DUMBING DOWN OF NEWS

SAYLEE SALVI9421

WE HAVE HAD……

• THE STONE AGE

THE BRONZE AGE

IRON AGE

ICE AGE

THIS AGE…

THE INFORMATION AGE

SOME FEATURES OF THIS AGE

• The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Information Era

• The current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously.

• Carries the ramifications of a shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on the manipulation of information.

CHANGES OF THE AGE

• The Information Age has allowed rapid global communications and networking to shape modern society

• Aided Globalisation• Innovation transforming processes• Networked economies and societies• Constantly changing images and

messages

• It started along the same time when Globalization started, and has gone hand in hand with it

• Importantly, have stressed the importance of access to better information in economical systems.

• Nobel prizes in economics have been given to people who have modeled the effects of sharing information, or models for what happens on a market when people don’t share information

• As in the case of Akerlof, Spence and Stiglitz who received the Nobel prize in 2001 for their theories on “asymmetric information”

• It has brought to fore-front the importance of communication in modern societies and systems

• In this context, THE MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION OF THE INFORMATION AGE-

• The information revolution brought with it the emphasis on ‘democratization of knowledge’.

• David Rooney, Mckenna, Bernard, Rhonda Breit argue that knowledge has a social context.

• Fundamentally knowledge systems are communication systems.

• Most of the knowledge people know of the world is not based on direct experience of the world ,it is communicated to them via various media.

DEMOCRATIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE

• The democratization of knowledge is the acquisition and spread of knowledge amongst the common people, not just privileged elites such as priests and academics

• This is where journalism enters• From the very start of journalism,

democratization of knowledge and information has been one of it’s main functions

• Journalism is communication in the public sphere• The important task of journalism is to obsereve and

make known the happenings around them• In this , they have to communicate the happenings

in a simplified manner-as they have to bridge the gap between the elites and non-elites and democratizing the society

• The primary economic value of journalism derives not from its own knowledge, but in distributing the knowledge of others.

• Three core functions of journalism-Accessing sources, determining significance of information, and conveying it effectively

• The functions and skills of conveying news and information effectively involve abilities to reduce information to its core to meet space and time requirements and presenting it in an interesting and attractive manner.

• These are built on linguistic and artistic skills and formatting techniques.

• An element of ‘simplifying’ naturally enters,if news has to be communicated to all, including the ones who may not possess superior intellectual capabilities (In a way ‘dumbing it ‘ to make it understandable to all)

• Journalists use simple, direct language that is easy to understand. Good writers always make an effort to choose the most appropriate word to convey what they mean.

• Well-written news stories are not vague, ambiguous, or repetitious, because every word counts.

• Because they write stories for a general audience, journalists also try to avoid jargon – specialized language or technical terms unfamiliar to most people.

-(U.S. Department of State publication, Handbook of Independent Journalism.)

• All this is done in an effort to make news simple and understandable to all.

DUMBING DOWN

• According to John Algeo, former editor of American Speech, the neologism dumb down "revise so as to appeal to those of little education or intelligence" was first recorded in 1933 as movie slang, and dumb up in 1928

• Definition-to lower the level of difficulty and the intellectual content of (as a textbook)-(Merriam Webster)

• The concept "dumbing down" can point to a variety of different things but the concept always involves a claim about the simplification of culture, education, and thought.

• It is reffered in a negative context-a decline in creativity and innovation, a degradation of artistic, cultural, and intellectual standards, or the undermining of the very idea of a standard, and the trivialisation of cultural, artistic, and academic creations

• The dumbing down has brought some negative features to news medi

DUMBING DOWN IN NEWS MEDIA

• Dumbing down in news media-• Trivialization of issues• Reducing the intensity of news by focusing

more on ‘soft news’• Soft news-events that are not of immediate

importance to the people but may still m erit coverage

• Because the term "news" is quite broad, the terms "hard" and "soft" denote both a difference in respective standards for news value, as well as for standards of conduct, relative to the professional ideals of journalistic integrity.

• Soft news is the one that is not time bound and is based on lesser serious topics

• Celebrity interviews , analytical programs on sports,pre-election campaigns, film reviews are examples of soft news. It gives rise to a culture of infotainment.

• Increasing the soft news content, dumbs down the news culture of a channel

.

• Shift in editorial priorities from hard news and investigation to ‘scandal-mongering ,sensationalism and sentiment . masquerading in perverse guise as human interest’ stories.

• The television news media condescends to viewers by feeding them soft news instead of important, reported stories.

• Hard news tended to be buried in a stream of soft news, gossip, product announcements and trivia. - (Project for Excellence in Journalism)

• In the Indian television scene,the focus is on urban fads, fashion shows

• The celebrity culture and page 3 world and gossip laden reportage of good times enjoyed by metropolitan party goers dominates coverage

• The celebrity culture and page 3 world and gossip laden reportage of good times enjoyed by metropolitan party goers dominates coverage

• A segment of news from the film industry is included in the daily package

• Special shows that are about films, television trivia• Ex, Saas Bahu aur Saazish etc.

• Moyers: I do not know whether you are practicing an old form of parody and satire . . . or a new form of journalism.

• Stewart: Well then that either speaks to the sad state of comedy or the sad state of news. I can’t figure out which one. I think, honestly, we’re practicing a new form of desperation . . .

—Bill Moyers interview of Jon Stewart, on Public Broadcasting Service, July 2003

• In the Middle Ages, we were told what we knew by the Church; after the printing press and the Reformation, by state censors and the licensers of publishers; with the rise of liberalism in the 19th and 20th centuries, by publishers themselves, and later by broadcast media—in any case, by a small, elite group of professionals.-Larry Sanger

• According to BBC's star journalist Michael Buerk ,• "A lot of thought seems to be going into making it

thoughtless" • DUMBING DOWN OF NEWS PRESENTS A VERY

TOUCHING PARADOX-

“While readers and viewers are better educated than in the past, the media are lowering the IQ of their output”.

A FEW CAUSES FOR DUMBING DOWN OF NEWS

• Due to new technologies and faster communication systems, there is an increase in the bulk of news flow. So most times, ommission of news happens naturally.

• But most times, ommissions involve

‘deliberate decisions’ brought about by following factors.

FEW FACTORS FOR DUMBING DOWN

• Technological advancement

• Ownership and profit maximisation

• Advertisers influence

• Sourcing mass media news

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS

Technological Advancement

• new media technologies, as they associate with the work organization and requirements made of television journalists.

• Organizational change, underpinned by technological developments, towards multiskilling, multi-media news production and the pursuit of novel news markets is seen to convey a potential to compromise journalistic performance.

• Many researchers and writers associate falling journalism standards with the new media and communications technologies

• With technological advancement and New Media, journalists are put to muti –task-writing for the print as well as the web, becoming both-journalists and website designers, bloggers etc.

• Journalist recruits to the American Cable News Network(CNN) being trained to write scripts, produce and edit tape, operate camerasand work in the control room – that is, to be multi-skilled and technically competent.(Parker 1995)

• This requirement to multi-skill is part way explained by the potential of the new technologies to dispense with specialist technical crews and workers

• It represents an intensified rate of labour exploitation and, moreover, detracts from the ‘unitary core’ of journalism principles and practices which need to be applied if journalists are to produce well-substantiated, accurate and pertinent news.(Sparks 1991)

• The fundamental challenge (To the journalist’s importance and role)comes from technology that is deskilling journalists. It is providing individuals the capabilities to access sources, to search through information and determine its significance, and to convey it effectively without the support of a journalistic enterprise

• New means of communication are reducing the value that journalists traditionally created through their unique ability to attend events and reach sources of information and knowledge. Today members of the public can watch news take place and can report or comment upon it well before it’s processed and conveyed through traditional journalistic practice.

• The crises of truth (representation) coincide with increased sociable uses of the World Wide Web

• The “intercreative” possibilities of social Web practices are leading to different kinds of representations and constructions of truth.

• The interactive features allow audiences to partake in the dumbing down of news, because much footage is accessible in digital form (whether through official news sites or individuals posting footage), we have a new way of “constructing” accounts to assuage our sense of having been lied to but having few ways to “prove” it

OWNERSHIP AND PROFIT MAXIMISATION

Ownership and Profit maximization

• Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) refers to a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing share of the mass media

• Contemporary research demonstrates increasing levels of consolidation, with many media industries already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of firms.

• Even as numbers of media outlets increase, the ownership is becoming ever more concentrated as mega mergers take hold.

• The contradiction at the heart of the relationship between truth and power today: the fact that the radical democratization of knowledge and multiplication of sources and voices made possible by digital media coexists with the blatant falsification of information by political and corporate powers.

• Media concentration closely related to issues of editorial independence, media bias, and freedom of the press

• At the end of the 1990s, there were 9 corporations (mainly US) that dominated the media world:

• Editorial independence is lost because-Depending upon concentration ,whether in hands of the state or government , or corporate, it is used to advance their respective purposes

• Especially, In South East Asia, Africa etc. efforts are made for the freeing of media from governmental control

ADVERTISING INFLUENCE

• Advertising revenue is a major subsidy to media. Infact that is what makes radio and television ‘free of cost’ to the audiences

• In fact, advertising has played a potent role in increasing concentration even among rivals that focus with equal energy on seeking advertising revenue.(Chomsky)

• The power of advertisers over television programming stems from the simple fact that they buy and pay for the programs-they are the "patrons" who provide the media subsidy (Chomsky)

• The power of advertisers over television programming stems from the simple fact that they buy and pay for the programs-they are the "patrons" who provide the media subsidy.

• The choices of these patrons greatly affect the welfare of the media, and the patrons become what William Evan calls "normative reference organizations," whose requirements and demands the media must accommodate if they are to succeed.-(Chomsky)

• Every news program has a sponsor, and the program is designed to suit the taste of the sponsor

.

• In addition to discrimination against unfriendly media institutions, advertisers also choose selectively among programs on the basis of their own principles. With rare exceptions these are culturally and politically conservative.

• Large corporate advertisers on television will rarely sponsor programs that engage in serious criticisms of corporate activities, such as the problem of environmental degradation, the workings of the military-industrial complex, or corporate support of and benefits from Third World tyrannies. –(Chomsky)

• Any programming content in opposition to advertisers taste or views, especially challenging their established power economy, will not be broadcast.

• Advertisers also exert direct and indirect influence on the media companies and their content in order to foster moods and cultures where consumers are more likely to buy their products.

• As a consequence, dumbing down of content is not uncommon.

• Media companies sell consumers to their customers, the advertisers, that bring in the money that allows media companies to survive.

• Market pressures therefore affect content further. • Sometimes, news stories or editorials are often

subtle product advertisements, even with a rise of new terms in critical circles, such as “advertorials.”

• Entertaining Minifilms, Documentries that are sponsored.

• Newspapers and broadcast journalists are under “enormous pressures to replace civic values with commercial values.”-Jon Prestage, Mainstream Journalism: Shredding the First Amendment,

SOURCING MASS MEDIA NEWS

• The ownership of a TV station or newspaper, the makeup of its management team and its political leanings will all have an impact on- ‘WHOSE VOICE IS BEING HEARD’

• The management and ownership culture will decide the sourcing of news-

• Whose perspective is taken• Whose side is completely ignored• Who is called as an expert over particular issues• Also, as Chomsky’s views, news is sourced from

government and corporate beureaucracies most times as it suits the economics

• News organisations do not have a clear credential on whom they call ‘experts’ and take them on news

• The groups while deciding ‘experts’,need to rely on evidence.

• Some experts are chosen by news organisations because, they are probably capable of writing about and representing the interests and views of the larger public.For ex. There are a far more number of people who can do a good job summarizing information about "popular" topics than there are experts about them.

• Experts have specialisation in niche areas. People believe an expert in one area will be an expert in other areas as well.

• They have daily news demands and imperative news schedules that they must meet. They cannot afford to have reporters and cameras at all places where important stories may break.

• Economics dictates that they concentrate their resources where significant news often occurs, where important rumors and leaks abound, and where regular press conferences are held.

• These bureaucracies turn out a large volume of material that meets the demands of news organizations for reliable, scheduled flows.Ex-Mantralay, the BMC, trade organisations, Business groups etc.

THE EFFECTS OF DUMBING DOWN ON NEWS CONTENT

• More opinionated reporting to attract audiences; less verification; less objectivity; more sensationalism and increased stress on conflict

• Pressure to lower ethical standards• “Dumbing down” and simplifying content; less serious context, or analysis• Editorial resources spent on entertainment and celebrity news

• Complaints about intrusive, ubiquitous media; information glut

• Convergence and business values• Concerns about diversity of views in mainstream media• Power of global media corporations• Priority of economic imperatives over ethical duties• Possible conflicts of interest• Lack of journalistic independence

~THANK YOU ~