Com 316:  Fundamentals of Broadcasting

Dr. Janet McMullen  Fall 2002  MWF 9:00

Effects: News

Updated: 11/11/02

News is an extremely important area of media influence. Why? Because most people get MOST of their news from television. Television is seen as being the most CREDIBLE source of information by most people; but the higher the educational level, the less dependent people are upon television news. Still, for all our dependence upon it and the credibility we give it, as a people, we seem to have developed a mistrust of the popular media. Rush Limbaugh has developed an entire program as an alternative to mass media. "They're all LIBERAL "But he tells the truth! Does he? Why does it matter?


GATEKEEPING:

Gatekeeping refers to the decisions concerning what gets on and what doesn't.

Only a small amount of the events of the day can be aired or published due to time and space limitations.

So WHO DECIDES? -- news directors, editors, assignment editors?

How do those decisions affect the news we get to see or read?

SYMBOLIC ANNIHILATION: What get's on is important. What doesn't get on it NOT.

Gatekeeping can be both intentional and unintentional.

Intentional: bias, own agenda

Unintentional: constraints of media

how much bang for the buck?

do people care?

AGENDA SETTING: "The ability of the mass media to structure audience cognitions and to effect change among existing cognitions." (Harris p. 22)

Another scholar defines it as "the creation of public awareness and concern of salient issues by the news media"

More simply: Media tell us WHAT TO THINK ABOUT.

Discuss why this important:

Linda Ellerby wrote in her book, And So It Goes that her program Overnight was the only program which covered the Ethiopian famine for several weeks.

When NBC Nightly News picked up the story, it suddenly received major coverage, but the BBC and Canadian television (who provided the footage used on Overnight ) had been covering the story for weeks... Why the difference?

A wonderful book is in the library called Freeing the Whales )in Collier Library. It discusses the story of the three whales trapped in the ice and how that story became world-wide news. (Great book report book)

What determines whether a story gets on the air? It's merit? Not according to Edward J. Epstein in News from Nowhere. He's the one who developed those lists I gave you earlier. Let's go back and look at the unintentional constraints of media and these two stories:

Note: these are constraints unintentionally placed upon the news by the techonology and the industry, but they are INTENTIONALLY considered by the gatekeepers who determine what stories get on the air.

Agenda setting deals with how the stories which are placed on the air (and those that aren't) are RANKED in our minds...... That ranking is determined by: 

What do each of these mean vs. a talking head telling the story?

PRESIGE CONFERAL: RELATED ISSUE, but very important.

If it's on TV it's important...This is the reverse of symbolic annihilation!


News STAGING: What is done to "get" the story? To enhance it?

What's the problem with this? (Discuss)

How does news coverage effect the story?

DISCUSS:

Presence of cameras alters the story:

RTNDA and stations have policies and guidelines about these issues.

Selective Editing: The way a story is edited can alter the way the story is perceived. The classic example is of the MacArthur parade in New York City in the early 1950's. People who saw the event on television thought there was a huge turnout and a major event. Those who were there said the there weren't that many people there, and the car with the general in it sped by rapidly. There wasn't a lot to it....

Think about some other examples of news you have observed where editing has made or could have made a difference.


Pseudo Events:

press conferences

photo opportunities

VNRs: Video News Releases:

VNRs are news clips provided by a source which may have an interest in the information. These sometimes wind up on newscasts, especially on a slow news day. Their can be acceptable, but there are concerns.

ALL of these things lead to:

Emphasis on QUICK NEWS

Resulting SUPERFICIALITY

Inaccuracy (at times)

example: after President Reagan was shot Frank Reynolds chided his staff ON THE AIR, "Let's get it RIGHT, people..." after inaccurate news was reported and then had to be corrected.

"If it BLEEDS, IT LEADS" : Get the sensational, gross, or violent pictures on the air first because they are the most dramatic and the most attention-getting.

Intrusive Interviews: Reporters camping on people's lawns, pushing, shoving and following them with microphones shoved in their faces, asking for quotes after tragic circumstances. When the Challenger exploded, do think the cameras should have focused on Christy McAulliff's parents in the seconds after the explosion? Was that news or was it exploitation?

Coverage of the superficial:

No clear understanding of medical technology or ethical issues:

In these areas and others, reporters frequently do not have the specific experience necessary (or the time in the broadcast) to tell the complete story. As a result, we get a partial impression or the wrong impression.

Development of TABLOID PRESS and NEW PUNKS : Sensational stories covered in programs which specialize in pseudo-news. Many people actually believe that Hard Copy, Current Affair, and other such programs are NEWS programs. As a result, even the "serious" news magazines have begun airing more "tabloid" type segments, stories that would not have been covered a few years ago on those programs. Why is that? What might be impact of that?

EFFECTS ON ELECTION CAMPAIGNS:

Enormous amounts of $ spent: $230 MILLION in 1988 and again in 1992!

Note that in Britain, no television advertising is allowed for political campaigns, and the campaigns themselves are limited to only a few weeks (not months)

Bill boards are the only campaign advertising allowed.

See your text for discussion of debates: You WILL be responsible for knowing the history and significance of the presidential debates.

SUPERFICIALITY:

TV spots

Sound Bites: in 1980's they were 20-30 seconds; now under 10 seconds (what can someone say of substance in 10 seconds or less?

Politician must always remember he could be ON CAMERA at ANY TIME!

GOAL is to PACKAGE and deliver THE VOTER!

NOTE THIS MAY NOT BE WHAT you expect. You might think they're packaging the candidate? Why is that not true?

Guidelines for candidates and campaigns:

Bill Clinton revolutionized political campaigning by going on MTV and Talk Shows.

Ross Perot spent a lot of time as well on Larry King's program and others.

Another issue: PREDICTIONS.

With the development of exit polling, the networks have been able to predict what candidate would take what state shortly after the polls close. However, the polls closing in the east several hours before they close on the West Coast. Since the east is more heavily populated, such predictions could determine who would win before polls even closed across the country. Such predictions, if made before polls close, could seriously effect voting behavior in those western states. The "why bother" syndrome. That could

Court Trials:

For many years cameras have been banned in court rooms:

Reasons:

Now, with the development of cable channels devoted to courtroom drama:

How should media cover news?

This question becomes especially apparent when Court TV covers trials daily with every lurid detail there for viewers to see.

Is this good for society or just lurid sensationalism?

Discuss: [How does the coverage of these trials effect our perceptions of

Rush Limbaugh and many others in the culture say that people are always looking for someone else to blame--

Are we becoming a society in which we no longer hold people accountable for their own decisions and actions? If so, what role does television coverage play in that?

The role of emotional appeals is very powerful and very strong:

So let's look at some of the other areas covered by news.....

WAR COVERAGE:

During World War II as you know, the news media worked very cooperatively

with the defense department, but the Viet Nam War was different. As our involvement grew, and the discontent at home grew, the news media began to question the role of the U.S.

The news coverage of the contributed to the discontent at home:

I remember thinking," I don't want to see this any more! It's too much. It's too depressing.." .and to some degree, I tuned it out. I believed the mission was important and good, but we were not allowed to DO it, and the cost....

Some Key Events in the war coverage:

The TET offensive: It was a surprise attack on a very important Viet Nam Holiday. The offensive took the battle to the doors of the very hotels that housed the news reporters. They were shocked by what they saw and declared the battle a Viet Cong victory, when in fact it was not.

Walter Cronkite returned from a trip to Viet Nam and STOOD UP and WALKED FROM HIS DESK TO A MAP OF SOUTHEAST ASIA to explain why he thought the war was unwinnable. This was shocking! Walter Cronkite NEVER stood up!

That movement communicated to the audience how important he thought this information and his conclusions were. He was the most trusted man in America at that time. L.B.J. didn't stand a chance after that, and was known to say, "If we've lost Cronkite, we've lost America."

Zippo Lighter story: About the same time, Morely Safer's report of U.S. GI's burning a Vietnamese village, with children, old people and women weeping as what little they owned was burned to the ground.

Execution: Another broadcast showed a S.Vetnamese general shooting a prisoner in the head. I saw that broadcast and was totally shocked by it. I never expected to see video of a cold blooded murder over my dinner...

The military to this day believes that television coverage of that war contributed to the inability of the military to WIN the war. They never forgot....

....and they changed policy.

Your book discusses some other military actions and how coverage changed, but the most dramatic example is in the Gulf War coverage.

The War in Vietnam was covered by FILM. It had to be shot, developed and then FLOWN from South East Asia to the U.S. or at least to somewhere where it could be sent by satellite (but quality was lost, so it was usually flown in). This process took anywhere from 3 to 7 days....THERE WAS NO LIVE COVERAGE from the battle.

The Persian Gulf War situation was different. That war COULD BE covered LIVE, and was in the early stages..... World Leaders were watching CNN to see what was going on. We were all glued to our sets.....NO ONE had seen war coverage like that before. Peter Arnett and Bernard Shaw broadcast from Baghdad during the U.S. shelling of the city!

The military knew they had to control coverage or valuable tactical information

would be given away. As a result, they instituted radically different policy. Hence:

Consider:

News professionals were very upset by the restrictions.  They continued to be upset when  similar limitations were placed on them during the War Against Terrorism.  The military severely limited any scenes of wounded or dead American servicemen or women and limited access of news people to sites and military activities.  Never-the-less, the war was a very dangerous place to be for war reporters and several lost their lives.  Go to CJR.org for in-dept reports  about how the war was covered, what the challenges were, and what the cost was.  Grim reading.

WHEN TELEVISION BECOMES PART OF THE STORY:

A new issue in the impact of news coverage concerns violence in news programming. How does that effect the society, especially children. Studies have noted that in some markets, the local news is the most violent programming on the station. Other studies have shown that children can have serious problems resulting from watching violence in the news, including nightmares, fears for their own personal safety, and general reduction in their levels of security.

Related to that is the use of live coverage in news, especially local broadcasts. When a man committed suicide in the late afternoon on a Los Angeles freeway, the local stations carried the situation live, and thousands of people, including children saw the man blow his brains out! That even caused considerable controversy and discussion about what the role of news should be in those situations.

In Com 310, you will be required to read Neil Postman's book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. He contends that television cannot adequate handle the really important and complex issues of our day. Those issues require a medium that is predominantly logical and verbal. Television by nature is predominately emotional and visual. He goes so far as to say that television should stick to cartoons and sitcoms and leave the important subjects to print media. What do you think?

RESOURCES:

Copyright, 2002

Dr. Janet McMullen

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Dr. Janet McMullen

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