1. CONTENT
OF THE
MEDIA
http://www.sociologyexchange.co.uk/videos/view/20346/

2. Influence of/on the owners
• When we looked at ownership and control we
understood that the owners of the media don’t
have direct control over the contents of the
magazines, newspapers etc.
• Although the personal views of the owner are
important these can be overridden by the need to
make money
• Media companies need to balance advertising
revenue and commercial interests and that they do
not offend the proprietor

3. WHAT MAKES A GOOD
STORY?
• Of all the millions of events going on in the world,
why do they choose only a few for publication or
broadcast?
• News items have to be presented in such a way as
to be acceptable to the owners.
– Generally conservative
– Support big businesses, law and the police
– Only slight criticism of these institutions are allowed
Activity 1

4. Media audience
• Output is aimed at different audiences in order to
sell advertising or capture a mass market.
– BBC radio 1 – young people
– Classic FM – older middle class
• Content, written style and presentation vary
considerable
– Focus on quality papers is politics
– Focus on tabloids is sensationalism such as sex or
crime

5. MEDIA ANALYSIS
• Look at the different newspapers
• Classify the differences in terms of content, style
of language, layout etc
• What explanations can you give for these
differences?
• Look at the headlines of the front pages, how
many stories are there in total?
• How many stories are about the same news item

6. WHAT MAKES SOMETHING NEWSWORTHY?
News often reflects strongly held values and cultural stereotypes.
• JOURNALIST VALUES
• SIGNIFICANCE
• DRAMA
• SURPRISE
• PERSONALITIES
• SEX,SCANDAL, CRIME
• PROXIMITY

7. SOCIAL CONTROL
• The mass media play a key role in providing the ideas and
images which people use to interpret and understand everyday
experiences, they also actively shape people’s ideas, attitudes and
actions
• People do use and believe the mass media but their reliance could
be misguided
• The mass media act as agents of social control using agenda
setting, gate keeping and norm setting. Bias is therefore
inevitable.
• However, powerful groups do disagree and the media sometimes
challenge them.
Browne pg 169

8. quick recap
1. What is meant by ‘news values’
2. Give 3 examples of issues or events considered
newsworthy
3. What is the difference between gate-keeping and
agenda setting?
4. Name two broadsheets

9. WHAT FACTORS INFLUENCE MEDIA
CONTENT?
FACTOR REASON EXAMPLE IN THE NEWS
Advertising big revenue Advertisers will only advertise if
they know there is a large audience
Breaking stories competition with each other Engagement/marriage of William
for exclusives and Kate
Politics ‘spin’ to show themselves John Prescott ‘EGG-GATE’
favourably
Time and Space set formats and deadlines Certain space for sports, finance,
foreign news etc, with limited
flexibility
Finance Cant afford to keep reporters eg BBC in Tiananmen Square and
overseas for too long, some Berlin Wall 89
rely on 2nd hand reports

10. NEWS VALUES
• Dec 2004 Tsunami 200,000 people died
• Congo war 3 million people died
• Sudan 2 million deaths
Why did the Tsunami create more
news coverage in one day than the
Congo War received in a year?

11. Tsunami Narrative
• BEGINNING – catastrophic event.
MIDDLE – destruction and devastation.
• END – relief effort
•Boxing day. ‘easy news’ required a lot of
sympathy but little analysis.
•Affected many people (tourists, relatives, friends)
•Tales of escapes, causalities, charitable donations
•Kept the war of Iraq off the front page

12. SOURCES OF BIAS
Journalists often claim to be objective, but are they?
• Presentation – front/inside, large font, accompanying
photo, image used, language
• Time – constraints
• Agenda – whose? Gate-keeping, newsworthy, media
owners profits,
• Inaccuracies – stereotypes, exaggerations, sensationalism,
folk devils, etc

13. CONCLUSION
• News is socially constructed, it is created within a
framework of social relationships and cultural beliefs
• There is no ‘truth out there’ which is reported in the news
• News consists of information that is selected and
interpreted on the basis of national norms, values and
concerns
• Those who construct the news – journalists and editors- do
so within organisational structures and in terms of news
values. These structures and values define what counts as
news

14. Editing a
newspaper
• Decide which of these stories will affect
the lives of ordinary people most
• Decide which stories will sell most
newspapers
– A royal prince has announced that
he is homosexual
– Thieves have stolen £40,000,000 in
cash from the Bank of England
– Your local town football clubs has
won the football league
– The government intends to tax all
meat products by 20%
•Design your own front page
with imaginary headlines,
layout and content using one or
more of the above headlines.