UNIT 6

By Panayotis Scordis

The freedom of press

When you have worked through this study unit you should be able to:

 explain why unbiased news does not exist;

 understand why there is no such thing as political choice;
 analyse how the news reinforces the power structures of global society;
and
 give practice to the composition of an online news blog, showing how it
differs from regular news.

Please refer to Part C, Sections: 8.0 – 8.7 in Critical Reading and Writing in the
Digital Age for this unit.

6.1 Is the press free?

How many times have you watched the news or read a newspaper and wondered,
‘when will they talk about x?’ or ‘why haven’t they reported on y?’? We live under the
impression that journalists work under free control, that they find a story and are given
the opportunity to report on it objectively. But is this really the case? Even if it was, how
many times have you heard the same story, but from different sides on the news? We
needn’t look far for a blatant example of this. The presidency of Donald Trump divided
America, right down to it news channels. MSNBC was strictly left- wing and anti-trump,
Fox news was right-wing and pro-Trump, and CNN was somewhere in the middle,
although, more slanted towards liberal views. Trump’s presidency was not unique to this
division, but it has been exasperated since his election. Every statement, every action
and every tweet is looked at and interpreted differently. Closer to home, we see the
same thing. The current lockdown because of COVID-19 has the South African media
divided, some praising the president’s decisiveness, whilst others lamenting what they
call an ‘overreaction’.

The question we need to ask ourselves is why the news has become so increasingly
partisan. One argument made here is that the press is a form of democracy, and that
nothing can be truly objective, or without some hidden agenda, so why try and be
impartial? The public is free is choose which newspaper or news channel they want to
read and watch. And, in fact, the freedom of choice is part of what makes a society
democratic. People should have some choice and diversity on the functioning of
government. Likewise, everybody should be responsible for their view on society and
economic beliefs.

Activity 6.1

Briefly explain the repercussions if SABC (a state-owned enterprise) was the only outlet
for news in the country.

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Freedom of press sounds ideal when needing to make an informed decision about a
political party, but the truth of the matter is that most democratic governments, no
matter the political party, align to neo-liberalism. This form of liberalism encourages
free markets, privatisation and individualism. In essence, neo-liberalism means that the
supply and demand of goods is determined by the market and not the state or the
government. However, the danger with privatising the press is when those in control are
affiliated to social and economic power.

6.2 The business of news

Here in South Africa the press is dominated by a handful of companies, namely: The
Times Media Group and Media 24. What this means is that a handful of people have
great power to oppose views that they do not agree with. What we read in the press is
not always public unanimity; agendas can be skewed, stressed or even stifled.
Ultimately, they decide what is newsworthy. So whilst state-owned media enterprises
like SABC are often intervened by the government (the DA’s lack of advertising on
SABC during the election is a noteworthy example of this), so too will privatised media
companies push influential commercial interests. The introduction of the internet has
allowed room for a scrappy fight between fair and biased news, but even these new and
diverse platforms of news media are not necessarily coming from public consensus.

Activity 6.2

Refer to Table 8.3, Section 8.1 and explain which company has the largest press
ownership in South Africa.

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Explain why the buying power per head is important to newspapers?

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We need to remember that the news is a business just like any other, and businesses
require revenue to survive. However, with the explosion of modern technology, most of
what we read in the press is free. But even free, online newspapers need to make
money, and one of the main ways they do this is through advertising. Advertising
revenue is the life-blood of free press. Without advertising, no media enterprise can
survive for very long.

On reflection, this is quite disturbing. If newspapers rely on advertising to sustain their

business, then media enterprises will be required to make sure that their biggest source
of income is happy with what they publish. If the press needs to please advertisers, and
advertisers subscribe to a capitalist society, then we can safely assume that the media
will not challenge this, and will certainly not publish stories that go against this. We need
to accept that the press is under pressure from commercial advertising on a daily basis.
Advertisers pay the bills, and they undoubtedly exert power over what is newsworthy.

An anomaly that you may find with newspapers is that relatively small publishers with a
low circulation numbers sometimes have a much healthier business setup than
publishers with a high volume of readers. The key here is not how many readers a
newspaper can reach, but rather, how many of the right readers. Newspapers aimed at
the low to middle class population, may have a bigger circulation, but their advertisers
are not paying as much to run their advertisements, which in the long run means less
revenue all around. Newspapers with wealthier readers can charge higher prices to
advertisers if they want to advertise products that match their target demographic, like
cars and holiday destinations.

Over the past few decades we have seen a shift in what the newspapers actually report
on. The news has, in many ways, become watered-down in order to reach the masses.
This is partly because of advertisers and the capitalist system they represent. The truth
of the matter is that scandal prevails all the time. Media companies understand that the
news is not necessarily there to inform people so much as it is to entertain them. A clear
example of this is when a member of the Royal Family in the UK gets married - news
channels, particularly in the UK and USA live-broadcasted the wedding the entire day.
Even news deemed to be serious is often uncultivated, and merely projected as a
performance to dull political issues.

The increase in online news has only exasperated this problem. Online news has
fractured hard-copied newspapers in two ways. First, revenue gets stretched into lots of
micro enterprises because advertisers have more choice. This means less money for
journalists, which means less investigative reporting, less reputable sources, and a
trend of ghost-writers who merely snatch stories. Often you will find examples of the
same story spread over numerous online sites.

Second, online news is still in the same business as larger enterprises. The business
models are almost identical – they essentially need to reach a large audience and
secure advertising income. The key difference is that online news has a better chance
of specialising its interests into specific sectors of the news. And whilst this
specialisation appeals to certain readers and advertisers can target certain
demographics, the readership needs to be sufficiently able to support this cause as the
information is often harder and more costly to come by. If this can be achieved, then
advertisers may want to align themselves with specialised, online news.

Activity 6.3
Earlier, we touched on why certain stories surface as being newsworthy, whilst others
simply don’t make the cut. Write a blog on myUnisa discussing why you think some
stories are selected as news.

Do you subscribe to the ‘no news is good news’ theory? Explain.

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6.3 Breaking down news

Please refer to Part C, Section 8.3, Table 8.5 in your Critical Reading and Writing
in the Digital Age textbook before going any further.

Murder is unfortunately a regular event in South Africa. Readers and viewers are often
numb when reading or hearing that a murder has taken place in South Africa. Only the
truly grotesque cases are reported, and even then, to very little national outcry. There
are a few exceptions to this of course. The most publicised murder and subsequent trial
in recent years being of Oscar Pretorius which dominated the headlines for close to a
year. What made this story different to every other murder?

A news story is dependent on certain values, and the greater the value, the bigger the
story. For example, murder is certainly negative, but also common in South Africa,
thus, not all victims and stories of this crime will become newsworthy. With over 50
murders taking place in South Africa every day, the news headlines would be
overwhelmed if they ran every murder taking place. The frequency value is affected by
the time span between the event happening and the published story. Thus, an asteroid
heading for earth in a million years will not be considered very newsworthy. Threats
need to imminent or present, not spanning over a long period of time. Furthermore, for a
story to be newsworthy, the reader needs to understand the meaning behind the value
of the story. A high-profiled murder is much simpler to grasp than the Nasdaq snapping
a 6 day winning streak. Thus, news has to have meaning to the general reader.
Meaningful news is often tied with persons. Stories about people are relatable and
appeal to a readership. These stories can also be dramatised.

Lower down on the list in terms of value are stories that are predictable, unpredictable
and continuous. The lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak is a good example of
this as it had elements of all three. It was unprecedented that the country was sent into
lockdown, but after 30 days the news was still immersed by this event. The banning of
alcohol and cigarettes caused backlash with desperate people acting in foreseeable
ways. The stereotypical South African criminal underworld consistently made the
headlines.

Sometimes stories are newsworthy on the basis of their composition. A newspaper

cannot just publish stories with similar themes, which is why newspapers have various
sections, such as business, lifestyle or sport. The threshold of the story is another
value to be taken into account. Millions of people die from Malaria, but this is filtered
from mainstream media. Likewise are issues such as hunger, poverty, child abuse, and
pollution. Why? These issues are not newsworthy because they have a threshold where
the story is simply scaled up to a point where it is not relevant anymore, especially since
they do not directly affect the status quo.

Finally, and probably most obvious of all is that the actions of elite nations and elite
persons have value. Consider how many newsworthy stories originate from America or
Europe or how news from celebrities usually surfaces to a headline, particularly in
online news. The Oscar Pretorius trial made headlines because every reader knew who
he was. Readers felt invested in the celebrity behind the story. This ultimately made the
story so newsworthy.
Activity 6.4

Explain why the events of 9/11, which took place in New York, garnered so much media
attention around the world.

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Do you think your answer to the above question is applicable to the media storm
surrounding COVID-19? Why?

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The way we receive news has drastically changed over the last two decades. Digital
media, as well as social media, have allowed the public to be both the producers and
consumers of news. One only needs to look to Twitter or Facebook to get a daily dose
of news stories, some of which have been made newsworthy by the public, not the large
media enterprises. This is in contrast to how news stories were collected in the past,
often with journalists visiting crime scenes, hospitals etc. looking for a story. We have all
seen the stereotype portrayed on TV or film – the young journalist bugging the police
officer or waiting outside a courtroom for a lawyer, looking for an interview or comment,
and subsequently being told off. Whilst traditional media will serve their own agenda in a
democratic country, they can at least regard themselves as fair compared to China
which serves to censor content for political reasons and maintain control over the
population. However, most countries subscribe to democracy and yet the news is still
filtered to the population, serving those in power, the elites in society, newspaper
owners, international agencies and local institutions. Even when a story is presented to
the masses, it is still influenced by dominant members of society. News reports can
distort the facts, they can slant a story to be either negative or positive, and even
dismiss otherwise credible news stories. We have already noted how easy it is to
mislead a reader just by our choice of diction in Unit 1. Hidden meanings can be
camouflaged without readers being consciously aware that they are being influenced,
namely through passivisation and nominalisation.

6.4 Whose in the news?

Please refer to Part C, Section 8.5, Table 8.6 in your Critical Reading and Writing
in the Digital Age textbook before going any further.

What is most common nowadays is that names are given to people of power in the
news, especially those in national government, politicians and local governments. Table
8.6 showcases this in depth. The common factor here is that general members of the
public are nameless whilst women are clearly under-represented in positions of power.
Where women are mentioned, they are seen as entertainers, victims, relatives and
patients usually described as being a partner to men.

Activity 6.5

Explain why there are always relatives, friends, and agents speaking on behalf of
athletes and entertainers in the news?
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Please refer to Part C, Section 8.6, Case Study 2 in your Critical Reading and
Writing in the Digital Age textbook before going any further.

Sometimes the news can be operated to resist power structures in society. In Unit 1 we
looked at how transitivity can be used to underscore ideologies and journalists make
use of this reverse cultural rule. Please refer back to Unit 1 to refresh this. Some of the
linguistic tricks used by journalists that introduce different ideologies are:

 Reporting verbs which can be used to make underhanded claims. For

example, ‘Donald Trump assumes that COVID-19 began in
China’.

 Nominalisation is used to make presuppositions about a topic. For

example, ‘The development of the country…’

 Images of belligerence are used metaphorically with one side coming out
as an aggressor either positively or negatively. For example, ‘South Africa
is at war with poverty.’

 Premodification is a linguistic trick when a modifier precedes a noun that

determines meaning. For example, ‘A strong government’. The modifers
can either be restrictive or non-restrictive and can thus be ambiguous.
Restrictive modification identifies the noun whereas non-restrictive
modification adds information to something already identified and is
 usually identified by the use of a comma. Refer to Part C, Section 8,6,
Table 8.8 for further examples.

With the likes of social media and the internet, information is now readily accessible to
everyone and at any moment of the day. People no longer have to wait to buy a
newspaper or tune in at a particular hour to watch the news. The public is becoming
increasingly involved with what stories are newsworthy and how that news is delivered -
often unfiltered. There no longer exists a singular platform of control; nowadays, there
are numerous platforms where people have access to news, and social networks are
partly to thank for that. The recent rise of the digital era has allowed the news to
become multi-directional. There is a constant flow of interaction and reaction to stories
breaking over sites that are overlooked by mainstream news.

Conclusion

In this unit we analysed whether the press was truly free and discussed how the
enterprises that control the news also control what we read and see on the news. We
also explored how advertising works in the news and that the news is a business reliant
on advertisers. Furthermore, it should be clear to you how the news tends to value
certain stories and how ideological important issues are neglected. In this unit we also
touched on how whose representation and voice is in the news and how linguistic
devices used by journalists were sometimes used to counteract this. Finally, we
discussed the power of platforms such as the internet and social media and how they
act to destabilise traditional media.

Self-assessment exercise

Explore whether traditional media (namely print and TV) is a uniform construct
throughout the world.
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Glossary

Consensus: general agreement.

Impartial: to treat something fairly.

Liberalism: to enforce liberal views such as giving respect and

acceptance to views opposed to yours.

Partisan: a strong supporter to a particular party or view

Uncultivated: lacking sufficient knowledge, experience or education.

References

Goatly, A & Hiradhar, P. 2000. Critical Reading and Writing: An Introductory

Coursebook. London: Routledge.