News

Jackie Harrison

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9781134364039
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Lingue e linguistica
• Subtopic: Giornalismo

From an author highly knowledgeable in the field, News is a handy and accessible guide that examines the history of news, both as newspapers and radio, and as entertainment and information, and introduces students tothe key concepts and issues that surround the news.

Using up-to-date case examples such as the Hutton Report and embedded journalists, from across a range of media including print, radio, television and the internet, Jackie Harrison explains the different theoretical approaches that have been used to study the news, as well as providing an accessible introduction to how news is produced and regulated, what counts as news, and how it is selected and presented.

Topics covered include:

• introduction to the concept of news
• the growth and development of news
• technology, concentration and competition
• balancing freedom and responisibility
• regulatory control of the news
• making the news.

Written in a clear and lively style, News is the ideal introductory book for students of media, communication and journalism.

1
INTRODUCTION

News is more easily pursued than defined, a characteristic it shares with such other enthralling abstractions as love and truth.

(Roshco [1975] 1999:32)

THE CONCEPT OF NEWS: ASSUMPTIONS AND ANALYSIS

This book is an attempt to write the ‘story’ of news: what I believe to be its constituent features, its various manifestations and, of course, its significance. If I were writing the philosophy of news, the points I make in this Introduction, which is the matrix through which I conduct my interrogation of news, would be the book itself. However, given that I begin with what I believe news is, the rest of the book is hopefully a coherent account which follows that definition faithfully and, more importantly, reveals the story of news as it is today: in short its character, nature, history, purpose and value. To begin with, the familiar word ‘news’ belies its highly contested meaning. For generations writers and theorists have questioned what makes news, what is news and what function news does or should play in society. We all need and rely upon news; we have to invest trust in those who tell it to us. News reflects our need to know about contemporary events as they occur. We return from holiday and immediately check what has happened while we have been away. There may be a sense of relief if the events that have occurred and which directly affect us, are trivial, or merely constitute exciting gossip. Events which do not directly affect us may be of interest or seem important because they are significant in their own right (water is found on Mars), or we may empathize and perhaps send aid to those involved in the story (major natural disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones or tsunamis). Some stories can have a different type of impact upon us, becoming part of our collective memory (the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York on 11 September 2001; the death of Princess Diana on 31 August 1997). Some stories may merely entertain us for a short time (the dash for freedom made by two pigs on their way to the slaughterhouse; the rescue of a duck trapped in ice, or a ghost seen at Hampton Court). While this book recognizes that news can be selected and expressed in a variety of ways by a range of different news tellers, the focus of this analysis of news is concerned, first, with the constituent features of news itself and, second, with their impact on practice, namely what those reporting the news actually do and why.

This book explores the nature of news by analysing its deep characteristics or intellectual and practical architecture (outlined in Table 1). This analysis and its conceptual language is the way I exercise my discussion of the news. To be precise, news can be understood through its orientation towards the truth and contemporary events. In short, there is an expectation that the reporting of contemporary events which comprise the news is based on an orientation towards truthfulness, which in itself demands ‘a respect for the truth’ (Williams 2002:11). News journalism is therefore not necessarily concerned with establishing The Truth’, since this would require tellers of an event to know everything about it and to remove any element of subjectivity from their story. None the less, it is possible to accept truth as an aspiration, one which recognizes the value of truth through a disposition towards truthfulness. And while we might admit that the truth is impossible to attain in anything other than a forensic or scientific setting, although even here it is not guaranteed, I remain convinced that the aspiration to truth (along with an interest in contemporary events) is an essential feature of the news.

Those who select and tell the news have a different perception about their relationship to truth from those who consume the news and those critics (academic or otherwise) who analyse the news. Too often critics of the news fail to recognize this, preferring to criticize the exercise of journalism itself, because it ‘has always been a philosophy conducted with one eye on the balance sheet’ (Conboy 2004:19). In this book the constituent features of news (what news is) and the environment within which news is produced and consumed will be discussed. As Table 1 shows, the deep characteristics of the news refer to the different levels at which it may be analysed; namely its philosophical orientation, its dispositions and interests, its core values, its role in society and the impact these characteristics have on practice. By using the following approach we can explore both what news is, consider what news should be and also identify factors which shape the character of the news which is mediated to the audience.

Table 1 The deep characteristics of news and news journalism

As Table 1 shows, the news has an orientation towards truth through a truthful account of contemporary events. News journalism is the usual and practical outcome of this. The disposition towards truthfulness has the core values of accuracy and sincerity, while the interest in accounting for contemporary events has the core values of the here (space/place) and now (time). These four core values combine to define the news in terms of its practical manifestation and social and cultural features. And yet the relationship between these four core values is not harmonious. It is tense where, for example, the requirement for understanding contemporary events immediately is offset by the requirement to be accurate, or where the core values are particularly, or in combination, subject to vectors of change such as techno-logical development, the internationalization of news flows, increased commercialization and competition within the news industry, fragmentation of audiences, deregulatory media policies and so on. Overall it is these vectors of change that have had an impact on the way in which news is selected, packaged and consumed and, as we shall see, have provided the greatest challenge to the truthful accounts of contemporary events.

For the purposes of my account of news I use throughout the book the insight that Williams (2002) provides, which is that a disposition towards truth and truthfulness contains the qualities of accuracy and sincerity. I believe that the news has this disposition and that these virtues represent the core and professional values of reporting contemporary events as news.

To deal with accuracy first: it is not the purpose of the news to promote or persuade; this is usually the job of rhetoric and propaganda; nor is it the job of news to engage in fiction or deceit. If information is presented in this manner then, strictly speaking, it is not news, although it may still be called ‘news’ by news organizations and journalists. Where contemporary events are little known or understood but deemed significant, the news report should reflect that fact, as should all subsequent reasonable inferences that constitute the report. These inferences must be articulated as ‘judgemental’ or ‘best guesses’ and not as factual accounts. While facts and judgements can coexist in a news report, proper news reporting articulates each according to its status, and in this way achieves accuracy. As we will see in our consideration of events leading to the Hutton Report in January 2004, problems of accuracy, fairness and impartiality in reporting arise when reporters’ own judgements are presented as facts. Indeed, the most important of the BBC’s basic editorial values were defined as ‘truth and accuracy’ by the BBC in an internal review (The Neil Report 2004),¹ conducted in May/June 2004, following the Hutton Inquiry (see Appendix 1). Accuracy as a core value of news consists of more than reporting facts and figures in an accurate way, but requires that accurate judgements are made by those reporting the news. The ability to provide an accurate and truthful news story is also dependent upon access to information and freedom to report. To this end many democratic societies have allowed or even established particular freedom of expression rights for the news media.

We will see in our story of the news that a requirement for accuracy was established as a historical precedent which had an impact on the practice of news reporting, since it entailed the development of a particular set of skills and techniques to ‘tell’ the news. In order for a teller of a story to achieve accuracy, he or she also has to decide the appropriate amount of ‘investigative investment’ (Williams 2002:87) that is needed to find out as much as possible about a particular event, in order to deliver as truthful an account as possible. Today, accuracy has continued to be a core value of news and, in the case of broadcasting, also carries with it particular regulatory demands placed upon news broadcasters, articulated primarily as a requirement for their news to be impartial, balanced and fair. Throughout the book we will see how the important core quality of accuracy is both challenged and upheld by the historical, economic, social and political context within which news journalism operates. The development of trust between the news (mediated by the news organizations and news journalists) and the audience is dependent upon the extent to which the news is perceived to have the quality of accuracy.

Concerns about truthfulness also bring us to Williams’ second virtue: sincerity, which entails ‘a disposition to make sure that one’s assertion expresses what one actually believes’ (ibid.: 96). If a journalist (and/or the news organization) is trusted, then it is possible that the viewers, listeners or readers will also believe some or all of what is said. Problematically, while a journalist may not actually lie, an act which Williams (ibid.: 96) describes as ‘an assertion, the content of which the speaker believes to be false, which is made with the intention to deceive the hearer with regard to content’, a story may be misleading if the journalist does not, or cannot, express all elements of the story, or explicate any doubt and uncertainty he or she has. Actually reporting the doubtful nature of a story in all its complexity means that it would take longer to tell and may have little impact upon or significance for the audience. Journalists use strategies to make the story ‘stand up’, by providing accurate facts and figures and other descriptive information, and by finding sources who will make strong truth claims for and against the story. In this way the journalist can claim sincerely that a story is accurate, balanced and meets the requirements of impartial reporting. For very simple and straightforward stories, this technique is an effective way of presenting information quickly in an authentic and accessible way. The problem arises when stories are more complex, in particular when they relate to long-running issues such as war or conflict. While the audience is given the chance to decide which truth claim or side they take, this technique cannot accurately report complexity, doubt or shades of grey. The failure to provide the audience with a full and accurate account of issues and events can have consequences, as Philo and Berry (2004) observed during their study of television news coverage of the Palestine—Israel conflict. They found that ‘for many viewers, their level of interest in news related very directly to their level of understanding of what they were watching’ (ibid.: 257). Thus a story could be reported sincerely but inaccurately.

In order for news to achieve the core values of accuracy and sincerity, all the facts and information should be reported in a manner which provides as clear a picture of events as is possible. While this may result in a very long-winded and complicated tale, posing problems for broadcast news in particular, it remains an aspiration fixed in the ideal (and perfect) expression of news journalism. As a practical expression and style of news journalism it is obviously much more suited to investigative journalism, documentary and current affairs (Harrison 2000) than forms of news journalism associated with a particular emphasis upon the value of immediacy and the details of access (limited, partial or otherwise). Yet one of the defences of the growth of news which does not tell the whole story is that today there is plenty of information available to audiences via different sources if they choose to access it.

Sincere journalism has a disposition towards being truthful (and its associated core value of being accurate) an ideal best expressed through the cliché of ‘telling the whole story’. However, different news organizations which have varying news agendas will tell the same story in different ways and provide different degrees of background information. ‘Telling the whole story’ may well be limited to the nature of the medium, the news policy of the news organization, rules of impartiality, lack of information, lack of resources or time to pursue the story, lack of space to tell the story fully and accurately, and so on. Equally, failing to ‘tell the whole story’ may be about being unable to place an event into an historical context, or being unable thoroughly to report the complexity of an issue. In either case the sincere journalist will be frustrated, as will be the viewer or reader who desires an accurate account. For example, the problems that journalists face when trying to tell a complex story, such as the Israeli—Palestinian conflict, were summarized concisely by Channel Four News journalist Lindsey Hilsum:

There are two problems….how far back do you go is one and the other is with a conflict like this, nearly every single fact is disputed…I have to, as a journalist, make a judgement…I know it’s a question of interpretation so I have to say what both sides think and I think sometimes that stops us from giving the background we should be giving.

(comments taken from a longer quote in Philo and Berry 2004:245)

Problematically, a sincere aim to be accurate and therefore truthful can also be frustrated by a variety of factors beyond the newsroom and the news medium, such as the insincerity of sources, news management by vested interests, a political culture which attempts to ‘spin’ stories and so on.

As Onora O’Neill (2002:63) points out, there is a fundamental problem as to ‘how we can tell which claims and counterclaims, reports and supposed facts are trustworthy when so much information swirls round us’ in an era of recirculated news stories, public relations, media management and global gossip on the internet. The extent to which gossip, rumour, spin or different truth claims are resisted or challenged by those reporting the news has an effect on the type of news which is selected (what is seen to be important or relevant) and the way it is reported (which elements or aspects of a story are emphasized and why), and the extent to which it is researched and verified. As Williams (2002:125) emphasizes, one important element of the Virtue of accuracy… lies in the skills and attitudes that resist the pleasure principle, in all its forms, from a gross need to believe the agreeable, to mere laziness in checking one’s investigations’. Lies are the antithesis of news, but adding drama, exaggeration or sensationalization to make a story more exciting, or concentration on one particular event (often resulting in news media frenzies) that can over-emphasize a risk, or imply that nothing else of importance is happening in the world, is insincere.

Recognizing that freedom of expression requires the exercise of responsible reporting, and that the news is subject throughout the world to a range of regulatory environments (from the legal to the voluntary code of practice, from censorship to press freedom inscribed in a written constitution), news providers are subject to both particular, more or less harsh regimes or constraints, as well as a more or less imposed requirement to be truthful when reporting contemporary events. Needless to say, the tension between the former and the latter varies, just as the levels of trust which the audience has in relation to the truthfulness of the news provided by different organizations vary between different news providers (Hargreaves and Thomas 2002).²

In the British context, broadcast news is under unprecedented scrutiny by the new regulator OFCOM (Office of Communications) in its review of Public Service Broadcasting (PSB). PSB refers to a system of broadcasting which aims to serve the public interest and fulfil a democratic role³. It entails the undertaking of a range of tasks or duties which inform, entertain and educate citizens, to foster among them a sense of social cohesion, responsibility and belonging⁴. Central to these duties is the universal provision of impartial news and current affairs information alongside a diverse range of other ‘quality’⁵ programming. As OFCOM prepared to undertake its new duties on 29 December 2003, it indicated concern about the contribution PSB can and should make to the news environment, and has observed that ‘there are parts of today’s schedules which do not give us the shining glow of good citizenship. News and current affairs is (sic) an obvious example of where there is a tough challenge’ (Clarke 2004a: 14). OFCOM’s three-phase review takes into consideration news provided by Independent Television News (ITN) as well as the BBC and will feed into the Charter renewal process which will occur up until 2006. OFCOM issued its first stage report on 21 April 2004⁶ in which it signalled a rethink of the remit and core purpose of the BBC and its news provision, and its second stage report (30 September 2004)⁷ advocated the establishment of a Public Service Publisher to supplement the BBC’s PSB provision. Its third report (8 February 2005)⁸ revisited recommendations of the first two reports and highlighted the need for competition and plurality in PSB provision. At the same time The Hutton Report (see Appendix 1) continues to influence the nature of news in Britain⁹. The Report perceived a neglect of the core news value of accuracy and a lack of impartiality (amounting to insincerity) in practice, and questioned the relationship between the BBC and the government and its system of internal editorial control.¹⁰ This is close to saying that what occurred was that the need for and value of truthfulness, when reporting a particular contemporary event, was temporarily and inexcusably lost from sight.

To repeat: Table 1 shows that the news has a philosophical and intellectual architecture manifest in its disposition towards two essential properties: truthfulness and the understanding of contemporary events. I wish to turn my attention now to the second essential property of news, namely the reporting of contemporary events. In seeking to understand the constituent features of contemporary events, we need to consider the core values of time and place/space (the here and now) which, as Table 1 shows, may be used to think about the way in which news journalists engage with and explain the world through their assessment of how interesting and important an event is, and the different types and styles of news reporting and language that are used. The core values of space/place and time are important when we consider the historical development of telling the news in oral cultures through to the complex multi-media world of the twentyfirst century.

The story of news is one which has faced and overcome temporal and spatial constraints, allowing individuals to communicate across extended stretches of both time and space (Thompson 1995, and see Chapter 2). In early oral cultures news could only travel as far and as fast as the person carrying it. News from outside a particular vicinity or location was generally brought by a stranger/traveller figure who would invariably be greeted by a series of questions about what was happening beyond the immediate and known. The stranger/traveller figure would then inform the audience with an account of events from ‘elsewhere’ which occurred in the recent and relevant past. It was only by leaving their immediate vicinity or by acquiring occasional news from the stranger/ traveller that those living in a specific setting and oral culture could learn of the outside world. Their experience of news was restricted to its ‘simultaneity’; that is, news defined by its proximity or locality (Thompson 1995:32) or relevance (contemporaneousness). Overall, oral cultures’ news mainly comprised hearing about events occurring within the immediate locality and within a contemporary timescale; it was reported by word of mouth and was mediated by the dispositions and circumstances of the teller. Truth and gossip co-mingled, although we can reasonably assume that in relation to news the value placed on accuracy and sincerity was as high then as it is now. The news teller was unlike the Homeric storytellers who would poeticize a mythic and golden past.

The development of technologies such as the telegraph and the telephone changed the relationship which news had with time and place/ space, resulting in an ‘uncoupling of space and time’ (ibid.: 32). The ‘uncoupling’ occurred because the experience of simultaneity could be divorced from locality. Once news could be transmitted to different localities it became possible to experience events as simultaneous, even when they were ‘detached from the spatial condition of locality’ (ibid.: 32). Eventually individuals in many different localities could all experience the same event simultaneously (although it would be after the event had actually occurred). As we will see, the development of printing and then printed newspapers, alongside postal, transport and communication networks such as the telegraph and telephone, allowed news to be disseminated on a wide scale, transcending the constraints of geography and allowing news to become local, national and global in orientation. News could also be selected, told and presented in different ways. News values no longer needed to...