News and characteristics

Defining  : What is News?

Summary

- News is information that affects our lives.

It  define as "newsworthy."

- The more of these elements in a story, the bigger the story will be.

- A dozen elements that qualify as news are as follows: Timeliness, Consequences, Proximity, Conflict, Mayhem, Celebrity, Novelty, Humour, Trends, Sex, Inspiration/Human Interest, Helpfulness.

Characteristics of news

1)      Timeliness

2)      Consequences

3)      Proximity

4)      Conflict

5)      Celebrity

6)      Novelty

7)      Humour

8)      Trends

9)      Inspiration/Human Interest

10)  Helpfulness

Let's look at each quality:

Timeliness - if it's new, it's news. Iit has a profound impact on a lot of people's lives each year. Timeliness is the most important determining factor in deciding if a story is news.

Consequences - if it has an impact, it's news. If nuclear war breaks out, it will have an impact on the lives of people all over the world. No news organization that is doing its job will fail to report a story that the editor believes will have an impact on its readers.

Proximity - if it's close to home, it's more likely to be news The closer it is to home, the more likely it is to arouse interest and be defined as news. If it happens in your community, it belongs on the front page of your newspaper.

Conflict - where there's conflict, there's news. This is partly because where there's conflict, there's more likely to be an impact on our lives. But it's also because conflict is dramatic, and exciting, and even entertaining. Newsworthy that journalists sometimes succumb to the temptation of trying to generate conflict among the people they're writing about to make a better story.

Violence - violence is news. There's a nasty and cynical expression in the news business, "If it bleeds, it leads" Alas, there is more than a little truth to this, and this tendency by the news media may have a harmful impact on our perception of our society and the quality of our lives. Be that as it may, car accidents, drive-by shootings and schoolyard bullying all meet the criteria of news.

Celebrity - someone is prominent, what they do is more likely to be news. This is unhappy news to many people, but we all know it's reality. If a street person assaults someone, it's not news. If an entertainer, a sports star or a prominent politician does the same thing, it is news. The more prominent the person, the bigger the news.

Novelty - if something's bizarre, it may be news.

Humour - if it'sfunny enough it's news. Most everyone enjoys a chuckle, so if an event or development has a funny aspect, that may interest journalists.

Trends - a trend is developing, it's news. Trends are important. They can have an impact on our lives. Knowing about them can help us make wise lifestyle or business decisions.

Inspiration - uplifting stories are news. If a story shows someone's perseverance, grit, courage or decency in the face of adversity, it can be news.

Helpfulness - if it helps you, it's news. Maybe. Need instruction on an easy way to have a flatter tummy, build a birdhouse, get a university degree while living in jail, raise happy, well-balanced children while holding down three jobs? These are all legitimate topics for news stories.

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FIELD OBSERVATION

Field observation is useful for collecting data and for generating hypotheses and theories. Like all qualitative techniques, it is concerned more with description and explanation than with measurement and quantification. 

Field observations are classified along two major dimensions:

 (1) the degree to which the re­searcher participates in the behavior under observation and

 (2) the degree to which the observation is concealed.

overt observation. 

In this situation, the re­searcher is identified when the study begins, and those under observation are aware that they are being studied. Furthermore, the researcher's role is only to observe, refrain­ing from participation in the process under observation. 

overt participation

 Quadrant 2 represents overt participation. In this arrangement, those be­ing observed also know the researcher, , the researcher goes beyond the ob­server role and becomes a participant in the situation.

Covert observation

 Quadrant 3 represents the situa­tion where the researcher's role is limited to that of observer, but those under observa­tion are not aware they are being studied. 

Covert participation

Quadrant 4 represents a study in which the researcher participates in the process un­der investigation but is not identified as a researcher. ex: a re­searcher wants to observe and analyze the dynamics of writing comedy for television. 

The researcher could choose the covert ob­server technique and pretend to be doing something else  while actually observing the TV writing team at work.

Advantages of Field

Observations

Field observation often helps the researcher define basic background in­formation necessary to frame a hypothesis and to isolate independent and dependent variables. For example, a researcher inter­ested in how creative decisions in advertising are made could observe several decision-making sessions to see what happens. 

Field observations often make excellent pilot stud­ies because they identify important variables and provide useful preliminary information. 

In addition, since the data are gathered first­hand, observation is not dependent on the subjects' ability or willingness to report their behavior. For example, young children may lack the reading or verbal skills necessary to respond to a questionnaire concerning their TV viewing behavior, but such data are eas­ily gathered by the observational technique.

Field observation is particu­larly suitable for a study of the gatekeeping process in a network television news de­partment because it is difficult to quantify gatekeeping.

Field observation may also provide access to groups that would otherwise be difficult to observe or examine. For example, a ques­tionnaire sent to producers of X-rated mov^­ies is not likely to have a high return rate. 

An observer, however, may be able to establish mutual trust with such a group and persuade them to respond to rigorous questioning.

Field observation is usually inexpen­sive. In most cases, it requires only writing materials or a small audio or video recorder.  Perhaps the most noteworthy ad­vantage of field observation is that the study takes place in the natural setting of the ac­tivity being observed and thus can provide data rich in detail and subtlety.

Many mass media situations, such as a family watch­ing television, are complex and constantly subjected to intervening influences.  field observation allows observers to identify these otherwise unknown variables.

Disadvantages of Field Observations

On the negative side, field observation is a poor choice if the researcher is concerned with external validity. Validation is difficult partly because the representativeness of the observations made is potentially question­able and partly because of problems in sam­pling.

Observing the TV viewing behavior of a group of children at a daycare center can provide valuable insights into the social set­ting of television viewing, but it probably has little correlation with what preschoolers do in other places and under different cir­cumstances. 

Besides, since field observation relies heavily on a researcher's perceptions and judgments and on preconceived notions about the material under study, experimenter bias may favor specific preconceptions of re­sults, while observations to the contrary are ignored or distorted. Potential bias is why it is rare to use only one observer in a field observation study—observations should be cross-validated by second or third observers.

Finally, field observations suffer from the problem of reactivity. The very process of being observed may influence the behavior under study. Of course, reactivity can be a problem with other research methods, but it is most often mentioned as a criticism of field observation 

Additionally, among those who reported an observer effect, there were no systematic differences in the distribution of changes. About the same number said that they watched more because of the observer as said they watched less. 

Obviously, addi­tional studies of different groups in different settings are needed before this problem is fully understood, but Lull's data suggest that although reactivity is a problem with obser­vational techniques, its impact may not be as drastic as some suggest.

In any case, at least two strategies are available to diminish the impact of selec­tive perception and reactivity. One is to use several observers to cross-validate the re­sults. A second strategy is triangulation, or supplementing observational data with data gathered by other means (for example, ques­tionnaires or existing records). Accuracy is sought by using multiple data collection methods.

Field Observation Techniques

There are at least six stages in a typical field observation study: choosing the research site, gaining access, sampling, collecting data, an­alyzing data, and exiting.

Choosing the Research Site. The nature of the research question or area of inquiry usu­ally suggests a behavior or a phenomenon of interest.Possible research venues can be identified from personal experience, from talking with other researchers, from interviews with people who frequent the site, or from newspaper and magazine stories.

Gaining permission to conduct field ob­servation research requires persistence and public relations skills. Researchers must de­cide how much to disclose about the nature of the research.

After the contact is made, rapport must be established with the subject(s)

·                     Identify the scene's gatekeeper and at­tempt to persuade him or her of the project's relevance.

·                     Find a sponsor who can vouch for the usefulness of the project and can help locate participants.

·                     Negotiate an agreement with par­ticipants.

Sampling. Sampling in field observation is more ambiguous than in most other research approaches. First, there is the problem of how many individuals or groups to observe.  The research problem and the goals of the study are indicators of the appropriate sample size; for example, if the results are intended for generalization to a population, study­ing one subject or group is inadequate.

·                        Maximum variation sampling: Set­tings, activities, events, and informants are chosen purposefully to yield as many different and varied situations as possible.

·                        

Exiting. A researcher acting as a participant must have a plan for leaving the setting or the group under study.

Field Observation Online

In the physical world, field observation en­tails watching people behave in their normal surroundings. In the online world, field ob­servation usually means observing text and images on a computer screen.

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ETHNOGRAPHY

Ethnography, however, is in fact a special kind of qualita­tive research. As first practiced by anthro­pologists and sociologists, ethnography was the process in which researchers spent long periods of time living with and observing other cultures in a natural setting. The notion of ethnography has been adapted to other areas: political sci­ence, education, social work, and commu­nication. These disciplines have been less interested in describing the way of life of an entire culture and more concerned with analyzing smaller units: subgroups, organi­zations, institutions, professions, audiences, and so on.

Ethnography can be grouped into two categories:

descriptive and

critical.

Descrip­tive ethnography is the more conventional approach . In contrast, critical ethnography makes use of the critical paradigm

For example, a critical ethnographic study of the role of TAMIL-language radio in the LOCAL community

It puts the researcher in the middle of the topic under study; the researcher goes to the data rather than the other way around.

·              It emphasizes studying an issue or topic from the participants' frame of reference.

·              It involves spending a considerable amount of time in the field.

·              It uses a variety of research techniques, including observation, interviewing, di­ary keeping, analysis of existing docu­ments, photography, videotaping, and so on.

Ethnographic research relies upon an assortment of data collection techniques. Ethno­graphic research generally uses several of the four common qualitative techniques discussed in this chapter: field observations, intensive interviewing, focus groups, and case studies.

Conducting Ethnographic Research

The initial stage is to define the problem or phenomenon to be explored. Questions that are most appropriate to ethnography involve examining how a particular group of people view or perceive a certain phenom­enon. The ultimate goal of the ethnographer is to try to understand the world as seen by the group under study.

An ethnographic researcher will generally use purposive sampling. This sampling can be refined by using key informants, long-time members of the group under study who have expert knowledge of the group's routines, activi­ties and communication patterns.

Using the knowledge provided by the informants, the researcher determines what behaviors to observe, where and when to observe them, what individuals to single out for intensive interviews, and what key documents might be relevant to analyze.

Four Types Of Field Notes:

1.                   Condensed accounts—short de­scriptions written or recorded in the field that highlight the most im­portant factors that were observed or brought up during an interview. These descriptions are helpful in highlighting what is to be empha­sized in later accounts.

2.                   Expanded accounts—written after the period of observation or after the interview, filling in details not included in the condensed version. These documents should be as com­plete and thorough as possible. In ethnographic research it is better to have too much detail .

3.                   Fieldwork journal—lists the re­searcher's personal reactions, im­pressions, and reflections about the fieldwork or the interview—primar­ily personal commentary rather than strict reporting.

4.                   Analysis and interpretation notes—attempts by the researcher to in­tegrate the observational and interview data into some coherent analysis scheme to the first attempts at finding order or patterns in the data.

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