COMM-125 Introduction to Journalism

Section 1- Language of instruction English

Wednesdays 15:00-18:00
Venue: NEWTON Amphitheatre

Lecture no. 4

1

What is news?
The word news, to describe the things
journalists write about has been in use
for at least half a century, well before
newspapers were around.
2

News is the major function of
journalism, as well as a money-making
(profitable) product.

And it is always singular!
3
So, it is gathered, processed,
packaged and sold by newspapers,
news services, news magazines and
other periodicals,

as well as by radio, TV (free-to-air or
paid, cable, satellite, or IPTV), blogs
and websites.
4

News is information (information is
always singular too)

that journalists believe is important or
interesting for their audiences (readers,
listeners and viewers).
5

Thus news helps individuals in society
make decisions about their lives and
actions.

People use the news to help them
make up their minds so they can
function as informed citizens.
6

From the simplest and daily ones, like
for example

whether to take an umbrella with you
while going to work,

to more complex and difficult ones.
7

News is all around us.

Whether it is extraordinary events, like
the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack
8

or everyday occurrences such as the
weather forecast
(weather itself can make extraordinary
news),

news is an integral part of our
existence.
9
On a societal level, news is one of the
main ways in which a society examines
itself.

That examination provides an
important means by which the society
can find solutions to its problems.
Which society?
10

The open (democratic) one, in which
information is accessed and
exchanged (circulated)

with no or relatively little interference
(censorship) from the government, or
other organizations that control its
norms.
11
How solutions are found?

Through public dialogue and debate.

This lecture outlines and explains
SOME of the aspects of news. As we
explore the concept of news, keep in
mind a few basic points:
12


A. News is a construct of
journalism: That is news is what
journalism and journalists say it is.
13


News does not happen naturally, even
though it can inform us about a natural
disaster.
14

News is not just information. There is a
lot of information around us.

Besides we live in the so called Digital
World, or the Era of Information.
Some of it qualifies as news, but most
does not.

15

B. News relies on the experiences of the
audience to be effective:

Journalists assume that we can understand
what they are telling us, because we can
relate our own experience to what they are
saying.
16

Most people gather lots of experience as
they go through their daily routines.

These experiences are important to the way
in which we process and interpret the news
that journalists produce for us.

17

C. The more open a society is, the better
the news process works:

When information is freely available and
accessed, journalists find it easier to obtain,
interpret and process.
18

News consumers have more journalistic
sources to go for information.

America (USA) has created a relatively
open society, although the pressures to
close off information are constant.
19

The events of September 11, 2001, have
renewed efforts, particularly by the US
government,

via its secret service and social security
agencies, to restrict information and access
to it.
20

Such efforts and attempts should be viewed
very skeptically,

even when they are called for in the name of
national security.

21
News Values
What makes an event or topic news in
the eyes of the journalist?

The same thing could happen to two
people in two different places, and one
would be a news story, while the other
would not.




22

For instance, if you were involved in a
minor automobile accident in which
there are two injuries, the incident
probably would not appear in the
news.




23
Similarly, the deaths of 5 people in a
local community is newsworthy to that
community than the death of 500 people
in a remote foreign country.

This is because audiences globally are
usually considered to be most
interested in things that affect them
directly.





24
If the president was involved in that
same type of accident, it would probably
be the first story on all the nightly
newscasts.

Similarly, the deaths of 5 people in a
local community is newsworthy to that
community than the death of 500 people
in a remote foreign country,





25
The separation of events into news
and not news categories

is a function of what we call as news
values, qualities or elements of
news, i.e. those themes that have
been shown to strike a chord with media
audiences.





26
The evaluation and selection of these
newsworthy events, that will inform,
educate or entertain the audience

is done through a process of news
judgment (see role of intended
audience).





27

Nobody is born with news judgment.

This is something you must absorb
through experience, reading the media
and hard work.
28
While news cannot be strictly defined,
since
-no standardized definition of news and
-no reliable rule about what exactly
constitutes news exist,

because there are many variables to
predict...

29


SOME guidelines for sound news
judgment can be provided.
30


These are concepts that help us
decide what a mass media audience is
or should be interested in.
31

There are millions of events that
occur in our (globalized) society every
day.

And they happen by the second. As we
speak.
32

Those few events editors select,
sending reporters to cover them as
news

have at least one of the following
characteristics:
33

Impact/Consequence
Events that change people's lives are
classified as news. Although the event
itself might involve only a few people,
the consequences may be wide-
ranging.
34
For example, if the Parliament passes
a law to raise taxes or if a researcher
discovers a cure for a form of cancer,
both actions will affect large numbers
of people.

They have impact and consequence,
thus they would be considered news.
35

Timeliness
Timeliness is a value common to
almost all news stories. It refers to the
recency of an event.
36

For example, a trial that occurred last
year is not news;

a trial that is going on right now maybe
news.
37

How much time has to elapse before
an event can no longer be considered
news?

No single answer to that question
applies to every case.

38

Most events that are more than a day-
and-a-half old are not thought to be
news.

However, combination or follow-up of a
story, may extent its timeliness.
39

Prominence
Prominent people, sometimes even
when they are doing trivial things,
make news.
40

The heads of states are prime
examples. Whenever they take a trip -
even for purely personal and private
reasons

their movements are covered in great
detail by the news media.
41
The president, prime minister,
chancellor or king is a prominent and
important person (power elite).

Anything he/she does is likely to have
an impact on the country, and people
are very interested in his/her actions.
42

Prominent personalities (celebrities),
famous politicians, advocates of social
causes, powerful organizations or
institutions also make the news.
43
In Cyprus for example, the church
(organization/institution)

and the archbishop (head of it and
power elite)

make the news very regularly.
44

Proximity
Events occurring close to home are
more likely to be news than the same
events that occur elsewhere, unless
they have a direct effect at home.
45

For example, a car wreck killing two
people that happens on a road in your
home country is more likely to be
reported in the local news media than
the same kind of wreck that occurs
1,000 miles away.
46

We are interested in the things that
happen around us.

If we know a place where something
goes on, we are more likely to have a
feeling for it and the people involved.
47
Newscasts have a separate
International Section, covering non
local events.

Hence if two people die from Ebola in
Liberia, it might make the news, since
the spread of the disease might reach
our home.
48

Conflict
When people disagree, fight, have
arguments - that's news,

particularly if one of the other news
values, such as prominence, is
involved.
49

Conflict is one of the journalist's
favorite news values

because it generally ensures there is
an interesting story to write.
50

Conflict stories are very popular
because drama is an ingredient of
them

two or more competing forces, each
striving to defeat the other.

51

Novelty/The bizarre/unusual or
human interest
A rare event is sometimes considered
news. There is an adage in journalism
that goes like this: "when a dog bites a
man, that's not news; when a man
bites a dog, now that's news".
52

If a dog however bites a child to death,
that it is definitely bad news.

These events, though they may have
relatively little importance or involve
obscure people, are interesting to
readers and enliven publication.
53

For example, it's not news when
someone's driving license is revoked

(unless that someone is a prominent
figure)
54
It is news, however, when the Inland
Transport Department revokes the
license of that person on the basis of
being

"the worst driver in the country"
because he/she had 22 accidents in
the last 2 years. *see video
55

Additionally, what are we, as human
beings, most interested in?

Chances are we are most interested in
other people and how they behave.
56

Human interest stories cause
audiences to laugh, cry or grief, to feel
emotion.

If a little girl is trapped for days in an
abandoned well, that's a human
interest story.
57
If a dog mourns at his master's grave, that's another
bizarre human interest story. *see video
58

Currency
Issues that have current interest often
have news value, and events
surrounding those issues can
sometimes be considered news.
59

For example, a panel discussion of
doctors may be held in our university.

Normally, such a discussion might not
provoke much interest for journalists.
60

If the discussion topic were the latest
cancer or HIV, or Ebola fighting drugs,
the news value of the event would
change, and there would likely be a
number of journalists, from various
media, covering it.
61

Issues that have the value of currency
come and go, but there are always
many such issues being discussed by
the public.
62
The above taxonomy is the American
version.

We also have a European list of news
values, which even though is stating
them with different wording, yet it adds
additional information as well as
values:

63

Threshold/Magnitude
Events have to pass a threshold before
being recorded at all.
64

After that, the greater the intensity, the
more gruesome the murder, the more
casualties in an accident,

then the greater the impact on the
perception of those responsible for
news selection.
65

Frequency
An event that unfolds frequently, is
more likely to be selected as news than
is a social trend taking place over a
long period of time.
66

Unambiguity
The less ambiguity, the less likely an
event is to become news. The more
clearly an event can be understood,
and interpreted, without multiple
meanings, the greater the chance of it
being selected.
67
68

Meaningfulness/Relevance
The culturally similar is likely to be
selected because it fits into the news
selectors frame of reference.
69

Thus, the involvement of Cypriot
citizens will make an event in a remote
country more meaningful to the Cypriot
media.
70

Similarly, news from Greece and
Turkey is seen more relevant to the
two dominant communities of Cyprus

than is news from countries which are
less culturally familiar.
71

Consonance
Journalists may predict that something
will happen, thus forming a mental
pre-image of an event which in turn
increases its chances of becoming
news.
72

Unexpectedness
The most unexpected or rare events,
the greatest the chance of being
selected as news.

73

Continuity
Once an event has become headline
news it remains in the media spotlight
for some time, because it has become
familiar and therefore easier to
interpret.
74

Continuing coverage also justifies the
attention that event attracted in the first
place.
75

Composition
An event may be included as news
less because of its intrinsic news value
than because it fits into the overall
composition or balance of a newspaper
or news broadcast.
76

Reference to elite nations
The actions of elite nations are seen as
more consequential than the actions of
other nations.
77

Definitions of elite nations will be
culturally, politically and economically
determined and will vary from country
to country,
78
although there may be universal
agreement about the inclusion of the
US and Cyprus.

The latter because it is the center of
the world and the belly button of the
earth!
79

Reference to elite people
The actions of elite people may be
seen as having more consequence
than the actions of others, and the
audience may identify with them.
80

Reference to persons
News has a tendency to present
events as the actions of named
individuals rather than a result of social
forces.
81

Reference to something negative
Negative news could be seen as
unambiguous, unexpected and
occurring over a shorter period of time
than positive news.

82

Bad news (conflict of tragedy) vs.
Good news (rescues or cures).

Predicted, expected news vs.
Unexpected, or breaking news

83

Additional news values have been
suggested by other academics, such
as:
Competition (scoop)

Predictability (events pre-scheduled
for journalists)
84

Prefabrication (readymade texts, like
news releases, which are easily and
quickly processed)

Follow-ups (stories about subjects
already in the news)

85

Media Agenda/Relativity
The most complex and subjective news
value. Sometimes even when a story
meets all the tests of news, it does not
get published. Why? Because it does
not fit the news organizations own
agenda.

86

The lists are just predictive of a
pattern of which events will and will not
be reported,

but they cannot provide a COMPLETE
explanation of all the irregularities on
news composition.
87

Furthermore, identifying news values
may tell us more about how stories are
covered

than why they were chosen in the first
place,
88

since what exactly lies behind news
values, in terms of ideology,

is not always known and clear.
89


Remember this: news is both a
product and a point of view, even in its
most innocent form, which is the
mere recording of facts.
90
MUST include

NEWS SENSE
from Lynette Sheridan Burns book,
Understanding News, p. 53
91

Other Factors
Beyond these basic news values,
however, are many other factors that
affect the daily news menu, presented
to us as news consumers.
92


One is the limited ability of a news
organization to gather, process, and
present news.
93

Every broadcast organization is limited
by time and every newspaper or
magazine is limited by the number of
pages or space they have in which to
place the news.

94

Only websites are not limited by time
and space, but they are limited by staff.

Money and resources also constitute
limitations that plague all news
organizations.
95

Consequently, there are significant
events or topics in a community that
may not receive the coverage they
deserve, because,

the decision process of what to cover,
96
depends on evaluation, selection and
judgment,

elements that are different in every
media outlet for a variety of different of
reasons.

Ideology as we said is an integral part.

97
Why news matters? Functions of
news
News, essentially, is what journalists
say it is, as we have seen.

What is so important about news, and
why should anyone who is not involved
with journalism care?

98


Like journalists (as per week no. 3),
news also perform specific functions
for society.
99

The contributions that news makes to
our society can be classified into three
categories:

- information,
- entertainment, and
- persuasion.
100


These are not mutually exclusive.

Rather, they are intertwined and
sometimes difficult to separate in real
life.
101

The information function of news is the
most obvious and most important.

News tells a society or community
about itself.
102

It helps to define and explain ourselves
to ourselves, like introspection.

At one level, it simply gives us
awareness that there are people,
places, and events that are beyond our
personal experience.
103
One psychological tendency that we
have is to define the world in
relationship only to ourselves and our
experiences (short sighted).

News helps us step beyond ourselves
to broaden our outlook, our spirit, our
horizon.
104

Sometimes the news media are given
too much credit, or blame for the
decisions we make.
105

Some people believe, not wrongly, that
they manipulate us, into making
decisions on how to act

or forming our ideas on whom to vote
for, because of news reports we see or
read.
106

Advertising particularly, is thought to
have this magical power: we see an ad
for something, and we go out and buy
it,

because a subliminal message is
infiltrated into our subconscious mind.

107

However, decisions about what to buy
or who to vote for, are much more
complex and multileveled than that

and the news media are not the only
factors that help, or affect people in
making them.
108
They do contribute to a person's
decision making process, however,
and

the extent of this contribution is a
source of continuing and important
debate in society and media studies
(i.e. media effects).
109

The second major function of news is
entertainment. This function is not a
playful one;

it is meaningful to us personally and
has important implications for society.
110

Much of the news we receive does not
affect us personally.

Rather, much of the news is merely
interesting.
111

But, it is also distracting in a very
positive sense.

News, as we have said earlier, takes
us beyond ourselves and our egoism,
as well as our routines.
112

It allows us to experience many people
and events vicariously - experiences
we would not otherwise have.

Those experiences are valuable and
enriching, unless we are ethnocentric
and/or chauvinists by nature.
113


The entertainment function of news
has been a matter of debate among
journalists for many years.
114

Some journalists and news shows
have taken this function beyond what is
considered to be standard journalistic
practices

and have thereby - in the minds of
some - distorted the information being
presented.
115

One of the words for this is
sensationalism or melodramatics,

while a most recent word used is
infotainment.
116

The term means that vivid and colorful
aspects of the news are emphasized

merely because those aspects will
appeal to people and build an
audience for the news program or
publication.
117

The persuasion function of the news is
the most subtle of the three functions
but its importance is enormous.
118

As we discussed earlier, news helps us
make about our personal and civic
lives.

It helps us to understand the world in
which we live and order the
experiences and events that occur in
our realm.
119

News aids in shaping our outlook.

News can also help us decide what is
important, what we will think about, and
what we will discuss.
120

As such many social critics have
argued, the information we get from
the news media helps to maintain
social order.
121

Some have even gone so far as to
argue that news helps to control
society by letting us know what is
proper to think about and what is not.
122

Two crude examples of this were the
reactions of the news media and the
public in the days and weeks after the

September 11, 2001 in the USA & the

July 11, 2011 Mari Blast in Cyprus.
123

In the first example, much was said
about the goodness of America,

and a good deal of information about
the nation's problems and the
shortcomings of its leadership went
unreported.
124

Also, much negative information about
the Muslim religion and people who
adhere to that faith was presented by
the news media.
125

For a time it became appropriate for
many Americans to think and speak
negatively about Islam.
126

In the second example, much was said
about the shortcomings of the
government of Cyprus, specifically the
president,

and a good deal about the army's
problems and the deficiencies of its
leadership went unreported.
127

Similarly, a good deal about the
problems of the commercial banks and
the deficiencies of their CEO's and
governing boards,

went unreported during the financial
crisis.
128
Unreported were also the roots of the
crisis back in time.

For example during the 2003-2008
administration, Cyprus faced an
unprecedented property bubble and
perhaps indexes were manipulated in
order to enter the Eurozone.
129

Some people tent to see this
persuasive function of the news as a
great conspiracy

whereby the masses of people are
knowingly and openly controlled.
130

That would mean that a significant
number of people inside the profession
of journalism are there for motives
other than the accurate presentation of
news and information.

That is definitely not the case.
131

However, although we must recognize
that journalists are also citizens of
society,

who have also internalized the values
all of us share,

132

and who do have an interest in
maintaining the social order,

yet some mistrust does exist, as
journalists are apt to different kinds of
pressures.
133

Hard news: news of politics and
government and stories about taxes,
science, medicine, weather
phenomena, environment, the
economy and business

134

Soft, or light news: news of sex,
gossip, show business, animals, an
unfolding drama or offering
opportunities for humorous treatment
and laughing, entertaining
photographs.
135