COMM-125 Introduction to Journalism

Section 1- Language of instruction English

Wednesdays 15:00-18:00
Venue: NEWTON Amphitheatre

Lecture no. 5

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In the previous lecture we answered
two basic questions:

1. what is news? and
2. what are news values? i.e. those
factors influencing a journalist's
exercise of news judgment.
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In this lecture we will answer the
question: where does news come
from?

Do journalists smell news, like dogs
smell their food? In a way yes, hence
the journalistic adages "a nose for
news" and "seeing the news story
coming or the story to write".
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In order to prepare todays lecture, I
used different books as sources. In
academia sources are very important.

So are in journalism. Journalists are
surrounded by sources of potential
news stories or features.
4

A conversation with a friend, or a
conversation between two unknown
people at the bus stop,

a poster on a wall,

an unexpected juxtaposition,
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something observed on the way,

a conversation at a party,

or something read in other media that
triggers a memory or idea
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- all might result in a story if you keep
your eyes, ears and mind open,

i.e. if you observe, see and listen.
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Then you must decide, whether the
idea needs further investigation

(take notes, ask questions, check and
verify information).

This is the internal process of
professional decision making.
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Should I pursue (follow) the story?
Questions to ease final decision
1. Would people be interested to know
about this?
2. What are the news values attached?
3. What do I already know?
4. What other information do I
reasonably expect to get?
5. What are the facts?
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Finally, you reach the point of deciding,
Is there a story worth telling here?

How this question is answered is a
reflection of the sum of the decisions
already made about the relative values
associated with the story.
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Throughout, you have been making
decisions based on your understanding
of the audience, and the public
interest.
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In the workplace you also consider the
news values given priority by your
news organization.
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News organizations usually have a
particular Media Agenda and Relative
News Values.
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This relativity is not just ideological, as
we already discussed. It is also
practical.

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For example, some splendidly events,
like a firework display, are considered
more important as 'TV stories',

because the visual medium displays
the spectacle of fireworks to best
effect.
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Color photographs can also record the
images,

but they lack the sound of the fireworks
exploding

or the gasps from the spectators.
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Relative news values on the other
hand are stronger for print than for
broadcast medium

when it comes to disseminating
complex information.
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Print media can present in-depth
stories and analyses, including tables
and charts,

in a form that readers can digest at
their own pace.
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Journalists have 3 types of sources:
1. Stored (information in books,
reports, libraries, and so on, in print or
electronic forms)
2. Personal (people) and
3. Observational (events, places and
so on).
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Most of the information that a reporter
uses comes from personal sources,
that is, people whom the reporter talks
to.
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People have more recent information
than can usually be found in stored
sources, and journalists can rarely be
on every scene, when news events
actually occur.
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Thus sources are central to the
practice of journalism.

Sources are the people, places or
organizations from whom potential
news stories originate
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and the people, places or
organizations to whom journalists turn
when checking potential stories.
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Allan Bell argues that

the ideal news source is also a news
actor, someone whose own words
make news
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He lists the following figures: officials,
celebrities, sportspeople,
professionals, criminals, human
interest figures, and participants, such
as victims or witnesses.
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Bell points to a series of research
studies suggesting that, to a very large
extent,

news is what an authoritative source
tells a journalists; alternative sources,
including minorities and the socially
disadvantaged, tend to be ignored.
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When assessing sources, a journalist's
over-riding consideration is efficiency,
according to Hebert Gans.
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Gans says the following:

Reporters who have only a short time
to gather information must therefore
attempt to obtain the most suitable
news from the fewest number of
sources as quickly and easily as
possible.
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He has identified 6 interrelated source
considerations used by journalists to
evaluate sources of news.

They may be summarized as follows:
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Past suitability: sources whose
information has led to stories in the
past are likely to be chosen again

and to become regular sources
(although journalists could eventually
become bored of them, or the
opposite. or the people).
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Productivity: sources will be favored if
they are able to supply a lot of
information with minimum effort by the
journalist.
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Reliability: journalists want reliable
sources, whose information requires
the least amount of checking.
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Trustworthiness: journalists evaluate
sources' trustworthiness over time and
look favorably on those who are honest
and do not limit themselves to self-
serving information.
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Authoritativeness: everything else
being equal, a journalist will prefer a
source in an official position of
authority.
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Articulateness: sources capable of
expressing themselves in articulate
(clear), concise

and dramatic soundbites or quotes, will
be favored when journalists need
somebody to be interviewed.
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News access

The question of who gets 'on' the news
is important to considerations of the
public sphere, and journalists'
tendency to rely on official sources is
frequently said to benefit the powerful,

according to Cottle and McQuail
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Unequal access to the news has
damaging social effects, argues Stuart
Hall.
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Some things, people, events,
relationships, always get represented:
always center-stage, always in the
position to define, to set the agenda, to
establish terms of the conversation.
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Some others sometimes get
represented - but always at the margin,
always responding to a question
whose terms and conditions have been
defined elsewhere: never 'centred'.
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Still others are always 'represented'
only by their eloquent absence, their
silences: or refracted through the
glance or the gaze of others.
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If you are white, male, a businessman
or politician or a professional or a
celebrity, your chances of getting
represented will be very high.
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If you are black, or a woman without
social status, or poor or working class
or gay, or powerless,

because you are marginal, you will
always have to fight to get heard or
seen (you make bad news more often).
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This does not mean that no one from
the latter groups will ever find their way
into the media.

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But it does mean that the structure
of access to the media is
systematically skewed* in relation to
certain social categories, according
to Hall.
*placed at an angle
(see also Media Agenda and Relative
News Values).
45
Such media representations do not
necessarily remain unchanged over
time, says Schudson.

With change, black and gay voices are
now heard more frequently than when
Hall wrote the above words, back in
1986.
46

Tony Harcup points to the example of
the alternative press, via the web,

which may have prompted mainstream
media to use a wider range of non-
official and community-based sources.
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However, according to Manning,

notwithstanding that relationships
between journalists and sources may
be complex and subject to change over
time
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and that there will be occasions
when the voices of the powerless take
center stage - there remains a
tendency for the powerful to enjoy
'routine advantages' in news access.

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Access to information vs.

Access to news

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Primary definers
For some cultural critics, notably Stuart
Hall, the 'skewing' of access to the
media privileges the dominant forces in
society by allowing them to establish
the parameters of debate on social
issues.
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Politicians, employers, the police and
so-called experts become 'primary
definers' of events whose 'primary
definition sets the limit for all
subsequent discussion by framing
what the problem is.
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According to this analysis, journalists
play the role of 'secondary definers',
circulating the interpretations of the
powerful
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not because of any conspiracy, but
because 'the hierarchy of credibility'
reflects the social power structure, Paul
Manning adds.
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However this concept of primary and
secondary definition has been
criticized

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A. By Critchers, for neglecting the
potential of media themselves to
become primary definers and


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B. By Schlesinger, Manning, and Khun
for downplaying some of the
complexities of relationships between
journalists and sources.

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Catalogue of news sources
The sources listed will form the
backbone of any journalists contacts
books. Contacts books come in many
shapes and sizes, electronic or paper.

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In whatever form, contacts books have
one thing in common:

they can be the difference between
meeting the deadline or missing the
boat.


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Although not exhaustive, the list covers
the major sources used by journalists
to originate or check stories.
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How journalists first obtain, then
evaluate and finally present information
is a matter of judgment, leading to a
decision making procedure that is
affected by different variables
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For example possible pressures or
admonitions,

media agenda
65

and of course the negotiating and
struggling with your inner self (nature
vs. nurture),

that define your understanding of the
truth.

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An understanding that in turn affects
subjectivity and objectivity, impartiality,
neutrality and balance, common sense,
opinion and bias.

All these issues will be further
discussed.

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