Tabloid Television and News Culture: Access and Representation Project 180°: Tabloid Television & News Culture Wine & Cheese Fencing with Alex and Rob Project 180° (2008) 26 HBO 8–10p Award winning journalists Erin Robinson and Andrew Wood investigate the many sides of tabloid television and news culture (120 minutes) Erin Robinson & Andrew Wood

Follow the Road… Tabloid Culture Irreverent Coverage Two Arguments Storytelling

Huey Lewis and the TV News The word ‘tabloid’ has taken a derogatory turn for the worse Think of ‘Television News’ as a cultural institution which produces meaning

A WAKE FOR TELEVISION NEWS The ‘Lament’ for Television Journalism Television News is, and always will be, a business. Television News is overly dependent on images and sensationalism TV News traffics in trivialities/ deals with emotionalism

THE CREATION OF TABLOID TV

HIGH FLAMES & CRYING NUNS Television has critically undermined the relationship between democracy and its citizens The ‘Lament’ argument fails to…

The ‘Not-so-serious’ Serious News Recognize television news as a form of cultural discourse See how television news creates a ‘communicative power’ that can be used for ideological study

Think of TV News as a ‘genre’ film What has worked in the past, works today Treat the TV News program as a ‘cultural text’ It then becomes a cultural artifact

Gratuitous Graph Shot Advertising Rules Who won the game? Sports Fluff & Human Interest Commercials No News News Summary Advertising Rules Who won the game? Cat in a Tree Economic Collapse of the United States

Start to Take Away These Points The ‘Lament’ argument sees TV news in a decline, moving away from its informational model It argues that TV News can be a ‘window to reality’ TV news can also be seen as a ‘cultural discourse’ with a distinct communicative power By acknowledging TV news as a ‘cultural artifact’, meaning is produced through its images. This meaning leads to deeper latent messages concerning irreverent news.

Storytelling Techniques The Especially Remarkable Victims & Tears Communicative Power

Acting-as-he-never-does . . . The Especially Remarkable Holding Power Powerless Elite Acting-as-he-never-does . . . The power of‘The’ Triumph

Victims & Tears Mythic Mimetic Ironic

Norm & Agent Disruption of normal routines Accounts & Witnesses Newsmakers no longer narrators – merely capturing the story Overlapping points create emotional charge Impact Looking Backwards via remaining evidence, good victims and images that trigger sympathetic responses

Communicative Power Domination Making your fate Subordination Subject to fate Lived reality: Physical, Psychological, Personal, Social and Economic

This World is a Dangerous Place Irreverent coverage ------ popular wisdom Someone is always worse off…. Who dares, wins. Leave it alone Stray bullet story English channel swimming report

Token YouTube Clips Stray bullet story English channel swimming report

Questions Do you see irreverent news stories as important? Can they be seen as cultural texts? Why do we allow news to be pleasure-giving versus informational?

And now it’s time for …