Gail Phillips, Murdoch University;
Suellen Tapsall, Murdoch University
Literature Review
Television news has been the subject of much media analysis from various
critical perspectives (summarized by Cottle (1995: 275-279). Seminal works
on the process of news production include those in Britain by the Glasgow
University Media Group (1976, 1980) and Schlesinger (1987); and those
in North America by Tuchman (1978), Gans (1980), Gitlin (1980), Golding
el al (1986), Ericson et al (1987), and Berkowitz (1997). The Centre for
Media and Public Affairs tracks the trends in television news reporting
in the US through its publication Media Monitor.
In this country, Bruce Grundy (1980) compared news around the country
over a one-week period in 1975, while Peter Gerdes and Paul Charlier (1985)
undertook a comparative content analysis of television news in Sydney
in August 1978 and 1983. Both studies pointed to interesting trends in
the format, content and approach to television news in this country even
though the research is now quite dated.
Other Australian studies focus on specific questions, such as the coverage
of politics (P. Bell et al 1982), international news content (Putnis et
al, 2000), sources for news (Zawawi,1994; York, 1997; ABA 2001), the use
of file-tape (Putnis, 1994), and the role of soft news (John Langer, 1998).
Localism has been another area of research interest. Butler’s content
analysis of news in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane found evidence supporting
claims of an east coast prime-time news agenda (1998:31). Collingwood
(1997) looked at the trend towards networking and syndication of news
and current affairs programming noting the decline in quality of local
news and comment. This trend was confirmed in a study of Perth radio news
in 2002 by Josephi et al (2005). Turner’s (1996) study of Brisbane
news and current affairs services on radio and television concluded the
ABC was the only significant provider of current affairs radio in the
Brisbane market.
As for the media industry’s own research, the ABC has carried out
content analysis both on specific issues (such as federal and State elections
and the national waterfront dispute) and an occasional more general, less
empirical look at what the national broadcaster is covering in its radio
and television news bulletins. Commercial networks focus attention on
audience research, which they keep confidential. Media monitoring organisations
collate very basic content topic figures and breakdown bulletins into
specific items, available for purchase by their clients.
Possibly the most definitive work in this area remains John Henningham’s
1986 study Looking at Television News. Henningham's work attracted
considerable media attention at the time of publication and, especially
in the absence of any ongoing study, was considered a welcome and worthwhile
contribution to understanding the industry. It has consequently been used
as a touchstone in relation to television news practice by governments,
regulators and the industry itself. However it has several limitations
in the context of an objective to develop a comprehensive tool to examine
what the nation’s news services actually deliver:
- • the sample period was comparatively brief;
- it was based on one capital city, Melbourne;
- it provided only a synopsis rather than full details of the coding
methodology and the results;
- the analysis was limited to issues of content alone, and did not
deal with bulletin structure even though issues such as placement in
the bulletin and story duration may reveal much about the news management
process.
The aim of the original Perth study was to address the various limitations
identified in the existing knowledge base about what constitutes news
(i.e. what news services actually deliver) by devising a methodology for
the forensic dissection of television news bulletins which could be used
for ongoing nation-wide longitudinal testing of the health of Australia’s
television news services. This same database is ideally suited to the
present task of identifying salient characteristics in the reporting on
multicultural issues in television news.
How far can an outside observer go in analysing television news? Unless
you are part of the story production process you can only surmise what
the news gatherers’ motives were in telling a particular story in
a particular way. However it is possible to describe what is there on
the screen and to suggest the interpretations 'with the highest probability
of being noticed, processed, and accepted by the most people’ (Entman1993:56).
As Entman notes,
If the text frame emphasizes in a variety of mutually reinforcing ways
that the glass is half full, the evidence of social science suggests
that relatively few in the audience will conclude it is half empty.
(ibid)
The following analysis applies a multicultural lens to what was on our
screens during the survey period. The aim isn’t to criticise the
genre, but to reveal if and how its salient characteristics help or hinder
the development of a harmonious community.
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