lz411 tv news 2013 news construction
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LZ411 – Critical Media theory
Semiotic analysis of TV News
Aims today …•To continue using Stuart Hall’s ‘encoding and decoding’ model – specifically ‘decoding’
•To look at interpretations of TV news as ‘timely’, ‘authoritative’ and ‘believable’
The discursive practices of TV News
• What are the ways that meanings are structured in the circuit of communication?
Stuart Hall Cultural Theorist
Production of news texts
circulation
Consumption of news texts
reproduction
Encoding-Decoding model
The circuit of news communication
ProductionCultural ‘encoding’
Circulation
Consumption
Reproduction
The TV news as ‘meaningful discourse’
Cultural ‘decoding’
Knowledge of the particular TV news
channel
Knowledge of the way news works
Raw material - the natural world
(un-organised, non-discursive event)
Social knowledge ‘maps of meaning’ in the ‘reception
context’
Productionknowledge
Cultural meanings
Social knowledge ‘maps of meaning’ in the production
context
UK TV News – Political Context
Regulations (OFCOM and BBC Trust) - ‘Due impartiality’OFCOM – “To ensure that news, in whatever form, is reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality”.
BBC – “News in whatever form must be treated with due impartiality, giving due weight to events, opinion and main strands of argument. The approach and tone of news stories must always reflect our editorial values, including our commitment to impartiality.
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Analysing the construction of TV News
“What you about to view is important and actually happened in the way we say it happened”
1) How do producers ‘win the assent’ of the audience to try to convince them of the above?
2) How are certain definitions of reality discursively made legitimate in TV news stories? i.e. what are the specific storying techniques of TV news? 5
Mythic meanings of TV News
Myth – a mode of communication whereby particular meanings are made to appear obvious/ common-sense/natural/real whereas in fact they are cultural/constructed/social/historical
TV News ‘mythic meanings’:a)It is immediate/live/relevant now/New!b)It is believable and authoritative (our account carries weight. Things really happened the way we said they did)c)It is balanced and objective
Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe
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Screenwipe (se04 ep03 – Oct 2007)
Storying the (TV) news
Representing events through ‘narrative functions’
1) Framing2) Focusing3) Realising4) Closing
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Examples from Newswipe 2010
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The circuit of news communication
ProductionCultural ‘encoding’
Circulation
Consumption
Reproduction
The TV news as ‘meaningful discourse’
Cultural ‘decoding’
Knowledge of the particular TV news
channel
Knowledge of the way news works
Raw material - the natural world
(un-organised, non-discursive event)
Social knowledge ‘maps of meaning’ in the ‘reception
context’
Productionknowledge
Cultural meanings
Social knowledge ‘maps of meaning’ in the production
context
How cuddly is this polar bear?
Planet Earth – BBC 1 March 2006
Some reactions to the show…
Encoding/decodingthe natural world
Planet Earth (the text) (meaningful narration about the
natural world)
viewer decodes (polysemy but not pluralism)
Decoding positions1)Dominant-hegemonicbest fit between codes of encoding and decoding 2) Negotiatedagreement with dominant definitions about the world but some specific disagreements3) Oppositionalcomplete lack of equivalence between encoding and decoding codes
Decoding positions - Planet Earth
1)Dominant-hegemonic•the programme is a compelling accurate description of the world – the documentary genre informs and entertains – producers’ view?2) Negotiated•nature programmes inform and entertain but some specific inaccuracies in the way certain animals/situations were depicted. E.g. Annoying music!! – some viewers3) Oppositional•environmental porn! – article 13 environmental group
Preferred meanings
• In other words Planet Earth has been‘encoded’ according to the ‘dominant cultural order’ and therefore certain ways of decoding (‘reading’) Planet Earth are more likely than others.
• Oppositional readings are always possible.
• As analysts we may not always agree on what are preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings. Texts are polysemic (but not completely open to interpretation)
Encoding/decoding - problems
•encoding – is it actually possible to analyse the encoding of a media text to determine its preferred meaning•decoding – are there such simple ways that people ‘decode’ media texts – what about ironic readings, willing suspension of disbelief etc.•decoding variables – Morley’s study (based on Hall) presumes class/occupation as a defining sociological variable. Is it still applicable? Any other variables?
Conclusion
• TV News presents socially constructed views of events. Viewers are encouraged to read news as up-to-date, authoritative, credible, balanced and objective.
• Decodings are variable but not unlimited. Hall suggests three hypothetical ‘reading positions’
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TV News examples to discuss in seminars
• How are the mythic meanings of immediacy, authority and objectivity encoded?
• How is each story framed, focused, realised and closed?
• What are possible decoding (‘reading’) positions for the stories?
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ReferencesAllan, S. (1998) News from NowHere: Televisual news discourse and the construction of hegemony. In A. Bell and P. Garrett (eds.) Approaches to media discourse Oxford: Blackwell.
Allan, S. (2000) News culture Buckingham: Open University Press
Bignell, J. (2002) Media semiotics An introduction Manchester: Manchester university press Chapter 5
Hall, S. (1973) Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse. Birmingham: Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham 19