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Sam Babington Digital News Page 1

Digital News Essay:

Compare and contrast two main evening news

programs from the same day, either on BBC, ITV,Channel 4, Channel 5 or Sky.

Sam Babington: 1306356

Television Production Year 2

3rdDecember 2014

Word Count: 1642

Helen Curston


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Contents Page

Introduction......................................................................3Main Body.......................................................................3-6

Conclusion.......................................................................6-7

Bibliography.......................................................................8

Webography.......................................................................8


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Compare and contrast two main evening news

programs from the same day, either on BBC, ITV,

Channel 4, Channel 5 or Sky.

Whilst comparing the major news programs in the UK, it is evident that digital

news may intentionally or incidentally be portrayed in a number of different ways. As

digital news is progressively becoming both globalized and technology advanced, it

may now become difficult to define the fidelity of news, as well as what actually

makes it newsworthy. Such controversy is often evident within the UKs national

evening news programs such as BBC and Channel 4, which when in comparison tend

to portray daily news in an interesting way. Throughout this essay, these two news

programs will be compared in terms of their presenting styles and conventions as well

as their top stories, which were shown in the evening on the 2ndDecember 2014.

Alternatively, the theoretical ideologies will be the primary focus of this essay, which

additionally will focus on theorists such as Cohen andJ. Gans. This will include the

methodology behind the agenda setting theory plus analyzing how the globalized

media fuels issues to lead to a potential moral panic. Additionally, an evaluation on

how modern media relies on user generated content and citizen journalism to provide

a newsworthy story, plus an analysis on the significance of elitism and political

perspectives will also be evident.

Main Body

To begin with, Channel 4offers a considerably sympathizing news story

showing the harsh reality of the few migrants whom survived fleeing from there

conflicted countries. Lasting for around 15 minutes, the story consists of live

interviews of some of the 11 survivors out of 500 who attempted to flee until their

boat was hit by another, causing it sink. This example of citizen journalism creates an

alternative perspective that additionally challenges the agenda setting we often see on

the news about migrants fleeing illegally from war-inflicted countries. Quoted by

Dearing, agenda setting is the ideology that offers an explanation of why

information about certain issues, and not other issues[1996:2].Interestingly, thisrelatively huge story isnt aired on BBC, which instead has news stories on matters


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such as the Royal Mail being under threat and the annual FIFA award. Such diversion

in news stories therefore shows how BBC often remains national for its stories,

whereas Channel 4 conventionally diverges its news stories globally. Therefore,

Channel 4 frames this news in a considerably efficient and interesting wayinstead

of reporting the deaths of the migrants, the program frames it by interviewing the

victims themselves to portray a different perspective.

Similarly, citizen journalism is crucial in terms of valuable and attractive news

because of the story having live interviews with the migrants themselves. Citizen

journalism, described as people formally known as the audience employ the press

tools they have in their possession to inform one another[2009:256], are most likely

to attract the audience to an efficient extent, as it is likely that the fidelity of the news

is considerably accurate. Nonetheless, this fidelity is also evident within theBBCs

story on its flood defenseswe hear from residents effected by flooding as they

comment saying that the government is financially unreliable. Such use of the public

is a conventional tool used by the media, as it often enables the truth of the media to

be revealed, as well as in this case providing an interesting and relatable story for

those whom were also affected by the British floods. Additionally, you can argue that

the public is often used to deliberately frame a news story thus setting the agenda. For

example, the interviews with these migrants enable Channel 4 to provide an

alternative and sympathetic perspective of the migrants. Therefore, both news

programs provide evidence of citizen journalism purely to provide the truth behind

the media as well as helping to frame some stories.

Whilst on the topic of citizen journalism, you can argue how modern news is

considerably diverse compared to older news (before the 1990s) and is considerably

more newsworthy. This is mainly due to the significance of user-generated content,

which has occurred only in the last couple of years using the new technology of

broadband internet access, mobile communication [2007:3] and so on. Channel 4

provides in-the-action clips of the conflict with the Taliban, which is provided by

footage from a mobile phone. This example in particular enables the audience to

understand the harshness of the war thus understanding the surrounding reality.

However, examples such as this are often critiqued in terms of its realitythe media


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mayve intentionally framed this story to reinforce the dominant perspective of the

war and its violence.

Similarly,BBC too conform to the conventional use of UGC, however

arguably uses this content to frame news to a large extent, thus conforming to the

agenda setting theory. This is evident in the flood defense story - we see footage once

again filmed on a mobile phone/video recorder of the harsh reality of the floods from

last year. This works effectively as not only does it provide rare footage, but also

makes the audience remember how problematic flooding was last year (and in

general). Nonetheless, UGC has proven to be extremely powerful and newsworthy as

it enables news to become more truthful, instant and widespread.

Consequently, both Channel 4 and theBBCboth reported on the new funding

scheme for flood defenses in Britain, where both programs almost channel the

ideology behind political elitism. TheBBC frame the story primarily through the use

of citizens whom criticize the past failure of flood funding schemes, which i s then

emphasized by the reporter questioning the success of upcoming flood projects. Such

criticism is also reinforced by Channel 4both programs provide footage of previous

flooding as well as both having interviews with a political member who too criticizes

the project. This furthermore challenges the ideology behind elitism as they frame this

story to make political competitions much more continuous[2010:127] - the news

frequently consists of the inevitable rivalry between political parties which in a way

provides consistent content for news to report on.Nonetheless, Channel 4 arguably

follows the liberalist pluralist model by dumbing down the financial aspect of the

schemethis is shown through the significance of simplistic graphs which are used to

discuss the funds for the scheme as well as conclude Britains autumn economy state.

Thus, both programs tend to challenge the dominant perspective by criticizing the

aims of the government and political power.

Unlike the migrant story,BBC offers a story that in a way can be frightful and

controversial for the audience. The news package consists of the physicist Stephen

Hawkingsexplaining how artificial intelligence may one day take over the human

race. This can be argued to fuel a moral panic, defined as A condition, episode,

person or group or persons emerges to become defined as a threat to social values


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and interests[2011:1]i.e. the issue of artificial intelligence. This ideology is

conventional throughout news programs as the media often injects these

perspectives into the audiences minds, as Gansquotes that the media are seen as a

stimulus, like a hypodermic, have a regular and unvarying response.[2003:70]

Thus, such ideology of injecting these outlooks into some of the audiences minds

reinforces the dominance of some news programs such as BBC.

However, this is then disputed as theBBC story is followed by opinions from

other experts whom say that there is no need to panic. Furthermore, the story as a

whole can be criticized for lacking news content, thus not being news worthy. Such

critique can be because there is no statistics to reinforce the story and it is only

opinion based. Despite this, Channel 4 too may fuel a panic as its headline is about

stepping up war in Syria, leading to some of the passive audience to feel threatened

knowing that war is progressing. However, this can be argued against as the media

constantly provides headlines about war that the audience may likely now be

desensitized, thus no longer feeling threatened. Therefore, theBBC and other news

programs often fuel moral panics, which are usually key news values, however some

examples are often criticized due to the lack of content or due to the issue being

repetitive.

Conclusion

To conclude, both programs show distinctive diversion in terms of news

conventions to a large extent. Channel 4tends to focus on globalized news as well as

often challenging the dominant perspectives and expectations which in a way

provides a better news story due to its diversion.BBCconventionally focuses

primarily on more localized and national news however remains loyal to the agenda

setting theory by prioritizing compulsory global news stories. Nonetheless, judging

from the case studies, theBBC too purposely frames stories, which have potential

danger to its audience. This is evident from the Stephen Hawkings story which

although low threat may still fuel a moral panic for some of the audience. Such panic

is also evident from Channel 4sSyria story, thus concluding that moral panics

provide eye-catching news for the audience purely because people seek news, which


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is endangering and dramatic. Citizen journalism too plays an essential convention

within news however only over the last few yearsnews stories often rely on the

public to enable them to frame their story which in some cases is to frame the

dominant perspective. Such evidence is reinforced from the significance of user-

generated content that enables the media to grab breaking news quickly, as well as

usually providing better quality news footage itself. This is evident in both programs,

which include footage from mobile phones, allowing the stories to become more

newsworthy due to the effective mobile footage. And to finalize, it is conventional for

news programs to almost dumb down the news to conform to a broader audience

plus providing news showing disruptions between political parties and the

government. Thus, arguably news is purposely framed mainly to gratify our

entertainment and surveillance needs.


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Bibliography

Dearing, James W (1996).Agenda Setting. London: Sage Publications. p2

Cohen, S (2011).Folk Devils and Moral Pancis. 4th ed. New York: Routledge. p1-30.

Gans, Herbert. J (2003).Democracy and the News. London: Oxford Press. p1-70

Fuchshuber, Ina (2007). User Generated Content - Compliment or threat to the print

media industry?. Germany: GRIN Verlag. p1-14.

Best, Heinirich (2010).Democratic Elitism: New Theoretical and Comparative

Perspectives. USA: Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. p1-127.

Allan, S. Thorsen, Einar (2009). Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives. 2nd ed.

New York: Peter Lang Publishing. 220-256.

Webography

Channel 4. (2014). Channel 4 News Headlines: Tuesday 2nd December 2014.

Available: http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/display/playlistref/021214. Last

accessed 11th December 2014.

BBC. (2014).BBC News at Six Headlines on Tuesday 2nd December 2014.Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007mpkn/episodes/guide. Last

accessed 11th December 2014.

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