Making News

1. Making News

2. Communicating news information • News reporting is a genre with its own specific characteristics • Its characteristics have evolved owing to: • The function of newspapers: i.e. reporting information on world facts and events • The particular type of relation with the readership • The limitations of the medium: • Constraints of time (the need to deliver information fast), space on the page, etc.

3. Traditional roles in the newsroom • Chief reporter, journalist, subeditor and editorhaverather fixed roles in news-making: • The journalist writes the article • The chief reporter revises and checks the article (for factual accuracy, language, etc.) • The subeditor and editor edit the article and make decisions on the article prominence, its layout, headline and photos/pictures, its allocation in the issue, etc.

4. How are journalism and journalists’ practices changing?

5. Factors affecting the media industry • Ownership • Economic pressures • Technological innovations • Professionalization • Quality of journalism • Recent Changes due to: • Mergers and acquisitions • The Internet • Digitalisation • Increased media production

6. Media ownership • Global media organizations control the majority of newspapers worldwide: • In Britain, 8 owners dominate the national press • In the US, 8 companies control the majority of the media • In the world, 6 multinational companies effectively control the leading media • ‘Alternative’ press, often with strong political, religious, ethnic affiliations • Ownership influences media content, political stance and editorial perspective

7. Economic Pressures • The need to make profits has a major impact on media production • Advertising is a major source of profit for newspapers, hence: • The need to sell advertising space • The need to keep sales and circulation high • Meeting readers’ expectations is a way to keep sales and circulation high • Free papers and most Internet papers rely wholly on advertising to make profits

8. New Technology Somecharacteristics of new technology • Digitalization • Server-based production • Non-linear editing • Faster production process • Automation • Products are publishable in multiple formats

9. Effects on journalism • Fewer journalists • Less investigative journalism • The Internet is a news-gathering tool • Tighter production times • More editions during the day • More competition between different media (e.g. print and electronic)

10. Effects on journalistic practices • Multi-skilling: • Editing, video journalism • Multimedia • Time is still a constraint: • Later deadlines but more tasks to perform • Less time for analysis • More control over the final product: • Fewer people involved • Audience feedback from interactive media

11. Changing audiences • Audiences are no longer passive consumers • Interactivity allows audiences to voice their opinions • Audiences contribute to creating news products (videos, pictures, blogs, etc.) • Audiences have expectations about content and formats • Better educated, informed readers • More sources of information available • Less loyalty to brands

12. A changing profession? • Journalists need to be versatile and be able to perform multiple activities • Converging forms of news products (print, audio, television, or online) • Increased workload • Lack of specialisation Leading to better journalism or a threat to the profession?