Although televisual news is generally regarded as the most objective, unmediated method of delivering information it, like any other programming, has its own agenda, stylistics, requirements and objectives. As Fiske points out, 'the basic definition of news as factual information that its viewers need in order to be able to participate in their society gives us only half the story' (Fiske 1987: p281).
It is relevant to start by looking at the general context under which news in presented through television. Every news bulletin or programme is produced by an organisation, be it commercially funded or otherwise, and because of this it must meet its own particular aims for continuation. For the commercial channels, the news must build an audience of a particular size and social consistency to sell to advertisers. For non-commercial channels, such as the BBC, this requirement seems initially to be redundant, but a more detailed analysis shows that the public accountability of the corporation necessitates a similar need. The importance of the news in building an audience exophorically for television companies is emphasised by Fiske:
In this way, television companies use their evening news to build a substantial audience for what follows, the 'prime-time, prime profit advertisements that are to be wedged apart by programmes' (ibid.).
Furthermore, the companies producing television news exist within the construct of a particular society. This society has its own ethos or set of moral codes and (avoiding digression into moral philosophy) it is inevitable, and indeed unavoidable, that these ingrained values will be projected upon the representation of reality. In other words the news does not just reflect society it exists within it, and this must influence its interpretation of reality. Though it may be argued that the diversity of viewpoints within the society negotiates a way out of this, common sense insists that the large amount of consensus view necessitates a presentation that in some way corresponds to the social ethos. An example of this is 'the mistreatment of women by Islamic cultures'. Imagine for a moment a prime-slot television news programme saying, 'our culture sees Islamic women as mistreated, but...'. We must question how long this programme would continue running amid the public and political outcry resulting from its objective assertion.
In these ways we see, before actually analysing news programmes themselves, a clear trend of constructed reality within the contextual framework of televisual news.
Hartley (1982: p20) roughly divides the methods in which televisual news constructs reality in two groups. The first is the paradigmatic; relating to selection and inclusion, and the seconds is syntagmatic, regarding the way in which the selection is presented.
The general concept of televisual news, particularly within the newsroom, is that it offers 'a window on the world'. This idea, defined by Fiske as 'The Transparency Fallacy' (Fiske 1987: p282), is obviously not true: the news cannot cover every event that happens in the world, and so must select which of the events can be deemed newsworthy.
Despite the terminology of journalism suggesting that items are universally salient and define themselves as newsworthy (a story is 'uncovered' or 'exposed'), studies have shown that news is paradigmatic, and that there is a very definite set of defining rules which govern inclusion. As Hartley says:
There is a general consensus of ideas held by analysts and researchers, such as Galtang and Ruge (1973), over the categories that an event must fulfil to become viable news. For example, the duration of time between a story 'breaking' and its coverage is obviously a key factor which help to produce the illusion of television news being up to the minute. Viewers tend to consider television as more 'up to the minute' than other forms of news circulation because access is instant - one can simply turn on a television rather than going to a newsagent. For this reason, broadcasters must endeavour to break stories at least as fast as newspapers to maintain the illusion. Fiske points out that 'A newsworthy event should have occurred within the last twenty-four hours, and during that time things should have happened that can be seen as an origin and as a point of...closure' (Fiske 1987: p284)
As well as recency, negativity plays a large part in the selection of events to classify as news. The seemingly cynical statement that all of the news on television is bad news is quite true and accurate. News is represented as that which breaks the norm and disrupts harmony. This is a telltale sign of construction of reality by news broadcasters in two ways: firstly all the events of the world are obviously not bad (if the news is to be
believed, the world is complete hell); the second indicator is the way in which broadcasters structure around the ideological rather than the concrete. Fiske says
Bound together with this idea of negativity in the news is that of dramatic conflict. An event which is inherently dramatic, such as a murder, is more likely to be covered (hence the disproportion of murders in the news in comparison with the concrete world). Such conflict is inherently negative; thus negativity is increased in the news. The desire for a dramatic item can provoke extreme measures from journalists; Chandler (1995: www) cites the following (quite enlightening) example that shows a blatant construction of reality: 'On landing in the (Belgian) Congo during it's evacuation, an American journalist rushed over to group of white women asking, 'has anyone here been raped, and speaks English?' (Chandler 1995: www document)
Further, Hartley points out that '...once reported, there is a further threshold of drama: the bigger the story, the more added drama is needed to keep it going' (Hartley 1982: p76). A good example of this is the death of Princess Diana, where we saw almost twenty-four television news coverage which was 'filled-out' with items which would not normally reach national television - such primary schools commemorating her life. 'Events which in themselves would normally not reach the threshold of newsworthiness were made into dramatic stories in order to keep the pot boiling' (ibid.).
News also tends to concentrate on elite people - those who are in the public eye. In some cases, this is individually (such as pop stars), in others it is by role (such as union representatives). As Chandler points out, 'News often reports what prominent people say about events rather than the events themselves' (Chandler 1995: www). A recent example of this is a four-minute article on the Iraq crisis, during which three minutes were dedicated to the houses of parliament, EU representatives and Military chiefs. Fiske explains broadcasters’ use of elites thus
To introduce schema theory, the broadcaster plays on the fact we develop mental constructs that encompass the individuals contained within the elite. These frames of expectation, developed and reinforced each time the individual appears in the news, allow us to predict the 'purpose' of the individual and so interpret the story. Simply put, the individuals comprising the elite are highly symbolic, almost archetypal, of the views held by a section of society, so by utilising them, the broadcaster has almost a system of notation to use within their programming (see discussion on language below). During recent Clinton 'scandal', for example, broadcasters used the fact that the public would instantly associate him with a certain set of terms ('sexual scandal', 'corruption', 'impeachment', etc).
Remembering that 'experts' and 'special correspondents' also fall into the category by role, we see a gross disproportion of elites in comparison with 'real people'. As we have already arrived at the conclusion that these people represent large sections of society, this 'purely stylistic feature...tends to reinforce faith in the status quo' (Chandler 1995: www).
The news is also ethnocentric in that it is concerned with elite nations. There is a tendency for broadcasters to concentrate on events that are close to home, in countries with a close proximity politically, socially and geographically. Furthermore, a greater amount of drama is required for a 'foreign' event to be covered, this is summarised in what is known as McLurg's Law, that '1 dead Briton is worth 5 dead Frenchmen, 20 dead Egyptians, 500 dead Indians and 1000 dead Chinese' (cited from Chandler 1995: www).
Once a foreign story has been selected for coverage, there is also a habit for the television news to present it in a way that reaffirms our idea that a western democracy is the fairest system to live within.
These criteria for selection signal a construction of reality on an ideological basis. Hall et al. (1978) point out that the content of the news constructs 'social maps' which assume that society is fragmented into definite areas (such as politics, economy and sport) and concerned with individuals who have control of their destiny. The broadcaster's social map also assumes that society is hierarchical, with some events more 'newsworthy' than others are, and 'that this hierarchy is centralised both socially and regionally' (Hartley 1982: p82). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the maps assume that society is consensual, with all in agreement that the current society is the best possible.
Television news, however, is not comprised solely of the selection of events to appear as items, there is also Hartley's idea of syntagm; the items themselves must be vocalised by a journalist and finally presented on a news programme to become a story. This is the point where the majority of the construction of reality occurs. This is betrayed by the very fact that items are referred to as stories, Tuchman points out that 'to say that a report is a story...alerts us that news, like all public documents, is a constructed reality possessing its own internal validity' (cited from Chandler 1995: www).
Let us first deal with the language of televisual news, for there is no way of avoiding the usage of words. Broadly speaking, all language is inherently subjective and thus projects the values of an individual or institution upon its subject matter. But specific conventions of journalism reduce the apparancy of this because, as conventions, we absorb them into our schemata. This allows us to ignore them, as they are our basic expectations of the genre (indeed, we would probably notice more if they were absent). Fiske identifies the framing concept for such linguistic conventions as that of metaphor: 'News, as a form of realism, is generally considered to work through metonymy, that is, by a careful selection of people and incident's that stand for a more complex and fuller version of reality' (Fiske 1987: p291). This point summarises a great deal about the 'reality' of the news broadcaster; what Fiske describes here is ridiculously constructed reality, a 'concrete' world composed exclusively of concept and archetype.
Furthermore, each issue or subject area can have any number of metaphors assigned to it. One study, by Mumby and Spitzack (1985 and cited in Fiske 1987: p291) looked at the association of six main news stories concerning politics and found 30% items represented politics as a game, 60% represented it as war, and the remaining 10% represented it as a drama. This shows the broadcasters use of metaphor to forge differing realities in different circumstances (it takes a massive leap of imagination to consider politics as a dramatic war game!).
News programmes also draw heavily on another form of metaphor - the stereotype. By keeping a stock of terminology to represent individuals and events, for example 'the black gang member, with a history of street violence', the journalist makes the story easier to tell, but creates wider implications. One example of this is determining the difference between 'freedom fighters' and 'terrorists'; a reporter is forced to make this decision ethnocentrically, in terms of the political structures within which the individuals operate. Those living in democracies are normally termed 'terrorists' and those under other political structures, such as dictatorships (which itself is a stereotype), are called 'freedom fighters'. This also illustrates news programmes promoting the status of the society under which they exist.
Another usage of the metaphor is to sanitise; for example referring to 'ethnic cleansing' rather than 'genocide' allows the audience to dismiss the actual event and so the programme is not too intensive. Again, ethnocentrism is at work throughout this, and the result is a dampening of mass murder in distant nations (such as 'the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia') in comparison with proximate ones ('Hitler's genocide').
The vocabulary employed by journalists and the way in which it is used also plays a part in constructing the reality that we are presented with in news programmes. The most common example of this is union disputes, Fiske says that in capitalist societies, such as ours, 'Trade unionist('s)...actions are always represented as 'demands' whereas employers are said to 'offer'' (Fiske 1987: p281). It is very rare that these verbs are the reversed or the sentence is structured in any other way; consider for a moment the connotations of the following, 'The trade union offer to work for a 5% wage increase but the management demand they take 2%'. Fiske explains the effect thus: 'The word 'offer' suggests its agents...are generous...and are comfortably in control, whereas 'demand' suggests that it's agents are greedy...and having to struggle to gain control of the situation.' (Fiske 1987: p285).
Furthermore, he adds that 'demand is a disruptive word which places 'demanders' with the negative forces that make news' (ibid.). By presenting people in this way, the audience is placed in a polar 'us/them' situation and, because unions are presented in such a negative way; we must side with the management. Considering factor such as these, it is difficult to assert that the news can present an issue without commenting on it.
The linguistic factors are not just relevant to televisual news programmes, but are common in all types of popular medium. The presentation of televised news is, though, unique in that it is both verbal/aural and visual. It is in the presentation that a great deal of construction is administered.
The camera work of a report is a very strong method in which television news builds an interpretation. Hartley notes that
The fact that the viewer is positioned behind the camera has a great deal of influence on the representation of reality by broadcasters. It means that we assume the point of view of the camera; so if it is positioned looking, for example, from a factory towards a picket line, we can, at least literally, see only the perspective of the employers. This means that, photographically, news will always favour a particular group, side or perspective at any one point. Furthermore, to enable coverage of every perspective a confusingly large number of shots would be required, and the associated reporting must tie in exactly with them - in other words, it would be impossible. Hartley concludes 'News has to be impartial...(but) there is a contradiction between (required) impartiality and (unavoidable) point of view. The construction of an imaginary viewer...actually makes things worse' (Hartley 1992: p78).
The broadcaster has now selected an item from the multitude of events of the day, passed it too a journalist and news team for filming and reporting, and ended up with the basis of a story, a raw report which will now goes into editing.
At this point it may be a good idea to look at the dictionary definition of 'editing', which gives us a good clue to the processes involved: 'Assemble, prepare, or modify...take extracts from and collate to form a unified sequence' (From the Concise Oxford Dictionary 1992). The very definition of the word implies a construction of reality: the editors are taking pieces of the story, already constructed in its selection, reporting and camerawork, and rearranging it to form a coherent whole.
During editing, the news team will begin to blend some of the sharp cuts and obvious televisual techniques and create a seamless illusion of realism. An example of this is the diffusion of location interviews with what the industry calls 'noddies' (reactions, smiles, nods, etc. by the interviewer).
The interesting thing about this is not the fact that cuts are disguised (though this may reveal a great deal about the ethos of broadcasters), but that any editing of an interviewees speech has occurred. This implies information given by the individual being interviewed has been omitted, and that we are not receiving a full representation of their views. In effect the interviewee's perspectives have been mediated by not only the cameraman, but also the news editor (and in turn the television company).
During the editing of a story, library footage is also added. This shows research into the history, though little actual account is usual given of the historical and social context under which of the particular event occurs, and this reinforces its 'authenticity'. Chandler also notes that during editing 'stories are repackaged from secondary sources such as news agencies, press conferences, spokespeople, often with biases intact' (Chandler 1995: www)
The broadcaster now has a complete product, the story, ready for consumption - the method of which is, of course, a news programme. The actual presentation of the news item on television brings with it a new set of constructions, yet enhances the appearance of reality.
Our first point of contact with the item is the newsreader, epitomising authority with formal dress and sober look. They are almost invariably seated behind a desk that not only emphasises the ('man-behind-the-desk' type) of authority, but also reduces their body language and, thus, increases the illusion of objectivity. Even in the more progressive news programmes, such as those appearing on Channel Five, which do not seat their presenters behind desks, keep their body language to a minimum (Channel Five do this by seating their presenters on terrifyingly high stools). The orderly surroundings also support the image of formal and objective authority.
Perhaps the most important method of instilling the illusion that news portrays reality employed by newsreaders is that of eye contact. Although it seems simple, this factor creates an idea that the newsreader is the viewer’s 'friend'. Consequently:
In this way, it appears that we are in direct and unmediated contact with the subject of the story 'without, apparently, any unwanted editorialising interventions' (ibid: p77).
It is also interesting to look the BBC’s high tech 'virtual studio', within which there is nothing concrete existing outside of a computer other than the newsreader. This is quite a poignant symbol of the construction of reality in the news
In many ways, televisual news is not 'the window on the world' that the majority of the populace considers it to be. It would be technically and philosophically impossible to create a news programme devoid of all construction and projection of ethos, and so we must accept that it does. If we look historically, news programmes evolved during the war, when the bulletin (in cinemas) was generally used for the purpose of propaganda. The conventions established at this time, which enabled reality to be reconstructed, are still present today and evident in modern news broadcast.