Vehicle Strand

The News and Power

News and Power

B&S: the news and a public remit; news construction; ‘impartiality’ and accuracy; news values; news futures.

Today = news construction Key terms: ideology, factual narrative, filters, elitism

But first: Plato…

Plato ‘Allegory of the Cave’

The Republic, 360 BC political philosophy and more allegory = an educational tale key elements represent real world in fictional form e.g. Animal Farm

concerned with reality and illusion…

The Allegory of the Cave

Imagine an underground chamber like a cave, with a long entrance open to the daylight and as wide as the cave. In this chamber are men who have been prisoners there since they were children, their legs and necks being so fastened that they can only look straight ahead of them and cannot turn their heads. Some way off, behind and higher up, a fire is burning, and between the fire and the prisoners, and above them, runs a road, in front of which a curtain-wall has been built, like the screen at puppet shows between the operators and their audience, above which they show their puppets.

Imagine further that there are men carrying all sorts of gear along behind the curtain-wall, projecting above it and including figures of men and animals made of wood and stone and all sorts of other materials, and that some of these men, as you would expect, are talking and some are not.

Plato, 1888, Book 7, §7

Explanation and Escape

prisoners can see only the shadows they assume these are reality

escape = incomprehension, disbelief sunlight would hurt their eyes initially would want to return

would adjust and be glad to be free might feel responsibility to return

Any Questions?

Plato and The Matrix

The Allegory = The Matrix both about mistaking illusion for reality: computer simulation (The Matrix) puppet show re-presentation (Plato)

Neo is the freed prisoner “Why do my eyes hurt?”

Plato, Narrative and Audience

Monomyth and The Allegory: departure > initiation > return

Audiences and The Allegory: Cave = Media effects approach

Plato’s Point

the story = an allegory

(literal +symbolic meaning)

designed to make us think

most opinions and beliefs are untrue

people uncritically accept appearances

shows us that our ‘reality’ is an illusion

Exploitation

difference between Allegory & Matrix:

machines are exploiting humans

illusion works to some else’s benefit

dupes are unaware of the exploitation

The Allegory of The Matrix

The Matrix: far-fetched sci-fi?

treat it as an allegory:what we experience is not

reality, but a set of re-presentations

we are all being fooled + exploited

this is ideology

Why Study Ideology?

it concerns the power of the media:

c.f. representations and stereotypes

c.f. audiences and effects model

the Big Question of Media Studies

Any Questions?

What Is Ideology?

an ideology is:- idea, attitude, belief, value- idea shared by a social group- interpretation of reality,- partial point of view, representation- a way of understanding the world, a whole world view

How Does Ideology Work?

circulates within institutions: family, education, media, etc we adopt the ideologies of those around us believed to be true, obvious, natural, common sense determines behaviour: people act on it serves the interests of a particular group these interests are concealed by ideology

Example

1950s housewife

women stay at home: cook, clean, raise children, etc

this seems completely natural

“wouldn’t change it for the world”

Sex and the City = incomprehensible

women exploited, men benefit

The Power of the NewsActivity:

Where do you find out about the news?

What kind of news is important to you, and why?

How important is the news?

What source of news do you trust the most, and why?

The Power of the NewsStarkey (2007):

National television news = the most trusted source of news (82%)

International satellite news trusted by 52%

Television the most important source of news for 68% of British population

72% of British population say television is their key source for international news.Why?

The Power of the News

Elements of Realism: audio-visual conventions and subject matter

Elements of Realism: impartiality, objectivity and public remit

We will come back to ideology and the news, but first…

What is News?

Harrison’s (2006) five defining precepts of the news:

1. News has an orientation to the truth

2. There are lots of types of journalism

3. News is what journalists deem worthy

4. There is a relationship between news and how audiences perceive society, culture, politics and so on

5. Conflict between serving the public and media groups’ commercial value

What is News?

3. News is what journalists deem worthy

Journalists are restricted by their employers

Stories are shaped by audience demographic

Types of stories vary according to the type of broadcast or newspaper

Popularity or breadth of a news story

What is News?

Activity: comparison of news headlines

What time of day are the news programmes broadcast?

What channel are they broadcast on?

What are the headlines?

Do these differ? If so, why?

Consider the time of day, the news channel, the possibly audience.

Allan’s (2004) rules of newsworthiness

Conflict – balance dictates that each story has two sides. Relevance – story needs to have an impact on the viewer. Timeliness – ideally within the last 24 hours. Simplification – significance needs to be understood easily. Personalization – emphasis on human actors. Unexpectedness – something out of the ordinary. Continuity – where might the event fit in to something bigger. Composition – news bulletins must cover a range of topics. Elite nations – is the country concerned important to the audience. Elite persons – not about ‘ordinary people’. Cultural specificity – will the audience share the meaning of the story? Negativity – bad news more newsworthy than good news.

The Power of the Media

Noam Chomsky

linguistics, MIT

commentator on power of the media

researches what media leave out

media are ideological

Filters

broadcasters filter information

selections are made

we get what’s left

Chomsky

Manufacturing Consent:

ideas about the media

relationship with the media

film and book in library

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media…

What is News?

Activity:

Watch the news headlines again and consider:

How many stories relate to Allan’s rules of newsworthiness?

Do these differ according to the news broadcast?

Are the broadcasts impartial and objective? How do you know?

Environment Strand

Everyone a Publisher

The Xerox

media power and the internet

Key term: gatekeeping

“the Xerox makes everyone a publisher” (McLuhan: 1977, p. 178)

first Xerox photocopier: 1959

inexpensive and widely accessible

Online Xerox

everyone a publisher online

Week 5: online identities: blogs, homepages, forum

Week 6: global village: participation and Wikipedia

how does online publishing affect gatekeeping and control of the media?

Gatekeeping

gatekeepers: those who control access to information

Morpheus: agents are gatekeepers

Levinson: two kinds of gatekeeping: (1) ideological (2) economic

Ideological Gatekeeping

an institution restricts access to information

e.g. Church or government protect audiences from heresy or obscenity (c.f. effects model)

extreme form = censorship

mild form = e.g. 9.00pm watershed

a qualitative limitation

Economic Gatekeeping

publishing costs money (paper, ink, transport, etc)

e.g. limited space in a newspaper

e.g. limited book publications

editors must choose what is important or financially viable

some ideological influence

a quantitative limitation

(1) Internet and Ideology

the internet affects both kinds of gatekeeping

everyone a publisher = infinite ideological viewpoints

what someone censors, someone else publishes

access and coverage on a global scale

We the Media

Dan Gillmor, We the Media (2004)

(book online and in library)

blogging > book drafts > feedback

internet changes balance of power between journalist and reader

today: news like a lecture (hot)

tomorrow: news like a conversation (cool)

producer and consumer in dialogue

Examples

consumers are becoming producers (c.f. global village)

Wikipedia

www.OhMyNews.com (South Korea)

www.memoryhole.com and US troops

Anonymous: Your Anon News

The End of Gatekeeping?

it is easier to leak information

it is harder to control information

result = better media, better democracy

(2) Internet and Economics

internet sidesteps economic gatekeeping:

very cheap, no space limitations

websites potentially boundless

e.g. Times Online, Guardian Unlimited

Gatekeeping Mentality

greater freedom > two fears: fear of rubbish fear of overload

we need official experts to filter information: e.g. Wikipedia

this is the ‘gatekeeping mentality’

Levinson: from filtration to evaluation…

Filtration > Evaluation

two examples:

(1) websites:

- good sites get lots of links, e.g. Google

- good sites rise to the top of the listing

- no need to remove sites

- no filtering just evaluation

Filtration > Evaluation

(2) Amazon - traditional bookshops are subject to

economic gatekeeping:

limited stock/ display

- Amazon ‘stocks’ everything (even 2nd hand)

- everything is equally available…

Filtration > Evaluation

there is no filtration (censorship): all books remain equally available

customer reviews provide evaluation (frequently opposing)

e.g. The Medium is the Massage

plus evaluation of evaluation

The End of Gatekeeping?

the internet undermines gatekeeping ideological economic

it replaces filtration with evaluation

the end of gatekeeping?

Case Study guidelines

Module handbook (on Moodle):

Section 8.3: Description

Section 8.4: Assessment criteria

Submission deadline: Monday 8th December, 1pm (week 12)

Paper submission via a post-box (outside the refectory, Harcourt Hill Campus)

Electronic submission via Turnitin (Understanding Media Moodle site)

Case Study guidelines

Proportion: 50% of overall grade

Length: 1500 words

Cover page information (see Section 8.3) -module name/number; student name/number; essay title; word count.

Next week’s reading

Branston and Stafford: Chapter 11 Debating Advertising, Branding and Celebrity