News Is Nothing More Than A Strategic Ritual Media Essay

News Is Nothing to a greater extent Than A Strategic Ritual Media EssayFrom my reliance, to be fair game, it is to illustrate two sides of a particular point of view without universe inhering. This office that what is being lay outed should be value free. The diarist illustrates the whole righteousness more or little an event without including his or her own opinion in a subjective manner. There has been an ongoing discourse whatsoever bearingness. buttness in the intelligence agency show being nonhing more than a strategic ritual. Firstly, objectivity nooky be hard to pay back as illustrated by Schudson Objectivity magnate be a maestro idea, but it is peerless that seemed to disintegrate as soon as it was formulated. It became an ideal in journalism, after all, precisely when the impossibleness of overcoming the subjectivities of presenting the watchword was widely accepted. Criticism of the myth of objectivity has been a contrapuntal accompaniment to the enunciation of objectivity as an ideal from the beatning (Schudson, 1990 269). To a sociologist, the word Objectivity is fraught with meaning. It invokes philosophy, nonions of science, and ideas of maestroism. It conjures up the ghost of Durkheim and Weber, recalling disputes in studious journals concerning the nature of social events and the landmark value free (Tuchman 1972 660). This therefore suggests that the term objectivity is burdened with contrary meaning, consequently very difficult to outline as any definition of much(prenominal) word croup good be obsolete. save Schudson on the other hand argues that A fealty to objectivity in journalism terminate be defined as meaning that a persons statement around the world groundwork be trust if they argon submitted to established rules deemed legitimate by a professional community (Schudson 1978 294 cited in Harcup 2009 82) According to Bennet, there ar reasons to be displease with the intelligence operati on these days. Yet, parole program remains the primary opening of set forthation rough society, politics, and government. These problems could be verbalize to be related to the term objectivity. In the consciousness that so many factors affect the intelligence information, thus the intelligence operation can non be seen as the whole truth, as it could be argued that it is fragmented. Furthermore the exoterics perception near society and all other events atomic number 18 distorted. In relating it back to the foreland, it can be argued that objectivity in the discussion is not a strategic ritual beca drop there be factors beyond the newsmans power that cannot be controlled, as other individuals atomic number 18 involved in the production of the news, such as the gate keeper who decides what news is and is not presented. Thus the news is subjective. perhaps the most un put intling sight of all is that the electronic media, the principal source of policy-making inform ation for many if not many American citizens (Robinson and Levy 1985), king be biased in the presentation of usual affair (Kuklinsk 1992 810). This can be verbalize to be related to objectivity because there is ceaselessly the question about exaction of news. How diary keeper select news would memorize whether the news they produce would stand bias included, thus the selection of news would be considered in further paragraphs. Bearing in mind that they antecedently circumscribe a certain view about a result. This would therefore create bias in the news piece of music. News is the only source in which individuals find out events hazard in society. However standardized it was previously reiterated, the news is always biased, one way or the other, thus the frequent is not fully aware of what is going on around them. More than one public official has made this very take away.when any president- liberal or conservative, democrat or republican-has complained bitterly abo ut the wrong and unfair picture the networks were presenting(Kuklinsk 1992 811)Reagans secretary of state, George Shult, was heard to protest that it seems as though the reporters are against us. Theyre always seeking to report something thats going to screw things up (quoted by Karp 1985, 63). With this, it can be illustrated that the newsmen whitethorn actually do it on purpose, so that they could attract increasing audiences. This could be said to be objectivity in the news to be a strategic ritual, in the sense that diary keeper would go any length just to entertain the public at the expense of politicians profile. Thus getting increased audience because relating it to news values, the public would like to hear more on bad news and unexpectedness. The more the news is unexpected, the more it would attract increased audiences. There are two questions which confront us when we deal with the problems of how news is selected from the multitude of events which arrive in the world. The first is what is selected?the second is that of objectivity namely, how accurately does such a selection reflect the real world? (Cohen and Young 1973 17). The idea that diarist ready the plectron to select the news they indirect request to report on, it office that they are already being subjective about the particular topic they want to report on. Thus, objectivity in the news could be said to be a strategic ritual. This could be so, because they might already hold a particular perspective on the topic. Hence would unavoidably be sufficient to neglect their point of view in reporting the news, so the news becomes biased in the sense that they are selling their opinion to the public about a particular topic. Consequently, they give biased news to the public therefore the public gets a distorted view about what the diary keeper is writing about. According to Gaye Tuchman, objectivity can be seen as a strategic ritual that journalist use as a defence mechanism. She identif ied four routine procedures that allow journalist claim objectivity for their work the presentation of conflicting possibilities, the presentation of supporting evidence, the keen-sighted use of honorable mention marks, the structuring of information in an appropriate sequence (Tuchman, 299-301 cited in Harcup 2009) The word objectivity can be affected by several(prenominal) factors of only some would be discussed, which in turn affects the report in which the journalist produces. This can be illustrated by Tuchman 1972, who explained that there are terzetto signs of factors which influence the newsmans notion of objectivity form, inter organization relationships, and content. By form, I mean those attributes of news stories and papers which exemplify news procedures such as the use of quotation marks(Tuchman 1972 661) This is to show that by using such quotation marks, it would mark the objectivity of the event. Individuals who must prepare witnessed whatever event would be a ble to give a full account about what happened. Thus, the journalists report would be objective and free from bias thus exemplifying him from problems if he produced inaccurate news. By content I mean notions of social creation which the news paper man takes for granted. Content is likewise related to the newsmans organisational relationships, for his experiences with these organisations forget him to take for granted certain things about them (Tuchman 1972 661). Everett Hughes (1964) cited in Tuchman 1972 661 suggests that procedures that serve this purposes may be seen as ritualsinasmuch as compositionmen invoke ritualistic procedures in position to deflect authorisation criticism and to follow routines bounded by the cognitive limits of rationality, they are also performance strategies (March and Simon 1967, pp.137, 142)Objectivity as strategic ritual may be used by professionals to defend themselves from critical aggression. Overall, these factors/ procedures aid value t he journalist and the organisations equity in the sense that they would not get accused of producing inaccurate news and they would not get sued unnecessarily. altogether these factors explained by Tuchman, it can be argued that objectivity in the news is a strategic ritual in the fact that, they are trying to protect their back and save the organisations reputation. It can be argued that objectivity in the news is a strategic ritual because it can be said that the newspaper and writers are trying to get an increase audience. With them publishing the news, it would actually help increase their organisational revenue in the sense that they would experience high circulation. besides with the increased audience, it means that they would be at the top of the competition list, therefore bountiful them the competitive edge against other news providers. Thus giving them a unique selling point, which means they would be able to signalize themselves from other news organisations. as a r esult stand out. This could be illustrated further, according to Young the market model then maintains that the responsible journalist selects these events which are in the public interest to know and objectively portray reality within the format and genre of the particular media concerned(Young 1973 17). The public would like to know that they are being provided with objective news, thus the journalist would try their best to provide the news, so by making true they get objective news, and they increase their readership and circulation. This would benefit them because it would allow them to be usual against their competitors. However, for the fact journalist select the news they entail the public would be interested and present it as objectively as they can, this could be said to be a strategic ritual. The selection of news would further be illustrated later in this essay. This may be so, in the fact that they dont want to get themselves into trouble for providing biased news, t hus affecting their integrity in the organisation they work and publicly soiling the organisations reputation. This means that the public would not trust the news they produce, thus, they would continually get negative criticism. This could be illustrated by Tuchman 1977b cited in deep-dish pie 1996 who argues that objectivity is a ritual that objectivity is a ritual that serves primarily to defend the organisational product from critics. Because newsworkers have little sequence to reflect on whether they have gotten at the truth in their stories, the invite a company of procedure, or strategies, that if followed will protect them from occupational hazards such as libel suit and reprimands from superior. Consequently, journalists follow a set of guidelines to avoid critics so that they dont get into unnecessary trouble and to be able to protect themselves from disgrace. Like it was previously said, journalist get chance to select the news they want to write about. The idea that they are allowed to do that shows that the news they are going to write about is already biased on the fact that they might already have a subjected view about it. Thus, the news would be value laden as well as hardly value free. Also for the fact that journalist use different sources to make up their news, Even though they are supposedly swear sources of theirs, the question is how can they be so sure that the news the trusted sources provide is objective. Thus, it shows that they cannot be sure if the news is 100% objective. Calling into the question of validity of representational knowledge about the world- arguing that news is as much a bureaucratic product as it is a reproof of external reality and that objectivity is essentially a strategic ritual- is at bottom incompatible with journalisms self legitimating discourses. Pointing out that the subjects (i.e. the journalists) perception are not just the product of individual autonomy, showing that journalist (like all of us) a re inexorably entangled with and in part constituted by manner of speaking us, serve to erode the foundations of the conventional wisdom(Dahlgren 1992 11). Consequently, this shows that, it is not only the journalist who influences the news they write, as all other people are involved..This can also be reiterated by Shoemaker 1996 112 objectivity, although a cornerstone of journalist ideology, is rooted in practical organisational requirements. In this sense, objectivity is less a core belief of journalist than a set of procedures to which journalist volitionally conform in other to protect themselves from attack. Consequently, this shows that the organisations also have an influence on the new. With the organisation involved there would be less chance of the company endangering their integrity and shame on their organizational image. both(prenominal) of these sources show that the firm in which these journalists work for, has an influence on the type of news they produce in the sense that they always have a say. This is done so as to protect their image. Thus a set of gu are provided for the journalist to follow, so that they do not picture gallery off the organisations rules and regulation about reporting news. This therefore means that journalists have no choice but to follow the set guidelines or they flake out their job. According to Michael Schudson (1978) cited in shoemaker 1996 112 notes that at the turn of the century, newspapers in competing for circulation, try to conform to the publics standards of truth, decency, and good taste. Reporters believed they had to be lively and entertaining while existent at the same time. Indeed, editors and reporters were pre-occupied with facts to avoid public criticism and embarrassment for the newspaper. This could be said to be spin and twisting, for the fact that journalist thought that they had to be entertaining and lively. The idea of being entertaining would mean that they are trying to reach audience s they never actually reached out to. This can also be related to the idea that objectivity in the news is not an objective idea, for the fact that the news would most in all likelihood be pint-size thus audiences would not get the full picture. This could be illustrated by Shoemaker who argued that the objectivity routine also leads to omitting seemingly harmless information (Shoemaker 1996 113). Consequently, it means that audiences are not receiving the whole story of an event. The thought that journalist are omitting some of the information may be good, in the sense that the public would get an idea and grasp a bit about a complicated story about events in society. As illustrated in Bennets hold in in a case study, news stories often oversimplify large and more complex realities. In many ways it is goodHowever, the news may radically simplify realities to the point of distortion or omission of essential information for various reasons(Bennett 2007 211) This therefore sugges ts that objectivity in the news could be omitted for good reason however, it should not necessarily be said to be a strategic ritual, because it is being done for a good cause. However on the other hand, it can be argued that objectivity in the news is strategic ritual in the sense that important information would be hidden an omitted from the public thus making the public nave to events happening in society. It can also be argued otherwise that objectivity in the news is not a strategic ritual on the fact that journalist right from the start have the obligation to report the truth and try as much as possible to be objective so as to avoid libel suits but for the fact that they have deadlines to reach. This means they would actually be time conscious. Thus having less tautologic time to check over their report therefore it might be difficult to have totally objective news as illustrated by Tuchman 1972 unlike social scientists, newsmen have a limited repertoire with which to define and defend their objectivity. He must make immediate decisions concerning validity, reliability, and truth in other to meet the problems imposed by the nature of his taskthe newsmen need some working notion of objectivity to minimize the risk imposed by deadline, libel suits, and superiors reprimands (Tuchman 1972 662) Objectivity is defined as a matter of intent, it includes the liberty to disregard the implications of the news. Indeed, objectivity could not long exist without this freedom, for the moment journalists are required to consider the effects of news on sources and others they would have to begin assessing their own intent and to relinquish their detachment, especially if they wanted to prevent disfigurement to someone (Gans, 1979 188). Overall, it can be argued from a perspective that objectivity in the news is a strategic ritual, down to the idea that organisations train their potential journalist and give them guidelines on how to report news in an objective manne r without being biased. This is done so as to protect the organisations integrity and the journalist status. Thus, it would help them avoid libel suits. This could be illustrated by Tuchman 1972 678 who reason out that objectivity used defensively as a strategic ritual. Objectivity refers to routine procedures which may be exemplified as formal attributes and to protect the professional from mistakes and from his critics. And for the fact that journalist have to follow these set guidelines means objectivity in the news is a strategic ritual, as it means that these journalist have no choice, thus they cannot go against it as they would most probably lose their job Furthermore, if journalists do not provide objective news as they could, then the public would most probably not think journalism is a serious and professional job. Thus no one would see them as trustworthy. Thus it is their duty to provide the public with objective news. This can then be said that objectivity in the news is not a strategic ritual, as they have no choice but to provide non biased news so as to inform the public.Bibliography Bennet, W. L. (2007) News The Politics of Illusion, New York Longman, Pearson Cohen, S. Young, J. ( ) The Manufacture of News, London Macmillan. Dahlgren, P. Sparks, C. (1992) news media and normal Culture London, SAGE Publications. Galtung, J. Ruge, M. (1981) Structuring and Selecting News, in S. Cohen J. Young (eds) The Manufacture of News, London Macmillan Gans, H. (1979) decision making whats News. A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nigthly News, Newsweek and Time. New York Random House Harcup, T. (2009) Journalism Principles and Practice. London, SAGE Publications Kuklinski, J. H. Sigelman, L. (1992) When Objectivity is not objective Network T.V News coverage of US Senators and the Paradox of Objectivity in Journal of Politics, 54 (3) Shoemaker, P. Reese, S. (1996) Mediating The essence Theories of Influences on Mass Media Content. (2nd ed.), London Longman. Schudson, M. (2003) The Sociology of News. New York United States of America. Tuchman, G. (1972) Objectivity as Strategic Ritual An examination of Newsmens notion of Objectivity in American Journal of Sociology, 77 660-67