Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Television broadcasting of news. Professions Journalists'

Television news is a key provider of information within British society, investing those who produce it with power to determine what is 'important' and 'interesting'. In this context I set out, through observation and interview in the newsrooms of Channel Four, HTV West and BBC I Midlands Today, to gain insight into how journalists think and behave when selecting and constructing news stories. I sought to examine the effects of routine practices and the extent to which reporters and editors reflect on their decision making. In addition, I conducted a close reading of the headline item from the bulletin produced in each newsroom on the same day as my visit, in order to draw comparison between what editors and reporters articulate as important in a newsroom setting, and what appears to be the case in manifest content. While considering a wide range of influential factors, an overriding objective was to assess the specific role of 'news value'. Do journalists consciously apply individual criteria? Are newsrooms organised so that editors and reporters routinely privilege certain subjects as 'news' and not others? Is there a journalistic tendency to 'notice', perceive and 'frame' events as a set of familiar types? In examining these questions, special attention was given to the conceptual model developed by Galtung & Ruge (1965), in order to assess its relevance in the 'real' newsroom environment. My findings suggested that journalists do not openly reflect on newsworthiness in a systematic way. The complex task of preparing a story ready for broadcast was achieved in a manner that was almost automatic. Attitudes and behaviour appeared to be driven by routines, with decisions made quickly and with minimal outward reflection. In conversation, the importance of visual impact and drama, and an emphasis on negativity, emerged as being significant, although subsequent analysis of output suggested that other criteria may also be influential, for example a concentration on 'elite' subject matter. Overall, however, there seemed to be a lack of ability or willingness to discuss selection in a conceptual manner and newsworthiness was explained and 'justified' by reference to actual examples of stories or subject matter.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on November 20, 2009). Thesis advisor: Jennifer Reeves. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2008.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 383-401). Also available online in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.

This study examined the relationship the television news sequence at four-year colleges and universities has with the employment marketability of those students who major in television news. Both vocational and academic approaches were examined. Three factors were taken into consideration: if the completion of any television news curriculum aids in the television news graduate's employment marketability, if the television news curriculum has merit when weighed against work experience without completion of such a discipline, and if another academic sequence might better prepare the aspiring television journalist. The study is significant in that the field of television news has been glutted in recent years by an influx of graduates who believe that the work is glamorous and exciting. Many graduates lack the basic verbal and mechanical skills to compete in the job marketplace. The first two chapters discuss the research problem and the factors comprising it. Details of the research design follow, dividing the study into an assessment of the problem and the analysis of the results of a questionnaire that was mailed to 213 television news anchors selected through a stratified random process. A background chapter on various television news curricula is included, with numerous books and periodicals cited. Educational profiles of selected network news anchors are also featured. Almost 60 percent of the local news anchors contacted completed and returned the questionnaires. The nominal data is discussed and presented in tabular form; the data is also analyzed through a series of cross-tabulations using specific demographical information and responses. Findings of the survey indicate that the television news sequence does not appreciably aid the graduate in securing employment, that practical experience outweighs the merits of completing such a sequence, and that the aspiring television journalist might benefit more from a concentration in the liberal arts.

Thesis (M.S.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1997.
Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2715. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as preliminary leaves [1-2]. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-80).

By virtue of their broadcast licenses, local television stations in the United States are bound to serve in the public interest of their community audiences. As federal regulations of those stations loosen and fewer owners increase their holdings across the country, however, local community needs are subjugated by corporate fiduciary responsibilities. Business practices reveal rampant consolidation of ownership, newsroom job description convergence, skilled human labor replaced by computer automation, and economically-driven downsizings, all in the name of profit. Even so, the people laboring under these conditions are expected to keep their communities informed with democracy- and citizenship-enhancing information. This study uses a critical political economy framework to focus on the labor aspects of working in commercially-run local television newsrooms in the United States. Surveys and interviews with news workers from the 25 largest local television markets highlight the daily challenges of navigating the dichotomy of labor in the space between corporate profiteering and public enlightenment. In addition to their more well-known and well-studied on-air reporter and anchor peers, "behind the scenes" workers and those with newly converged job descriptions also share their news work stories, thus filling a gap in the literature. Corporate capital incentives affect all who gather and disseminate the news. While all of these workers generally strive for high journalistic quality, the pressures of increased workloads and constant deadlines imposed by shrinking news staffs and growing digital media expectations mean journalists have to make craft work compromises in the race to report news faster and first. Owners push experienced news veterans with deep community connections out in favor of younger, cheaper, more tech-savvy workers. Financially beneficial content trumps deep policy investigations. These outcomes not only worry those in the journalistic trenches of local television news, but also potentially deprive the public of the information they seek from these outlets. As local television newsrooms remain the most popular sources of information for Americans, particularly in times of crisis, such outcomes are not in the community's best interest.

It has been established that regardless of the fact that journalism in not a one-gender- profession anymore, news is still defined from a male perspective. A number of studies through the years examined the news content and determined that it continued male.Though news veterans acknowledge significant changes in m coming of women to the newsrooms, those changes sometimes are hard to detect on the personal level. Male and female reporters claim that even though gender can affect their approach to reporting, the final product they produce does not have gender marked on it. The present Q study is examined whether gender has an influence on reporter’s preferences in choosing a topic while covering gender-neutral issues. The participants of the study were 17 employees of the major Ukrainian TV channel "Novy Kanal.” In February of 2003 they were e-mailed 50 story ideas (constructed to include either two of five news values, such as magnitude, conflict, oddity, prominence and impact) and asked them to sort them according to their desire to cover these topics. Fourteen journalists and three editors responded. In May 2003 the sorts were analyzed with the PQMethod program, and three factors emerged representing three groups of people (Maximalists, Conservatives and Commoners) with different attitudes toward gender-neutral issues. The Maximalists, the largest group consisted only of reporters, were a sensation-oriented group of people. Magnitude and conflict were the most important news values for this factor. The Conservatives were characterized by the strong inclination towards official news, where conflict and impact played an important role. The Commoners preferred the human interest stories with oddity and impact.Each group consisted of an even number of men and women, and thus the study failed to support the notion that males and females share different attitudes toward neutral issues. No discrimination was evident toward women stories on the “Navy Kanal” TV channel. Surprisingly, men were more likely than women to choose active participants or acted as newsmakers.The findings suggested that it is women who are creating problems for the feminist movement, not men. Women correspondents at "Novy Kanal" are more immersed in patriarchal values than their male colleagues.
Department of Journalism

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2005.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Television is a powerful tool in the diffusion of information to the masses. It is therefore influential in the way society perceives and responds to children, and in so doing it has an influence on the provision and protection of children's rights. According to international and locally conducted studies children are not high on the media agenda, are seldom given a voice or status, and if they are, issues around them are mostly formulated by adults. This assignment sets out to determine whether the same conclusion can be drawn from South African free-to-air television station e-TV. In particular it seeks to establish whether e- News has been successful in placing children's rights in on the public agenda or whether it has reported on children in an ad hoc manner. Children's human rights issues have been defined in accordance with the United Nation's Children's Rights Charter and the South African Bill of Rights, which makes specific provision for the child/children. This assignment takes its lead from a Media Monitoring Project study. Like the MMP report this research is conducted within a human rights framework and concedes according to Section 28 (2) of the Constitution that "the child's best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child". The methodology employed in this assignment, while replicating a Media Monitoring Project study, also employs discourse analysis in the form of interviews and questionnaires conducted with e-News members of staff. The methodology was applied to a sample of 71 stories which included reference to a child or children and which were broadcast on e-News Live at 7 and e-News live at 10 between January and August 2004. In brief it was found that the rights to privacy, dignity and freedom of speech were satisfactorily upheld (as per the Bill of Rights), but that issues about children are mostly sourced by and commented on by adults. Furthermore it was found that children's rights do not form an implicit part of the e-News agenda. Given that a human rights framework is normative for e-News, it is recommended that children's rights be placed in context, that stories challenge stereotypes about children and that e- News should consider appointing 'children's correspondents'.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Televisie is n' kragtige medium vir die verspreiding van inligting na die samelewing. Om hierdie rede speel televisie n' invloedryke rol op die manier waarop mense met kinders omgaan en dus het dit ook n' groot invloed op die voorsiening en berskerming van kinderregte. Volgens internastionale en plaaslike studies is kinders nie hoog op die media se agenda nie. Hulle word selde status verleen en indien wel, word kwessies wat hulle raak, dikwels deur volwassenes geformuleer. Hierdie opdrag wil bepaal of hierdie gevolgtrekking ook spesifiek betrekking het op die televisiestasie, e-TV. Daar word spesifiek gefokus op e-News se agenda met betrekking tot kinderregte en of dit suksesvol genhandhaaf word of nie. Kindreregte-kwessies is gedefineer soos in die Verenigde Nasies se Handves van Kinderrregte en die Suid-Afrikaanse Hanves van Menseregte wat specifiek focus op voorsiening vir kinders. Hierdie opdrag is volg die voorbeeld van n' verslag van die Media Monitoring Project (MMP). Soos die MMP-verslag word hierdie narvorsing binne n' menseregte-raamwerk gedoen en neem ook artikel 28 (2) van die Suid-Afrikaanse Grondwet in ag, wat stipuleer dat die kind se belange van kardinale belang is asook elke aspek wat die kind betrek. Die metodologie wat in hierdie opdrag gebruik word, repliseer tegelykertyd die MMPstudie en maak gebruik van diskoersanalise in die vorm van onderhoude en vraelyste onder e- News personeellede. Hierdie metodologie maak gebruik van n' steekproefvan 71 nuusstories wat verwys na n' kind/kinders wat tussen Januarie en Augustus 2004 op e-News Live om 19hOO uitgesaai is. Ter opsomming is bevind dat privaatheidsregte, waardigheid en vryheid van spraak van kinders bevredigend benader is. Kwessies wat kinders aanraak word egter meer deur volwassenes aangespreek as deur kinders self. Daar is egter ook bevind dat kinderregte nie n' intergrale deel van e-News agenda vorm me. Gegewe dat n' menseregteraamwerk bye-News toegepas word, word dit aanbeveel dat kinderregte binne konteks geplaas word en dat berigte sal streef daarna om stereotypes oor kinders te verander en dat e-News oorweeg om kinderkorrespndente aan te stel.

Thesis (MA)--Macquarie University (Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Dept. of Media and Communications), 2006.
Bibliography: leaves 176-188.
Precursors -- An imperfect war -- Interregnum -- The perfect war -- Conclusions.
This thesis explores how war reporting on Australian television has been dramatically reshaped over the last 40 years, particularly by new technologies. Specifically, it seeks to answer these questions: 1. How did differing cultural, social, political and professional contexts, available technology and battlefield experience affect the attitudes, editorial content and narrative forms of two generations of television correspondents - in Vietnam and Iraq respectively? 2. How did technological and other industry changes over the 30 years between Vietnam and Iraq reshape the power relationship between the war correspondent in the field and his news producers and managers? What impact did these changes have on the resulting screened coverage? What are the longer-term implications for journalism and for audiences?
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
192 leaves ill. (some col.)