Is TV News a Window on the World

The question "Is TV News a Window on the World" basically questions whether or not mainstream media is a good source of "true reporting" in terms of representing the world to its audience. This question is very important in the world today as people now have access to means of obtaining their own  information on stories and not just in their local area. The reason for this is course due to social media and the fact that the world wide web has become a staple in pretty much every house world almost globally. This question is also important to ask because TV and the mainstream media tries to present itself in an honest and clear way e.g. being a window on the world.





Logos for BBC News and Russia Today, two different news TV stations

How does the mainstream media try to present itself in that way? - The news does many things to convince people that its 100 percent honest in what it does in reporting the news. This is done through the use of the starting sequences for example which are explained in my previous post which can be viewed here.

In addition to starting sequences my last post also mentions the news reporters themselves such as how they are limited to certain expressions to remain more professional and serious looking.  It is also important to note that there is a choice involved in what actually goes out in the news reports, this is because not all events that happen in the world can be reported. Choices themselves are made according to beliefs such as if a particular story is good enough to air and if they think it affects enough people for anyone to care to much. Already we are starting to see that this "window" is starting to get a bit cloudy! This then nicely sums up that mainstream news and almost all other forms of news are not a window on the world as such. These decisions that have to be made normally are connected to a gate keeping system that is used within the industry. Below in the next paragraph I shall breakdown this process in each of its steps and also explain how a lot of news simply gets lost and is thrown into the "news bin".

The Gate Keeping Process - (Helps decide what is news worthy)

1. Sources of news: This is news that has to be found and seen by a reporter. These are found by the reporter using a routinely monitored source. Lots of different stories happen daily but if they are not seen by a reporter they fall under the news radar and into the news bin as it were.

2. Has to have values to the news: For example a story has to affect a lot of people or be interesting enough to get attention. For example a natural disaster in L.A will be more likely to be reported then a stabbing in London. If a story does not have certain news values it will fall into the bin. Media researchers Galtung and Ruge came up with a list of News values which is still relevant to this day and age even though the original research was done in 1965. The researches analysed what made a news story reach the front cover of a newspaper and make headlines on Television. These fall into 3 different categories, "Impact", "Audience Identification" and "Pragmatics of the media coverage". These are explained below.

- Impact means that if the story is big enough then it will affect many people in many different areas such as a money crisis for example. Also if an event is frequent it is also likely to hit news stands because these happen daily, they fit well into the news programme schedule. Negativity also plays a part in this because bad news is more "exciting" than good news so to speak. Additionally both unexpectedness and unambiguity both play a role.
- Audience Identification means that stories could be about a celebrity or about nations that are seen as a Global power and also stories that are of people that speak the same language.
- Pragmatics of the Media Coverage means that stories that fit the media's expectations have a greater chance of being shown than the ones that go against them. Continuity also plays a part here as stories that gather a momentum, this is good because the news can then show the build up as it happens live which can in turn attract the audience back in each hour or so for example to find out what's happening.

What is interesting to note is the fact that the BBC lists the following as their values:

• Truth and accuracy
• Impartiality and diversity of opinion
• Editorial integrity and independence
• Serving the public interest
• Fairness
• Balancing the right to report with respect for privacy
• Balancing the right to report with protection of the vulnerable
• Safeguarding children
• Being accountable to the audience

But these values are often lost or contradicted when it comes to what actually gets reported.

3. The cost can have an impact: News companies have to base some of there output on the price involved for example earlier in the year a channel like ITV might have had some good coverage of an important story at a large price, but the coverage was better than other news companies. However later that year something else may come up and the channel cant afford to send anyone there to get footage so they lose out. Again if a story is simply too much in terms of cost then it gets put into the news bin so to speak.

4. Competition between the news company's: News broadcasters are always pitted against each other on a constant basis, because of this any slight interruptions during an important breaking news story can lead to people simply tuning into rival stations instead to get their news fix. Also most news stories are sent over in a packaged way containing clips, audio and narration and if any of these goes wrong the whole report is pretty much wasted if the issue can not be fixed in time. This means that some news stories get put into the news bin because of technical difficulties.

5. Legal constraints: Certain stories cant be published or talked about due to constraints such as a super injunctions which is a law that means reporters and people alike cant talk about it or even mention the injunction itself.  In addition to that some stories might be considered to controversial to air on the news and this might cause legal problems such as the person involved suing the company for airing a particular story. There are many different laws that work in the news for example the most basic laws that make up the news are the Impartiality Laws which is used in many broadcasting acts. Then there is laws like the one mentioned above where some news stories cant be run for certain reasons. Listed below are some of these laws:

- Official Secrets Act: This prevents the broadcast or publication of anything that is seen as "detrimental" to national security.
- Prevention of Terrorism Act: This prevents anything being published or broadcast that could promote or endorse any terrorist activity's
- Libel Laws: Prevents the broadcast or publication of any wild accusations for example something that could be seen as completely false in the eye of the public.
- Sub-judicy Laws: Prevents material being published or broadcast of anything that is related to an on going court case that could influence the Jury
- D (Defence) Notices: May be issued by the Ministry of Defence and Government to prevent the publication of anything that could be detrimental to British defence interests.

So is the question "Is TV news a window on the world" have any truth to it at all?
Not 100 percent no, the main reason here being that news stories are cherry picked to suit an agenda almost and because most of the people who work in news programming are middle to upper class you feel like your only getting what they want you to see. There is some truth in this question though as on some stories they do show what's happening for real and not just one side of it perhaps, but again this really depends on the content of the story. Local stories about the Norfolk broads or something similar will be reported truthfully if they make it into the news schedule because there is nothing to hide from the public view for example but even that is questionable. I personally think that in order to get a "Window" like view on the world around you, you as an individual will have to search for the stories to get both sides for example. So the window like part of the news only really works if you are open minded to many different views and sides of certain stories and dont let just one source dictate what you think personally.