200704190 News Analysis Dossier.docx

7/25/2019 200704190 News Analysis Dossier.docx

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COMM 2350Student Number

200704190

Word Count -

2841


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News Analysis Dossier

The broadcast journalism industry continues to be at the very forefront of news,

with research from Ofcom showing that television was the most important source

for news (6 percent! amongst "ritish citi#ens, with $% per cent saying it was also

their main source for international news (Thussu, %&&$!' ince the inception of the

"") %* hour news channel, "ritish viewers have had a viable alternative to brea+

the monopoly that +y News had held since --' .hen "") News came into being,

"+y" challenged their usage of state funding in an e/ort to maintain a stronghold

on the %* hour medium' Their stance was that the "") shouldn0t be using the

license fee to o/er a service duplicate of one that a commercial station had already

been running for nearly a decade' The appeal was rejected, and commercial news

was from then on in competition with public broadcasting in the %* hour format

(1eade, ---!' 1y research will show how, despite +y pressingit is as part of their

doctrine, the much heralded brea+ing news is only a small aspect of the

broadcasting' 2 will also present the argument that both +y and ""), despite their

di/ering codes and conventions, o/er only subtly di/erent versions of the news,

with the demand for viewership pushing both closer together in balancing the power

between audience friendly 3infotainment0 and the desire to frame the debate

through highbrow news 4 acting as watchdogs and ful5lling their role as the fourth

estate by serving democracy through informing the electorate (Thussu, %&&$!' Did


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the creation of a %* hour "") news station advance a budding new feature of

broadcast journalism, or does it merely serve as a replica of its commercial

counterpart

Breaking Ne!

72n sum, during fairly routine news periods, our study found that brea+ing news is a

fairly insigni5cant part of a news channel0s output' 2n many cases, a channel will be

5rst to a brea+ing story simply because no other channel has shown any interest in

covering it' "rea+ing news stories are also, in many cases, predictable, routine and

repetitive' 2n this conte8t, the 9uestion of who gets to brea+ing news stories 5rst is

not a matter of great conse9uence, and will ma+e very little di/erence to most

viewers most of the time' 2ndeed, the only people to whom this rivalry will ma+e any

di/erence at all are other journalists': (;ewis et al., %&&

;ewis et al' (%&&

misnomer of sorts' .here the trivial and routine are disguised as impactful brea+ing

news > whether this is in the form of an update from a reporter standing on any half>

pertinent location during a live two>way with the anchor, or the dressing up of a

staged event' ?or e8ample, on the 5rst day of news 2 studied, +y News labelled a

speech by David )ameron as a 3news alert0 even though it was planned, and they

had already promoted the speech as 3coming up0 in an attempt to persuade the

viewer to +eep watching as they went to an advert brea+' 2f you discount these such


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instances, and focus on the more accurate representation of brea+ing news as a

metric, that of a story being alerted to the audience as close to live as possible, the

results show that despite the boastful de5nitions of %*=$ stations (+y0s website

describes itself as 75rst for brea+ing news:!, they are the deviations from the norm

(+y, %&*!'

Over the course of the < days, only @ stories were 3bro+en0 live' "") reported 5rst,

as did +y, the other was reported by the "") but was apparently not deemed

newsworthy by +y and wasn0t pic+ed up' Of the two which were conveyed by both,

the average time between the two stations reporting was only < minutes and @

seconds, the di/erence on both counts being one managed to brea+ the news whilst

the other was broadcasting a pre>recorded pac+age' ;ewis et al (%&&

audience viewing habits as part of their academic 5ndings, highlighting the decline

in 3appointment to view0 news, with the nature of %* hour news appealing to

channel switchers who want to consumer news in smaller, convenient pac+ages'

This is reected by the composition of the hourly long segments 2 studied' 2n 6 out

of the & programmes, the top story at the hour was revisited around halfway

through, in two cases for +y, showing a repeat of a previously broadcasted report

of the same story' The editorial justi5cation for such behavior is presumably built on

the idea that the audience are more li+ely to watch according to their schedule,

rather than sitting through an hour of TB news every night' This is reinforced by the

"AC" viewing 5gures through the wee+, which show that the average minutes

watched per viewer for +y was - minutes, and < for "")' To put this narrow slice

of viewership into perspective, over the course of the < days, +y aired on averaged

@' minutes and "") *'@% minutes on their respective top stories ("AC", %&@!'


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On S"reen Sour"e!

One important part of my study was the calculation of on screen sources that were

used, as these can give an indication of what sort of audience the channel is aiming

to cater for, and what emphasis they place on di/erent news values' ?or this data

analysis 2 chose to compare how each covered the developing story of the

hilippines typhoon disaster' ?or both, it was their top story on day and % (1onday

and Tuesday!, and then continued to feature heavily for the rest of the wee+, but

further down the running order' As the graph below shows, during this period "")

showed a greater percentage of what 2 have labelled as 3Ceal ;ife tories0 > these

would be eye witness accounts, and personal narratives from survivors or bereaved

relatives of those who were involved in the disaster' .hat these on screen sources

provided was a social and cultural conte8t, as well as a more impactful message as

opposed to the parachute journalism of sending a "ritish reporter out to tell a small

segment of the story from a script'


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"") +y&

%

*

6

,&

,%

,*

,6

"")E -

+yE ,6

"")E ,%

+yE -

#$i%i&&ine! Co'erage( On S"reen Sour"e! da) 1 * 2

F8perts Ceal ;ife tories

Gowever, as the second graphillustrates, the attitude towards reporting ta+es a

signi5cant shift from day @ (.ednesday!, when both +y News and "") News move

the story down the headline order'


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"") +y&

,

%

@

*

hour rolling news, that it is rare to

see a story covered for < repeated days in any case'1olotoch and ;ester (-$*,


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much to do with ma+ing the news seem interesting and relevant as with providing

news jun+ies with an e8tra 58':'

.here there is a signi5cant shift in dynamic between the two is in the amount of

conte8tual analysis each channel o/ers' Over the < days, "") revisited a story

further on in the hour>long broadcast, in order to bring in an e8pert view, on

occasions, totaling nearly


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This is more reective of +y0s position as a broadcaster' Their %&&- 3The "igger

icture0 review reads 7.e0ve built a reputation for being 5rst for brea+ing news and

leading the way with innovation in news coverage: (+y, %&&-!' "") placed more

focus on reecting on news, brea+ing it down to educate the viewer, whereas +y

seemingly pursued a more immediate approach in getting stories out 9uic+er' This

could help e8plain why +y (@$! nearly matched "")0s (*! amount of di/erent

stories covered over the wee+, despite having less air time to do so due to advert

brea+s'

ardSo/t Ne!

;oo+ing at the pattern of topics selected for broadcast also gives an indication of

the di/erent news values of "") and +y' "elow are two pie charts outlining the

occurrence and fre9uency of the major themes which were presented in the wee+0s

news 2 studied, the categories of which 2 have adapted from the )ushion0s study of

news from %&&* and %&&$ (%&%!' On top of his speci5cations, 2 decided to include a

section for Gealth stories, which 2 concluded needed its own metric as its content

was never a completely a social issue, nor a political one' A further caveat for my

data is that decided to e8clude the weather, snow reports and sports rounds up

from my 5ndings'


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DhillippinesE @*H

)elebrity J FntertainmentE


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DhillippinesE @%H

)elebrity J Fnterta inmentE *H

)rimeE


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?riday to David )ameron0s visit to ri ;an+a, highlighting the country0s human rights

issues' hoema+er and Ceese0s Gierarchy of 2nuence 1odel can also e8plain the

reason behind the large amount of minutes devoted to the typhoon' ?or +y, it

might be at 3organi#ation level0, where ratings drive content in order to stay ahead

in a competitive mar+et place' ;i+ewise, the ""), whilst publically funded, still has

to justify its licence fee, and their %* hour news channel may face similar e8ternal

pressures to stay with the news that has captured the audience0s attention'

2nvestigative journalist )arl "ernstein wrote an essay in The New Republic, in which

he bemoaned the culture of 3infotainment0, 7.e do not serve our readers and

viewers, we pander to them' And we conceded to them, giving them what we thin+

they want and what we calculate will sell and boost ratings: ("ernstein, --%, cited

in Thussu, %&&$, p,*!' .hilst this may be an unfairly strong criti9ue when

ju8taposed with my analysis, it does provo+e the thought over how editorial

justi5cation is reached'

As evident, the results of trying to be more speci5c means that "")0s average time

spent on what 2 thought to be de5nitively 3politics0 is smaller than one might

originally e8pect, but the categori#ation is very useful in comparing hard vs soft

news' ;ewis et al (%&&

3tabloid0, which they de5ne as 7economy, politics and international: and 7crime,

celebrity news and entertainment: respectively' They concluded that the "") rolling

news channel, then +nown as News %*, had a more 7broadsheet news agenda: than

+y, which is, at 5rst, seemingly at odds with my 5ndings'2n terms of 3hard0 and

3soft0 news, or 3broadsheet0 and 3tabloid0, there wasn0t a large separation between

+y and "") in how each provides the two' Despite its stronger ethical code and

dedication to a more highbrow form of news, "") News actually provided more


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crime, celebrity and entertainment news as a percentage of overall output than +y'

The corporation can see+ validation from Lohn O0;oan, former head of News at +y,

who put it, 7there0s nothing wrong with providing news in a di/erent way to a

di/erent audience' The un provides a service to people who might otherwise not

read a newspaper' 2f they didn0t read a newspaper they would +now less about what

is happening'''2 thin+ the greater the diversity of news dissemination the better :

(1cNair, %&&-, p'@@!' O0;oan spea+s for the importance of being able to inform a

wide audience, to contribute to the public sphere and sustain an informed

electorate, even if it is through a process of 3infotainment0'

Con"%u!ion!

2t is diKcult to predict where %*>hour news broadcasting will be in & years' aul

1ason, journalist for the ""), wrote in %&&6 7Colling news 4 and here 2 mean the

concept of a separate channel and its traditional front>end studio format 4 is the

genre of television least suited to survive the transition to the digital age: (1ason,

%&!' '*$ million people follow the "") "rea+ing News page on Twitter' To put that

into perspective, that0s nearly two million more than the amount of people who

tuned in to watch the "")0s agship news programme, Ten O0)loc+ news, on the

?riday night of the wee+ 2 studied' .hilst the two mediums aren0t mutually

e8clusive, it spea+s for the ever increasing demand for not only instantaneous

news, but news that can be consumed at the audience0s convenience' +y News has

to justify its output to advertisers and shareholders, whilst the "") has to justify

spending part of the licence fee on its %* hour news service' As previously noted,

the average audience member will only view - minutes and < minutes per hour


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respectively for both channels' Despite the latter0s strong editorial guidelines, both

have a duty to reach as broad an audience as possible, whilst +eeping costs down,

albeit +y more so' As ;ewis and )ushion concede, there is little academic,

empirical study that focuses on the modern digital age of news, and the e/ect of

social networ+s, so it is diKcult to assume what role it will play over the long term

future' "ut if aul 1ason is to be believed, it could serve as a strong challenger to

%*>hour rolling news, especially considering that appointment to view news still has

a stronghold on broadcast journalism' Gargreaves and Thomas describe rolling news

as 33an important feature of the emerging phenomenon of ambient newsM news

which is free at the point of consumption, available on demand and very often

available in the bac+ground to people0s lives without them even loo+ing00

(Gargreaves and Thomas, %&&%, p' group respondents put it 33.aiting for the evening TB news would seem li+e

going bac+ to the dar+ ages' News 5ts around you now00 (%&&%, p'


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Bib%iogra&$)

BBC News. %&@' "")' ==@ >-pm 4 -pm

"")' %=&=%&' Mission and Balues' Online' Accessed Lanuary %&*' Available

fromM

httpM==www'bbc'co'u+=aboutthebbc=insidethebbc=whoweare=missionPandPvalues=

"ernstein, )arl (--%! The 2diot )ulture, The New Republic,Lune -, %%>%' )ited in

Thussu, D'Q' %&&$' News as Entertainment: The Rise of Global Infotainment'

;ondonM age'

"roadcasters Audience Cesearch "oard' %&@' Total iewin! "ummar#'

Online' Lanuary %&*' Available fromM

httpM==www'barb'co'u+=viewing=wee+ly>total>viewing>summaryperiodPyear

H


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;ewis, L', )ushion, ' S Thomas, L', %&&


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+y' %&*'"-# News.Online' Lanuary %&*' Available fromM httpM==news's+y'com=

+y' %&&-' The Bi!!er &icture Re'iew.Online' Lanuary %&@' Available fromM

httpM==www's+y'com=biggerpicturereview=responsibility=brea+ingPnews'html

"-# News. %&@' +y' ==@ >-pm 4 -pm

Thussu, D'Q' %&&$' News as Entertainment: The Rise of Global Infotainment'

;ondonM age'
http://news.sky.com/http://news.sky.com/


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Appendi8

"") News Day (1onday!

tory Cunning Timehilippines Ceport *'

200704190 News Analysis Dossier.docx

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