News and magazines
Learning objectives
At the end of this module, you will be able to
explain the role of journalists in the creation of news
evaluate the information from newspapers, magazines and other news media.
Evaluating the popular media
Articles in newspapers and magazines are usually written by an editor, a freelance writer or a staff journalist. The main purpose of these publications is to entertain or inform members of the community and to generate a reasonable financial return for their owners. Treatment of quite complex issues may be superficial or tend towards the sensational. This is equally true for radio and television as well as the print media.
Making the news
Most people assume that the role of the journalist is to "find out what was going on and to print it". In practice, journalists almost never just report the news. More often, what they do is to make the news. Journalist rarely report everything that they know about a particular story. The process of writing a newsworthy story involves emphasis and omission, exclusion and inclusion. Each piece of information is interpreted and re-interpreted. Some "facts" are not disclosed and others are downplayed. Opinion is often used to fill in the unknown.
The problem of spin
Much of what is reported in paper and on the airwaves consists of media releases or statements made by public relations (PR) firms, politicians, union leaders and government officials. Most of these individuals are concerned with "spin" or putting their own slant to the news. More 60% of the new stories in Australian newspapers are based on media releases from PR firms. In some sections of the paper, this figure rises to close to 100%.
This is not to say that this information is worthless. Newspapers and general interest magazines become primary sources when used by historians and other researchers to reconstruct past events. Even the most misleading media release tells you the official position: what an agency or firm wanted members of the public to believe at a particular point in time. Successive media releases can illustrate changing corporate or political strategies
Journalists as non-experts
Another reason for caution when assessing material in the mass media is that most journalists are non-experts. Even when a journalist specialises in a particular area of reportage, he or she typically merely a member of the public. Medical reporters or science reporters are not doctors, clinicians or scientists. Popular reports of the latest cancer breakthrough, miracle cure, or the health benefits of drinking alcohol are typically sensationalistic and inaccurate. Take the example of journalists engaged in reporting on the political scene. Political reporters are among the most respected members of their professional. Through years of commenting on political events, individual reporters can create significant reputations, and a national profile. However, political reporters are part of the political process, and find it difficult to stand outside events. Even veteran political journalists are sometimes strikingly naive in their reporting of daily politics. They give typically greater weight to trivial incidents or the latest news story than is probably warranted.
An extreme example of the dangers of placing too much faith in the mass media is on-the-spot coverage of foreign wars and crises on TV. Reporters who fly in to foreign countries and then provide commentary on complex events after a few hours around their hotel pool have long been a source of cynical humour (an example is the character Roland Hedley in the long-running comic strip Doonesbury).
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Media WatchMedia Watch, a weekly TV program on the ABC, specialises in revealing distortions and errors in the popular media. Have a look at two recent Media Watch programs, Fact Deficit Disorder and Journos Sold a Pup. Look through the next newspaper you buy and see if you can spot articles which don't quite ring true. Stories of new medical triumphs or unexpected environmental hazards are frequently worth a closer look. |
Information and opinion
Journalist often distinguish between "straight reporting" and "commentary". The trend in recent years has been to blur this distinction. Newspaper reporting provides the clearest example of this trend. Most newspapers have now moved opinion pieces from the traditional "op-ed" pages to the hard news section. Major news stories are increasingly likely to be reported once as a straight news story and again as an opinion piece, sometimes on the same page.
The result is that what is presented as hard news is embedded in a mass of commentary, much of which is highly subjective. There is evidence that readers are finding it harder and harder to distinguish between news and commentary, even assuming that they wish to make the effort.
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Fair comment?If the above comments on journalists seem unfair, read the article below. How valid are criticism contained in the Belinda's Weaver's article?
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Media concentration
Media ownership in Australia is extremely concentrated by world standards. News Ltd controls just under 70 per cent of total metropolitan dailies in terms of circulation, and publishes the only national daily, The Australian. John Fairfax Holdings Ltd controls over 20 per cent of metropolitan dailies. Only one major metropolitan daily paper, The West Australian, is independent of either News Limited or Fairfax.
Although the concentration of ownership is greatest in the print media, the situation in relation to radio and television is similar. The number of independent stations and regional networks is in sharp decline. Recent changes in cross-media ownership laws have accelerated this process of consolidation. Most radio and television stations in Australia are now owned by one or other of a few large companies, including the increasingly aggressive Macquarie Bank.
Media concentration has almost certainly reduced the quality of reporting in the Australian media. The likelihood that the business interests of firms such as News Limited, Macquarie Bank or Fairfax will influence the content of their publications is reasonably high. Further, newspapers and other media outlets are rarely disinterested observers in relation to state or national politics. The editorial interventions of proprietors such as Rupert Murdoch or the late Kerry Paker are notorious. The New Ltd papers, The Australian in particular, have functioned for decades as champions of economic libertarianism.
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Weekly World NewsOne newspaper with a notorious reputation was the US publication Weekly World News. Under its notorious editor, the late Eddie Clontz, this newspaper gained a reputation for publishing the most unlikely newstories, with regular articles about BigFoot, secret NASA bases on the Moon and Elvis sightings. The terrifying thing is that tens of thousands of readers took the WWN seriously. The obituary of Eddie Clontz from The Times is well worth reading. Unfortunately, the arrival of the Web meant that a rapid fall in the circulation of WWN, as readers found alternative, free sources of fantastic stories. Although the WWN has folded, its Web site continues to amaze. Spend a few moments reading the articles on this site. What does it tell you about human credulity? How much of what you read in your favourite newspaper do you believe? |
Rules for evaluating the popular media
When evaluating material from the popular media, consider the following:
Has the writer presented a balanced view or simply the appearance of fairness?
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What is the likely source of the news story? Is it the result of independent reporting or does it come second-hand?
Are there signs of sensationalism or emotional language?
How credible are the conclusions drawn by the writer from his or her evidence?
Can you see any holes in the writer's arguments?
Are there alternatives to the explanations provided by the writer?
Above all, compare the information you have gained from the popular media with that contained in other, more reliable sources (such as peer-reviewed journal articles).
Summary
This module examined
the role of journalists in the creation of news
evaluating the information from newspapers, magazines and other news media.
 | Self-test Try these quick self-test questions to assess what you have learnt from this module. |