Defining News (Notes)

15.8.15

Notes from reading:
Miles Maguire, ‘Defining News’, chapter 2, Advanced Reporting: Essential Skills for 21st Century Journalism, Routledge, New York, 2015, pp. 22–39.

[Photo credit: Got Credit]
News is what's not supposed to be
  • Whether in a good or bad way
  • It's something out of the ordinary, an anomaly

Job of a reporter
  • Not a recorder
  • Condense and rearrange information to make it accessible to readers
  • It's possible to learn to be a better reporter

The ability to spot an anomaly can be honed
  • Try to spot things that do not normally go together
  • Need to know about the topic at hand to be able to recognise anomalies

News isn't always what's not supposed to be
  • Oft-reported events like elections and sports matches are not anomalies yet still newsworthy
  • But they don't happen every day and the people/teams involved are always different
  • Also the results are what's out of the ordinary
  • Following the news a way of people controlling their environments
  • With the reporter presenting organised information, consuming news is a way of controlling the uncontrollable, making sense of the world

Six observable characteristics of news
  • Timeliness - even news of a traffic jam is newsworthy if it is current
  • Singularity/oddity/uniqueness - if traffic jam caused by an overturned truck, more interesting
  • Proximity/nearness - the traffic jam you're trying to avoid is the most important
  • Prominence - just a normal person being caught speeding or drink driving isn't newsworthy but if it was a celebrity it would be
  • Impact/outcome/consequences - minor traffic accident vs one in which a person is killed
  • Conflict - basic element of human existence, news on conflict allows people to form opinions
  • In reality, reporters need to consider an infinite number of things.

Norwegian model of news (study by Norwegian scholars)
  • Developed list of dozen factors affecting reporters' decisions to report as news
  • Daily newspapers focus on events that take one day, weekly newspapers on events that take a week, and so on - consider social media
  • Emphasises cultural context - reporter needs to consider affect of their news

The race to win the scoop
  • Need to consider the competition
  • Winning the race to be wrong
  • Conceptual scoop - looking at available information the grouping it so that the its significance becomes clear

In the age of the internet, writing can be easily copied and has less value
  • No such thing as an original copy
  • Only way to overcome is trust - trust in the newspaper which is gained by trustworthy reporting

Create value through personalisation, accessibility and interpretation
  • Information has little value unless it can be explained
  • Bias is unavoidable - reporters should not be without opinions but they should be aware of their biases so that they can test their evidence for accuracy

Types of news stories
  • Spot reporting - reaction to something specific that's happening
  • Enterprise journalism - initiated by journalists and in many different categories such as investigative, public service and explanatory

Very different but at the same time share similarities
  • From true events
  • Same fact gathering tools (but in different proportions)

Event stories classified according to news intent
  • Naturally occurring events - such as wildfires and traffic accidents presenting deadline challenges, restrict fact gathering, but no pressure to favour sides
  • Scheduled events - such as court cases and cultural events which allow reporters to prepare in advance and maintain an objective stance
  • Pseudo-events - such as announcements by government and corporate anniversary celebrations, manmade events to promote a specific public relations message

Characteristics of pseudo-events
  • Planned
  • Intended to be subject of a news report
  • Ambiguity - motivations unclear and unresolved
  • Self-fulfilling prophecy - projects air of significance simply by virtue of its existence

Enterprise stories
  • Often less important than spot stories so rookie reporters are often assigned to trend stories
  • Optional story - doesn't have to be done and belongs to the particular news reporter or news organisation

Reading mentions DOT methodology but does not explain it, online search revealed:
  • Documentary analysis
  • Observations made in the field
  • Talking (interviewing)

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