thesis chapter 1 to 3 (revised)

7/24/2019 Thesis Chapter 1 to 3 (Revised)

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BANNER PHOTOS WAY TO THE GATE

A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School Panel of Evaluators

Departent of !iterature" !an#ua#es and $ounication

%n partial fulfilent for the de#ree

&asters of Arts in $ounication

$olle#e of Arts and Sciences

$e'u Noral (niversit)

B)

*lornisa &arie &+ Git#ano


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$hapter ,

THE PROB!E& AND %TS S$OPE

Rationale of the Stud)

A banner photo in a newspaper is sometimes tragic, happy, interesting or even

political. By just looking at the photo placed on the banner page, one can easily get an

idea what it tries to convey.

Humans have always been more of a visual species than a verbal one (Lewis, !.

"n the ancient times, ancestors used scriptures and symbols to lead someone to a

specific place. #ust like the ancient $gyptians, they used symbols and drawings inside

the pyramids to give the history of the place. %reasure hunters have been using symbols

in locating the gold and precious jewels hidden in caves. "n short, one can easily

understand the message by looking at a photo compared to a whole story that readers

would take time to read.

Author &reg Lewis ('! mentions in his book )hotojournalism *ontent and

%echni+ue econd $dition- that photojournalism informs, motivates and gives someone

facts and information at a first look.

Lewis states that photojournalism is words and pictures working together.

He further stated that photojournalism, then, is words and pictures, intends for

reproduction that try to produce an honest visual report of what happened in a form

understandable to others.- (Lewis, !


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"n the newspaper, photos and news stories are taken and gathered in a day

before it comes out the ne0t day. #ust like news stories, photos that are published in the

newspapers are chosen according their news values. %hese news values include

pro0imity, prominence, timeliness, conflict, oddity and conse+uence. "t is not necessary

to have all these news values in the photo. 1ne of these news values may already

affects a number of readers. 1nce photos are submitted to the newsroom, editors filter

the photos to determine which should come out and what pages should these are

placed.

2ews stories are supported with photos to give the reader a simpler idea what

the story is about. %he photo that lands on the front page gives the reader a summary

about the banner story. However, there are times when the banner photo does not

coincide with the banner story to the e0tent of baffling readers on the appearance of the

photo on the page.

3eaders probably have seen in the front page a crime news story with a banner

photo of a politician happily greeting the people or a news story of a government official

being sued with a banner photo of a car accident.

Author hirley Biagi (4'! writes that the marriage of the photographs and te0t

tells a better story than either te0t or photographs could tell alone.-

*ompared to other media studies that focus on the analysis of news story

content, this study helps the reader, students, professors and everyone by providing the

editors and chief of photographers5 e0planation how they choose their photos for the

daily publication.


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%his study will show the photos way to the gate- which means the process of

selecting pictures by the editor5s and photographers.

%his study gives the reader a wide understanding on why such photo is chosen

to be in the banner page and what are the bases of the editor that such image is placed

in the first page. %he study will eliminate the readers5 confusion why the banner photo is

different from the news story. Aside from finding out the editor5s standard on selecting

banner photos, this study will also analy7e the news values in every banner photo of the

local newspaper.

8urthermore, this study is significant to give students in colleges and universities

another reference in terms of photojournalism.

Theoretical Bac-#round of the Stud)

%his study is anchored on the theories called &atekeeping %heory and Agenda9

etting %heory.

Gate-eepin# Theor)+ %his theory is defined as a long and established process

that allows long messages to be shortened without losing the +uality of the content of

the messages. &atekeepers are the ones who decide which information should go

forward and which should not.

)sychologist :urt ;adek Lewin coined the word gate keeping.- %his is a process

of blocking unwanted or useless things by using a gate. *onsidering that he was a great


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psychologist and pioneer of social psychology, this theory was then widely used in the

field of psychology. "t later occupies the field of communication and is now considered

as one of the essential theories in communication studies (communicationtheory.org!.

"t was in inerva &erodias in his study the 3hetoric of Banner tories in )hilippine ?ailies

mentions that Lewin believes information passes through different channels in a

patterned fashion (/6!.

"n his study 8orces Behind 8ood Habits and >ethods of *hange,

Lewin said that @information must pass a gate to move from one channel to

the ne0t such that forces govern channels. %here may be opposing

psychological forces causing conflict which creates resistance to

movement through the channel... %here may be several channels that lead

to the same end result, and different actors may control the channels and

acts as gatekeepers at different times- (/69/4!.

%he gatekeeper has its own influence in terms of social, cultural, ethical and

political dimensions. "n the newspaper, the editor plays a vital role. $very day the

newspaper receives various news items and photos from the reporters and

photographers from the different beats or assignment. %he editor will decide which news

items and photos should go and which should not. According to Lewin, every news


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channel has its own ethics and policies on what news or photos should be published or

not.

According to >elvin L. ?e8leur in his book >ass *ommunication %heories=

$0plaining 1rigins, )rocesses and $ffects, gatekeeping is the practice of gathering and

disseminating a selection of news stories via a mass medium. He e0plains that this

theory is the process of e0amining a pool of many items, applying a set of criteria, and

then selecting from that pool a final smaller number for some treatment.- ?e 8leur (!

says that the criteria for making judgments about newsworthiness are traditionally called

news values. %hese news values include pro0imity, prominence, timeliness, conflict,

oddity and conse+uence

&atekeeping has been practiced in the newsroom in selecting news stories and

photos. 3eporters and editors practice the procedure of gatekeeping in gathering

information through interviews to come up with a news story. But not all these

information are written because of the newspaper5s limited space. 2ews writers select

which information is essential without affecting the message of the story. But

gatekeeping does not stop there. $ditors check the grammar, sentence structure and

the details of the story. %he choice of information to be printed rests in the editor5s

decision who is ac+uainted with the space intended for a specific news story. %he same

thing happens when selecting photos.

&erodias presents in her study that the reporters and editors are the

gatekeepers.


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"n mass media, the news reporters and editors are considered to be the

@gatekeepers.5 %hey are the ones to decide what stories to get, how stories

are angled, how stories are structured, and which stories are considered

as banner stories. 8urthernore, as gatekeepers, they will decide how to

structure the headline, how to start the lead paragraph, and how to

present the facts at the body of the banner story. All of these are being

practiced as gatekeepers of the news (/4!.-

%he &atekeeping %heory supports the selection of banner photo study because

the editors, who serve as gatekeepers, are the ones who check which photo should be

placed in the newspaper5s front page and which should just be kept as file photos.

A#enda.Settin# Theor)+ %his theory assumes that the mass media may be not

successful in telling its audience what to think, but it is absolutely successful in telling

people what to think about. "n addition, this theory states that although media

concentrate on few issues, the public thinks that those issues, especially those place in

the first few pages, are more important the others.

&atekeeping is not enough without agenda9setting. A second important task for

those who gather, process, and disseminate the daily news is to make decisions about

the prominence of the position of the story999to decide where it belongs within the format

of the daily presentation (?e8leur, !.- >edia should set the agenda.

"n simpler term, setting the agenda is deciding what page a news story and a

photo will be placed in the newspaper. %he most important issue of the day are


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those stories and photos that land on the front page. %hose stories and photos that are

placed in the inside pages are considered less important than the ones placed on the

banner page.

?e8leur (! states that agenda setting for those who manage the news

presentation includes both deciding on which stories to let through the gate and in what

order to present them in the medium. He further states that a theory regarding decisions

as to where the story should be located in the news report999giving it greater or lesser

prominence999 is called the Agenda9etting %heory.

3esearchers >a0well >c*ombs and ?onald haw first put forth the agenda9

setting function of the mass media in c*ombs and haw further say media affects the order of presentation in news

reports about news events and issues in the public mind. >c*ombs and haw state

that the main concept associate with agenda setting theory is gatekeeping.

(communication.org!

Dhile gatekeeping is the main theory anchored in this study, setting the agenda

is also important. electing photos is anchored to gatekeeping theory while deciding

what page will these be placed is anchored to agenda setting theory.


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'

2ews Banner

Ealues of Sun+Star $e'u photo

the banner The *reean selection

photo $e'u Dail) Ne/s standards

photo to the banner story

8igure= chematic )resentation of the %heoretical Background of the tudy

$hoice of 'anner photos

depends on the individual

ne/spaper standards

A#enda Settin# Theor)

&a0/ell &c$o's and Donald !+

Sha/" ,123

Gate-eepin# Theor)

4urt 5ade- !e/in" ,167

3elation of the banner photo on

?ifferent


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alinao 4/!. A dog bites a man is normal, but if a man bites a dog that is

newsworthy. 1ne good e0ample for this is 9year9old *onsolacion $lladora who is

believed to be the oldest person in Barangay *apt. *laudio in %oledo *ity.

*onflict refers to the clash between people and institutions (Lewis

instance, the people5s revolution against the late president 8erdinand >arcos5 in the

middle of


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over graphics as entry points (in online media!, whereas in case of a

printed newspaper, visual elements such as photographs or information

grab the eye first- (Bucher9chumacher, !.

According to &arcia and tark in their study entitled $yes on the 2ews, readers

do not read but rather scan newspapers and stop scanning on the so9called entry

points. %his main entry points are pictures and graphics. %he readers usually go to a

page with a dominant photo, move to a prominent headline or another dominant photo

(Holm+vist9Dartenberg, /96!.

%he entry point concept in &arcia I tark is a central one. $ntry points

are entities on a spread that draw initial attention= )ictures, headline,

+uotes, fact bo0es could be entry points. But virtually all elements,

anywhere, even editorial te0t, can serve as entry points into reading-

(Holm+vist9Dartenberg, 6!.

As to the headline structure, &erodias (! e0plains that the daily newspapers

used the active voice, used numerals instead of spelling out numbers, avoided using

articles and only used proper nouns that are well9known enough to be recogni7ed

immediately in the headlines of their banner stories.-

&erodias (! further e0plains that the daily newspapers used eye9popping

primary heads and fact filled secondary heads with contrasting type styles for both

heads, avoided using headlines that were not included in the story and observed the

subject9verb9direct object headline synta0.-

'


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"n her study Te%tualit! of &ews Stories in Ce'u"'ased Ta'loids, #ulie Ann

Eillanueva (C6! e0plains that headlines are constructed according to the predetermined

typographical styles of the representative tabloids, follow a skeletonised structure and

are written in active voice.-

All these studies support this research on the selection of banner photo

considering that picture, especially the one being placed on the front page of

newspapers, are the first one noticed by the readers.

Dhile readers have preferences on what newspaper to read, it is a good to let

them know how these striking photos are selected by the people working in the

newsroom.

$hapter 7


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RESEAR$H &ETHODO!OGY

%his chapter presents the research method, sources of data and data9gathering

procedure that are used in this study.

Research &ethod

%his study uses descriptive method analysis to analy7e how banner photos are

selected by the three local $nglish newspapers. %he researcher specifically analy7es

the news value of each banner photo. Aside from this, this research also applies

personal interviews to either the editor9in9chiefs or editors and chief9of9photographers or

photographers to make the study more effective.

Research Environent

%he research environment is *ebu )rovince where the main stories and photos

are gathered by the reporters and photographers. %he three newspapers are *ebu9

based print media.

Sources of Data

%he sources of data are the local newspaper in *ebu *ity namely= un.tar

*ebu, %he 8reeman and *ebu ?aily 2ews. %he banner photos of the three local

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newspapers that are published from 1ct. < to /4 are gathered and analy7ed to answer

the problem and sub9problem of this study. %he time frame is significant because the

researcher can see how the three newspapers presented their banner photos a week

after the filing of the certificate of candidacy for the >ay / elections.

Data.#atherin# Procedure

Phase ,9 Ne/s 8alues Anal):ed+ %he news values include timeliness,

pro0imity, prominence, significance or conse+uence, oddity and conflict.

$ach banner photo of the three newspapers999 un.tar *ebu, %he 8reeman and

*ebu ?aily 2ews999 printed for seven days will be analy7ed according to its news

values.

%he table below is used to plot the news value of banner photos. 2ewspaper is

un.tar *ebu, 2ewspaper / is %he 8reeman while 2ewspaper 6 is *ebu ?aily 2ews.

Ta'le ,+ NEWS 8A!(ES O* THE BANNER PHOTOS

?ays 2ewspaper 2ews Ealues

?ay 2

2/

26

?ay / 22/

26

?ay 6 2

2/

26


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?ay 4 2

2/

26

?ay 22/

26

?ay 2

2/

26

?ay C 2

2/

26

Phase 3+ Editors; Standards+ %he editor9in9chiefs or the editors assigned to

handle the front page of un.tar *ebu, %he 8reeman and *ebu ?aily 2ews will be

interviewed. %he editors would be asked about their standards on choosing banner

photos. Aside from the editors, the chief9of9photographers or photojournalists will also

be interviewed. A Eenn diagram will be showed and a te0tual presentation will follow

according to the diagram.

Phase 7+ Editors; E0planation on a Different Banner Photo fro the Banner

Stor)+ %he editor is asked to e0plain why there are times that a banner photo is different

from the banner story. %he aim of this phase is to give the readers an idea why these

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instances happened. %hus, this will lessen confusion on the part of the readers. A

te0tual presentation of the analysis would be made.

thesis chapter 1 to 3 (revised)

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