How News Values Create a Story

This week my blog will focus on the omni present news values that journalists utilize to guide and shape their work, and in a sense are slaves to the notions of public appeal and newsworthiness. I have selected a story titled ‘Man jailed over veteran attack’ which I sourced from ABC online and will apply the news values from the works of Jewkes, as these values are more recent and have been reformulated from Chibnall to keep up with the changing nature of media.

The media article details how a 29 year man, robbed a World War 2 veteran, trapping him under his motorised scooter. This notion plays into the idea of the risk value (articulated by Anthony Gidden’s in his work regarding the risk society) which also overlaps with the values of simplification, personalisation, individualism and conservative ideology. The media in this story have presented an unambiguous, linear narrative with little room for critique and interpretation. They have demonised the offender and created the simple rhetoric of right versus wrong, thereby eliminating any shades of grey and opportunities for constructive and meaningful interpretivism. The article attributes the causation factors of the robbery to individualistic explanations (the story lets it be known that the offender is both a heroin addict and has a mental illness), while ignoring the wider, often more complex, socio economic structures which cultivate the conditions for such crimes, such as access to welfare, employment and rehabilitation . The broader cultural, social and political conditions surrounding heroin addiction and mental health care aren’t able to be simplified and refined for this article and don’t create the right angle for this story, therefore, those important notions become obsolete, to appease the sacrosanct news threshold.

Now onto risk; the risk value which has been capsulated in this story, (which is indivisible from the concept of fear of crime, which is exacerbated under the paradigm of neo liberalism and the rise self security and responsibility), is articulated by this crime which is been portrayed as unpredictable, random and meaningless (the offender made off with only $20). The vulnerable victim (who could just be you one day, and is an exploitation of one's personal anxieties) was left lying on the ground crying for help. This angle emphasises the notion of the risk value, as in today’s risk society, violent criminals can strike at any time, indiscriminately. This rhetoric stresses the image of the victim; which the story does to a tee, by reporting the health condition of the victim after the attack, who states "The attack forced me to change my lifestyle... I only go out in the day now' (Farnsworth, 2010).

This article borrows from the conservative ideology value, in that it is stated that the offender will receive 12 months jail. This sentence emphasises punitive ‘popular justice’ and only goes to reinforce and cement the philosophy of tough law and order policies, taken to so adeptly by NSW politicians to stamp out crime, focusing on retribution while rehabilitation sits idle in the dark. These are values that journalists deem newsworthy as we witness deviants been isolated by policies of containment, incapacitation and surveillance.

I will finish this week with a personal reflection. After summing up the last three weeks worth of reading I am left with new feelings of apathy and disenchantment, as to the false realities which are distorted, inflated and constructed by the media in the pursuit of newsworthiness and profit. On the other hand, all the reading, theories and dialogue have also been empowering, as it has granted me the power and tools to discern and critique, the daily façade that is the media, as well as injecting a sense of realism into my perceptions of crime and reality.

Here is a link to the full article.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/09/2977574.htm?section=justin

Reference List

Farnsowrth, S. (2010) ‘Man jailed over veteran attack’, ABC News, (Online) http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/09/2977574.htm?section=justin
Accessed 10th August 2010