COMM 112: Communication Theory Week 10  Chapter 7: The Construction of News COMM 112: Communication Theory

What is it? Is it possible? Objectivity What is it? Is it possible?

Manufactured representations What we read, view, or listen to is not a neutral account of the world, but one or more particular versions, or representations

News representations of selected events News Filtering Event 1 Event 3 Event 2 Selection Construction News representations of selected events Agenda Setting Theory Framing Theory

News makers, gatekeepers Who makes decisions about what issues are important to you? Journalists and others must select which events to cover and which to exclude- a process that is largely invisible to the public. By making such decision, news organizations act as gatekeepers.

Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw Agenda Setting Theory The mass media have the ability to transfer the salience of issues on other news agenda to the public agenda. Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw

Agenda Setting Theory 1968 study, 1972 published “Chapel Hill Study” Found a correlation between the amount of coverage devoted to an issue in the media and the level of importance attributed to it by the public

Media Agenda The pattern of news coverage across major print and broadcast media as measured by the prominence and length of stories.

News Values Johan Galtung and Mari Ruge (1973) identified eight criteria by which we determine what events to cover: Frequency (aka, timeliness) Amplitude (aka, significance) Clarity (easy to understand) Cultural proximity (ethnocentrism) Predictability (fits our expectations) Unexpectedness (aka, novelty) Continuity (aka, recurrence) Composition (“fits” with other news)

What is considered “most important?” Must be one of the first three stories in 30 minute newscast Must be “headlined” at the top of the hour on 24-hr. news Any story that runs longer than 45 seconds is considered “important” TELEVISION NEWS

What is considered “most important?” NEWSPAPERS Headlines ‘above the fold’ If significant art accompanies Three or more columns (or over 15 column inches) Corresponding attention on op-ed page

What is considered “most important?” ONLINE Top of page Multiple links Imagery Section header

Limitations of Agenda Setting? Who sets the agenda? Business interests? Lobbyists interest? Public relations people? Awareness of audience? informational needs?

Erving Goffman: Frame Analysis Journalists construct news by deciding: Framing Theory Erving Goffman: Frame Analysis Journalists construct news by deciding: what facts to include or emphasize what sources to interview/include what words and images to use These choices combine to create a frame. Frames: supports the story determines what belongs inside tells the audience what is important

Framing Theory

Framing Theory

Framing

What was the media’s agenda today? Class Exercise What was the media’s agenda today?

Next Time: Teach-a-Theory workshop!