Diploma in Media & Communication

Lecture 2
DPHU1001 The Communication
Industries and You: History,
Media & Genre and Values
Communication
Contexts Lecturer
Lukas Bauer
Email: l.bauer@unswcollege.edu.au​
Lecture Outline
• How has media changed? How viable is “old” media?

• What is "News" and what does it do?

• News values: what makes News newsworthy?

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How has media changed?

How viable is “old” media?

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How the news cycle has changed
1. Newspaper Office, 1950s/60s (opening; then 9.30)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSr3bb-B7Jk [a long clip but rather fabulous!]

2. A behind-the-scenes glimpse into how this newspaper gets made (The

Globe and Mail, Ontario, Canada)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAeeF8Upb-4

3. “The Sydney newspaper scene in the 1920s was the most competitive
Australia has ever experienced. There were four morning, two afternoon
and four Sunday papers.”
(Isaacs and Kirkpatrick, 2003, p. 14)

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How has this news cycle changed?
Reading: "The people formerly known as the audience" (The Economist).
• The shift of the tools of production to the people formerly known as the audience

• A "hybrid" approach that melds old and new, professional and amateur.

• News is no longer gathered exclusively by reporters and turned into a story but
emerges from an ecosystem in which journalists, sources, readers and viewers
exchange information.

• Readers and viewers have also become part of the news-distribution system as they
share and recommend items of interest via e-mail and social networks.

• Flew (2014) A ‘perfect storm’ of threats to the traditional business model of news:
declining print circulation; loss of classified advertising; low-cost online news
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THE 24/7 NEWS CYCLE: Thank you,
digital technologies
The
London
Terror
Attack,
ABC News
Online,
Thursday,
23.3.2017

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SMH (PRINT)

23.3.2017

THURSDAY AM

IE THIS STORY BROKE

AFTER THE PAPER
HAD BEEN
PREPARED, PRINTED,
DISTRIBUTED (the
night before), AND
PURCHASED (the day
of).

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SMH (PRINT)

24.3.2017

FRIDAY (IE NEXT

DAY IN PRINT)

IE THE DAY AFTER,

THE STORY IS
PRESENTED AS IF IT IS
‘NEWS’: BUT IT IS
ALREADY WIDELY-
KNOWN, THROUGH
PRIOR SOCIAL
MEDIA, WEB, RADIO
AND TV.

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If the new economic model is unstable,
what is the solution?
• Use a paywall? E.g. the Australian

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If the new economic model is unstable,
what is the solution?
• Use a paywall? eg the Australian

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Solution?

• Treat journalism as a charitable institution?

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Solution?

• Go back to what ‘heritage’ media does do well, i.e. long-form, investigative journalism eg The Saturday Paper,
launched by Black Ink media (Maurie Schwartz); related titles include the Monthly, the Quarterly Essay, the
Briefing https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/

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Solution?

• Make Google (and other search engines) pay for ‘piggy backing’ off reliable news media?

Prime Minister Scott Morrison

has pushed back against a
threat by Google to stop
making its search engine
available in Australia if it is
forced to pay news outlets for
showing links to their
websites and stories under a
new media code.

ABC ONLINE, 23/1/21

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Does it matter if the economic model and the news
cycle have changed?
Reading: Bainbridge et al. 2015, Chapter 3

• Journalism has had an important role in society as the ’FOURTH ESTATE’

• Various definitions/origins of the term; most common:

• The three estates are the church, parliament and judiciary

• Journalism is the ‘fourth estate’, a watch dog (over the powerful) and a power-broker itself

• Whoever can speak, speaking now to the whole nation, becomes a power, a branch of
government, with inalienable weight in law-making, in all acts of authority. It matters not what rank
he has, what revenues or garnitures: the requisite thing is that he have a tongue which others will
listen to; this and nothing more is requisite. (Carlyle 1841: 349–50)

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Does it matter if the economic model and the news
cycle have changed?
• Over time, journalism has developed standards (e.g. of presentation, ethics, sourcing) and has been
subject to government regulation.

• ‘Quality’ providers can be relied upon to provide accurate and timely information, even if they might
have different political leanings.

• Now, the funding for journalism (advertising, sales) has disappeared, and ‘anyone’ can provide
‘news’ online – mostly unregulated, unverified etc. So there are huge issues with ‘fake news’,
credibility, undue influence etc. (Bainbridge et al. 2015, Chapter 3)

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Has something better come along?
The 5 Estate? th

• The democratisation of news, through the internet and social media?

• Bainbridge et al 2015: ‘historical’ cases: Julian Assange and Wiki Leaks

• Social media: The public as providers/sources of news: video, photos, livestream,

comment
• provide access, opportunity, involvement
• bypass slow production and distribution processes
• closer to real time

• New providers, e.g. the Guardian Australia, the New Daily …

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But
• (more recently) renewal of public trust in ‘heritage’ media in light of
• increasing evidence of [actual] fake news on platforms such as Facebook;
• Trumps’ and others attacks on journalism (eg New York Times’ subscribers
greatly increased after Trumps’ election);
• increasing evidence of voter manipulation eg Cambridge Analytica
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/20/cambridge-analytica-execs-boast-of-role-in-getting-trump-elected

• + Increasing dissatisfaction with analytics and algorithms, which narrow

the range of offerings, based on what has previously been viewed (as
well as being used to target advertising!), as well as compromising
user privacy

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What is the News and
What does it do?

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What is "the News"?
• A commodity? A Service?
• Something to do with timeliness/regularity?:
- Journalism, from the French 'Jour' (day)

But: I got out of bed today! Is that "news"?

• Just because information is previously unknown ("new"), it is
not necessarily enough to make it interesting ("news").
• Instead of trying to define WHAT news is, let's ask, what
does the news DO?

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What does the news do?
Fourth estate: Acts as a watchdog on power and corruption (esp’ of
those in positions of privilege); exposes wrongdoing; protects rights;
enables free speech

Crown Resorts’ new

$2.2 billion gambling
mecca at Barangaroo
may never open after
an independent inquiry
found that the James
Packer-backed group is
unfit to hold a casino
licence in NSW.

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What does the news do?
Fourth estate: Acts as a watchdog on power and corruption (esp’ of
those in positions of privilege); exposes wrongdoing; protects rights;
enables free speech

THARUNKA

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What does the news do?
Fourth estate:
• Acts as the “town crier” – keeps us informed, esp’ about events which may
have an impact on us (good, bad, physical, psychological)

Bushfire risk eases north of Hobart

Authorities have downgraded the threat level of a bushfire
burning at New Norfolk, north of Hobart.

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What does the news do?
Fourth estate:
• As the “town crier”, also monitors power, keeps us abreast of power changes –
elections, debates, policies ….

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What does the news do?
Fourth estate:
• Provides human interest – funny, odd, strange, inspiring,
uplifting ….

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What does the news do?
Fifth estate?
• All of the above – watchdog, town crier, human interest (usually
= animals!)
• The balance changes according to the outlet, but the functions
are the same

• And: social glue/affiliation

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Fifth estate – adds social glue/affiliation

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Fifth estate – adds social glue/affiliation

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Fifth estate – adds social glue/affiliation

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News Values

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News values – what counts as news?
It rained.
There’s another perfume on the market today.
Students started class today.
Centrelink sent wrong account to client.
Two people died in a car accident.

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News values – what counts as news?
It rained for the 100th day in a row.
h ave to die
Billie Eilish launches new e A u st perfume
ra lian: “Yo lintoday.
u
st g w it h
o r t h W r e
s m ), w riting f t h e se days.
W J o u rnali
th e m edi a
nsta nce….”
Kindergarten
Em m a J a n e (student
UN S
g w aytriplets
to mak e started
ce sh u tt le, forclass today after
i fleeing
i nterestin l o d ing spa
g of an war-torn Sudan.
a l l y e x p
in a r e g pr o n
ri n
the stee
Centrelink sent wrong account to 200 000 clients.
Two people died in the third car accident at notorious
blackspot in the past month

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Why is
this
news?

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News Values (Galtung & Ruge, 1965)
• News Values are the reason why some stories are chosen over others by both media
producers and audience.

• In the new media environment it is often the reason stories go viral via social media.

• News Values are in the story lead.

• The more news values, the bigger the story.

• A story does not have to be serious or catastrophic to have viral-inducing news

values, although they certainly often lead the news.

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But I don’t want to do news...
• Whatever your interest, news values underpin why the stories you are interested in are
in the media, and what stories you will produce.
• If you are in PR, understanding news values is crucial to determining what leads your
media release.
• If you are a journalist, they are crucial to determining what leads your story.
• If you are in advertising, it will be there, even though it is not recognised as ‘news’- until
that ad becomes news, as we will see today.
• News values are also embedded in the images selected to accompany news (Caple and
Bedarnek 2012), as we will see later in the course.

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News values – what is newsworthy?
• “News values are a model for processing information to assess
newsworthiness… we all adopt criteria to filter, analyse and give context
and meaning to the enormous amount of data we receive”.

• “ ‘News’ is a product resulting from a series of judgments made by media

professionals, involving the application of commonly and broadly shared
values.” (Bainbridge et al, 2015, p.286)
News Values at a glance

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Impact

• Significant impact or consequence (actual or potential)

• The more significance or consequences, the greater the impact

• The number of people affected, either directly (involved in the

story) or indirectly - the story impacts on their life or decisions.

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Impact
• An impact story can be as simple as interests rates going up
(people’s hip pockets), to a disaster in which people die, or a
serial killer on the loose.

• Covid19? scale; intensity; impact on lives, impact on travel,

diverse aspects of economy, global relations …..

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Proximity

• Geographical or cultural relevance.

• We are interested in Australian stories, as we live in Australia.
• ‘Hyperlocal’ - stories in our backyard, whilst living in a global village
• If we have ties to another country, we are interested in those stories
• Cultural Proximity
• We are influenced by that culture (e.g Australia historically connected to UK, USA and
NZ, one of our closest neighbours)

• China is cultural proximity, as it is a close trading partner, with many people having
family in China.

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Proximity

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Proximity

• COVID in Uruguay?

• COVID in Norway?

• COVID in Syria

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Proximity

Vivienne
Crowle

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Proximity

THARUNKA

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Proximity

Liverpool Leader

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Prominence
• Prominence refers to how well known someone or something is.
• It is not always a person - it can be a brand, an organisation, a
movement.
• Brands like to use prominent people to promote their products,
so a double whammy. We’ll come back to that.

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Media Examples: Prominence

(and proximity: Chris Hemsworth is ‘one of ours’)

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Prominence: Names Make News

• Suburban woman pregnant again. ✗

• Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, pregnant again. ✓

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Human Interest

• It is about ‘ordinary people’ who are the face of stories that illustrate a wider social
or cultural conversation, or connect to us on a emotional level.
• Also known as ‘personalisation’ especially in disasters, or accidents / attacks /
issues involving a lot of people or complex information.
• The stories that we connect to: they are inspiring (survival, tragedy, despair,
determination, against all odds... ); ‘the there goes me…’ type of stories.

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Human Interest
Covid? Yes, of course.

• What is the impact on a specific person/family/business/town?

• How have they been affected? How is a business adapting? What does it mean for
the life of a town/region?

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Human Interest
• Human interest stories may be on the
serious side, eg: Bangladeshi garment
makers starving for fashion
• The story focuses on Shima, Tania and
Chameli, Bangladeshi fast fashion factory
workers

• Or they may be on the lighter side:

The reality of #vanlife

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HUMAN INTEREST:
‘colour’ stories, ‘soft
news’ – often about
animals!

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Novelty (Unusual, Bizarre)
The stories that go viral
The unusual, the quirky, the intriguing ‘the you can’t make that
stuff up’ stories.

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News values – Bizarreness / Novelty:
rare, unusual

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Conflict
• Conflict is exactly that - stories about conflict.
• Not always violence and war though!
• Politicians arguing over policy / or internal ructions (will they or won’t they set
a climate target?)
• Celebrity divorce
• Court Cases
• Divisiveness over issues - (knowing as ‘teaming’ in social media sharing
theory )
• International trade fracas - China and Australia trade

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Conflict
CONFLICT: actual
• Kabul hospital: Explosion, gunfire reported in Afghan capital

CONFLICT: metaphorical
• A partnership with the AFL Women's League has put some high-
profile muscle behind Cotton On Group's battle with the
global apparel brands in Australia.

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Generational conflict:
Muffin Break CEO v Millenial
s

Classic conflict:
police and brawlers

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POLITICAL CONFLICT
https://thenewdaily.com.au/

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Conflict

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Currency
• ‘Of the moment’
• It’s all anyone is talking about
• It’s all over social media.
• From politics to popular culture

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Currency
What’s a story you would describe as having currency right now?
(It can have other news values in it too)

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Currency

• timely
• recent
• calendar
• anniversary

O-week✓

mid-semester ✗
break

November ✗

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Currency
No longer current:

(so Last year)

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And one more…Timeliness – the story
is ‘timely’
• Easter is an expected date. So you will see around this time Easter-
related stories and ads. But they’re only relevant around Easter!

• Timeliness - narrow windows in the 24 /7 news cycle.

• Anniversaries of major disasters or tragedies are also an example of

timeliness.

• As are regular events eg the start of the new school year (‘4 sets of
twins start kindergarten today’)

• Overlaps with currency.

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News values over time
Breaking news: + CONFLICT
Kabul hospital: Explosion, gunfire
reported in Afghan capital

One day later: + IMPACT (killed)

At least 30 people have been killed in a + SCOPE (at least 30)
hospital attack in Kabul widely + WATCHDOG (condemned)
condemned by world leaders

Two days later: + CONFLICT/WATCHDOG

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for (International) (Islamic state)
an attack on a Kabul military hospital by + NOVELTY (disguised as doctors)
gunmen disguised as doctors

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One event can have many news values, e.g. Covid

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News values, PR, and brand journalism
• UNSW Newsroom:
+ proximity (UNSW)
+ currency (12 Feb)
+impact (most employable,
record 37)
+prominence (Top100
Future leaders)

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News values on social media.
Timeliness of
Prominence
concerns about
of Extinction
the
Rebellion
environment

Prominence of
subject/s (Prime
Minister; Adani
coalmine)

Currency of
announcement on
coal

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 WHAT
ARE THE
NEWS
VALUES
HERE?

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When ads make news
• Advertising also contains news values.
• Those news values are illuminated when the advertising makes
news.
• E.g.: The Superbowl – prominence, often controversy
• E.g.: Ads gone wrong: Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi ad

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Kendall, Pepsi and #blacklivesmatter
https://www.wired.com/2017/04/pepsi-ad-internet-response/

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So awful it united the internet…(wired)
1.6m views in 48 hours but not the reaction Pepsi hoped for.
News Values ? Why did the media seize on this ad’s
controversy? (remember more than one news values means a
bigger story).

The message is clear: All those women's marches, Black Lives Matter protests, and demonstrations outside
Trump Tower would be much more effervescent—and effective!—if someone had just brought some soda

WIRED, 4.05.17

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Celebrities and promotional culture
• ‘Celebrities generate personal brand equity...they are human commercial
intertexts’ (Davis 2013, p. 92)
• Individuals construct their own identities, in part, through engaging with
celebrity texts (ibid).
• Celebrity news stories are a form of human interest (ibid) with prominence as
an additional news value. Media promotes celebrities (Davis 2013, p.94)
• ‘A fourth promotional level comes from organisations employing celebrities to
endorse their products (ib.id.) (Enter Kendal Jenner)

• EVERY celebrity profile in the news is tied to a PR release (their new movie,
book, tv show…)

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Framing
The way journalists and other
media professionals create a
news story is regarded as
framing – the process of
selecting and rejecting
information in the process of
constructing a news story and
placing emphasis on a
particular aspect or angle.

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Framing

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News agenda
• Gatekeeping and agenda setting.
• Influences what we talk about in general conversation as a
result of consuming news.
• Influences how we react to events and information.
• Influences how stakeholders (people with an interest in a
particular development) will react.

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Lecture Summary
News functions. What the news ‘does’
• Watchdog. ✧Town crier. ✧ Human interest

News values. What makes it news? Why does it make the news?
✧Impact ✧ Proximity ✧. Prominence ✧. Novelty ✧. Human Interest
✧Conflict ✧. Currency ✧. Timeliness

Framing/agendas. A particular ‘take’/perspective on the news

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 What drives YOUR news values?
(consuming, and creating)
Prominence? (eg celebrity)
Impact? (eg political, environmental)
Novelty?
Conflict? (if so, what? Political? Social? Local?)
….

Which news outlets align with your world views?

Which do not?

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THIS WEEK AND NEXT
• Workshops are THIS WEEK
• Make sure you go to the workshop you are enrolled in
• For next week, make sure you attempt the preparation activity
before the workshop.
• And the reading!
Good luck!

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