2. Social and cultural awareness
Journalists write about all different kind of stories and all different type of people that have made their stories into the news. When reporting journalists are very aware that
when writing about a social or cultural group, their audience may not have a first hand experience with these people, and the only experience they have had is with
reading about them in the news. So it is important for journalists to write about these groups carefully, using non-connotative and emotive language that will get the
reader to think less of this social or cultural group. They must write about these groups in a non-biased way, so they are represented in the correct light. In the past
and present there are newspapers that have a big interest in making some groups look bad, for example people of different religions that are not Christians, in
particular Muslims. Other groups newspapers like to compile into a bad-light are young adults and teenagers.
The NUJ or the National Unions of Journalists are trying to prevent these assumptions that readers make by creating guidelines that journalists should follow to create a fair
and un-bias story. The NUJ have created a guidance sheet, this helps journalists to use the correct words and language when speaking about a minority group. The
groups include, terrorists, race, immigrants, people with HIV, age of people, people with disabilities and people who commit suicide. A journalist will sign up to be a
part of this union, then be expected to follow these guidelines to create fair and non-bias news. But these guidelines are not legally binding and hold no significant
place in a legal court. NUJ also make it clear that the journalist must differentiate between their opinion and the facts of a story, so there is no confusion or over-lapping
between the two. But these guidelines are not legally binding and hold no significant place in a legal court, the editors code of practice on the other hand, is
regulated to laws and can be binding in the court.
When a journalist enters into the NUJ, they have the backing of the whole union to fight for certain rights, one of the main rights is that the journalist enters the conscience
clause, which is a rule where they refuse to break any of the NUJs codes of practice, so if a journalist has been told by an editor to write an article with the intention
of putting a cultural or minority group in bad light then the journalist can refuse in theory without any fear of repercussion because they have the backing and power
of this union.
The NUJ also have 12 rules that their members are trusted to stick by when writing, the rules include that the article that the journalist is putting their name on contains only
honest, straightforward and open, the article must not invade private lives of the public, must not disrupt grievances and must not add on too distress or stress, the
article must not in anyway have any advertisements in it or endorse any products, and the journalist must avoid plagiarism. The rest of the rules are mainly common
sense and should be obvious to a good human being.
For example this article taken from the daily mail is showing that the words chosen were chosen with intent and care, but not in a good way. The journalist has made sure
they include the word ‘immigration’, ‘bogus’ and ‘foreign’. This then shines a bad light on all foreign people, making out as if they are all one person, rather than
differentiating their identities. This news article makes the reader think all foreign people are bad and capable of doing this sort of thing.
Here another article taken from the daily star is making the reader think in a certain way about a social minority group. Here the journalist has made sure to use the word
‘desperate’, ‘chopping’ and ‘he wanted to become a woman’. Here you can see the journalist is trying to portray this trans-woman as crazy and stupid. It is also
disrespectful mis-gendering her, constantly referring her as a he and writing as if they are not a woman already. It also suggests that gender isn’t flexible and that
gentiles have to match gender, making the reader think this, encouraging their misunderstanding and ignorance about this social minority group.
3. Connotation
In journalism language is the most important thing, and the way journalists manipulate their use or choice of words can
be harmful and misleading. The way something is worded, even the heading of an article, can make a readers
mind up straight away about something. Words have connotations, some stronger than others, but they are still
present, a connotation is where a reader relates a word with another, which can change the whole meaning of an
article, for example some negative connotations are people being described as being on benefits, this makes the
person seem as if they are lazy, leeches on the society and contribute nothing. Another word that has negative
connotations is immigrants, like the word benefits, it relates to being a hindrance to society, scrounging tax payers
money and over-all just being unwanted. These connotations are in place and well known because the papers
have made it that way, repeatedly writing articles focusing on the negative side of these subjects. Connotations
can also be used in a positive way, for example if a newspaper labeled someone as confident, then the reader
would think this person is sure of themselves and is an all around good person, but another newspaper could take
this subject from a different angle and label the person egotistical. Another would be youthful, this word seems
angelic and innocent, but taking this from a different angle a newspaper could use the word childlike or young
which implies the person is immature and silly. Connotations are regularly used in journalism when a journalist
want to twist a story to suit them and their views or the views of a newspaper.
An example of the use of connotative language is this article from the daily star. Here the headline is using connotative
language, with the word ‘suicidal’. This is implying that this man is crazy and insane, when he could actually have a
real illness. This also encourages the ignorance of peoples views towards suicide, readers will be reassured on
their view that suicide it is a guilty act. Other words like ‘smashing’ keep repeating the feeling that this man is
violent and insane.
An example of positive connotation is this headline found on the independent news. It is more light-hearted so the
wording is lighter and not as serious. The word ‘hero’ is used to describe a man wearing a t-shirt with a word on it.
This makes the man seem like he is amazing and clever. This will encourage the the reader to believe that this man
is brilliant and that his act was an act of genius.
4. Alternative readings
When journalists write they are writing for a particular newspaper or magazine, this newspaper usually have a target
audience in mind, for example a fashion magazine will be aiming to write for young women. Even though there is a
target audience, this still doesn't mean that someone from a different background will not read this article.
Usually journalists are careful to think about all the different ways other audiences could interoperate it, they
need to be careful this is not in a negative way. Stuart Hall thinks about the audience response literary theory or
reception theory, this focuses on what kind of negotiations the audience have with a piece of writing because of
the way its written and the words that have been chosen. An readers response to an article will depend on their
background and life experiences, so the text might not be inherent to the original meaning to the reader,
depending on their background. Minority groups are the most vulnerable to this, they may have had experiences
that are not widely know and misunderstood, like victims of crime. Or another example is reports on terrorism,
the reports should be fair and balanced, being careful not to blame a whole minority group of people, bunching
the terrorists and muslims into one group, if this is reported in an unbalanced and unfair way, this can lead the
reader to compile an unfair opinion against this minority group. Newspapers often do not follow the rules of
creating a balanced and fair article, but this is mostly done on purpose to fit the target audience, writing in a way
that they enjoy to read, to reassure their views on world issues. When looking a the same stories in different
newspapers there is a big difference in the style that they are reported in.
An example of a news story that reports on a story in a way to please their audience is this headline in the daily mail.
Here the daily mail are probably twisting a headline, to the story where they don’t actually add up. Also the
mention of ‘muslim’ is completely irrelevant and also not true, as spiders cannot be muslim, or and race. Basically
this headline is trying to blame muslims for bringing ebola to the UK. Regular readers of the daily mail will be
happy to read this with someone to blame for a tragedy, especially as it is someone who is not british.
5. Credibility
Credibility
When a journalist writes a story or an article they should write it with the intention of giving out honest and accurate information which is true and can
refer to evidence to support this. If a journalist reports a story which is twisted on purpose then an audience will either believe the story, which can
be dangerous to society, giving them bias and unfair judgements on the people that are being reported on. On the other hand if a journalist
continues to publish stories that are untrue then some of the audience may start to question this, they will question the accuracy and the credibility
of the story, and then this diminishes the trust the readers have with the newspaper, so then the audience will not read this newspaper, and this is
bad for the newspaper company.
For a journalist to write a credible story there are points they must review their work against. These points being, that their writing must be objective, so it
must not be influenced by feelings or opinions it should be not leaning to one side of the story and should report in a fair, un-bias way. The story they
are writing about must be accurate, so that all the facts they report are 100% true. These facts have to be traceable back to the source of the story,
usually by collecting primary data this can ensure that facts are as accurate as possible, and then these facts/evidence must be portrayed in a way
that doesn’t have any alternative readings, or must not be written with connotative words to portray a certain mood about the story. The journalist
must write a story that is truthful, so even if they have collected reliable and accurate evidence, they still have the opportunity to display the story in
a certain light, which would usually be unnecessarily negative. So they must be honest about the article they are writing and include all information
so that it is not one sided and so it is fair. The next thing on the list that journalists should abide by is to make a story fair, so the story must not be
one sided, they must be neutral and in the middle as they are not there to project their own opinions and views on a situation, if they wanted to do
that they should write it on a blog, a newspaper article must be written to tell the readers what is happening, the facts about it and maybe the
public’s opinion. The final thing on the list is similar to the last point that the journalist must write from a balanced point of view, it must be a fair
representation, facts must not picked to suit the journalists own opinion, or just to cause controversy or an argument.
An example of this happening in a news story Farage leads final plea for votes in today's Rochester by-election with two more Tory MPs 'in talks to
defect' if Ukip win. Here in this story The Daily Mail are reporting on UKIP’s progression in politics, here they are shining them in a positive light, not
mentioning any of negative things UKIP stand for, here they tell the reader how good it is that UKIP are. In the headline the journalist mention the
word ‘win’, which gives the feeling that they will win this mini election, so the journalist is being unbalanced in their report and is enhancing this by
using conative language because this newspaper is right winged and will give a bias view.
