Strategically Communicating

It’s been ten years since I was a student, so I had forgotten what A-Ha! moments – intuitively grasping a concept that you’ve only just learned existed – felt like. But “reality television news reporting” quickly reminded me.

As defined in Chapter 3 of Mediating the Message in the 21^st Century, realty news coverage involves “the use of dramatic narrative and visuals to present a mediated event that becomes more real than the event itself.

The relentless media coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign offers myriad examples of reality news reporting. Always in search of grist for the Election 2016! coverage mill and constrained by how candidates restrict access, media organizations often blithely play along as the campaigns construct staged events meant solely for generating news coverage. (Of course, this is far from exclusive to politics – take a quick look at the recent coverage of the new iPhone release.)

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has thus far limited press access, and has instead relied on scripted campaign events to “control the message.” (Good politics? Probably, though a recent New York Times article criticized her campaign being aloof and lacking spontaneity.)

One of her first campaign events in Iowa was billed as a “roundtable with everyday Iowa voters” at a smalltown coffeeshop, and covered as such: see here, here, and here.

Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton talks with Iowa voters at the Jones Street Java House in Le Claire, Iowa, http://t.co/e9DTyUwn1Z—
Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) April 14, 2015

Turns out the “everyday Iowans” she met with her all recruited by her campaign staff and were involved in Democratic politics. Nefarious? Not really. Reality television news reporting? Absolutely.

It’s a sad reality that more and more foreign bureaus are being shut down. But there is still quality foreign media coverage out there–you just need to know where to look.

In Retreating From the World by Jodi Enda, while the four major U.S. newspapers–Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times–have closed down some of their foreign bureaus (an exception is NPR, which actually increased its foreign bureaus in the 2000’s and 30% of its broadcasts are international in scope), they continue to produce dynamic foreign news reporting. You can also visit GlobalPost.com, Pulitzercenter.org or Internationalreportingproject.org, among countless other international policy organizations, nonprofits and institutions, for good international stories (that do not necessarily have to do with war and that will give you context).

But not everybody will look.

While a plethora of news is increasingly at our disposal, people tend not to seek out foreign news unless it’s in front of them, says W. Joseph Campbell, a former foreign correspondent.

With consequences.

Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, says that foreign news is essential to an informed electorate and to the development of foreign policy. “Otherwise, our leaders do dumb things, and the American people never know about it. It’s just that important.”

As I dove into the chapters I kept coming back to what is journalism? Is blogging a form of journalism because I’m producing something to read or is it another form of influence in the complex world of media? My mind started to question and wonder. I discovered as I researched definitions from various sources I found that this was my overall favorite on journalism is this:

Journalism is gathering, processing, and dissemination of news, and information related to news, to an audience. The word applies to the method of inquiring for news, the literary style which is used to disseminate it, and the activity (professional or not) of journalism. https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/

I will be honest, I have never blogged but I consider myself a journalist, researcher and storyteller.  I realized the hierarchal model from “Mediating the Message in the 21^st Century” begins with the journalist or individual—me. Keeping that in mind, I really want to keep you entertained, so I called for advice from an editor friend. I listened and realized I was easily influenced by him and educated on the world of blogging from a journalist. One fun read is http://www.socialfresh.com/the-influence-hierarchy/. Influence and how it is received often is based on the relationships with the messenger or the trust factor. Who influences you? Who do you trust the blogger or journalist?

Today I share a video from TED (it means technology, entertainment, design) how news shapes people’s worldview. Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, showed two maps to the audience: one is the world map; the other one is the news map from February, 2007.

According to the speech, 79% are U.S. news stories and 21% are international news stories. On the international news, most of the stories are about Iraq, evidenced on the news map as a giant green piece. Only 1% news stories related to issues in Russia, China and India.

In  Mediating the Message in the 21^st Century, the authors said “media organizations could influence the content (p.7).” If there are more American news organizations around the world, American people will get more international news. Miller states many news organizations reduced the number of foreign bureaus by 50%. Probably, that is one of the reasons we have less international news today.

“Covering Britney is cheaper,” Miller said. There is nothing wrong that people like to read celebrity news. The audience chooses what they want to see and the media worker need to consider what their audience wants and keep a balance.

The one big thing I took away from this reading was the numerous, often subtle ways, media content can be influenced simultaneously by numerous sources.

During my time in Naples, I was intrigued by how I and my Italian counterparts reacted differently to the same news events. The rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the African immigration across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy and Russia’s involvement in Crimea. Naturally many things influence a person’s viewpoint, but I feel cultural and historical influences play a large part in how we often reached different conclusions.

The ongoing migrant crisis in Europe is an excellent example of multiple influences acting upon media. This is an event directly affecting the populations of an entire continent and has sparked daily articles and media content showing a large variety of differing opinions and perspectives.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/09/16/assad-blames-west-for-refugee-crisis-sot-newsroom.cnn

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/07/us-europe-migrants-merkel-idUSKCN0S11W120151007

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/29/europe-migrants-austria-idUSL5N11Z1N320150929

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/11/us-europe-migrants-greece-minister-idUSKCN0S509620151011

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34487562

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34397272

When you read these speeches, protests, finger-pointing and border closings you can clearly see that there are deep emotions on this crisis which has huge humanitarian, cultural, economic and logistical implications for Europe. Yet on traditional media sites it is difficult to find media content on aid workers, border officials or ordinary citizens being affected by transportation disruptions. Instead of discussion and individual viewpoints, I typically find just blaming. So I am curious as to what influences are at work with this ongoing issue. Are they intentional or unintentional? Are they are individual, social, cultural or historical?

I’m going to come out and just say it: I like C-SPAN.

I like that it broadcasts an unfiltered, unedited range of content. I get to be both consumer and creator. I call the shots.

However, the problem with C-SPAN for many consumers (myself included) is that we just don’t have time to view, digest, and come up with an informed opinion about many news events. Sometimes we just want it delivered to us – with a bow on it.

During the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement a few years back, I relied on sources from both major media and individual media sources. In Mediating the Message in the 21st Century: A Media Sociology Perspective, Shoemaker and Reese contend that there is a level of pressure and bias that cannot be removed from media.

I shook my head at the OWS’ perceived lawlessness and lack of motivation (as reported by CNN).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRGns6LaJgA

Then, I scorned law enforcement for their perceived bent towards violence against protesters (as reported by citizen journalists). (Warning: some of the content in this video is explicit and may be hard to watch.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QngE6kKk8Lg

Take a look at RT America’s interview with Peter Joseph. In it, he posits that there is a normal existence of bias, especially in corporate media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdxsO1OxwTM

Who’s got it right? The mainstream media, reporting to write history, or the individual, reporting because they are living it?