Production of media culture

Theory of media and communication

Lecture 11
Prof. dr hab. Bogusława Dobek-Ostrowska
 Media organizational activities:

Gatekeeping -

• a metaphor to describe the process by which selections are made in

media work
• the `gates` of a news medium into the news channels
Ideological vs. Organizational influences

• Ideological or organizational selection of news

• A concept of news values
• Media logic
 Factors in news selection
• People and selection – personalization/ person as event

• Location and selection (territory, topic)

 Time and types of news

TIME DIMENSION
Pre-scheduled Unexpected Non-scheduled
Hard X X
NEWS Soft X
TYPE Spot X
Developing X
Continuing X X
 News selection factors
• Power and fame of individuals involved in events
• Personal contacts of reporters
• Location of events
• Location of power
• Predictability and routine
• Proximity to the audience of people and events in the news
• Recency and timeliness of events
• Timing in relation to the news cycle
 The struggle for access

1. A continuum of media autonomy

2. Actuality content as a contested zone

1. A continuum of media autonomy
2. Actuality content as contested zone
Forms of `reality` television
• Talk shows with a star presenter and famous guests before a live studio
audience
• Public discussion and debate programs with a live and participant studio
audience
• Magazine shows with news and talk (as in `Good Morning America` and
now many breakfast television shows)
• News interviews (without participation)
• Daytime talkshows on burning personel issues with audience participation
(as pioneered by Oprah Winfrey)
• `Docudrama` and `infotainment`
 The influence of sources on news
• Planning of supply (`source media`)
planning, imbalance, assimilation

• Public relations and news management

 Source access to news
Source access depends on:

• Efficient supply of suitabe material

• Power and influence of source
• Good public relations
• Dependency of media on limited source
• Mutual self-interest in news coverage
 Media-organizational activity:
processing and presentation

1. Internal processing of infomation

2. An alternative model of organizational selection
3. Bias as result of internal procesing
4. Standardization and organizational logic
1. Internal
processing of
information

Intra -
organizational
processing
 Organizations

2. An alterantive
model of
organizational
selection
 The logic of media culture
• Media logic (USA!) -
`caputre the systematic nature of pre-existing definitions of what a
given type of content should be like
horse- race coverage / soundbite news

• Political logic (Europe)

 Alternative models of decision-making
Models of media decision-making

• The assembly line

• Craft and entrepreneurship
• Convention and formula
• Audience image
• Product image
 Literature:
• McQuail, D. McQuail`s Mass Communication Theory. London: Sage,
2001, pp. 275-299.
The exam`s questions:
1. Factors in news selection
2. The struggle for access
3. The influence of sources of news
4. Processing and presentation in the media –organizational activity
5. Media logic vs. political logic