News Reporting in the UK as Inspired by News Values - Essay Example

News reporting in UK as inspired by News values Case study: UKIP Successes and paedophiles in high places and State: Date: News reporting is an art that is shaped by a number of stakeholders for the whole process to become a reality. Media houses target their audience with a range of news, while various agencies of government would want to be involved. The public is always the target audience where newsrooms have to present this news in a manner appealing to them. The public would want to have the news as soon as something happens; in a proportion that is balanced enough not to yield tension or rather breach the normal state of affairs in the society. Every society has a set of news values that outline the criteria that defines the extent of prominence a news story is afforded by a named media outlet, as well as the attention given by the audience. United Kingdom is not exceptional, and the majority of stakeholders can identify a range of factors that illuminate the newsworthiness of a piece of the media story. How a story is selected and prioritized is a matter of decisions made by key figures of the entire process, inspired by their intuition and experience. The success stories of UKIP and the alarming stories of paedophiles in the high places have been reported to the public while framed around the dictates of the theories of news values. There is a great deal of theories that attempt to describe news practices in a given social settings though we have general primary factors that serve as a measure of the newsworthiness of a potential media story. Firstly, we address these news values from the latter perspective. Dr. Anthony Curtis depicts seven news values held by media and newsrooms guards as, effect, unmistakable quality, auspiciousness, nearness, cash, clash and strangeness (Curtis, 2013). Impact is more about the number of people affected and thus the need to evaluate the significance of the media story. The matter should be important enough as the degree of consequence is an area of concern. The matter is considered newsworthy if it affects a large number of people in the long run. The reporting done by a number of media houses in UK regarding the successes of UKIP has portrayed this element. Columnists felt the need to share with the public the reasons behind UKIP’s success. Ed Lowther sites their immigration policies as the driving force behind their massive following (Lowther, 2014). He mentions the Farage effect; that’s UKIP leader, who feels that Britain should not be an easy home for all Europeans who feel the need to move in there. The idea of migration has been a contentious issue in Britain and affected majority of the citizen. The choice made by the BBC media outlet to site this issue underscores the impact and the number of people impacted by the subject matter at hand. Timeliness comes in question when a story is considered past or recent. A media outlet will perceive a recent occurrence as more newsworthy though is worthy to mention that past stories might resurface or something done in the past might be an area of concern if the facts are recently discovered. The idea of prominence is more about the person or institution involved. Media cover well-known people and are held as newsworthy as they attract more attention. The paedophiles stories regarding politicians and important people are considered more newsworthy than those involving ordinary citizens in UK. Jon Stone of the independent newspaper chooses to cover a story regarding politicians who were alleged to be involved in a paedophile ring murder at the expense of other stories (Stone, 2015). The details are a matter of public concern, but they wouldn’t attract an equal amount of attention if they a featured a regular every day normal British. Mentioning a past Conservative MP garners the media outlet more attention from the public. Proximity details the point of the occurrence relative to the position of the audience. An event, that occurs in the immediate context, will mean a lot to those close to that place. The recent attack on Charlie Hebdo offices meant a lot to Paris relative to London. News outlets spared more attention to Paris though we have to agree that other stuff happened in that spell. Paris residents considered this newsworthy though there were similar attacks that featured more deaths in Nigeria. News outlets consider something bizarre or weird as newsworthy compared to ordinary stuff. Something extraordinary and unusual moves something from in-between pages to the front page of a newspaper. It attracts more attention, and as lot of audiences are reached. A racist-homophobic slur by Mario Balotelli would run on the front pages of all British newspapers rather than feature on the sports pages. The matter is unorthodox yet involves a prominent figure in the sports arena. Conflicts will find more coverage than other categories of media stories. Controversies and clashes between individuals attract attention as media houses try to point out the causes of the differences as they take sides. The conflicting matter between freedom of speech and Islam has been an area of concern. Many news outlets have covered stories on opinions regarding the matter from prominent figures that matter. While he condemns killings and murder in the name of a religion, Pope Francis feels that freedom of speech has a limit when it comes to matters of religion. He jokingly insists that anyone would be up for a sucker punch if he or she used a curse word on his mother. Such an opinion will find coverage based on the facts that it involves a sensitive conflict and controversy, and the individual involved is prominent with such a big influence on many people on the planet. More so, we realize that matter is currently a world agenda, and the factor currency comes into the picture. The media outlets prefer covering matters that are current over past events. Johan Galtung and Marie Ruge’s theory of news values tend to underscore the same message probably in different words. The two argue that the events in the society are determined by our culture that is engraved on human actions, and the whole thing should not vary too much when viewed from a global perspective. The criteria used in reporting are more dependent on what our respective societies consider newsworthy. The news values from Galtung and Ruge’s work can be outlined as frequency, threshold, unambiguity, meaningfulness, consonance, unexpectedness, continuity, composition, reference to elite nations, reference to elite persons, personalization and negativity (Heworth Media Studies Department, 2010). The idea of frequency tends to pick out long-term events from short-term events. A terrorist attack earns extensive coverage as it is short lived, unlike a famine that comes and stays. UKIP’s success in elections is a matter that is seen as seasonal as transitions happen along the way (The-observer, 2014). Media outlets see the need, to cover their victory as that moment, is short lived. The threshold aspect is seen in the size of an event. A national election holds all matters at ransom demanding coverage from the start to finish. Galtung and Ruge felt that an event should not be ambiguous but clear-cut and simple to understand to be newsworthy. The content must be meaningful from relevance to the cultural perspective. It should be easy to think of familiar rather than unfamiliar when the audience receives the news. An unexpected event will earn fast and more coverage relative to matters that do not occur as a surprise. A story with some identified continuity will secure coverage for a period. Stories about paedophile politicians might be there to stay as long as much as evidence emerges. The news ought to be an arrangement that shows adjust crosswise over bleak and uplifting news, outside and household news. Tony Harcup and Deirdre O’Neill’s theory of news values tend to outline some features that make a story newsworthy (Harcup, 2001). They cite the power elite as one of the factors. Stories touching on powerful people are considered as newsworthy, unlike ordinary citizens. Paedophiliac politicians are looked out for coverage. Harcup and O’Neill believe that celebrities will be afforded more coverage over others. Matters, that come up as surprises, will be considered news worth. The thought of terrible and uplifting news is additionally lit up in this hypothesis. Some newspapers and media outlets have different preferences for the two. Harcup and O’Neill cite magnitude as another element of consideration. Stories involving more people have a bigger impact hence newsworthy. Stories considered relevant to the target audience have higher pecking orders. Stories, that the audience can follow over time, are considered over others. Harcup and O’Neill finally site newspaper’s agenda as a determining factor. Their stance in such areas as politics, social matters, and culture will determine what they report. News coverage in UK is more dependent on the above-stated factors. Everything is tailored along these elements ranging from politics, conflicts, terrorism, and entertainment to social affairs. REFERENCES Curtis, D. (2013). What are the seven news values? Retrieved Jan 18, 2015, from www2.uncp.edu Harcup, T. a. (2001). ‘What is News? Galtung and Ruge revisited. Journalism studies, 2(2), 277. Heworth Media Studies Department. (2010, April 13). Galtung and Ruge - News Values - Theory! Retrieved Jan 18th, 2015, from Heworth Media Studies: http://heworthmediastudies.blogspot.com/2010/04/galtung-and-ruge-news-values-theory.html Lowther, E. (2014). Explanations for UKIPs election success. Retrieved Jan 18, 2015, from www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics Stone, J. (2015). Politicians alleged paedophile ring murder could have been covered up, says top detective. Retrieved Jan 18, 2015, from www.independent.co.uk The-observer. (2014). The Observer view on the success of Ukip. Retrieved Jan 18, 2015, from www.thegurdian.com Read More