Lecture 11: Agenda Setting

Agenda setting in journalism is reality constructed, or mediated, by social life. The four areas are public, policy, corporate and media. Public refers to topics the public place importance on, policy is the issues decision makers think are important, issues big businesses and corporations believe are important come under corporate and media relates to the issues discussed in the media. These four areas are all integrated.

The mass media not only report events, but also filters and shapes it to fit a particular mould. Through media concentration on a few issues, the public perceives these issues as having a higher importance than they possibly do. For example, the media frenzy over Alan Jones’ comments, instead of perhaps focusing on the more important issues that are happening in the Middle East. The idea of agenda setting has been around for a while; in the 1920s, there was the concept of a ‘Magic Bullet’ that injected direct influence into the audience. Adolf Hitler and Leni Riefenstahl successfully used images to manipulate German perception of Hitler as a great leader and in 1968 during the US presidential campaign it was researched that an undecided voter could be persuaded by the mass medias emphasis on certain topics.

The agenda setting family has seven parts, these are media gate keeping, media advocacy, agenda cutting, agenda setting ‘bandwagon’, the diffusion of news, portray of an issue and media dependence.

1)      Media gate keeping: “How individuals control the flow of messages through a communication channel.” For example in the US Fox is more of a right wing station and thus is more likely to promote Mitt Romney in this years presidential campaign

2)      Media advocacy: the purposeful promotion of a message through the media, e.g. health issues like smoking, obesity, binge drinking

3)      Agenda cutting: a lot of the truth of reality that is going on th the world isn’t represented, for example, AIDS is on the increase but this huge issues has taken a backseat to other news events as it is not desirable to the public and not as enticing to the majority of society than Justin Beiber’s haircut

4)      Agenda setting ‘bandwagon’: when the media follows the current trend or ‘surfs’ the wave of topics bought up in different media spheres. Two such events this year are the Kony 2012 campaign and more recently the PSY ‘Gangnam Style’ song and dance

5)      Diffusion of news: the process through which an important event is communicated to the public i.e., how, where and when news is released

6)      Portray of an issue: the way an issue is portrayed is often how the public, or the uneducated part of the public, perceives it

7)      Media dependence: the more dependant a person is on media for information the more susceptible that person becomes.

 

One example of agenda setting is the prevalence of climate change in the news over the past 25 years. Referred to as the “Greenhouse Effect” in 1988 by The Age the same concept is now know as climate change, and is still an issue that is often raised in the media.

This Summer: Shirts and Jumpsuits

It looks like cropped shirts are going to be a big trend this summer, which I love, a loose cropped shirt is perfect when paired with cute high waisted pants. The one problem with crops, as with many pieces of clothing, is that just because it looks great on lots of people does not mean it will look great on everyone! It is always best to be selective about what you wear. Along with crops, I really like the look of loose singlets tucked into cute pants. I find that its best to use cheap boys shirts, as you can cut them to better suit a female body, but without lookling like you can't choose a size that fits you. Also, male shirts have more interesting images than female shirts, but please steer clear of the tacky naked women prints! In my opinion it looks better mixing a males singlet with cute shorts, rather than looking like a floral pattern projectile vomited all over your clothes.
 

My favourite summer outfit is the jumpsuit; it takes all the difficulty out of matching shirts and pants and can be dressed up or down. Unfortunately, I haven’t found many jumpsuits out yet but I am hoping that is only because we are in early spring. The main jumpsuit that I want this season is all black with a singlet top and long pants, nipped in at the waist and tailored around the crotch, as no one really wants to look like MC Hammer. The only downfall of jumpsuits is the potential of going overboard with a print that is too bold, it’s possible your outfit may just assault the eyes of anyone that sees you. I find that block colours or prints with minimal print, eg the middle two images below, work best.

Lecture 9: News Values

The definition of news values is “the degree of prominence a media outlet gives to a story and the attention that is paid by an audience.” But does news have value to the audience? Arthur Evelyn Waugh said, “News is what a chap who doesn’t care much about anything wants to read. And its only news until he's read it. After that it’s dead.” Although I do not totally agree with Waugh’s point of view, it sometimes seems to me that many news outlets record events that those that do not care about much will read.

When deciding on what news stories take precedence three main areas come into practice. Firstly, the impact, will the audience be absorbed by the story. Secondly, audience, a sports program on a local channel will most likely broadcast the sources of local teams. Thirdly, identification, events and stories in areas of culture of interest to the audience. The other to areas that are important to news values are pragmatics, and source influence. It is important to note that news values will not be the same across different countries and cultures as the audience’s interests will change.



Galtung's 12 Factors

Professor Johan Galtung came up with the twelve factors of newsworthiness. From these factors, he hypothesised that the more factors and event satisfied the higher the probiblity of it becoming news. Over time Galtung’s factors have slightly changed, or been made more concise but the same hypothesis stands. As Bruce mentioned in the lecture the current factors that often secure a place on the news are terrorism, the Global Financial Crisis, health, fitness and diet and the environment. 

Galtung's 12 Factors

One phrase Dr Redman bought up was ‘if it bleeds it leads.’ I recently read that crime in Queensland and Australia wide is decreasing, but if the news was anything to go by it could be assumed that it was on the rise. This could partly be attributed to the for mentioned phrase. While I think it is important to publicise crime, and crime rates as to keep the public aware, it is unnecessary to create a public dominated by fear, similar to that in America.

Lecture 8: Ethics in Communication

Lecturer and former TV reporter Donna Meiklejohn presented the ‘Ethics in Communication’ lecture, which I found interesting. Donna showed a series of advertisements at the beginning of the lecture, and asked whether anyone found them offensive. I personally did not think any of the ads were offensive, but it is possible to see that quite a few would have been off putting for other groups in society. I found some very clever, such as Air Asia’s “Cheap enough to say, Phuket I’ll go.” I thought the Jim Bean, “The Girlfriend” ad, was unappealing, as with many alcohol related advertisements it reinforced the male/female stereotypes, but it lacked wit and thus came across slightly stupid in my opinion.

We then examined what contributes to a journalist making decisions about the ethical or unethicalness of a story or task. Donna told a story of her first ‘death knock’, and said that although she was very apologetic to the family over the years a journalist tends to distance themselves emotionally from situations, which is something that has be bought up previously this semester.

I found the ethics theory part of the lecture interesting, the difference and the overlapping of areas such as deontology, consequentialism and virtue. I found the consequentialism theory slightly strange, as I find it hard to believe in some situations the end could justify the means.

In response to the question, do ethics codes fail, Donna explained that many of the organisations that fund the groups that enforce ethics codes are major media groups, and thus it is often unlikely that their ethics will come into question. This is a point that has been raised many times this semester, that major mass media organisations broadcast what they believe, which results in the huge problem of society only absorbing a particular perspective on issues, which will continue to eventuate the close mindedness of society.

Carter's photograph

Finally, we looked at three news stories and how ethical it was for them to be published. The first was Kevin Carter’s image of the young girl and vulture. It is my belief that it was not an unethical photograph, in the situation Carter was in it would have been near impossible to help every starving child before or after taking a photo. Furthermore, helping one child to food would not have made much impact to the overall situation, but publication of a photograph such as this spreads awareness and can create a bigger impart on society resulting in contribution for the people in situations such as this.

The second story was a group of nude images of Pauline Hanson. The photographs were from the 1970s, so released approximately 35 years after they had been taken and upon examination were revealed to not even be of Hanson. Sunday Herald Sun columnist Robin Riley wrote “Public people are public property, whether they like it or not.” While this statement is true, I would assume that the Australian news would have higher priorities regarding Pauline Hanson’s policies than publishing tabloid worthy images.

The third image was of a naked Lara Bingle. As I have no interest in her, it was useful Donna explained the situation. From my point of view the images, while probably inappropriate, were Lara Bingles fault, and more likely a publicity stunt for her upcoming reality show than an invasion of her privacy.

This Summer: Shorts

Over my next few posts I will be exploring what I think will look good this summer, and what I want to be wearing. I am a very firm believer in maintaining clothing choices that work for the wearer. While fashions change, very regularly at that, I feel that it is best to buy items of clothing that will be timeless, or as your personal style evolves, timeless during that period. This entry is not going to preach what’s in this summer, and therefore must be worn, because lets face it, some trends are ugly, but rather what trends I think will be suit me this summer.

Let’s face it; summer provides lots of fun options when it comes to clothes. Between shorts, singlets, jumpsuits and dresses, plus more, there is always something new to do with what you wear, unlike winter were the main priority is to aviod catching hypothermia. While summer is hot, it is only appropriate to wear very little clothes in few situations, the beach or pool, some festivals because lets face it, there is a lot of slimily bodies packed into a small space so fewer clothes help, to an extent, with the heat. The one rule I think applies everywhere though is it is only appropriate to display legs OR chest, if you do both don’t be offended if people offer you money for sex.

Short wise this summer I will be sticking with denim, but not the slashed style that was so popular last summer. While I still love my denim cut-offs I unfortunately loved them more before they turned into tiny pieces of fabric. I can say I indeed have got more than my moneys worth from them, and will continue to sneakily wear them around the house but they are not fit for public anymore. Due to this I think high waisted denim cut-offs will still be a great purchase, just ones that are intact. Along with denim, I will be wearing both loose and tight-ish high waisted shorts in an array of fabrics. As a short person I find high waisted, or semi high waisted, pants help make my legs look a tiny bit longer, which I will have to be happy with. I think nice soft colours such as peach, and pale pink and green will look fantastic for a block colour effect and bold prints will be great when paired with a plain shirt, particularly for a different look when going out.

Lecture 7: Public Media

This week’s lecture covered public media, the opposite of what was explored last week in the commercial media lecture. I found Nigel Milan’s, former Managing Director of SBS, quote explaining the difference between commercial and public media to be exceptionally eloquent. “The difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens.” Thus, the ultimate purpose of public media is a polar opposite of commercial media; it is to serve the public without making a profit. In Australia, the only public media outlets we have are SBS and the ABC, plus their digital TV and radio programs. Public media on an international scale includes organisations such as the BBC, Channel 4, PBS, NPR and arte.

The role of public media in a democratic society is to support the public and democratic process, and should have ‘public value.’ The BBC identifies ‘public values’ as embedding a ‘public service ethos’ in programs, personal value for the licence fee, weighting public value against market impact and public consultation. The Broadcasting Research Unit outlined in 1985 that public media should have a geographical universality, special provision for minorities, universality of appeal, distanced from all vested interested and universality of payment.

The key mechanism of public media is the news. It is often viewed as unbiased, or less biased that commercial news, as there is ‘no one paying the bills.’ 41% of Australians get their news from the ABC; this can be attributed to the fact that is the main source of lengthy interviews with politicians, national leaders and other prominent figures. It is often regarded as serious news as it places importance over interest. As independence producer Robert Richter put it, public media “is such a special vehicle for voices to be heard… [for] visions and viewpoints…ignored by commercial media.”

Prior to the lecture on public and commercial media, I had always preferred the news on either SBS or ABC. This is mainly due to my lack of interest in national and local affairs that commercial media outlets publicise. Important aspects of Australian news are reported by SBS and the ABC, but only if they are in fact important. My main problem with the news on commercial media channels is that it feels like I am watching a trivial exposé or witnessing the latest scare story, like ‘what your butcher actually puts in his meat’ or ‘can you really trust your neighbours’. While I understand, and appreciate, the importance of being informed, and not tuning out aspects of the news, as they often can be intimidating or threatening, I do not want to become afraid of my own shadow due to the tabloidization of commercial news programs.

Lecture 6: Commercial Media

Prior to the lecture in week 6 I already understood that there was a difference between some TV channels based on government and nongovernment funding, but that was the full extent of my understanding. Due to this, I found the lecture on commercial media quite interesting. As a profit driven media production, that is nongovernment funded, commercial media survives or fails on business success. Channels 9, 7 and 10; the digital channels such as GO! Gem, 7TWO and 7MATE, and then Foxtel and Austar are all examples of commercial media, along with various radio programs and newspapers.

Three of commercial media's major players are News Limited, Fairfax Media and APN. News Limited, headed by Rupert Murdoch, involves itself in a huge variety of media such as newspapers, cable TV, film, magazines, books and sports. They are in control of business including The Courier Mail, The Australian, Fox, Sky News, Harper Collins Publishing and 20^th Century Fox. Fairfax controls mainly newspapers and digital media such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Financial Review Brisbane Times, domain.com and dating site RSVP. APN is involved with regional newspapers, digital media, radio and outdoor advertising. Some of these are radio station 97.3 fm, finda and AD Shell.

In my opinion, one of the largest negative results of commercial media is the dumbing down of society. By being able to be selective about what news one is exposed to, and what entertainment one is exposed to, educational value is lost as the demand for it lessens.

Some of the questions raised in the lecture about the future of commercial media were, how would it continue to make profits if advertising revenue is declining? How will it continue to server the advertisers, audience and the public good? What kind of audience can it expect to gain/maintain? What cumulative effect will it have on the practice of journalism and public communication?

Assessment Four: Annotated Bibliography

Sackville, Ronald. (2009). Let truth and falsehood grapple: Milton as a dubious guide to some questions about free speech. Australian Journalism Review, 31(1), 107-120.

This article is the text of Justice Ronald Sackville’s, a Judge of Appeal in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, address given at the Freedom of Speech Conference, plus some additions. This article surrounds the topic of freedom of speech, John Milton’s writings regarding this topic and the legal side of freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Sackville refers to the ethical side of journalism, claiming that it is not often that ethics are taken into primary considerate before an article is published. He then includes a postscript in which he refers to The Australian’s criticism of part of his address that regarded an article he mentioned in his address. Sackville concludes that often phrases such as ‘freedom of speech’ and the ‘right to know’ simplify “the nature of issues requiring informed debate.” (Sackville, 2009) As Sackville’s article draws from a wide range of sources, and an in depth analysis of the relationship between the legal system and the media it can be deemed a reliable source. Although it may not be helpful as a whole if arguing for or against freedom of speech from a journalistic point of view, Sackville makes many points that would be useful to an argument of this nature.

 

McCullagh, Declan. (September 26 2012). Julian Assange lashes out at ‘neo-McCarthyist fervor’ in U.S. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57521057-38/julian-assange-lashes-out-at-neo-mccarthyist-fervor-in-u.s/

This news report written by Declan McCullagh for the CNet website explores the ongoing Julian Assange fiasco. This particular article covers the legal action the United States of America is taking regarding Assange’s website WikiLeaks’ sources. The document summarises the persecution of Assange and one possible informer, Bradley Manning, who may face the death penalty if convicted of the charges he faces. This article supports some of Sackville’s points, commenting that if Assange is charged under the American Espionage Act it could be a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of the freedom of the press. As CNet is a product of the American CBS channel, it is not entirely helpful or reliable. CBS is a form of commercial media and thus driven by profit and not the requirement to give the public an unbiased opinion. In the case of McCullagh’s article, he avoids most bias and delivers a largely factual account of this topic. Unfortunately, McCullagh’s article lacks a depth of sophisticated inquiry and thus is at risk of complying with what Sackville noted as omissions of the press.

Dorling, Phillip. (September 27 2012). US calls Assange ‘enemy of state’. Retrieved from http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/us-calls-assange-enemy-of-state-20120927-26m7s.html

Phillip Dorling’s article, published on the Brisbane Times website, is very similar to the for mentioned article by Declan McCullagh. Dorling claims the US military has designated Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States, and deems supporters of the site that provide Assange with documents may be charged with communicating with the enemy, and as McCullagh stated, the maximum sentence for this is death. Dorling’s article differs from McCullagh’s as it includes more information and therefore more depth. Not only does he include more of a context than McCullagh does, briefly summarising why Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and also including why the US government wants him extradited. Dorling’s article expands on why Assange’s potential charges are invalid, but without portraying obvious bias. Assange purely leaked documents from government agencies and officials, something that many journalists have done in the past and have not had to face a possible death penalty. Sackville’s speech supports this; the press has a right to publish what it does, as long as it does not incite violence, include defamatory content and does not omit facts to alter the reader’s judgment. The Brisbane Times is part of the Fairfax Media company, which is a commercial media company like CBS. Although it cannot be deemed reliable as a whole, from the analysis it can be deemed a source that would be helpful when coupled with Sackville’s document.

 

ABC News. (September 27 2012). Assange addresses UN on human rights. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-27/assange-un-address/4283354

The ABC News website’s article on Julian Assange’s address to the United Nations uses some of the same information that McCullagh and Dorling articles did. Unfortunately, it does not go into much depth, as a result of being an internet article, but captures the main element the previous two documents did. It also includes parts of Assange’s speech to the UN in which he condemned Barack Obama’s policies regarding Assange’s WikiLeaks site and claimed Obama contradicts himself, as he has made many statements regarding freedom of speech. The ABC includes that Bradley Manning, a figure mentioned in McCullagh and Dorling’s articles, has been held in custody for 856 days, and been psychologically tortured and abused due to his involvement with WikiLeaks. This article, although small, explicitly illustrates the obvious issue of freedom of the press, as Assange has a right to publish the documents Manning provided, given they were not of a defamatory nature and did not omit important elements of the nature of the situation. In comparison to McCullagh and Dorling’s articles in relation to Sackville’s speech, the ABC article is the most successful in addressing the issues Sackville mentions. Given the ABC is a public broadcasting network; it does not face the same possibly compromising issues of CNet and the Brisbane Times, and thus can be deemed the most reliable of the three.