TV news is supposed to be unbiased and it is supposed to be presented in such a way that the public don't think it is biased. however, most people believe the opposite. the main public opinion of news is that is is biased and too opinionated. The news is meant to be seen as a "window on the world" to show that its just a simple way to show the public what is happening around the world.
In the starting sequences the news tries to tell us how the things they cover are unbiased, true and what they think is correct. one way they do this is transparency. Transparency is normally shown through the letters in the opening sequence. There are other ways they show it in the starting sequence such as a transparent globe and other objects. here are a few examples of this:
The law states that the news media are not meant to show anything that appears to be impartial. This is so meant so that the public get what they need not anything that the news change to gain more viewers or if they change anything.
OfCom regulations say that "All news in any part of the service should be presented with due accuracy and impartiality." this shows that no media can be twisted to a biased side or contain any false information. i found this at the link:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/legacy/text_srvcs/part_a/89248
Galtung and Ruge - news values theory
Here are 12 of the most significant news values from the work of Galtung and Ruge.
Frequency
Short-term events such as murders are normally preferred over long-term developments like famine.
Threshold
The size of an event indicates its importance.
Unambiguity
The Events do not have to be simple they just have to be accessible to the public, this is normally done by the media simplifying them.
Meaningfulness
This is divided into two categories after Galtung and Ruge's familiarity:
1) cultural proximity in which the event agrees with the outlook of a specific culture.
2) relevance where events will be reported and discussed if they seem to have an impact on the home culture, especially a threat.
Consonance
this is where the familiar is more likely to be thought than the unfamiliar.
Unexpectedness
this is where it is the rarity of an event which leads to its circulation in the public domain; Dutton notes that the newness of the event is usually processed through a familiar context. it has to work with meaningfulness and consonance.
Continuity
once a story achieves importance it will continue to be covered for some time.
Composition
This is to create a sense of balance, this is done by placing gloomy news with good news and foreign news with domestic.
Reference to elite nations
Events are more likely to be reported if they happen in the developed world. the threshold system would apply for developing countries events to be reported.
Reference to elite persons
Famous and powerful people are more likely o be reported on since they are seen as more "newsworthy" than ordinary people.
Personalisation
Events are seen as actions of people as individuals. An institution may be personalised by reference to a prominent person within that organisation. here is a quote by Nick Robinsion the political editor for ITN from 2002;
"stories about Winona Ryder are just as important to ITN as stories about the leader of the conservative party"
Negativity
For the news and media any bad news is considered as good news. The threshold is much lower for bad news than it is for good news. This is because that the news get more viewers when they report a tragedy over a happy event.
The gatekeeping process
News sources
The media will only report news that is routinely monitored. They can only use stories form their sources, this means that stories that aren't popular and aren't monitored cant be reported. Only stories where there is a reporter situated and stories that other sources can report are included. Stories where there is no one to find out what happened and find out all the details are unable to be included.
Economics
Every story has a budget and some stories cost a lot more to report than others. If the story costs too much and it is at a low point in the economy there is a very low chance it will be reported. however if it is at a high point in the economy they will report the stories. most of the time the low and medium budget stories are reported with the occasional high budget every now and then. This will definitely play a factor in to which stories they chose to be reported and which ones they hold for another time.
Competition
The media will always use the stories that are popular throughout other media outlets since they are in a battle for more viewers. This makes the range of the news being reported very narrow. Because of this the general public are seeing a lower range of news and wont be able to see the more interesting stories that we wouldn't normally see. There are independent news outlets that report their own stories without worrying about whats popular but then their stories get used by other outlets because they are trying to be in competition for their viewers.
Late breaking stories and technical problems
Some stories occur as the broadcast is live so usually the show has to have stories added in as they happen and other stories are dropped for the breaking event. Also technical probelems may arise for example whilst they are filming live footage the camera could break and they lose the live footage.
using different sorts of shots media uses the continuity system in order to make their audience more entertained and increase the amount of viewers they get. They can do this by using various shots such as shot reverse shot.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the general idea that TV news is a "window on the world" is false. The news is meant to be impartial and tell the public an unbiased point of view by law. However, they never follow this. The news companies normally follow negative news that they present in a biased way in order to get viewers they dont care what they are delivering anymore they just care that people are watching.
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