks into Hannah’s six month stay. Soon she began noticing trends in the dynamic of the household. Hannah’s position in the pecking order was quickly determined to be at the very bottom. Bullying from her siblings made school life difficult, and lies spun by her host mother added to the difficulties at home. The trip quickly seemed to take the form of a generic fairy tale, but would it end in happily ever after?

After Hannah was welcomed to join a student club that had not extended the same invitation to her ‘sisters’, things quickly spiralled downhill. Meetings were held after school, and Hannah felt it would be a good way to escape everything at home. It was agreed she would be picked up at eight when the meeting finished. For once Hannah had something for which to look forward. The two hour gathering gave her the chance to make friends without patronisation personified (aka, her host sisters) that usually stalked her. On Hannah’s way out, she waved goodbye to her newly made friends as they were picked up before she set out to find her own host parents for a lift home.

It became evident though, that as the last cars drove away the street was eerily empty. There was no one left to pick up Hannah. She thought maybe if she waited for just a little while her ‘mum’ would come around the corner. It was only a matter of time she told herself. Waiting for a couple of minutes quickly turned into waiting for half an hour, and it was downright terrifying to be alone in a foreign country, let alone at night. She didn’t want to ring her house, but wasn’t confident in her own navigating abilities.

Hannah decided to call home but instead of being met with apologies and a story of sincere mistake, she was confronted with anger and frustration that had become a regular occurrence. She was told that nobody would be leaving to pick her up that night and that it was selfish of Hannah to expect such actions. This was followed immediately by a dial tone. After this conversation she went into a state of almost complete panic. Her heartbeat increased, her breath quickened and she felt that if her body underwent any more stress it would simply stop functioning altogether.

She looked around her and tried to shake away the mental blanket she felt covering her brain, making it impossible for her to make any rational decisions. There were three directions Hannah could choose from, and in the dark none of them seemed familiar and certainly none of them seemed welcoming. Standing alone had been scary enough but there had been something of a safety net with the street lighting near the school. Attempting the journey home would no doubt lead to streets of complete darkness.

Hannah knew though that a decision had to be made. She stepped out blindly, using no logic in her choice of direction. The further she walked the less familiar the streets became. The further she walked the more she jumped at the smallest sounds. Japan’s reputation for street safety has always been among the highest in the world, but in her situation Hannah found no comfort in this. She didn’t know who was behind every corner she approached and worse still, she didn’t know whether she was headed towards her home or not.

She turned a corner and uttered a massive sigh of relief when she recognised some of the houses. This wasn’t to say she had found her street, but to see something familiar was the best feeling she’d had since the meeting that afternoon. Hannah’s stride became a little more confident and thoughts of wholesome Japanese families in the houses she passed gave her a bit of backhanded comfort.

She’d lost track of the time she’d been wandering blindly, but she knew it had to have been near two hours. A car rounded the corner and Hannah didn’t really think twice of it. But when the car began to slow and maintain a pace that allowed it to remain behind her, she felt the same panic come over her that had she felt leaving the school. Should she choose a house and run in or should she play it cool until she was actually in danger? The decision was made for her when she wasn’t even given the opportunity to pick a household.

The car sped up slightly and pulled over beside her. The tinted window was wound down, but Hannah didn’t know whether to feel relief or fear when she saw the face inside. A familiar face so contorted with rage gives perhaps the same comfort as a stranger’s. Getting into the car with the host mother from hell, Hannah’s night of fright was at an end but she knew there was months of it still ahead.

At the time of this story Hannah Mossman was a 15 year old exchange student from Tannum Sands, Queensland. She participated in a six month student exchange program to Hiroshima, Japan. She returned home one month early as she was not coping with her homestay family environment. Hannah is now 17 and is studying Bachelor of Secondary Education/Arts majoring in Japanese and Drama at the University of Queensland. She hopes to one day return to Japan for a more pleasant experience. 

Ball-y, ball-y, ball! + other things..

Okie dokie, let's get down to business. I had my college ball on Friday night and it was incredible! I got to dress up all in my prom dress and got whisked away to a secret location (Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens in fact). Everyone was in high spirits and the amount of spirits drunk was also high. Here are just two little pictures from the night: 

And then of course the day after was my economics exam whilst the rest of the college and their partners went on to celebrate an event by the name of 'Recovery', aka get even messier than you were last night. Me and a couple of the other girls watched them leave on the buses and were feeling a lot less than happy. 

I also got to go to my brother's house for dinner and catch up with a friend from home on Sunday so my weekend all in all was pretty stellar. 

Yesterday I went to a talk by Daniel Flynn, who, when he was 19 years old created the brand Thank You Water. It's pretty much a company based on the idea that bottled water is stupid but we may as well do something good out of this stupid purchase. The only reason I had even hear about this product was through commercial media. Both Channel 7 and Channel 10 ran stories about it, on Sunrise and the The Project respectively. Without the platform that commercial media supplied, Daniel admitted that Thank You Water may never have taken off in the way that it has. He was an excellent public speaker, got the crowd laughing and involved. Plus you can tell he has a massive heart and a great mind for business which is a winning combination, that one day I hope people say that I have.

...How awkward, I didn't even know you could put in videos to your blog until just then. That's terrible. Haha, oh well I've been linking to them. 

I hit up the dawn service this morning in the city so I'm feeling pretty exhausted but I best go do some study.

Catch ya.

Lecture 8: Is this Ethical?

Today we had a guest lecturer, Dr Harrison, and he introduced the topic of ethics by drawing our attention to some ‘controversial’ ad campaigns. As he showed them to us we were asked to rate each on a scale of ethical to unethical and also whether they were in good taste or were downright tacky. After this activity he then asked us how we judged the ads on that scale. What makes things good or bad? What makes an output of media ethical or unethical? Who judges the difference between right and wrong?

Giving my personal answer of how I judged and how I think others judged the variety of ads, I’d say it was all about my personal values and what I was taught growing up to deem right and wrong. Take for example the Sam Kekovich ad that was shown. I find that ad to be in pretty poor taste. I wouldn’t say it is to the degree of being unethical but I certainly don’t think the creators focussed on making an ethical ad. Some of the statements and just the general…atmosphere, I guess, that the ad creates doesn’t appeal to me in any way. I know it’s a different story for many other Australians, because as Dr Harrison said, the ad has become somewhat of a legacy.

 

To relate this back to journalism he discussed three ethical theories which were:

• Deontology
• Consequentialism
• Virtue

Deontology is the one that follows rules and principles. These rules are external to the individual so all ethics codes on journalism, advertising, business, etc are deontological. This theory requires little independent thought and no strong character values because as long as you can comprehend the rules and stay within the guidelines you’d be fine.

Consequentialism focusses on the idea that all that matters is the outcome. It doesn’t matter how, for example, a piece of journalism was uncovered as long as it was ‘for the greater good’. This one seems a bit dodgy I think, as so many things could be conducted poorly throughout the process. But then again how can you define what ‘poor conduct’. I guess that is the very essence of this theory, nothing is deemed wrong along the so long as the final product will benefit the majority.

Virtue ethics is what Dr Harrison said was essentially, the most important theory type to understand when it comes to being a journalist. Sure, it isn’t what the journalists’ codes are about, but the very backbone of this theory is that “goodness” comes from good habits of character. Courage, justice, temperance and prudence are all internal values that guide you in your work. Compare these internal values to that of deontology where you are given the guidelines and there is no need for you to think for yourself. In order to be an efficient and truly great journalist these values must be second nature to you and you won’t learn them from memorising any code.

There was a little controversy back in  2011 about whether The Australian had acted unethically when they received sponsorship by a pharma industry group that directly funded their health journalism. The Australian insisted they maintained editorial independence throughout the partnership but it was heavily questioned by others in the media saying that the drug industry having any influence in public discussion was a dangerous thing. There was sympathy though towards the idea that journalism must be funded one way or another, but perhaps it was a poor choice by the newspaper. Crikey goes into more detail here. 

That’s me done for Lecture 8.

Last post before assessment!

Hello there!

I'm just writing quickly so say what's been happening in the world of college after the mid-sem break. :) Pretty much the over 18s have been going out to the strictly over 18 events, while I've been working hard but tomorrow night is our College Ball! So I get to whip out my prom dress again and get my hair and makeup done all fancy, invited a lovely boy to attend with...but I have an economics exam on Saturday! Such a bad timing, seriously.

I know so many people who have an exam actually tomorrow so they can actually enjoy the night knowing their exam is finished but mine's the next day - waaaah!

AND my brother bought me Flight of the Conchords tickets for my birthday so I cannot wait til July 7th! I actually performed one of their songs for my music assessment in Year 11 so they have a special place in my heart for those New Zealand boys. Let's hope they live up to all the expectations I have of their live shows.

Lately I've definitely been trying to have a read of the ABC news more regularly as doing these type of courses has opened my eyes to the differing quality of news between stations. Looking around the ABC website I think this: 90 Second News will definitely be something I'm checking everyday for a quick update.

In today's particular upload (as linked to above) there is a story about a Catholic priest. I always get a bit iffy when people are talking about Catholic Priests being child predators and all that. Obviously I was raised in a Catholic home and so this blurs my objectiveness substantially but EVERY single priest I've met has been nothing but kind and generous and news stories that kind of make all priests look bad gets under my skin. Obviously this particular man committed heinous crimes and I am in no way condoning his individual behaviour but the way these stories are always presented puts all Catholics in a bad light. It creates a divide and perhaps people will unfairly associate terrible things with priests when the majority are in no way deserving. Just tell the story without that focus, please!

Anyway, that's enough of my ranting. I'm gonna go prepare for this econ exam. 

:( haha. Later.

Lecture 7: Public Media

Public media, public media. It will be disappointing to my tutor but growing up I was pretty much only surrounded by commercial media. I hardly even watched ABC kids shows like most of my peers. I feel this, though, was the result of having three older brothers who had solid control of the TV remote throughout my childhood…haha. I feel in the past 7 weeks I’ve been at uni I’ve learnt more about public service media than I knew in the whole 17 years before I came.

So, at the start of Lecture 7 we were told that the mission of public media is to serve or engage a public. It seems in my very narrow case that it hasn’t engaged me whatsoever but I do understand the service it provides in top quality news and offering a wider diversity of programming. I know that most students enrolled in journalism have aims of working at the ABC as it seems to be one of the most respected news outlets in the country and I feel slightly disappointed that I, as of yet, have never fully exposed myself to it.

I found the list of what public media should involve pretty interesting:

• Geographic universality
• Universality of appeal
• Special provision for minorities
• Relationship to sense of national identity and community
• Distanced from all vested interests
• Universality of payment
• Competition in good programming rather than competition for numbers
• Liberate rather than restrict

From what little exposure I’ve had to the two main channels in Australia (ABC and SBS) it seems they both live up to these ‘goals’. If I’m able to bring up another class’ discussion, we were talking about how successful both the ABC and SBS have been in tailoring their programming to include ALL Australians. The result of the discussion was that the SBS are leaps and bounds ahead for minority groups whilst ABC may have some issues in their schedule looked like it was ‘designed by middle aged men for middle-aged men’ (quoted in Inglis 2006, p.476). I think that was how the ABC had always come across to me as well but after watching it more often I don’t have any difficulty enjoying its content.

I’ll move on now to the challenges that public media faces. Apparently it needs audiences. Well of course it does! After having a chat to a few of the girls that live with me, a tiny minority deliberately watch the public media channels. I think something that will be a big issue in the future for public media is the capturing of my generation as an audience. As depressing as this sounds, ABC’s and SBS’ current audience won’t be around forever and hopefully my generation will fill the gap they leave or the public sphere of the nation will be greatly disadvantaged.

Public media also have to deal with the constant scrutiny of whether or not they are politically independent. This has been a constant plague for the ABC as they have to juggle the fact that the government are the ones who fund them but their job is to be critical of them. As Dr Bruce said, it is a delicate balance when you are biting the hand that feeds you.

I followed up the point of the ABC being bias and out of all the snippets I read, this one caught my attention but mainly the few points raised at the end. ABC bias? 

It seemed pretty far-fetched to me at the beginning but then when the point that it is tax payer funded is brought up I can see how it is important that the journalists leave out their personal opinion and focus on fact. But who’s to say that this Mark Hendrickx is really telling the truth. It’s an interesting business!

Anyway I think that’ll be me done for Week 7’s lecture and now all my blogs are up to date for the assessment this Friday. J

A Lazy Easter Leads to Contribution to ma Blog!

First things first - Happy Easter!
I'm just in the greatest mood right now. Indulging in a bit of (embarrassing) One Direction, have had a fabulous Easter morning with my fam and I've just taken my brother's dog for a walk. All doesn't seem that exciting but it really is little things that contribute to some of your best days. :)

I left college yesterday for the mid-semester break, and yes I am doing work in the holidays. Extra credit puuuhlease?

But anyway, I spent yesterday with my family in the city. Following on from my last post with a little comment on The Big Issue, my mum and I walked past a woman selling it. Now, in case you didn't know my mum is the most amazing lady! She is the kindest, most loving and sweetest thing in the whole world. She not only bought the magazine but gave extra to the lady, along with a hug and Easter wishes. I hope I can find as much generosity in my day to day life as my mum has. I'm aware that wasn't a great link to my previous post but I don't care - point is my mum is great and I love her like crazy! Haha.

Also in college news we had a car wash for St Vinnies and ended up raising over $400! Most of it earned through hassling cars off the street and forcing them into our car park...haha. And we had a send off party before the break! Interestingly the theme was St Patrick's Day which was actually a month ago...See what I mean about college making you out of sync with the outside world! Anyway it was a greeeeeeeeeeeat night and here's a sneaky pic of before we headed out:

And a girl posted this to our college Facey page, I thought it was appropriate considering the theme my blog is developing:

So I guess you know if I can't make it to class it's because it was uphill?
Nah, I'll be there every time :)

And since I've been away from home I haven't been buying as many fashion mags or sewing as much! Luckily mum has fixed this problem with delivering magazines and my machine to me so perhaps some fashion will be working its way in here as well.
I have been keeping more updated on news lately as well! Ever since that media use diary showed my shocking habits I actually have kept up a bit better. But I might save another news post til next week - gotta head out now. (:

Bye bye!

Lecture 6

Hello there!

Let’s be honest, when I was given the set reading for this week and had a look at how many pages there were…I was not keen. But after reading the first line and seeing it was about Sunrise, I was hooked! It’s my fave brekky show and I am actually EXTREMELY interested in commercial media.

After doing a mere 6 weeks of media studies (that’s a shout out to MSTU1000!) I know that commercial media is looked down upon by academics and those of high intelligence. It’s a shame to say but my TV experience has been pretty much 90% commercial, 10% public. I always knew it was driven by advertising but it wasn’t until recently that I found out how much of the actual content is driven by fact that “advertisers are the real customers”.

So in the lecture today we covered many of the major players in commercial media. There were the obvious ones, News Limited, Nine, and Ten but I never really considered Telstra and Optus ‘commercial media’. Honestly though, how could I not? They are media services with a main goal of a making a profit! I was kind of surprised at myself for not realising that earlier.

Also covered were the forms commercial media can take (subscription, sponsored and subsidised) and its three functions (commercial, propaganda and social). Some media organisations exist solely for the purpose of making money and will use whatever they can to get the most eyes/ears on their content. They do this because in the end it equals more profit for them from the advertisers! The danger of this is that quality is beginning to deteriorate. A term that was mentioned in today’s lecture was ‘Mickey Mouse News’. This pretty much sums up the idea of news being dumbed down in order to appeal to the masses. I think though, that ‘the masses’ are often underestimated. I, for example, am not of above intelligence by any means but I can still appreciate an investigative piece of journalism over a story on the best bikinis of next season. I mean, I’ll watch both haha, but the hard hitting story is the one that would really grip me.

Kind of leading to my next point that was mentioned towards the end of the lecture… While advertising revenue for commercial radio is on a steady decline, new ways of money making and business strategies will have to be created. As I’m studying a degree of Commerce/Arts this concept was of real interest to me. If I continue with my study of media there may be prospective jobs for me in the future with these commercial media companies. After completing my degree and majoring in Finance I could be dealing with this issue as part of my day to day job! Today’s consumers would be willing to pay for high quality content. It is becoming increasingly recognisable that the standard of commercial news is not absolutely fantastic and if one particular company really ramps up their game I predict a major pay day for them! Perhaps not the complete pay wall concept but just the fact that advertisers will want their stuff on the most watched (in other words, best quality) station.

I also had a quick look at the Global Mail website. I actually think THAT is a clever business idea. It’s got the quality factor that I was talking about before and I have no doubt it is going to get a strong and loyal fan base who will want to see it continue into the future. Funnily enough while looking through the stories, a piece on John Bird, the media mogul responsible for The Big Issue, caught my attention. His aims couldn’t be further away from the goals of the men and women in charge of the organisations we looked at today and I thought that was all a bit ironic.

Commercial media does have its purpose in society. It employs thousands and entertains millions. Let’s just hope a purpose is kept and that a benefit of some type to the Australian public is continued.