Do journalists make or break news?
...eflect society it exists within it, and this must influence both the writing and the interpretation. Despite the terminology of journalism suggesting that items are universally salient and define themselves as news worthy, studies have shown that news is paradigmatic, and there is a very definite set of defining rules, which govern inclusion. As Hartley says: ‘events don’t get into the news simply by happening…they…must fit in with what’s already there…be known and recognised…to win inclusion in any particular news they must fulfil a certain number of criteria…Finally newsworthy events themselves must jostle for inclusion in the limited slots available’ (Hartley 1982) Journalists act a ‘gatekeepers’, controlling the flow of information for public consumption meaning the audience will never get the true informed story. Triangulation is used to verify information making sure news stories are purely fictional, however this technique brings up subsequent issues for example construct validity; getting evidence from unreliable sources. Galtung and Ruge (1965) identify twelve features that make a story ‘news worthy’, for example continuity and meaningfulness. They state that the more an event satisfies their criteria, the more likely it is that the story will be registered as news. Once a news item has been selected the values that were identified as making the piece ‘news worth’ will be accentuated. Both the process of selection and the process of selection and the process of distortion will take place at all steps I the chain from event to reader. This evidence would suggest they don’t create ‘fake’ news they adapt news to make it more interesting for the reader converging news with a form of popular entertainment. Golding and Elliot analysed the effects of the production of news. In the short-term news stories form bias. Deliberate bias is formed through production; gatekeeping information and only using a careful selection of primary sources. Where the bias is ‘non-deliberate’ unwitting bias is formed, an example of this comes form Halloran et al. With the ‘Anti-Vietnam war demonstration’. This unwitting bias uses ‘inferential structure’, reporting on events to fit established preconceptions. The long-term effects of non-deliberate bias means ideologies are formed. For example ‘Einstein’s news from nowhere’ where commercial logic determined news production through scheduling etc… This was revealed in ‘non specialism’; journalistic cynicism about political actors. Schudson claims, ‘journalists don’t fake news, they make news’. There role is to ‘tell a story’(Schudson) connoting the element of fiction in news stories. ‘Spin doctors’ are used to manipulate stories allowing newspapers to prosper by offering audiences expectations. Famous people, meeting strange ends is a phenomenon that always seems to bring out the conspiracy theorists. Conspiracy theories is deliberate manipulation of events speculating and creating new stories to explain and reason with the facts. There are two main theorists in this area, firstly Altusser who believed conspiracy theories are ideological state apparatuses. Alternatively Chomsky and Herman believe they were a form of propaganda. An example of a conspiracy theory was at the death of Princess Diana, where the huge media figure had many journalists speculating about her accident suggesting there was more to her death than merely a car accident. Conspiracy theories can be no more than accusations, as they can never be proven. In a similar way the mass media have the power to form moral panics. An example of this would be the ‘millennium bug’, there was mass audience panic including people taking money out of their bank accounts in case they lost their money even though the banks themselves assured customers nothing would happen. These examples just showing the power journalists have when they make news. Why do journalist choose to adapt news stories. Popular is an important concept when looking into this. Journalists are under an increasing amount of external pressure such as ownership and financial constraints. It is particularly interesting to note the role of Executive orders. While reporters have significant roles in deciding what makes news, news organisations are corporate structures. Some of these executives make self-serving decisions on coverage that galls the journalists who work for them. Internal pressures of time can also cause a lot of bias; ensuring enough news whilst preventing too much news. This pressure of time only increasing in our ‘stop watch’ culture. Katz and Lazarsfeld conceptualised audience as members of social groups (rather than passive isolated individuals, as was hypothesised ...