NEWS VALUES

In the 1960’s the isolation of a small community in Papua New Guinea was broken with the introduction of a transistor radio. One of the first items of news they heard was of a 9 year old Australian boy being orphaned after both his parents were brutally murdered. The community was galvanised, the village elders met to discuss what could be done to help the boy. A ritual was enacted to protect the child and a sacred object selected to be sent to him… 

‘According to local health authorities, at least 65 Palestinians were killed, many of them children, and more than 350 were wounded. ‘In 25 days of fighting, more than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed, as well as 63 Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians.’ Guardian 02.8.14The Guardian also reported that an Israeli soldier, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, has been kidnapped by Hamas. The 7:30 BBC radio news bulletin on Radio 4 this morning leads with story of the missing Israeli soldier. No mention is made of Palestinian casualty figures. 02.08.2014*
 

‘News values’ is a curious term, a pretence that what we are told about what is going on in the world represents some sort of neutral assessment of what is most important. The BBC is particularly adept at creating this illusion. Watching the six o clock news, the other night the major items were as follows; Gaza, child abuse, the Ebola virus, sanctions against Russia, and a strike by public servants. Each story reflecting not only a choice of priorities but of angle and emphasis. News so often the reporting of crisis, an intense illumination – though always only partial – then a return to darkness. After the fighting is over how long will the suffering of the citizens of Gaza be on our screen? And what of the citizens of Syria, of Mosul, of Donetsk? Whilst the dead of two weeks ago, spread across a field in eastern Ukraine are now rapidly vanishing from memory, and the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls increasingly becoming a footnote in the bloody history of Boko Haram.
The US media no longer even pretends at an objective judgement of the relative merits of news stories, domestic stories always take precedence, and even if a foreign news story is covered a local angle is included if possible.[1] (Interestingly Fox news reported that two of the Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza were in fact US citizens?).

Despite its risible strap line, ‘Fair and Balanced,’ -surely satire of the highest order, - Fox makes no attempt to conceal its political sympathies, which lie on the far right of the spectrum. Even by US standards Fox’s coverage of events in Gaza is truly astonishing in its pro-Israel stance. As for the rest of the US media, as things stand at present, it is impossible for the Palestinian cause to get a fair hearing on mainstream American media. Respecting the wider world the average US citizen is presented with a world-view so skewed as to make considered judgments about international affairs impossible.   
The news bias of the BBC is of course less obvious than that of Fox News, but bias there is, and discernable in the way in which certain news stories are told. It is not that journalists are dishonest, certainly respecting the broadcast media, by and large they are not. Many are extremely dedicated, some willing to put their life on the line as they seek to provide the world with as accurate a picture as they can. What they do not control is the agenda, i.e. news priorities and the way in which stories are framed. This is still the preserve of an elite and, at the risk of sounding conspiratorial, is subject to a whole plethora of unspoken rules and assumptions. Again take Gaza as an example; just suppose that the BBC or CNBC could embed a reporter with Hamas fighters, showing them displaying acts of courage, comradeship in the face of overwhelming odds. How do you imagine the footage, if it ever reached our screens, would be framed? Can you imagine the howls of outrage that would pour from every Israeli embassy in the world? Where for that matter are the frequent interviews with Hamas spokesmen- and they would have to be men, - compared to the regular interviews with Israeli PR men like Mark Regev?
I am not here making a case for Hamas, anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with this blog would know where I stand on Islamacist  groups, I am merely questioning the way in which the Israeli Palestinian conflict is ‘framed’ for us. It is an unwritten rule that Hamas and the government of Israel cannot possibly be given equal air time and those such as Al Jazeera who break these rules must be punished.
Nearer to home the more subtle bias of the BBC is evident in the way in which business, industrial relations and economics is reported. The flagship morning radio programme, Today, on Radio 4 gives over the first hour largely to business related matters, the stock market, floatation’s, bankruptcies and industrial relations. Trade unions, let alone ordinary working people, simply do not get a look in. Changes to employment law or the implications of EU social legislation are discussed by businessmen from the Confederation of British Industry or the more militant[2] Institute of Directors. Occasionally a ‘Human Resources expert’ will be called in, rarely a Trade Unionist. Pressure groups like the Taxpayers Alliance or the Institute of Economic Affairs are allowed to present their views without any mention of who is funding them.  The whole spirit of the programme during this hour is that we are all employees of, in that hideous phrase, ‘Great Britain PLC.’
In so many key aspects of life the narrative is framed more in harmony with the concerns and interests of a small elite than the average citizen.[3]
Thus far I have completely excluded the tabloid press from this article, the moronic garbage daily served up in this country to the public as ‘news’ speaks for itself. Though undoubtably is does irreparable damage in its distortion of human values and propagandising in the interests of Richard Desmond, Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre, and as Robert Peston has recently drawn attention the BBC is increasingly following an agenda created by the middlebrow press, such as the Daily Mail.
This is not to duck the fact that hard choices about what stories deserve prominence are unavoidable, and of course the notion of news values completely free of bias and cultural perspective is absurd and I do not believe they would be desirable if they were possible. A free media should have a clear bias in favour of free speech, freedom of protest and assembly, freedom and protection of minorities, freedom from religion as well as the freedom to practice the religion of your choice. Put more succinctly, a bias in favour of enlightenment values.
Rupert Murdoch on his propaganda station Fox News
The internet age is changing the way news is reported and for the first time since the creation of mass circulation newspapers the monopoly of a few media moguls such as Randolph Hearst and Rupert Murdoch is being challenged, whilst totalitarian states can no longer guarantee that the official narrative is the only one heard. Already governments of all persuasions have responded to this ‘threat’ by introducing a raft of measures seeking to stifle internet freedom, - whilst Russia and China seek to create hermetically sealed societies. All these developments must be fought.
The still relatively free internet also creates as many problems as it solves with racist neo-Nazi rhetoric, wacky conspiracy theories, religious fundamentalists and Islamacist fanatics all competing for space on an equal footing. The answer is not censorship but for those fighting for freedom and secular values to use this space to confront the enemies of freedom and tolerance.
‘The News,’ is not some neutral phenomenon presenting itself through the logic of ‘importance,’ it is chosen, filtered, censored and edited. This will always be the case. It is essential however to a) be aware that this is the case, and b) to keep a very close watch on those doing the choosing whilst fighting for space for other narratives, other ‘stories.’
Unnamed citizen Gaza
I’ll finish with a rhetorical question. Who is it that decides that the life of one Israeli soldier is worth so much more than the hundreds of Palestinian civilians killed? Why is it that he alone deserves to be named and framed in a family context?

*As the day went on the kidnapped soldier story dropped down the headlines with Palestinian casualties taking precedence. It seems that the Israeli soldier spent some time in Cambridge in the UK and an interview was conducted with a rabbi who knew him. Unfortunately none of the civilians killed in Gaza that day appear to have spent any time in Cambridge.  


[1] Interestingly Israeli news is reported as if it were ‘domestic.’
[2] Why is it that free market fanatics never get labelled as ‘militant?’ Workers demanding improved working conditions or better pay so often having this little label hung around their necks.
[3] If you doubt this examine closely the way in which the financial crisis of 2008 was reported. 

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