Sam Babington

Digital News

Page 1

Digital News Essay:

Compare and contrast two main evening news
programs from the same day, either on BBC, ITV,
Channel 4, Channel 5 or Sky.
Sam Babington: 1306356
Television Production Year 2
3rd December 2014
Word Count: 1645
Helen Curston

Sam Babington

Digital News

Contents Page
Introduction......................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................3-6
Conclusion.......................................................................6-7
Bibliography.......................................................................8
Webography.......................................................................8

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Sam Babington

Digital News

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Compare and contrast two main evening news

programs from the same day, either on BBC, ITV,
Channel 4, Channel 5 or Sky.
Whilst comparing the major news programs in the UK, it is evident that digital
news may intentionally or incidentally be portrayed in a number of different ways. As
digital news is progressively becoming both globalized and technology advanced, it
may now become difficult to define the fidelity of news, as well as what actually
makes it newsworthy. Such controversy is often evident within the UKs national
evening news programs such as BBC and Channel 4, which when in comparison tend
to portray daily news in an interesting way. Throughout this essay, these two news
programs will be compared in terms of their presenting styles and conventions as well
as their top stories, which were shown in the evening on the 2nd December 2014.
Alternatively, the theoretical ideologies will be the primary focus of this essay, which
additionally will focus on theorists such as Cohen and J. Gans. This will include the
methodology behind the agenda setting theory plus analyzing how the globalized
media fuels issues to lead to a potential moral panic. Additionally, an evaluation on
how modern media relies on user generated content and citizen journalism to provide
a newsworthy story, plus an analysis on the significance of elitism and political
perspectives will also be evident.

Main Body
To begin with, Channel 4 offers a considerably sympathizing news story
showing the harsh reality of the few migrants whom survived fleeing from there
conflicted countries. Lasting for around 15 minutes, the story consists of live
interviews [Fig.1] of some of the 11 survivors out of 500 who attempted to flee until
their boat was hit by another, causing it sink. This example of citizen journalism
creates an alternative perspective that additionally challenges the agenda setting we
often see on the news about migrants fleeing illegally from war-inflicted countries.
Quoted by Dearing, agenda setting is the ideology that offers an explanation of why
information about certain issues, and not other issues [1996:2]. Interestingly, this
relatively huge story isnt aired on BBC, which instead has news stories on matters

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Digital News

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such as the Royal Mail being under threat and the annual FIFA award. Such diversion
in news stories therefore shows how BBC often remains national for its stories,
whereas Channel 4 conventionally diverges its news
stories globally. Therefore, Channel 4 frames this news in
a considerably efficient and interesting way instead of
reporting the deaths of the migrants, the program frames
it by interviewing the victims themselves to portray a
different perspective.

Figure 1 Some of the refugee survivors

being interviewed.

Similarly, citizen journalism is crucial in terms of valuable and attractive news

because of the story having live interviews with the migrants themselves. Citizen
journalism, described as people formally known as the audience employ the press
tools they have in their possession to inform one another [2009:256], are most likely
to attract the audience to an efficient extent, as it is likely that the fidelity of the news
is considerably accurate. Nonetheless, this fidelity is also evident within the BBCs
story on its flood defenses we hear from residents effected by flooding as they
comment saying that the government is financially unreliable. Such use of the public
is a conventional tool used by the media, as it often enables the truth of the media to
be revealed, as well as in this case providing an interesting and relatable story for
those whom were also affected by the British floods. Additionally, you can argue that
the public is often used to deliberately frame a news story thus setting the agenda. For
example, the interviews with these migrants enable Channel 4 to provide an
alternative and sympathetic perspective of the migrants. Therefore, both news
programs provide evidence of citizen journalism purely to provide the truth behind
the media as well as helping to frame some stories.

Whilst on the topic of citizen journalism, you can argue how

modern news is considerably diverse compared to older news (before
the 1990s) and is considerably more newsworthy. This is mainly due
to the significance of user-generated content, which has occurred
only in the last couple of years using the new technology of
broadband internet access, mobile communication [2007:3] and so

Figure 2. Mobile phone footage

showing the refugees swimming
for their lives

on. Channel 4 provides in-the-action clips of the conflict with the Taliban, which is
provided by footage from a mobile phone. This example in particular enables the

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Digital News

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audience to understand the harshness of the war thus understanding the surrounding
reality. However, examples such as this are often critiqued in terms of its reality the
media mayve intentionally framed this story to reinforce the dominant perspective of
the war and its violence.

Similarly, BBC too conform to the conventional use of UGC, however

arguably uses this content to frame news to a large extent, thus conforming to the
agenda setting theory. This is evident in the flood defense story - we see footage once
again filmed on a mobile phone/video recorder of the harsh reality of the floods from
last year. This works effectively as not only does it provide rare footage, but also
makes the audience remember how problematic flooding was last year (and in
general). Nonetheless, UGC has proven to be extremely powerful and newsworthy as
it enables news to become more truthful, instant and widespread.

Consequently, both Channel 4 and the BBC both reported on the new funding
scheme for flood defenses in Britain, where both programs almost channel the
ideology behind political elitism. The BBC frame the story primarily through the use
of citizens whom criticize the past failure of flood funding schemes, which is then
emphasized by the reporter questioning the success of upcoming flood projects. Such
criticism is also reinforced by Channel 4 both programs provide footage of previous
flooding as well as both having interviews with a political member who too criticizes
the project. This furthermore challenges the ideology behind elitism as they frame this
story to make political competitions much more continuous [2010:127] - the news
frequently consists of the inevitable rivalry between
political parties which in a way provides consistent content
for news to report on. Nonetheless, Channel 4 arguably
follows the liberalist pluralist model by dumbing down
the financial aspect of the scheme this is shown through
the significance of simplistic graphs [Fig.3 which are used

Figure 3. A Bar graph used to 'dumb' down

Britain's economic state

to discuss the funds for the scheme as well as conclude Britains autumn economy
state. Thus, both programs tend to challenge the dominant perspective by criticizing
the aims of the government and political power.

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Digital News

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Unlike the migrant story, BBC offers a story that in a way can be frightful and
controversial for the audience. The news package consists of the physicist Stephen
Hawkings explaining how artificial intelligence may one day take over the human
race. This can be argued to fuel a moral panic, defined as A condition, episode,
person or group or persons emerges to become defined as a threat to social values
and interests [2011:1] i.e. the issue of artificial intelligence. This ideology is
conventional throughout news programs as the media often injects these
perspectives into the audiences minds, as Gans quotes that the media are seen as a
stimulus, like a hypodermic, have a regular and unvarying response. [2003:70]
Thus, such ideology of injecting these outlooks into some of the audiences minds
reinforces the dominance of some news programs such as BBC.

However, this is then disputed as the BBC story is followed by opinions from
other experts whom say that there is no need to panic. Furthermore, the story as a
whole can be criticized for lacking news content, thus not being news worthy. Such
critique can be because there is no statistics to reinforce the story and it is only
opinion based. Despite this, Channel 4 too may fuel a panic as its headline is about
stepping up war in Syria, leading to some of the passive audience to feel threatened
knowing that war is progressing. However, this can be argued against as the media
constantly provides headlines about war that the audience may likely now be
desensitized, thus no longer feeling threatened. Therefore, the BBC and other news
programs often fuel moral panics, which are usually key news values, however some
examples are often criticized due to the lack of content or due to the issue being
repetitive.

Conclusion
To conclude, both programs show distinctive diversion in terms of news
conventions to a large extent. Channel 4 tends to focus on globalized news as well as
often challenging the dominant perspectives and expectations which in a way
provides a better news story due to its diversion. BBC conventionally focuses
primarily on more localized and national news however remains loyal to the agenda
setting theory by prioritizing compulsory global news stories. Nonetheless, judging

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from the case studies, the BBC too purposely frames stories, which have potential
danger to its audience. This is evident from the Stephen Hawkings story which
although low threat may still fuel a moral panic for some of the audience. Such panic
is also evident from Channel 4s Syria story, thus concluding that moral panics
provide eye-catching news for the audience purely because people seek news, which
is endangering and dramatic. Citizen journalism too plays an essential convention
within news however only over the last few years news stories often rely on the
public to enable them to frame their story which in some cases is to frame the
dominant perspective. Such evidence is reinforced from the significance of usergenerated content that enables the media to grab breaking news quickly, as well as
usually providing better quality news footage itself. This is evident in both programs,
which include footage from mobile phones, allowing the stories to become more
newsworthy due to the effective mobile footage. And to finalize, it is conventional for
news programs to almost dumb down the news to conform to a broader audience
plus providing news showing disruptions between political parties and the
government. Thus, arguably news is purposely framed mainly to gratify our
entertainment and surveillance needs.

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Digital News

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Bibliography
Dearing, James W (1996). Agenda Setting. London: Sage Publications. p2
Cohen, S (2011). Folk Devils and Moral Pancis. 4th ed. New York: Routledge. p1-30.
Gans, Herbert. J (2003). Democracy and the News. London: Oxford Press. p1-70
Fuchshuber, Ina (2007). User Generated Content - Compliment or threat to the print
media industry?. Germany: GRIN Verlag. p1-14.
Best, Heinirich (2010). Democratic Elitism: New Theoretical and Comparative
Perspectives. USA: Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. p1-127.
Allan, S. Thorsen, Einar (2009). Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives. 2nd ed.
New York: Peter Lang Publishing. 220-256.

Webography
Channel 4. (2014). Channel 4 News Headlines: Tuesday 2nd December 2014.
Available: http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/display/playlistref/021214. Last
accessed 11th December 2014.
BBC. (2014). BBC News at Six Headlines on Tuesday 2nd December 2014.
Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007mpkn/episodes/guide. Last
accessed 11th December 2014.

Illustration List
Figure 1. Print Screen from: Channel 4. (2014). Channel 4 News Headlines: Tuesday

2nd December 2014. Available: http://www.channel4.com/news/catchup/display/playlistref/021214. Last accessed 11th December 2014.
Figure 2. Print Screen from: Channel 4. (2014). Channel 4 News Headlines: Tuesday
2nd December 2014. Available: http://www.channel4.com/news/catchup/display/playlistref/021214. Last accessed 11th December 2014.
Figure 3. Print Screen from: Channel 4. (2014). Channel 4 News Headlines: Tuesday
2nd December 2014. Available: http://www.channel4.com/news/catchup/display/playlistref/021214. Last accessed 11th December 2014.