What is 'News' Examine critically and discuss how it is constructed and produced - Essay Example

Section what is news A more cynical of view of the question “what is news” would give the response - news is whatever the news media choose to give to the public - or in some instances and societies - whatever the government allows the news media to give. Studies show1 that self-censorship by the news media is all-pervasive, reaching even into student publications.2 It can be argued that, far from carrying “all the news that’s fit to print” (slogan of the “New York Times” since 1887) modern news media are more likely to report “all the news that’s printed to fit.

”1 Self Censorship: How Often and Why, Columbia Journalism Review, April 2002 Dickson, Tom “How Goes the Great Debate? A Study of "Censorship" and "Self-Censorship" and Their Effect on the Content of the Scholastic Press.” 1993 Section 2 - How is news constructedThere is furthermore a tendency for news organs to try to vary their content - an excellent example is in the UK where the TV news bulletins, even on days which are dominated by “bad news” stories, will usually end with a piece of light relief - so much so that popular mythology has it that a certain news-caster was fired when his over-mirthful reaction to one such item was accidentally aired.

Newspapers also follow this format - in most countries the “serious” news being placed at the beginning of a publication, with less serious issues such as TV listings, sports and letters being placed later in the publication.Section 3 - How News is producedHowever, the advent of 24 hour TV news stations such as CNN, BBC World and Euronews, along with the massive expansion of the internet, has made significant changes to the ways that media construct their reports. A vast amount of effort is now put into gathering news, and once consequence of this is that news media are no longer able to manage the flow of news as comprehensively as in the past, nor to restrict access to what information the public will become privy to.

ConclusionThroughout history individuals, organizations and governments have sought to control public access to information. In this they have been sometimes aided and sometimes obstructed by the organs of the media which deliver that information. In particular newspapers in many countries have, until recently, tended to follow the guidance, or even censorship, which governments have imposed on them. However, more recently this has become a less followed path for news media. This greater independence appears to spring form several disparate sources.

Firstly - the burgeoning of the internet has provided a new and largely unregulated source of news material. Items that mainstream news media might have previously not reported are now in the public domain. To fail to report these would leave the traditional media open to allegations of news manipulation, scorn and ridicule.Secondly - changes in national and popular cultures mean that many more people now accept or even expect to have news reported to them which previous generations might have found unacceptable or distasteful.

Thirdly - the news media themselves have, in some cases at least, changed from being in thrall to the establishments and governments which they report on. The tendency to support the status quo, once exemplified by the “Times”, once seen by many as the “mouthpiece” of the British Empire, has been largely replaced by the less reverential and more inquisitive “Times” of Rupert Murdoch’s News International Group.