Week 12 - Regulation vs. Economics

This week we looked at Public service broadcasting vs. Private broadcasting in Ireland, from their point of view and how they broadcast according to their own agenda, in regards to television news.

Public Service Broadcaster - Educate, Inform, Entertain. (RTE, BBC etc.)
Private Broadcaster - Entertain, Commercial gain, Monetary reward. (TV3, 3e, UTV, Channel 4 etc.)

When broadcasting the news, primarily this meant a commitment to due impartiality so that no particular political bias or point of view is given prominence. But now, broadcasters are more and more conscious of their ratings. There is a growing pressure to reschedule the news to make way for more "popular" programmes. If you were to apply a newspaper analogy, the television is moving from a broadsheet to tabloid news agenda, where there is an emphasis on the entertainment side of news. Rather than actual important news. News that literally affects our everyday living in a country, pressing issues and debates being reported and discussed in a broadsheet newspaper. Rather than which footballer has slept with who's wife now, something you would see on a regular basis in a tabloid newspaper like "the Sun". We see a "dumbing down" process happening in television broadcasting.

Broadsheet - Political, Economic, Social Affairs.
Tabloid - Entertainment, Personalities/Celebrities.

While most events that happen around the world in raw form are not interesting to an audience and wouldn't hold the attention of the majority of the public. There is a need to package a raw event and deliver it as a narrative using different storytelling and literature techniques. By using different elements in a news story, such as, spoken word, video footage, illustrations, and photographs, creates a sense that the story contains "windows", which allow an audience to see directly into an event as if they were witnessing it then and there, but from the viewers own home.

Like the narration, these elements are abstracted from the stream of events, cropped and cut; and as with the narrative element, they can be given a different meaning. Delivering a preferred meaning, telling people what they should be seeing or noticing, leading people to believe in one side of the story, while not directly telling the audience what side to be on. Therefore, influencing their meaning.

News stories allow us to understand stories that would otherwise be separated to us by culture and languages, they help us to understand. In terms of the news story, we are on the outside, looking in. Coming in for a sample so we can appreciate the larger view.

We should note that news stories don't just bring together all these elements merely by putting them together in a single story or sequence. They are put together in a specific (narrative) way. To create a meaning. They are collected by people, who also have their own personal views and opinions, which may shift into their work, even if they are to remain unbiased on a story. There is always two sides to a story, but broadcasters want to point out what sides you should be "looking at" and give their own slant on a story but not forcing it on you. Its kind of like an underhand tactic for you to see what they want you to see, and believe what they want you to believe.

Week 11 - Media Bias

This week, we looked at the media as a means of production, and marxist and liberal approaches to the media. We were given an assignment to choose a news story/broadcast that involves some degree of political controversy and analyze that content.

There was a couple of stories I thought of that would be a good example of political bias, but none better than the Student Registration/Contribution Fees increase. This story was covered in November 2011, when the Union of Student in Ireland (USI) protested in Dublin City. This article from RTE covers the story.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1116/education.html#article

The reason that this story caught so much attention was due to the fact that earlier that year, 2 weeks before the general election in Ireland, TD Ruairi Quinn had signed a pledge, promising not to increase student fees whilst in government. His party then won the election and with less than a 8 months into term, had proposed to increase student fees two-fold. A controversial move and one that sparked outrage with students across the entire country.

From the start of the article, we know straight away that it is produced from an opposing/protesting point of view from the headline of the article, "Ruairi Quinn non-committal on fees issue". The article, reported by Emma O Kelly, is slightly more sided with the protests, but keeps to a neutral stance on ideology. Evident from the wording that is used, there are several references to figures and numbers within the video. Stating the amount of students there where at the protests (20,000), and how it "filled the streets", but also mentioning the more "conservative" figure stated by the Gardai (12,000), which would lead you to beleive that the Gardai are aiming to keep the figure as low as would be imaginable as not to generate even more hype, or to make it seem as if the protest wasn't as important or to subtract from its potential impact to the Irish public.

There are several interviews with students in the video that placed substantial importance on what the fees mean to those that were interviewed. Then, from a Gardai/Political approach, goes on to highlight the need for safety the student protests, and mentions how it was a "highly patrolled and organised march". This statement is almost straight from a TD's mouth. We see this clearly, from the language that is used, here and throughout the article. The fact that the word "march" was used instead of (what the event actually was) "protest" is to play down the whole event, as the word "protest" is surrounded by negative connotations and promotes violent imagery. This kind of political correctness is used throughout the report, as if to pander the importance of the protests to students and to discourage other sectors in the public from protesting in the future.

RTE promote a liberal political view and ideology (and have been accused of this recently - http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0313/1224313204153.html). They produce a partial view of whats happening in the protests, as to cover the story, but conforms to the higher power in society, being that of the government. Although the reporter does state (from a students point of view) that the protests are directed at him and his controversial decision to increase the education fees.

As discussed in class, the report is in favour of a "hegemonic" view of politics, to maintain the status quo and the way things are. This report reminds me of this approach to re-enforce the dominant ideologies in society, especially those in power, politically and perhaps not as much as past times, religiously. Being coerced into believing that everything is fine, that there is no need to challenge anything the government are doing. After all, we are always being told to think about the future of Ireland, that the government are getting us back on track and you (the tax payer) are providing resources for the greater collective good of Ireland.