Is The News A Window On The World?

Is TV news a window on the world? 

What is this question asking? As we have looked at the introduction sequences of news programs and looked at the iconography of them they have tried to connote the fact that they are a window on the world and that they tell everything to everyone about things happening all over the globe, but is this true? After looking in great detail at what the news has to offer we can quite clearly see that this is not true. This because they will only show the audience what they want you to see and not necessarily what you need to. They hide a lot of the content from the viewer such as graphics. The content in the news always comes down to their news values.

How does the news portray itself? 

The way that the news wants to be seen as is unbiased, factual and impartial. I have covered this in a previous post linked here.

However there are some very strict rules and regulations which means that they are not allowed to be bias and fictional. To prove this is have looked at OFCOM and the BBC code of practice. After looking through these I have seen that OFCOM are very strict on their rules which state impartiality in the news.

These are just a select few of their rules against impartiality in the news. As you can see it states in section 5.1 that news has to be presented 'with due accuracy'. This means that what they show has to be accurate and cannot mislead the viewer.

The hierarchy of truth within news is to do with the level of reality within the footage. For example it can vary in anything from actuality footage to reconstructions. This contradicts the news saying that it is a window on the world because sometimes they do not use footage from that actual event they are talking about for example archive footage can sometimes be used in the background. All of this adds to the structure of a story and them not giving you the whole thing as sometimes they are not showing real live event footage and instead using something similar to back it up. Through this they are not simply showing us reality but instead showing the audience what they want them to see.

Why can’t the news be completely unbiased?

The gatekeeping process is the process from which news is filtered out, for example they need to cut down all he important and relevant events in the world into a small broadcast. This determines what stories get onto the news. These stories are justified by everyone from the journalists to the anchors. There are many factors that lead to a story becoming news. These come down to many different elements.

Firstly the news sources and the process from which news is gathered is important. These sources can vary in anything from live action to social media. News spreads quickly and it’s a journalist’s job in order to gather information on a story.

One of the most important things that will make a news story viable is the news values themselves. Galtung and Ruge came up with the first report on what makes a story good. They categorized these news values and explained why they were important in a story. For example for something to make the news it has to be infrequent, it cannot be something that happens on a regular occurrence. Another thing negativity; normally bad news is more exciting for the audience as tragedy is often showed in the news. This brings me onto threshold and ‘elite persons’. If something big happens like a natural disaster and has a large scale it has a good news value, but also if someone famous is affected then it is often news worthy. Other news values include; Unambiguity, Meaningfulness, Consonance, Unexpectedness, continuity, composition, Elite Nations and personalisation. All of these make a good news story. Other more modern news values include visuality, for example if something looks good it will attract the audience’s attention. This means that a story has some good exciting camera angles. Lastly if a story had drama, this means that it has a good narrative hence makes it more news worthy. A combination of all of these values make a good news story.

There are a few laws and precautions that can prevent some stories being shown. If a story is violent or gory then sometimes it will not be shown fully as sometimes it will be blurred out or they say that it can be distressing. Other things such as offensive material cannot be shown, lastly anything bias or impartial is not allowed to make the news as it can be either fictional or opinionated. 

Sometimes there are other reasons that a story will not make the news. A prime example of this is budgeting, if a story would cost too much to produce then it may not be possible to make. If a story happens when a team hasn't got very much money left then it is possible that they won’t have the budget to make it. This has happened before in the world of news when 25 years ago ITV failed to broadcast the Tiananmen Square massacre as they didn't have the funds. 

There are many different news companies in the world. This means that there is always competition between them. Furthermore the ownership of different news companies always has an impact on what is shown. An example of this would be Rupert Murdoch. He owned the majority of all the newspapers in the UK and hence controlled the majority of what was shown in the news. 

Other aspects that can effect what is shown in the news is when there is a late breaking story. If there is a news story that happens during a live show then they will immediately fit it into the production. As a result of this it means that they will remove one of the stories made for the show of the end of the production. This means that not all of the news will always be shown as they have then scrapped the entire story and replaced it with the late breaking news.

During a showing there is a lot of potential for technical problems. When these occur the production team have to think quickly. For example if someone is doing a live report and it cuts out they will either completely scrap the story and move onto the next or they will use archive footage in order to get the story covered. Unless the problem is fixed the story will often either get scrapped or cut down.

Continuity and editing within a story is very important. For example is they were using a pre-recorded interview they will often cut it down in order to make it flow better using jump cuts. Using continuity and editing the producers can add a fictional element and this turns an event into a story.

Often in news stories actuality in footage is not always recorded from a particular event. Sometimes they will use archive footage, this is but a representation of reality and don’t always show real footage from an event. This will often happen when there is a story about war. Archive footage from previous similar events will be used to cover the story. The choice as to whether they use real footage all comes down to the news values.

Conclusion

All in all the news will never be completely unbiased, it will always contain some impartial content and this will never change. It is almost impossible to completely show a ‘window on the world’ for many different reasons. It is very important however to have balance within the news, this is because then it isn't opinionated, this mostly applies when talking politics as on TV news they are not allowed to show their opinion as they thrive to be balanced. On the other hand newspapers can as they are privately owned. These days as people do not get there news purely from reading papers. You can catch up on news almost everywhere as a lot of news is now spread through social media. Because news is now both gathered and distributed through many different sources the consumer will always get many different views upon a story.

I think that the worst thing about the news on TV in terms of bias and impartiality is the news reporters and presenters. This is because they are made up of one very particular type of person. The fact that 90% of these people are made up of white, well educated, straight males of middle class and age from the south of England means that you will only get the opinion of a select few people. Through this it means that there is no diversity within the news. A perfect example of this would be SKY news. This is because of both its ownership and its presentation. An example of a presenter would be Eamonn Holmes, he has a whole separate program on this news channel where he is the host. The reason I am using this as an example is because he comes exactly under the description of the typical news presenter.

Even with all of the regulations and guide lines that are against news being impartial and opinionated the news with never be the window on the world that it portrays itself as. This all comes down to many different factors such as news values, sources and actuality of footage. All of these different elements mean that it is near enough impossible. The way that the news functions means that we will never get to know the whole truth about anything. This is because they only show you what they want you to see and they don’t give you the whole truth about anything. There are always some details that can’t be shown, whether it is down to protection, budget or structure. Because of all these different factors they can never show you everything.