News has always been seen as the writing and reporting of major events, whether it be local, national or International interests. A stories importance or significance was justified by its place in its publication, or how visible it is online.
Their has always been various types of news, politics, business, sport to name but a few, yet with the dramatic change in how we can view news, a great help being the inception of online news outlets. With news now accessible at the click of a mouse, and newspapers and their sales evaporating, the type of news we desire has also changed with it.
From days where news would be seen as political and royal affairs, the soaring popularity of tabloid papers or “red-tops” have certainly changed the topics of what news is reported. Galtung and Ruge (1973) discussed what they interpreted as news values in their book, they narrowed it down to 10 key components.
These were revisited by Harcup and O’Neill who modified and altered how they interpreted the values. Values such as celebrity personifies 21st century news, where media and paparazzi court and follow actors, singers, T.V personalities etc, with intense scrutiny. Personalities like Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan or closer to home Amy Winehouse showed how intensely the media can follow a specific person, and treat there life as an ongoing narrative of news. The below video shows Charlie Sheen's interviews being autotuned and produced into song.
TV stations such as BBC and SKY now possess 24 hour news coverage where any breaking news is sized up and reporting within a blink of an eye of it happening. This, to all is not seen as a positive however with “Kovach and Rosenstiel” who proclaimed in their book “Warp Speed: America
 |
| Some breaking news, to the females chagrin |
Social Media has also seen a way of news being reported around the clock, with any user of Facebook, Twitter amongst others, having the ability to distribute news, whether it be fact or opinion, a reason for explaining the number of hoax celebrity deaths that are reported. The convergence of technology has also allowed news to travel to anyone anywhere, as most phones will possess cameras and internet, allowing news to reach them instantly.
The surging, and sheer addiction to sport, whether it be the latest injury news, gossip or whether a so called “expert” has shared their wisdom with the world, there is a huge market for sport, filling the need for values like celebrity and entertainment,
In stores and on the web there’s sports only sections, with most sports having journalists working specifically on their sport. Websites, such as Bleacher Report, have given the opportunity for anybody with enough journalistic talent to write and put forward their views and opinions to a mass audience. This, again concurs with Kovach and Rosenstiel and their notion that entertainment is surpassing professionalism.
 |
| Football only paper |
 |
| A collage of various news outlets reporting the same story. |
No comments:
Post a Comment