Zara Mahmood Tsay Vogel CM380 CHAPTER 7 NOTES Theory Chapter Notes Agenda Setting No way to present everything that has happened in a day Must select which items to cover and how prominently to cover them Select 25 of material to print Agenda Setting Telling us what to think about what is important Not telling us what to think telling us what to think about Narrative of news can also set a subtle agenda News programs and the realities of the media industry News success is also determined by ratings like sitcom or drama Must also try to maximize its advertising revenue o Increases the pressure to entertain Tell people what they want to hear and what will entertain them What Is News There is both hard news and soft news Hard News previous 24 hours and treats an issue of ongoing concern Any report of an event that happened or was disclosed within the o Event itself doesn t have to be recent o Must at least involve some new revelation or previously unknown connection Soft News slow news days Narrative structure closer to fiction and are most prevalent on so called o Human interest stories o Touch universal concerns and are less tied to place and time Characteristics of a Newsworthy Event 5 qualities of a newsworthy event Not all need to be present but several of them will be present for hard news The more it has the more likely it will be covered Primary Characteristics Personalization It is about individuals o Audience identifies with person and comprehends complex events o Lends itself well to photography and interview format Downside of making stars of people covered in news Failure to consider systemic issues Eg school shooter is a monster without acknowledging that bullying is what caused his her meltdown Drama and Conflict follows pattern of entertainment tv o Emphasis of conflict helps ensure coverage of opposing views May overemphasize the confrontational violent nature of story Infrequent violent events may be assumed to be the norm by viewers Zara Mahmood Tsay Vogel CM380 Nonviolent events may be neglected Important issues without drama may be underreported Action Contains action and some observable occurrence o Becomes the hook of a story can support abstract stories o Need discrete encapsulating event to convey the story Action chosen to frame the story can have serious consequences Immigration growth of crime vs economic contributions Novelty and Deviance o Events outside of predictable range of news will stand better chance of being covered if they are novel More strange and bizarre increased chances of coverage o Highly unusual events are the most deviant Normative deviance violation of social and legal norms Link to Ongoing Themes Social change deviance how much existing status quo is threatened Linked to themes of ongoing current interest o Truth vs appearance o Big vs little o Good vs evil o Efficiency vs inefficiency o Unique vs routine Secondary Characteristics of a Newsworthy Event Inoffensiveness Inoffensive or at least not blatantly offensive o Concerns about taste keep a story from receiving proper coverage 1980 AIDS Reluctant to mention common way of acquiring AIDS 9 11 Failure to address US foreign policy as partial cause of events Child pornography human trafficking public offended by depictions Serious story must be perceived as credible Credibility o Bizarre occurrences that viewers wouldn t believe are less likely to be Salutary effect of weeding out tabloid like oddities alien abduction reported Benign effect of media self censoring stories they believe public would not want to hear popular leader involved in corruption Sound Bites Story must be packageable into small pieces o Fit for brief tv news short online piece or print much more likely to receive coverage o TV news story length is decreasing The Local Hook Connection of story to the community o Much more likely to cover national international news if it has a local connection Important stories are downplayed missed because of a lack of hook US Media extensive coverage during immediate foreign crisis Very little coverage before and after o Forcing local hook can distort story Zara Mahmood Tsay Vogel CM380 Using interview examples that people identify more with skews actual problem Heterosexual non drug AIDS victims Effects of News Coverage Long after the events covered themselves what is remembered is their media coverage Effects of News on Attributions and Decision Making How the news is reported can affect our knowledge about the topic Extreme examples lead readers to deem events more serious frequent Amount of coverage about a country predicts peoples knowledge of that country Being repeatedly exposed to unbelievable headlines makes them more believable over time o Readers of news continually update their mental models of the content o Juror decision making is affected by media influences Media coverage of information about case Media coverage of similar crimes in the past Responses to Crime Coverage in Media News distorts reporting of dangers widely believed assumptions about random violence Patternless Young colored men are actually more likely to be victims o Aside from women as rape victims Pointless actually almost always some motive for violent crimes o Some rare exceptional cases receive heavy coverage Getting worse Most crime rates have actually been falling since 1990 Why are these assumptions being made Media reports vivid cases without referencing base rates and facts o Extreme case reported rather than how often these cases happen Fear of flying plane crashes Fear of road rage crimes Fear of being killed by coworker o Someone blamed for crime without thought of conditions Crazed gunman without thinking about gun control laws o Worrying about the wrong things Safe middle class sensational crime covered more than crimes in poor communities CHAPTER 8 NOTES Coverage of Political Campaigns Media strongly set the agenda that politics is a very important concern Political news can set more subtle agendas as well What is Heavily Covered Some aspects are covered more heavily than others Depending on how newsworthy they are Zara Mahmood Tsay Vogel CM380 o Major pronouncements receive press attention Formal announcements to race or withdraw Other types of strong statements eg attack on opponent o Major gaffes or blunders Sarah Palin on foreign policy can see Russia from home in Alaska o Colorful public responses to political speech or event Cheering masses and angry demonstrations o Meetings
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