IS TV NEWS A WINDOW ON THE WORLD?

If you're wondering what a Window on the World (or a Window on Reality) is - the question above is just basically asking if the News shows us an unbiased/neutral view on important information around the world. When we watch the news, do we watch reality or is the news constructed? "News is a Window on the World. The view through a window depends upon whether the window is large or small, has many panes or few, whether the glass is opaque or clear, whether the window faces a street or a backyard." - Gaye Tuchman in Making News. Does the news show us reality? Does the news think about values rather than importance?

TV news certainly tries to present itself in this way. I analysed a starting sequence of a news report & studio news reporters and it turns out that they are there to present themselves as unbiased and neutral characters that are only on the television to make sure we are delivered the news. Here is a link to this blog post. This idea is backed up by the impartiality laws and regulations. Impartiality basically means to propose both sides of opinions/views to keep it equal. This is to be presented by the news readers with complete accuracy and neutrality. OFCOM is the communications regulator which controls what can go on TV/radio/postal services/mobiles etc. They enforce these rules with parliament. Because of the many different rules/regulations, the news isn't often shown as reality. Another way of restricting what we see on the news is The Code of Practice. The BBC and Ofcom work together on this agreement and have agreed to stay within the regulations. The Code is to make certain that the BBC and any independent producers are to be managed in a fair and transparent manner. All of these rules restrict us from seeing the reality of the event which is happening on our televisions. For example, children's faces are blurred out for security, there are no arguments regarding racism/sexism or any opinions and most of the footage shown during an event is known to be 'actuality footage'. It may be some footage at the place of the event but it could have been shot 20 years ago and saved for if it was ever needed again. This website shows a compilation of all the footage that was taken from the 9/11 attack in America. Some of the footage has been used over and over again in different news reports all over the world.

However TV news cannot, simply 'show' reality in the way that studio news readers are taught to present. News readers must present the news in a neutral, unbiased and impartial but this isn't what happens behind the scenes, although we get our news daily, what exactly decides what is news and why? (Sorry for the extra space!)

 From my diagram, it shows that the news only shows us what they believe has value, although it has some aspects of reality, it's not the reality we perceive. As you can see from the diagram the Event of the news has to go through a process to decide whether the story has any values/budgets/law etc. If it is able to get through this process, it may reach the news - providing their aren't any technical problems. This process of specific selection proves that the news can't possibly be "a window on the world" as it's almost like a process of elimination.
Also, TV news has this way of presenting the events like a 'fictional' story, by using narrative devices/structures and continuity editing. In class, we were shown a interview of someone who was unemployed and looking for work in this difficult economy. During this, we were shown establishing shots of the small house he lived in, pictures of his wedding and shots of his wife and very 
young child, all of these were used for emotional manipulation, to not only understand/sympathise with the situation he is already in but to feel sorry that his family have to go through it too - not to mention the tiny detail that the wife is expecting another. Think about it, some news is also based on popularity, if there was some sort of natural disaster to happen it would most likely make the news if it happened in California than Bangladesh or something along those lines.

I personally think it's wrong to establish the news represents itself as an unbiased/impartial factual program. This is because of the reason I have explained above, the selection process of what gets in the news and what doesn't. Morally, it's down to the people who decided that is the way to select the news - specifically, it's white, middle class, middle age, southern, university educated straight males who control the production of TV news. Because of this, the news is biased and only appeals to certain audiences. If an event has already happened and all of the footage is ready and it has survived the gatekeeping process, it might get to the last stage (the technical run throughs and on air) a "breaking story" could occur which is more interesting and involves more casualties/disaster which will make more people tune in. The event/story beforehand can be saved for another time. These reasons are why I don't believe the the news is a 'window on the world' as the whole gatekeeping process, actuality footage and rules/regulations just restricts us from seeing the reality and narrows the range of stories.



http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/impartiality/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/how-we-work/business-requirements/code-of-practice.shtml
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/about/what-is-ofcom/

http://btecmediaen1.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/tv-news-blog-report.html