Upload
andrewsking
View
742
Download
6
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Citation preview
"EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUNG PEOPLE
DON'T ENGAGE WITH THE NEWS..."
"In this context the journalist ‘reports to’ a privatized,
virtualized public whose demands, however, can be
expressed directly, in person. A consequence of this
altered relationship is that the sense- or sensation-seeking
public sets the agenda, not the journalist. And what counts
as journalism extends ever further into non-canonical
areas, until ‘journalism’ is dissolved. In other words, even
as its representative democratic function is superseded,
journalism itself massively expands. The expansion of
journalism is taking place technologically as it develops
on-line, and generically as it migrates into areas beyond
news journalism, including sport, lifestyles, fashion, travel,
and ‘popular’ forms." (Hartley, 2000: 44-45)
KEY QUESTIONS:
• What is 'news', and who decides what is
'good' news?
• What are young people disengaging from?
• What is engagement, and what counts as a
legitimate form of it?
• What other cultural concerns are at play
here?
"YOUNG PEOPLE":• “A generation that rejects news” (Sternberg, 2002:
308)
• Almost every quantitative and qualitative study into
young people and news consumption has shown this.
• Therefore seen as “the ultimate face of political
apathy” (McKee, 2005: 184).
• Why might this be?
• Because young people are bad citizens?
• Moral PanicF?
• Have always been seen as a troublesome demographic
• Between childhood and adulthood
• See Moral Panics, week 3
• Normally young people were assumed to ‘grow into’ newspapers
and other mainstream news forms - "cohort effect" (Buckingham,
2000)
• But is starting to move up the age groupsF
• Demonised by traditional news and current affairs?
• Who is disengaging?
"YOUNG PEOPLE":
WHERE DO YOU GET
YOUR NEWS FROM?
"YOUNG PEOPLE":
QUESTION:
WHAT IS
'NEWS'?
WHAT IS 'NEWS'?
• Question of definition...
• Should it be defined broadly?
• Or narrowly?
• Who might have a stake in the
answer?
• Is Kim Kardashian's baby "news"?
“[T]here may be more than one way or one
television genre to inform citizens about
politicsF the notion that only programmes
formally labelled as ‘informational’ should be
regarded as legitimate outlets for civic
communication is unsustainable.”
– Jay Blumler (1999:
243)
WHAT IS 'NEWS'?
The Panel
Michael Moore
TDS/Colbert
The Project
The Chaser
WHAT IS 'NEWS'?
WHAT IS 'NEWS'?
Michael: It shows the politicians as humans,
not just the face on TVF
Brian: Like, what they say officially will be
different to what they say in this, because this
is a joke, so what they say will be what
they’re actually thinking, and not just some
official statement on TV. [F] What they say
will be what their actual opinion is, rather than
their ‘official’ opinion.
WHAT IS 'NEWS'?
WHAT IS 'NEWS'?
"In something like The Daily Show, we can see a deeply
complex blend of entertainment and serious news, popular
culture and politics... Its significance lies not just in its
ability to cover news, but that it very often covers news
better; that it challenges power more directly than orthodox
approaches, and is far more engaging for viewers as well.
It shows us that, sometimes, breaking journalism’s well-
established ‘rules’ is not simply possible, but actually
desirable." Harrington, 2013
WHAT IS 'NEWS'?
Who says enjoyment and
"watching the news" are
incompatible concepts?
WHAT IS 'NEWS'?
• Increasingly Bottom--Up movement of
information
• Everyone is/can be a journalist ("citizen
journalism")
• More opportunities to challenge the powerful
• E.g. Obama RE: Pennsylvanians
• The Lewinsky scandal in the Drudge Report
WHAT IS 'ENGAGEMENT'?
• Disrupts traditional (top—down) models of communication.
• E.g. Twitter, blogs
• Challenges existing business models
• Moves journalism into increasingly ‘conversational’, networked
(side—side) style.
• Gives voice to those not otherwise heard.
• Greatly expands the news sphere.
• Greater ‘space’ = deeper analysis?
CITIZEN JOURNALISM:
Critiques:
• “Amatuerish”
• “Truth” is lost in chaos
• Mainly pimply teenagers in their bedrooms
• Overhyped? (Turner, 2009)
• De-legitimising ”Expertise”
• Increasing quantity of political discourse, but not necessarily the quality?
• Breaking public sphere into lots of mutually ignorant sphericules? (e.g.
Conservapedia)
CITIZEN JOURNALISM:
Keen, A. (2007) The Cult of the Amateur,
London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
•“Infinite Monkey Theorum” – cultish
•“Killing our Culture and Assaulting our Economy”
•Moral panic?
CITIZEN JOURNALISM:
MORAL PANIC?• ‘Power’ divested from the hands of the few, into the hands of the many.
• E.g. Gutenberg Bible
• It’s all teens, idiots, ‘the masses’.
• E.g. Big Brother
• Lack of “expertise”...
• E.g. Jazz, Punk
• Leading to cultural decay...
• E.g. Comic booksF
• Consumption Literacy – Production Literacy
"In this context the journalist ‘reports to’ a privatized,
virtualized public whose demands, however, can be
expressed directly, in person. A consequence of this
altered relationship is that the sense- or sensation-seeking
public sets the agenda, not the journalist. And what counts
as journalism extends ever further into non-canonical
areas, until ‘journalism’ is dissolved. In other words, even
as its representative democratic function is superseded,
journalism itself massively expands. The expansion of
journalism is taking place technologically as it develops
on-line, and generically as it migrates into areas beyond
news journalism, including sport, lifestyles, fashion, travel,
and ‘popular’ forms." (Hartley, 2000: 44-45)
ARE YOU DISENGAGED
FROM "THE NEWS"?
LET'S THINK...