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8/10/2019 Week 4: The functions and values of news
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COMM-125 Introduction to Journalism
Section 1- Language of instruction English
Wednesdays 15:00-18:00
Venue: NEWTON Amphitheatre
Lecture no. 4
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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.
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News is the major function of
journalism, as well as a money-making
(profitable) product.
And it is always singular!
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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), blogsand websites.
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News is information (information is
always singular too)
that journalists believe is important or
interesting for their audiences (readers,
listeners and viewers).
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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 canfunction as informed citizens.
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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.
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News is all around us.
Whether it is extraordinary events, like
the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack
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or everyday occurrences such as the
weather forecast
(weather itself can make extraordinary
news),
news is an integral part of ourexistence.
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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?
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The open (democratic) one, in which
information is accessed and
exchanged (circulated)
with no or relatively little interference
(censorship) from the government, orother organizations that control its
norms.
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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 inmind a few basic points:
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A. News is a construct of
journalism: That is news is whatjournalism and journalists say it is.
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News does not happen naturally, even
though it can inform us about a naturaldisaster.
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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 mostdoes not.
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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 aresaying.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 accessto it.
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Such efforts and attempts should be viewed
very skeptically,
even when they are called for in the name of
nationalsecurity.
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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 otherwould not.
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For instance, if you were involved in a
minor automobile accident in which
there are two injuries, the incidentprobably would not appear in the
news.
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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.
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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,
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The separation of events into news
and notnewscategories
is a function of what we call as newsvalues, qualities or elements of
news, i.e. those themes that have
been shown to strike a chord with media
audiences.
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The evaluation and selectionof these
newsworthy events, that will inform,
educate or entertain the audience
is done through a process of news
judgment (see role of intended
audience).
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Nobody is born with news judgment.
This is something you must absorb
through experience, reading the media
and hard work.
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While newscannot be strictly defined,
since
-no standardized definition of news and
-no reliable rule about what exactlyconstitutes news exist,
because there are many variables topredict...
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SOME guidelines for sound news
judgment can be provided.
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These are concepts that help us
decide what a mass media audience isor should be interested in.
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Those few events editors select,
sending reporters to cover them as
news
have at least one of the following
characteristics:
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Impact/Consequence
Events that change people's lives are
classified as news. Although the eventitself might involve only a few people,
the consequences may be wide-
ranging.
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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 numbersof people.
They have impact and consequence,
thus they would be considered news.
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Timeliness
Timeliness is a value common to
almost all news stories. It refers to therecency of an event.
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For example, a trial that occurred last
year is not news;
a trial that is going on right now maybe
news.
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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.
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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.
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Prominence
Prominent people, sometimes even
when they are doing trivial things,make news.
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The heads of states are prime
examples. Whenever they take a trip -
even for purely personal and privatereasons
their movements are covered in greatdetail by the news media.
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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.
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Prominent personalities (celebrities),
famous politicians, advocates of social
causes, powerful organizations orinstitutions also make the news.
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In Cyprus for example, the church
(organization/institution)
and the archbishop (head of it andpower elite)
make the news very regularly.
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Proximity
Events occurring close to home are
more likely to be news than the sameevents that occur elsewhere, unless
they have a direct effect at home.
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For example, a car wreck killing two
people that happens on a road in your
home country is more likely to bereported in the local news media than
the same kind of wreck that occurs
1,000 miles away.
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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.
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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.
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Conflict
When people disagree, fight, have
arguments - that's news,
particularly if one of the other news
values, such as prominence, isinvolved.
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Conflict is one of the journalist's
favorite news values
because it generally ensures there is
an interesting story to write.
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Conflict stories are very popular
because drama is an ingredient of
them
two or more competing forces, each
striving to defeat the other.
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Novelty/The bizarre/unusual or
human interest
A rare event is sometimes considerednews. 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".
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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.
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For example, it's not news when
someone's driving license is revoked
(unless that someone is a prominent
figure)
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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
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Additionally, what are we, as human
beings, most interested in?
Chances are we are most interested in
other people and how they behave.
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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.
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If a dog mourns at his master's grave, that's another
bizarre human interest story. *see video
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Currency
Issues that have current interest often
have news value, and eventssurrounding those issues can
sometimes be considered news.
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For example, a panel discussion of
doctors may be held in our university.
Normally, such a discussion might not
provoke much interest for journalists.
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If the discussion topic were the latest
cancer or HIV, or Ebola fighting drugs,
the news value of the event wouldchange, and there would likely be a
number of journalists, from various
media, covering it.
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Issues that have the value of currency
come and go, but there are always
many such issues being discussed bythe public.
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The above taxonomy is the American
version.
We also have a European list of newsvalues, which even though is stating
them with different wording, yet it adds
additional information as well as
values:
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Threshold/Magnitude
Events have to pass a threshold before
being recorded at all.
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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.
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Frequency
An event that unfolds frequently, is
more likely to be selected as news thanis a social trend taking place over a
long period of time.
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Unambiguity
The less ambiguity, the less likely an
event is to become news. The moreclearly an event can be understood,
and interpreted, without multiple
meanings, the greater the chance of it
being selected.
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Meaningfulness/Relevance
The culturally similar is likely to be
selected because it fits into the newsselectorsframe of reference.
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Thus, the involvement of Cypriot
citizens will make an event in a remote
country more meaningful to the Cypriotmedia.
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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.
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Consonance
Journalists may predict that something
will happen, thus forming a mentalpre-image of an event which in turn
increases its chances of becoming
news.
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Unexpectedness
The most unexpected or rare events,
the greatest the chance of beingselected as news.
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Continuity
Once an event has become headline
news it remains in the media spotlightfor some time, because it has become
familiar and therefore easier to
interpret.
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Continuing coverage also justifies the
attention that event attracted in the first
place.
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Composition
An event may be included as news
less because of its intrinsic news valuethan because it fits into the overall
composition or balance of a newspaper
or news broadcast.
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Reference to elite nations
The actions of elite nations are seen as
more consequential than the actions ofother nations.
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Definitions of elite nations will be
culturally, politically and economically
determined and will vary from countryto country,
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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!
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Reference to elite people
The actions of elite people may be
seen as having more consequencethan the actions of others, and the
audience may identify with them.
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Reference to persons
News has a tendency to present
events as the actions of namedindividuals rather than a result of social
forces.
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Reference to something negative
Negative news could be seen as
unambiguous, unexpected andoccurring over a shorter period of time
than positive news.
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Bad news (conflict of tragedy) vs.
Good news (rescues or cures).
Predicted, expected news vs.
Unexpected, or breaking news
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Additional news values have been
suggested by other academics, such
as:Competition(scoop)
Predictability (events pre-scheduledfor journalists)
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Prefabrication (readymade texts, like
news releases, which are easily and
quickly processed)
Follow-ups (stories about subjects
already in the news)
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Media Agenda/Relativity
The most complex and subjective news
value. Sometimes even when a storymeets all the tests of news, it does not
get published. Why? Because it does
not fit the news organizations own
agenda.
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The lists are just predictive of a
patternof which events will and will not
be reported,
but they cannot provide a COMPLETE
explanation of all the irregularities on
news composition.
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Furthermore, identifying news values
may tell us more about howstories are
covered
than whythey were chosen in the first
place,
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since what exactly lies behind news
values, in terms of ideology,
is not always known and clear.
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Remember this: news is both a
product and a point of view, even in itsmost innocent form, which is the
mere recording of facts.
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MUST include
NEWS SENSE
from Lynette Sheridan Burns book,Understanding News, p. 53
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Other Factors
Beyond these basic news values,
however, are many other factors thataffect the daily news menu, presented
to us as news consumers.
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One is the limited ability of a news
organization to gather, process, andpresent news.
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Every broadcast organization is limited
by time and every newspaper or
magazine is limited by the number ofpages or space they have in which to
place the news.
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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.
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Consequently, there are significant
events or topics in a community that
may not receive the coverage theydeserve, because,
the decision process of what to cover,
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depends on evaluation, selection andjudgment,
elements that are different in everymedia outlet for a variety of different of
reasons.
Ideology as we said is an integral part.
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Why news matters? Functions ofnews
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?
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Like journalists (as per week no. 3),
news also perform specific functionsfor society.
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The contributions that news makes to
our society can be classified into three
categories:
- information,
- entertainment, and
- persuasion.
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These are not mutually exclusive.
Rather, they are intertwined and
sometimes difficult to separate in real
life.
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The information function of news is the
most obvious and most important.
News tells a society or community
about itself.
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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.
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One psychological tendency that wehave 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.
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Sometimes the news media are given
too much credit, or blame for the
decisions we make.
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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.
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Advertising particularly, is thought to
have this magical power: we see an ad
for something, and we go out and buyit,
because a subliminal message is
infiltrated into our subconscious mind.
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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.
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They do contribute to a person'sdecision 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).
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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.
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Much of the news we receive does not
affect us personally.
Rather, much of the news is merely
interesting.
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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.
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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.
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The entertainment function of news
has been a matter of debate amongjournalists for many years.
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Some journalists and news shows
have taken this function beyond what is
considered to be standard journalisticpractices
and have thereby - in the minds of
some - distorted the information beingpresented.
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One of the words for this is
sensationalism or melodramatics,
while a most recent word used is
in fota inment.
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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.
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The persuasion function of the news is
the most subtle of the three functions
but its importance is enormous.
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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 inour realm.
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News aids in shaping our outlook.
News can also help us decide what isimportant, what we will think about, and
what we will discuss.
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As such many social critics have
argued, the information we get from
the news media helps to maintainsocial order.
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Some have even gone so far as to
argue that news helps to control
society by letting us know what isproper to think about and what is not.
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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.
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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.
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Also, much negative information about
the Muslim religion and people who
adhere to that faith was presented bythe news media.
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For a time it became appropriate for
many Americans to think and speak
negatively about Islam.
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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 itsleadership went unreported.
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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.
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Unreported were also the roots of thecrisis back in time.
For example during the 2003-2008administration, Cyprus faced an
unprecedented property bubble and
perhaps indexes were manipulated in
order to enter the Eurozone.
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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.
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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.
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However, although we must recognize
that journalists are also citizens of
society,
who have also internalized the values
all of us share,
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Hard news: news of politics and
government and stories about taxes,
science, medicine, weather
phenomena, environment, the
economy and business
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Soft, or light news: news of sex,
gossip, show business, animals, an
unfolding drama or offering
opportunities for humorous treatment
and laughing, entertaining
photographs.