Sam Babington

Digital News

Page 1

Digital News Essay:

Compare and contrast two main evening news
programs from the same day, either on BBC, ITV,
Channel 4, Channel 5 or Sky.
Sam Babington: 1306356
Television Production Year 2
3rd December 2014
Word Count:
Helen Courston

Sam Babington

Digital News

Page 2

Contents Page
Introduction......................................................................
Main Body..........................................................................
Conclusion.........................................................................
Bibliography......................................................................

Sam Babington

Digital News

Page 3

Compare and contrast two main evening news

programs from the same day, either on BBC, ITV,
Channel 4, Channel 5 or Sky
Whilst comparing the major news programs in the UK, it is evident that digital news
may intentionally or incidentally be portrayed in a number of different ways. As digital news
is progressively becoming both globalized and technology advanced, it may now become
difficult to define the fidelity of news, as well as what actually makes it newsworthy. Such
controversy is often evident within the UKs national evening news programs such as BBC
and Channel 4, which when in comparison tend to portray daily news in an interesting way.
Throughout this essay, these two news programs will be compared in terms of their
presenting styles and conventions as well as their top stories, which were shown in the
evening on the 2nd December 2014. Alternatively, theoretical ideologies will too be evaluated
to emphasize this comparison, where quotations from theorists such as Cohen and J. Gans
will be enticed in this evaluation. This will include the power of elitism and political
perspectives plus debating whether moral panics are fuelled through the media, as well as
commenting on the upcoming power of citizens as journalists.
To begin with, Channel 4 offers a considerably sympathizing news story showing the
harsh reality of the few migrants whom survived fleeing from there conflicted countries.
Lasting for around 15 minutes, the story consists of live interviews of some of the 11
survivors out of 500 who attempted to flee until their boat was hit by another, causing it sink.
This example of citizen journalism creates an alternative perspective, which additionally
challenges the agenda setting we often see recently on the news about migrants fleeing
illegally from war-inflicted countries. Quoted by Dearing, agenda setting is the ideology that
offers an explanation of why information about certain issues, and not other issues.
Interestingly, this relatively huge story isnt aired on BBC, which instead has news stories on
matters such as the Royal Mail being under threat and the annual Fifa award. Such diversion
in news stories therefore shows how BBC often remains national for its stories, whereas
Channel 4 conventionally diverges its news stories globally. Therefore, Channel 4 frames this
news in a considerably efficient and interesting way instead of reporting the deaths of the
migrants, the program frames it by using interviews to portray a different perspective.
Similarly, citizen journalism is crucial in terms of valuable and attractive news due to
the story having live interviews with the migrants themselves. Citizen journalism, described
as people formally known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their
possession to inform one another, are most likely to attract the audience to an efficient
extent, as it is likely that the fidelity of the news is considerably accurate. Nonetheless, this
fidelity is also evident within the BBCs story on its flood defenses we hear from residents
effected by flooding as they comment saying that the government is financially unreliable.
Such use of the public is a conventional tool used by the media, as it often enables the truth of
the media to be revealed, as well as in this case providing an interesting and unique story.
Additionally, you can argue that the use of the public are often used to deliberately frame a
news story thus setting the agenda. For example, the interviews with these migrants enable
Channel 4 to provide an alternative and sympathetic perspective of the migrants. Therefore,
both news programs provide evidence of citizen journalism purely to provide the truth behind
the media as well as helping to frame some stories.
Whilst on the topic of citizen journalism, you can argue how modern news is
considerably diverse compared to older news (before the 1990s) and is considerably more
newsworthy. This is mainly due to the significance of user-generated content, which has
occurred only in the last couple of years using the new technology of broadband

Sam Babington

Digital News

Page 4

internet access, mobile communication and so on. Channel 4 provides in-the-action clips
of the conflict with the Taliban, which is provided by footage from a mobile phone. This
example in particular enables the audience to understand the harshness of the war thus
understanding the surrounding reality. However, examples such as this are often critiqued in
terms of its reality the media mayve intentionally framed this story to reinforce the
dominant perspective of the war and its violence.
Similarly, BBC too conform to the conventional use of UGC, however arguably uses
this content to frame news to a large extent, thus conforming to the agenda setting theory.
This is evident in the flood defense story, where we see footage once again filmed on a
mobile phone/video recorder of the harsh reality of the floods from last year. This works
effectively as not only does it provide rare footage, but also makes the audience remember
how problematic flooding was last year (and in general). Nonetheless, UGC has proven to be
extremely powerful and newsworthy as it enables news to become more truthful, instant and
widespread.
Consequently, both Channel 4 and the BBC both reported on the new funding scheme
for flood defenses in Britain, where both programs almost channel the ideology behind
political elitism. The BBC frame the story primarily through the use of citizens whom
criticize the past failure of flood funding schemes, which is then emphasized by the reporter
questioning the success of upcoming flood projects. Such criticism is also reinforced by
Channel 4 both programs provide footage of previous flooding as well as both having
interviews with a political member who too criticizes the project. This furthermore challenges
the ideology behind elitism as they frame this story to make political competitions much
more continuous - the news frequently consists of the inevitable rivalry between
political parties which in a way provides consistent content for news to report on.
Nonetheless, Channel 4 arguably follows the liberalist pluralist model by dumbing down
the financial aspect of the scheme this is shown through the significance of simplistic
graphs which are used to discuss the funds for the scheme as well as conclude Britains
autumn economy state. Thus, both programs tend to challenge the dominant perspective by
criticizing the aims of the government and political power.
Unlike the migrant story, BBC offers a story that in a way can be frightful and
controversial for the audience. The news package consists of the physicist Stephen Hawkings
explaining how artificial intelligence may one day take over the human race. This can be
argued to fuel a moral panic, defined as A condition, episode, person or group or persons
emerges to become defined as a threat to social values and interests i.e. the issue of
artificial intelligence. This ideology is conventional throughout news programs as the media
often injects these perspectives into the audiences minds, as Gans quotes that the media
are seen as a stimulus, like a hypodermic, have a regular and unvarying response. Thus,
such ideology of injecting these outlooks into some of the audiences minds reinforces the
dominance of some news programs such as BBC.
Nonetheless, Channel 4 too may fuel a panic from its headline about stepping up war
in Syria, leading to some of the passive audience to feel threatened knowing that war is
progressing. However, this is then disputed as the BBC story is followed by opinions from
other experts whom say that there is no need to panic. Furthermore, the story as whole can be
criticized for lacking news content, thus not being news worthy. Such critique can be because
there is no statistics to reinforce the story and it is only opinion based. Therefore, the BBC
and other news programs often fuel moral panics which are usually key news values, however
some examples are often criticized due to the lack of content, thus questioning whether it is
news worthy or not.

Sam Babington

Digital News

Page 5

To conclude, both programs show distinctive diversion in terms of news

conventions to a large extent. Channel 4 tends to focus on globalized news as well
as often challenging the dominant perspectives and expectations which in a way
provides a better news story due to its diversion. BBC conventionally focuses
primarily on more localized and national news however remains loyal to the
agenda setting theory by prioritizing compulsory global news stories.
Nonetheless, judging from my case studies, the BBC too purposely frames stories
which have potential danger to its audience. This is evident from the Stephen
Hawkings story which although low threat may still fuel a moral panic for some
of the audience. Such panic is also evident from Channel 4s Syria story, thus
concluding that moral panics provide eye-catching news for the audience purely
because people seek news, which is endangering and dramatic. Citizen
journalism too plays an essential convention within news however only over the
last few years news stories often rely on the public to enable them to frame
their story which in some cases is to frame the dominant perspective. Such
evidence is reinforced from the significance of user-generated content that
enables the media to grab breaking news quickly, as well as usually providing
better quality news footage itself. This is evident in both programs, which
include footage from mobile phones, allowing the stories to become more
newsworthy due to the effective mobile footage. And to finalize, it is
conventional for news programs to almost dumb down the news to conform to
a broader audience plus providing news showing disruptions between political
parties and the government. Thus, arguably news is purposely framed mainly to
gratify our entertainment and surveillance needs.

Sam Babington

Digital News

Page 6

Diversion in British flood scheme. Channel 4 says that the government is

misleding, thus challenging dominant perspective and power of politics. News
agenda theory: has been framed differently compared to BBC This isnt
mentioned in BBC. Newsworthy as is relatable nationwide. Citizen journalism on
BBC balances story giving different arguments
Islamists massacre 36 in Kenya, leading to chief to be replaced.

Elitism and cronyism

Liberal plurist model
What makes the news
Globalisation: linking into moral panic. Dominant perspective
MEDIA EXPLOSION?
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=P3dPGJJpF8C&pg=PA70&dq=hypodermic+news&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sgFVI26AsOa7gbe2IDADA&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=hypodermic%20ne
ws&f=false

Agenda setting, page 2 (1)

Moral panics, page 1 (2)
Hypodermic. Gans,democracy (page 70)the me
Democratic elitism page 127
Ugc page 3

Sam Babington

Digital News

Page 7

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bTB18CbTucC&printsec=frontcover&dq=user+generated+content+media&hl=en&s
a=X&ei=P5iBVM7UIeje7AaOi4GQCw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=user
%20generated%20content%20media&f=false