News Values

Checkpoint 1- How would you prioritise these news values?
I would prioritise Galtung and Ruge's news values by ordering the ones with the most impact and affect on the way the audience recieve the news and make menaing from it. For example, Composition would be one of the first because the balance of the news.

Checkpoint 2- What is gatekeeping?
Gatekeeping is when a certain stance is made as the editors (gatekeepers) select and order the news broadcasts or the planning of the newspaper layout. It is the socially determined sonctructions of reality, therefore reality is not actually being represented due to gatekeeping. Instead, reality is mediated.

Checkpoint 3- What do we mean by bias?
By bias, we mean the one sided view of news texts as they are influenced by the attitudes and background of its interviewers, writers, photographers and editors. There are many ways in which news texts are biased inlcuding bias through selection and moission and through the use of names and titles. This shows that even through the news, the information is biased.

Cult of the Celebrity
Action Point- How much celebrity-driven media do you consume? Do you consume these texts in spite of the celebrity focus or because of it?
The only celebrity driven media i consume are films and particular shows which might have my favourite music bands performing or being interviewed. Most of the time, i do consume these texts because of the celebrity focus like the main star in a film.

Galtung and Ruge's news values in Wednesday 28th Feb's The Guardian

- Freqency: The time span of an event and the extent to which it fits the frequency of the newspaper's or news braodcaster's schedule.

- Threshold: How big is an event? Is it big enough to make it into the news?

Husband of special constable arrested over her murder. Nisha Patel- Nasri's husband Fadi Nasri was arrested in connection with his wife's murder. He even did a heart-felt appeal following his wife's stabbing saying "Obviously someone has got a guilt consience- they shall be worrying about what they've done or be shocked- or maybe it was an accident or mistake, or whatever".

- Unambiguity: How clear is the meaning of an event?

- Meaningfulness: How meaningful will the event appear to the recievers of the news?

- Consonance: Does the event match the audience's expectations?

- Unexpectedness: If an event is highly unpredictable, then it is like to make it into the news.

Prince Charles hating McDonalds food is quite unpredictable news to be put in a broadsheet newspaper like the guardian. During a tour of a diabetes centre in the United Arab Emirates the prince asked a nutritionist: " Have you got anywhere with Mcdonalds, have you tried getting it banned? Thats the key".

Continuity: Once an events has been covered, it is convenient to continue to cover it- the running story

- Composition: This is a matter of the balance of the news.

- Reference to elite nations: This relates again to 'cultural proximity'. Those nations which are culturally closest to our own will recieve most of the coverage.

- Reference to elite persons: The media pay attention to important people. Anyone the media pay attention to must be important.

The front page headline is "Brown camp fear Miliband after challenge on policy". This article is basically about the future of the Labour government after Tony Blair's exit this year. Two of Gordon Brown's oldest political enemies Alan Milburn and Charles Clarke said that more of a challenge should be held for Gordon Brown's leadership. David Miliband is the man to do this, although he himsef is not willing to, not yet anyway. Therefore, for a broadsheet newspaper, as there are no celebrity stories, the elite persons are top politicians like Gordon Brown.

- Personalitisation: This connects with unambiguity and meaningfulness. Events are seen as the actions of individuals.

- Nagativity: Bad news is good news in terms of what is reported.

Most hospitals unsafe for children, report finds. The healthcare commission said nearly one in five NHS trusts did not provide efective life support for children brought in for emerigency treatment at night last year. More than half of hospitals did not give staff adequate training in child protection, ignoring procedures put in place after the death of the child abuse vistim Victoria Climbe in 2000.

Nearly half of young downloaders don't pay
Jemima Kiss
Wednesday February 14, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk

This article is about new research which has found that only half of the 85% of young people in the UK who own mp3 players actually pay for their downloads.

It also found that the majority of people (81%) would rather listen to the music from their mobiles and some have downloaded straight to it. Social networking websites also encourage people to share music files, and the free content downloads was popular amongst teenagers as they rely on their parents' income.

Dr Liz Nelson said that the music companies aren't doing enough to understand teenagers ad this is the way to combat the free downloading.

There will be a launch of a new music download service called MusicStation which only charges £1.99 a week for unlimited mobile music downloads.

Comments: Illegal or free music downloading has been happening for a very long time and they have conducted research only now and found the huge numbers of people who download free music. Although it is effecting the revenue of the music companies and therefore the individual artists whom people are downloading songs from, i don't think they would ever be able to cut down on the number of file sharing websites and free downloading because people especially young people just don't want to pay for the songs. The MusicStation idea is good and it might work but i don't think it would be very effective in the long term.