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The power of news

`The very construction of the news is designed to create the largest possible audience ...you're filling up the blank spaces between the commercials.' (Parenti, 1993)

Having worked for television news I can understand the above quote very well. A decade ago news wasn't so much about news but ratings. At one point TVNZ fired most of it's news staff and replaced them with better sets and created a more family styled news program - Mum and Dad read the news, Uncle Jim told us about the weather and our cousin the pretty Maori girl told us what was happening in sport. It hasn't changed much really. News was very commercially driven. Though that is still the case there are other factors influencing news now. Reporters are no longer our sole agents for news and have therefore lost some of their power. We can also check the validity of their claims which was difficult to do ten years ago. As shown on the www.asa.co.nz website, there has a massive decrease in advertising spend for newspapers which is forcing news media to reassess how it does news.

We've also seen news transform online. there are micro news blogs like Twitter that give us news in near real-time from millions of non-journalists all over the world. This type of citizen journalism is also seen in user comments on websites, mailing lists and e-newsletters. Some of the differences with conventional mass media news that we're seeing include our ability to see multiple viewpoints, the news is decentralised, it can mobilize citizens (ie; Facebook, Greenpeace) and it's mediated and therefore more emotional.

The technological revolution has given the public more access to tools such as video cameras that we previously only available to companies with large budgets. Now a documentary can be produced with consumer video equipment and be broadcast to the world through the Internet at very little cost. These Independent Documentaries are being shared by users who lobby Governments for change because of them. This new type of activism is on a global scale which will make the 60s human rights movement look small by comparison.

This new news environment provides a place for people to assemble and to create dialogue. Mass Media news channels such as Television, Radio and Newspapers are trying to catch up with this trend by directing users to engage more with them on their websites which in turn is influencing what news they choose to show.

If anything, we're moving into a more liberating and news-worthy time but the one thing we need to watch out for is the large entertainment conglomerates who may try to sensor our freedom.

Bibliography
Parenti, M. 1993, Inventing Reality: The politics of news media. (Second Edition) St. Martins Press/ New York

MCMahon, B., & Quin, R., Real Images, Macmillan, London, 1988 pp 204-205.
Educational Media, 86.333 readings. Massey University, Palmerston North, 1995.

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Brynn

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