Is Television News a Window On The World?

Is Television News a Window On The World?

Is television news a window on the world? A debatable question. Some would agree it is, news studios would tell you it is, in fact the law requires TV news to be impartial. However in reality the question is not so easily answered. News is heavily constructed and filtered before it reaches the viewer. The final product we see as a news consumer is not a completely transparent projection of the world as its shown. Stories are very carefully selected, the majority thrown away in the 'history bin'. Even when an important story does make it to air, it can be chopped up and edited in an order where the news studio can portray it however they want. To begin we will look at & analyse some TV news starting sequences in order to see how news studios try to suggest we're seeing a raw, unmediated and impartial view of the world right from the moment the program starts.

That was a compilation of the all the BBC News intro's starting from 1954 right up to 2015. We will use some of these as examples to explain how the news stations try to manipulate us as a viewer from the very beginning. You can see in the 1985-1986 opening (1:16) you see a shot of the earth from space and some whizzing graphics that join to make '9 O'Clock News' above the earth. They do this opening sequence this way to try and depict them having a broader, more superior overview of everything going on in the world, offering you, the viewer, a look into that 'telescope' if you will. This way the news studio is portrayed to be neutral & impartial, when actually its really not.

Then with the 2008-2013 (2:55) you can see a lot of transparent spinning graphics of the globe. You'll notice almost all the graphics are at least somewhat transparent always allowing you to see the background behind. This is to suggest to the viewer what they're seeing portrayed on the news is as close to reality as possible. All the graphics fly past at fast speeds as well with the names of countries transitioning past and colors going in all directions. This is to create a sense of urgency and importance for viewer so they think everything to follow is going to be the top most highly rated stories out there. When in truth stories will (generally) favor the people who are writing them, middle aged, middle class, university educated, white, heterosexual males.

News Values 
(Galtung & Ruge):


Here are some examples of the 'rules' Galtung & Ruge came up with that determine which news stories has the best news values of the others. They analysed a mass of different news outlets and these we're some of the most common factors between them:

• Frequency - Events that occur suddenly and fit well with the news organizations schedule are more likely to be reported than those that occur gradually or at inconvenient times of day or night. Long-term trends are not likely to receive much coverage
• Familiarity - To do with people or places close to home.
• Negativity - Bad news is more newsworthy than good news.
• Unexpectedness: If an event is out of the ordinary it will have a greater effect than something that is an everyday occurrence.
• Unambiguity - Events whose implications clearly make for a better copy than those that are open to more than one interpretation, or where any understanding of the implications depends on first understanding the complex background in which the events take place.
• Personalization - Events that can be portrayed as the actions of individuals will be more attractive than one in which there is no such 'human interest'

Gatekeeping Process:

The gatekeeping process in news is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, whether for publication or broadcasting. 'The gatekeeper' will decide which information will go forward, and which will not. Gatejeeping can be dangerous since it can lead to an abuse of power by deciding what information to discard and what to let pass. Nevertheless, gatekeeping is often a routine, guided by some set of standard questions. 

Here is the 4 criteria for choosing a new story; the first being local stories. Local stories impact the public far more than regular stories. Violence, conflict, disaster or scandals are the second criterion. Topics containing such things as murder, wars, shootings, hurricanes etc. capture the attention of the audience. The third is familiarity, news stories gain more attention if they have issues pertaining to the public or if they include familiar situations concerning a large audience. The fourth element is timely and novel. News should be something interesting that does not occur everyday or an event that is not a part of peoples lives. Events such as hurricanes or new store openings capture the attention of many.

There are also other factors that are massive players when its come down to deciding which stories will make it to air. Variables such as the time the story breaks in the news channels financial year, the reliability & integrity of the news source and the amount of narrative continuity a news channel is able to construct. These all play a huge part in a new story being put onto your TV screen.

Continuity System & Narrative Structure

The news will use certain shots in a specific order to try and create a narrative structure. However the problem with this is that they'll exaggerate or wrongly depict how an event is actually being played out. For example in 2003 when the west invaded the middle east, the media depicted Saddam Hussein as being the evil tyrant villain and George Bush as being the hero protagonist which created the typical light vs dark narrative. However in reality is wasn't as black and white as made out to be and it is up for argument however some say there were a lot more economic/political and profitable factors involved rather than just 'the war on terror'.

They will also incorporate the typical 'Problem/Climax/Resolution' template for a narrative.

They do this in order to make it more interesting to watch for the viewer. With such a high number of news sources all outputting information 24 hours a day/7 days a week they all attempt to create the most interesting & intriguing segment all out of exactly the same story. So when they to do this to an extreme level this is where the 'window on the world' starts to become blurred.                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Conclusion:

In conclusion I think one could say TV news is a 'window on the world' however I would argue its very obscured. Rather than just being a direct depiction of what is happening on the outside (what a window it is) as we can see stories are filtered down to be more important over others then even when they do make it their narrative is chopped & sliced up by the editors to play out a more interesting story than there rival news station is.