Factual Writing Copy

Task 10 – Responsible Journalism Patrick Gouldsbrough

Social and cultural awarenessWriting about a group that the consumer don’t have first hand experiences of is something that is commonly done in journalism. Even though you would think this would be an uninteresting news story, media producers will be trying to communicate their ideologies on certain groups that may become a big issue in the UK and therefore, it will be in the public interest. In this scenario, these journalists must ensure that they aren’t creating an untrue or biased account of this group.

In news reporting, there has been many examples of where groups haven’t been portrayed in the best light and therefore this group have been misrepresented to the consumer of that particular media product. Some examples include:

Asylum SeekersAs you can see from the image on the top right, The Daily Telegraph have misrepresented Asylum Seekers in a bad light and therefore hasn’t thought about social and cultural awareness when producing this story. This particular news producer has published other stories on the matter and each time they have misrepresented the asylum seekers. Even though this group might have a bad name amongst some British people, when reporting the news, which should be in a factual manner, you can’t bring personal ideologies into the story. On the other hand, some media producers look at it the other way and show how asylum seekers can be positive in terms of economy and financial stability of the country. This is all well and good if it’s factual and hasn’t been take out of context. Therefore, the right thing to do when trying to represent a group is what the Daily Express have done on this occasion (bottom right) they have reported what is happening in terms of asylum seekers and is communicating the situation in a factual manner.

Benefit claimers Even though The Daily Express got it right in the last section, on this occasion, they have fallen short of representing benefit claimers in a balanced and fair nature. This article by the media producer features no facts to back up their claims and no expert opinions communicating some form of statistic to the consumer to try and make this headline that The Daily Express have gone with more credible. Instead, the news report has jumped to conclusions and reported the negative side to the story. Even though migrant benefits have been banned, they fail to mention that some migrants can still claim benefits and some migrants actually earn an honest wage in some of the most highly regarded sectors. Therefore, without any of these features, The Daily Express disregards any social and cultural awareness in this article.

NUJ Codes of practiceIf journalists are unsure if they have shown disregard for social and cultural awareness while writing a news article, they can check the NUJ codes of practice. These are a set of rules that journalists choose to follow if they are in this particular union. However, the problem is that journalists doesn’t have to opt into this union and can therefore choose not to follow the codes and fall short of the ethical codes that journalists should follow, which sometimes includes the legal codes also. The codes are as follows:

• “At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed” – This means that a news story that is controversial has to be reported because it’s in the public interest to do so, which means, the public needs to know. However, on very controversial stories, journalists may have to break some later codes to get the story published. For example, media producers like The Times, found it necessary to publish the story on tax avoiders, due to them believing that the general public should be informed on the matter. This resulted in an angry, and most say rightful, backlash on the tax avoiders, due to the working and middle class having to pay more in tax to make up for those that aren’t.

• “Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair” – News stories can’t be made up or the information can’t be taken out of context, it must be presented through facts and how it would be seen if the consumers were actually there at the time. An example of this would be the story on the right hand side, second from the top. This story communicated to the consumer that fans in the Hillsborough disaster picked the pockets of the victims and were beating up police officers that were helping the victims. These allegations by The Sun were later found to be false and dishonest. This story gave a bad name to the fans of both teams of the Hillsborough disaster, as well as breaking this and a few other NUJ codes in the process.

• “Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies” – This involves journalists correcting information that they see or know to be false. This can be the editor of a newspaper/magazine that corrects a copy writers inaccuracies or this can be a newspaper correcting facts and reporting the truth, even if they have received the distorted information from another media outlet. Newspapers have to sell and be striking to the audience, they need stories that are interesting. However, these stories must be obtained legally and ethically and must stick to the other NUJ codes. On The Sun website, the media producer did correct the harmful inaccuracy that they had made by publishing that story and apologised and put the record straight. However, this was too late, the damage to the fans and the credibility of the newspaper was already done. On one hand, they broke this code because they failed to amend the information before publishing the story, while they did correct it second time round, meaning they still broke the code but tried to make up for it (Baring in mind, it wasn’t of their own accord, it was done because they were pulled up about it from consumers and official publishing bodies)

NUJ Codes of practice• “Differentiates between fact and opinion” – This falls under the same bracket as biased information, which I covered in Task 2. Journalists, according to the NUJ, are meant to report stories in a factual and unbiased manner and must not put their own opinions in this piece of news reporting, which involves the journalist deciding whether a certain piece of information they have received or collected falls in the fact or opinion category. The Daily Mail have broken this NUJ code by been unable to differentiate between fact and opinion on this article (top right). From the headline of ‘The Mail accuses these men ok killing. If we are wrong, let them sue us’ you can tell that the producer of this article has already started opinionated and biased from the outset. As the article continues, the sheer biased nature also continues, with the Mail accusing these five men of been murderers without any proven information, which isn’t then factual, or any official quotes from people such as the police. Incapability to tell the difference between fact and opinion in news reporting could lead to what the Mail expressed in the headline, a lawsuit. • “Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of investigations that are both overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means” – This means that information generated by the journalist must fit an ethical and legal specification and the information hasn’t been found by illegitimate means. As the quote states, there ere some exceptions, which only apply f it’s very key for the public to know about the story and if so, this information can be obtained through any means possible (this is only in very extraordinary circumstances and it doesn’t happen often). The most notable breach of this NUJ code is the phone hacking of the news of the world journalists, which then led to the Levesson inquiry to be set up. The code states that information must be obtained using open and straightforward means, unless it’s overwhelmingly in the publics interest. The hacking of high profile celebrities and dead schoolgirl, Millie Dowler’s phones was not an open means of generating information and it wasn’t crucial for the public to know about it. Therefore, the news of the world journalists (Clive Goodman, Glenn Mulcaire, Andrew Coulson and Rebecca Brooks) had broken this NUJ by hacking phones for the media producer.

• “Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest” – This is linked to the previous NUJ code and states that journalists should not intrude on people’s lives, especially when they are in grief or distress. Like most NUJ codes, people think the line of intrusion is different and due to the fact there isn’t a regulatory body on these NUJ codes, the media producer can’t be adjudged to have gone too far. Some news outlets do step the wrong side of the line on occasion. A high profile case of this would be the Madeleine McCann abduction news story. While it was reported factually at the time of the event and most newspapers managed to follow the NUJ codes at the time of the abduction, since then, media producers have pestered and intruded on the lives of Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann. This involved going round to the house, trying to generate information while they were mourning the death of their daughter and multiple other forms of intrusion.

NUJ Codes of practice• “Protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the course of her/his work” – Many newspapers choose to collect sources from people to back up and give their stories more content, while the consumer may trust the story if they have information provided from someone in the know, whether this is an expert or a trusted person. This also involves the newspapers giving those sources that wish to remain anonymous, anonymity. If they fail to do so, their credibility as well as the person who has leaked the information to the media outlet will be challenged. Edward Snowden, the man who leaked many US government and world secrets, had anonymity from the newspapers (The Guardian in particular) when he first started to leak this information. When he first started to rendezvous with Guardian Journalist Glenn Greenwald in 2012, The Guardian kept Snowden secret and only published the information that the American was providing to the media producer. The newspaper headline on the top right proves that The Guardian were profiting on information from Snowden at that time and producing various articles about world secrets before other news reporters from newspapers like The Times and Telegraph, knew about them. Of course, Edward Snowden was eventually unmasked but this had nothing to do with The Guardian outing him, he was eventually unmasked by the NSA, by which time Snowden’s period of anonymity was over. For all that time, Glenn Greenwald and The Guardian had kept the secret, they had upheld this particular NUJ code.

• Resists threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or suppress information and takes no unfair personal advantage of information gained in the course of her/his duties before the information is public knowledge” – This means that journalist should not take or give bribes in the form of money or threatening abuse to generate information for their news stories. This, of course, would give them an advantage when collecting information and is one of the most serious NUJ codes of them all. Continuing on from the news of the world hacking scandal, Journalists from this this particular news outlet bribed senior officials and high up police chiefs to gain information for their stories. It was reported by The Guardian that News Of The World journalists were paying these sources £100,000 to give them official and classified information. This worked and the media producer published a few stories with this bribed information, before the corporation were found guilty at the hacking scandal (formally The Levesson Inquiry) and eventually was shut down in 2011, with a few of the journalists in question going to jail for this offence.

• “Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation” – While I covered this NUJ code in the social and cultural awareness section, the code goes into more detail and documents every group that you can’t show discrimination or prejudice against and what kind of hatred is not tolerated in news reporting. Even though journalists should be clear on discrimination already, this NUJ jut reiterates what isn’t tolerated when reporting the news. Newspapers like this headline by The Daily Express are exactly what this NUJ code is there to prevent. A racist and discriminatory statement about the beliefs and dress of other religions and faiths is the main theme of this article and falls short of this NUJ code. This isn’t the first time this media producer has fallen short of the codes, a few weeks before this article, they produced a similar story that had the headline ‘Ban It’ on. Aside from the NUJ codes, this newspaper can be seen to break the legal and ethical requirements we expect from a media outlet in the UK.

NUJ Codes of practice• “Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance endorse by advertisement any commercial product or service save for the promotion of her/his own work or of the medium by which she/he is employed” – This means that journalists can’t actively endorse products or companies in their articles or any other form of media. In print media, this mistake is rarely made when mentioning a particular company but if a media producer does, they take the same approach as the BBC; they normally state “other brands/products are available” and this will cover them legally as a media outlet.

• “A journalist shall normally seek the consent of an appropriate adult when interviewing or photographing a child for a story about her/his welfare” – With celebrity culture such a huge part of news reporting these days, so too is celebrities children. However, there are codes protecting the children of those celebrities, which involves consent been given to the journalist by the celebrities, or if they are members of he public, parents. If this consent is not achieved, the adults can sue the newspaper for publishing content without consent. Many celebrities have had their children pictured over time, some have been done wit consent, while some have not. None other than Halle Berry had images of her daughter published in US and UK publications without giving consent to those paparazzi, which led her to join the anti-paparazzi debate, which was reported by The Guardian earlier this year (middle right)

• “Avoids plagiarism” – You would think this NUJ code would be always avoided by journalists. Copying someone else’s work is the direct definition of plagiarism and in news reporting, copying the work and then not crediting the original owner is also considered plagiarism too. Johann Hari, a journalist for The Independent, was caught up in a plagiarism storm when it was pointed out by Private Eye in 2003 and again by Yahoo Ireland editor Brain Whelan in 2011 that his interviews were similar to others that had been published by other journalists that had interviewed the same subject. What followed was an investigation into Hari by The Independent and then Hari’s decision to leave the media producer in 2012.

Conscience clauseThis new clause that was established a little after the Levesson Inquiry and states that journalists don’t have to produce work that their editor or other members of seniority are asking them to produce because it breaches on of the twelve NUJ codes. In addition, the NUJ website (https://www.nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code/) states that: “The NUJ believes a journalist has the right to refuse an assignment or be identified as the author of editorial that would break the letter or spirit of the NUJ code of practice” before going on to say “The NUJ will support journalists who act according to the code” which means that the NUJ will support journalists if they are punished for refusing a particular task they feel breaks the rules of the NUJ. This is one advantage of been in the National Union Of Journalists. Like I mentioned earlier, you don’t have to be in the NUJ but if you aren’t, scenarios where you feel you’ve been unfairly treated will have to be handled by yourself and not the union.

ConnotationJournalists have an important job in terms of conveying the news to the public; their words can shape our views on a certain topic, group or person, it’s important they use the right words when reporting the news. If they select the wrong words, the connotations of that word may misrepresent or lead to discrimination and hate toward that certain group. A connotation is the feeling that a word or phrase creates as well as the denotation (the literal meaning of the word).

Connation in an every day sense is that the colour red may connote anger and rage, while black may connote sadness and sorrow. While these connotation can be transferred to a media sense, there are stronger connotations in news stories than colours. After all, the overall view of a group is in the balance when a media outlet is reporting on them.

The newspaper example by The Daily Mail on the top right uses the word ‘Asylum’ in the headline, this connotes that the people who have immigrated here are here wrongly and should be sent back to their native country. Even though this whole headlines should possibly be changed, the word asylum could have been substituted for a word such as immigrants. This article may have prompted the viewer ship of The Daily Mail to have a negative view on immigrants and their impact on the British economy.

Another example I have found of a newspaper article that connotes a negative view against a particular group of people. This time, people who claim benefits are the target of this article. However, instead of using the phrase ‘people on benefits’ or ‘benefit claimers’ The Daily Express have used the word ‘scroungers’. This connotes the feeling that these people are wrongfully claiming from the government and don’t deserve these benefits, while they are doing all the rest of the general public a disservice by claiming these benefits, despite some people needing these said benefits to survive in this country, a view that the media outlet hasn't thought about when producing this article.

The thing with connotation is that people interpret words in a different way to others. For example, some may see the article on the bottom right and identify with the word ‘homo’, however, most of us would see this terms as derogatory and discriminatory towards gay people. This 2007 newspaper article by The Sunday Paper uses the word which was extensively complained about. Like the last example, this whole headline is wrong but because the particular word the media producer has used has negative ties towards it and when teamed with the word in the headline, it makes it seem like it’s a problem in society, when in actuality, this is a problem that a small minority in society has. A word such as ‘gay’ would have been less offensive to the particular group and would have avoided much, but not all, of the discriminatory nature.

If news producers are unclear on the rules when news reporting, they can read the NUJ codes or consult the NUJ themselves, through the phone line that the union have set up for journalists. If they have any queries on which words will cause least offence and not be challenged legally, journalists will consult the materials available.

Alternative readingsMost media outlets have a target audience they have established through viewership statistics, but they must also account for alternate viewers consuming their work also. While they don’t have to make their products accessible for other demographics, they have to be open minded and not discriminatory against certain groups of people. Before publishing their work, journalists have to think about the possibility of other groups reading their works and if the article is biased toward a certain group or will hatred be generated toward a certain group if they publish it. Cultural theorist Stuart Hall explored the use of alternative reading and reception theory and came up with the encoding and decoding model, which helps to explain how a consumer decodes messages and connotations within media and other walks of life.

For example, different people may have a different view on an article, compared to another person from a different group. A British male may not have the same reading as an African American male, while this is true for all different groups. It of course depends on the certain persons experiences of life and what they have one through before they resd the article in question, have they been a victim of a crime, gone through poverty or war or have they gone through mass tragedy, can they link themselves to the article and understand what a certain person or group is going through because they have been through the same ordeal, and some may not, some may not fully understand the extent and severity of certain subjects if they have not been there themselves.

Newspapers will often report on the same story from a different viewpoint each time, this is to please all groups, however, I would be much more simpler to generate a balanced argument that pleases all groups of people. As well as this, before all the versions have been generated, there is always a particular group that will be discriminated against in the article, unless they over all viewpoints in the same publication but on separate pages.

The information in the article in the top right is biased against mental patients and therefore an alternative reading can be taken from it. They state that 1,200 people are killed by mental patients each year but they don’t state a balanced argument or even an element of stating some form of sympathising element with the mental patients, instead, deciding to create this hatred towards them, which may become part of the newspaper readers ideologies. If you put the encoding and decoding model in place on this article, it doesn’t take long to decode the negative messages from the headline alone, you can tell it will be a negative story towards the mental patients, while the media producer hasn’t even taken into consideration people who have been or are going through mental illness reading this article.

As for the other article, it shows a disregard for anyone who is in the group that have been victim of this article. The Daily Express state that if you’re an asylum seeker and gay, you will automatically be given preferential treatment. This leaves no interpretation for readers in the affected groups and is generating hatred towards them. If the story showed some form of proof with official statistics and toned down the headline, while reporting in a factual manner, this news story would be following the NUJ codes and would be open to an alternative reading from certain group.