A "Neo-Marxist" view is reflected by The Glasgow University Media Group, they argue that journalists and broadcasters claim that certain items have news value, assuming that their audiences see and understand the world in the same way that they are portraying it. This particular view is very much criticised by Pluralists. Their theory is that a variety of media being provided to the public, instead of dictated, helping them to guarantee a wide coverage of all viewpoints that they can choose to take on board or not. Pluralists criticise the BBC, saying that they are unbiased to both main political parties, unfair stories would not occur.
Primary Definition in the media is a way in which media professionals influence selection and presentation in the news. Stuart Hall is the main person responsible for this theory. Journalists work alongside the upper class to present the ideology of primary definition into news stories. A criticism of Primary Definition comes from the Pluralist group, they observe it as implying that authoritative people, the ruling class and bourgeoisie, are all aiming for the same thing, to be the strongest influence of selection and presentation of news, and they feel that this is not the case. The Glasgow University Media Group's analysis of Primary Definition is that there is an obstruction for some to get access to particular information in the news and that it is passed through people, so that the final view is of experts and professionals.
Gate keeping in the media sees how editors choose particular sorties to enter public media. This theory of gate keeping was created by David White. He sees gate keeping as an 'informal process of censorship'. Editors are the core "gate keepers." deciding what information will be transported to the public via their media. Gate Keeping is a selective process of news stories that are felt to be eligible to appear in newspapers.
News values in the media show how news items are required to pass a selective process to determine what will enter public media. The theory of news values was created by Galtung and Ruge; they see that news stories have to meet a certain criteria in order to produce a successful newspaper or news bulletin. They also believe that it is imperative to have a balance of different qualities of news, to keep it interesting, yet informative a newspaper needs a mixture of subjects and news items, with the same balance between national and international stories to maintain a fair and interesting output. They developed a News Values table contains key points that they feel are
Sociology Vikki Basten
significant for a balance of news items, negativity, importance, elite nations, where western countries are seen as more important and personalities where in politics they feel that the person is more important that the policy, are some of the points of the News Values table. This suggestion of News Values is agreed with by The Glasgow University Media Group, they particularly agree with the idea that in politics the person is significantly more important than their policy. They feel that the media does not go into complex depths to explain fully everything to the public.
After considering all of the criticisms and opinions I think that it is editors and journalists that tend to be in control of the selection and presentation of news. They determination what will and will not be featured in a particular news article or news paper. The idea of Gate Keeping, where editors influence the content of the news by controlling the gate of information, shows us the control that they have. They can shut the gate by not exposing certain news and open it to disclose what they want us to know. To a certain extent editors are agenda setting, determining what people will talk about and where support or popular attitude will be.
