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| by huffting post.com |
News often means “a broadcast or published report of news” (Oxford online dictionary) comprised of “information about recent events or happenings, especially as reported by newspapers, periodicals, radio, or television” (The Free Dictionary online). And the common notion of the news is that it is unbiased, objective and factual. However, as “language can never be completely neutral”, neither can the news. News is produced by journalists, within certain ideological contexts, therefore can never be completely unbiased. This comes through in the language, discourse and structure journalists use in news stories, despite news conventions that aim to make news reporting objective or as objective as possible. However, these ideologies are not necessarily consciously conceived, as they are more often than not embedded in the journalists' “unconscious consciousness”. As can be seen in the three media reports (discussed below) on the civil unrest in Libya by three different news networks and presented from different angles, there are many perspectives and presentational contexts– each of which relies on specific ideologies, and in some, mythologies.
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| by muppet wiki |
News Report 1: Christians reach Libya, as civil unrest continues
News report Christians reach Libya, as civil unrest continues by Mission Network News (MNN) online is a straight forward example of this, where the journalist's ideological orientation– especially in the context of religion– is made transparent and comes through strongly in the report. But first, to understand the journalist's ideological orientation, a brief look into the ideological context of Christianity is necessary. In Christianity, it is believed that people are God's servants, and “God loves all men and wishes they all could be saved”. And the imperial aspect of Christianity is “God’s free gift of eternal salvation can only be received by accepting His Son Jesus Christ” as the saviour, and through faith in Jesus Christ can they secure their salvation.
News report Christians reach Libya, as civil unrest continues by Mission Network News (MNN) online is a straight forward example of this, where the journalist's ideological orientation– especially in the context of religion– is made transparent and comes through strongly in the report. But first, to understand the journalist's ideological orientation, a brief look into the ideological context of Christianity is necessary. In Christianity, it is believed that people are God's servants, and “God loves all men and wishes they all could be saved”. And the imperial aspect of Christianity is “God’s free gift of eternal salvation can only be received by accepting His Son Jesus Christ” as the saviour, and through faith in Jesus Christ can they secure their salvation.
The mentioned ideologies of Christianity have shaped the news frame, language and discourse seen in the news report. The angle and news values chosen for the presentation of the event, focus on the humanitarian work done by the group of Christian missionaries rather than the political aspect of the civil unrest. Even the discourses used in the report are mainly religious and humanitarian, instead of political. The ideology of spreading the word of Jesus Christ is reinforced in the news report through the use of religious and humanitarian discourses. However, the use of religious/those discourses in the news report is at the risk of excluding readers who do not know the historical context of Christianity.
Besides through the discourses, Christian ideologies are also reinforced through the choice of language and quotes used in the report. For instance, the talk of the “opportunity” for Christians “to work in this challenging area of the world” to help alleviate the nation's “suffering” “as a testimony of the love of Christ”, exemplifies the Christian ideologies mentioned above where salvation is achieved upon accepting Jesus Christ as the saviour, and to secure that salvation is by keeping the Christianity faith. In another instance, the journalist emphasises the ideology of “Love thy neighbour” by quoting Vanderzalm, “Regardless of faith differences that we may have, we want you to know that we care for you”. This can be traced back to a Christian mythology taken from the Bible– the story of the Good Samaritan– where to “love your neighbor as yourself” is one of the pre-requisites to achieve eternal salvation. And neighbour is extended to everyone, regardless of “race or ethnic differences”, as also supported by Vanderzalm. As illustrated, the religious presentational context of this news report and the perspective on the Libyan civil unrest hint at the journalist's ideological orientation as a Christian.
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| by sky news |
News Report 2: Libya, Jordan and Yemen Hit By Renewed Unrest
In the next news report Libya, Jordan and Yemen Hit By Renewed Unrest by Sky News online, the ideological features are less obvious. Unlike the news report presented above, this report adheres closely to the news conventions making it seems to be an objective reporting of the Libyan civil unrest. However, when dissected, there are evidences of ideological influence in the frame, language and discourses. The journalist's ideological orientation influences the ethical and political context of the news report.
Political and moral ideologies are also reflected in the discourses used in the report. The journalist uses words such as “anti-government demonstration” and “protests” instead of riot, uprising or rebellion, to describe the event. The definition of protests is “an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent, often in opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid” (Dictionary.com). Unlike the negative connotations that surround the words riot, uprising or rebellion, the word protests has a purposeful, fierce yet subduable connotation, suggesting that their protests is merely to demonstrate their objection, not to create havoc. This hints at the journalist's ideological orientation in the context of politics– democracy and down with dictatorship.
In the next news report Libya, Jordan and Yemen Hit By Renewed Unrest by Sky News online, the ideological features are less obvious. Unlike the news report presented above, this report adheres closely to the news conventions making it seems to be an objective reporting of the Libyan civil unrest. However, when dissected, there are evidences of ideological influence in the frame, language and discourses. The journalist's ideological orientation influences the ethical and political context of the news report.
Political and moral ideologies are also reflected in the discourses used in the report. The journalist uses words such as “anti-government demonstration” and “protests” instead of riot, uprising or rebellion, to describe the event. The definition of protests is “an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent, often in opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid” (Dictionary.com). Unlike the negative connotations that surround the words riot, uprising or rebellion, the word protests has a purposeful, fierce yet subduable connotation, suggesting that their protests is merely to demonstrate their objection, not to create havoc. This hints at the journalist's ideological orientation in the context of politics– democracy and down with dictatorship.
The ideological influence can also be seen in the angle and the news values. The news report talks about how the civil unrest came about, but seems to highlight the civilian fatality rate by the hands of Libyan security forces. Most of the quotes used in the report are to emphasise the number of fatalities. The most influential quote in the report would be by the US President Obama where he “condemned the violence and urged the countries' governments to show restraint”. The moral ideology also comes through in the choice of videos and photos used in the report. One of the videos is of Libyan security forces shooting live rounds at the protesters. And another video of the protests in Libya, Yemen and Jordan, showing unarmed and cheering protesters. The pictures used in the report also say a thousand words. A picture of the protests used in the report shows no violence– the protesters look rather calm. And the caption reads, “Anti-government protesters attend prayers in Taz, Yemen.” The journalist uses the picture and caption to suggest that the protesters are religious and non-violent, as they can put their issues and dismay aside to respond to their call to prayer. The journalist uses the news value of human interest to provoke strong emotions from the readers, also interpellating the readers as the humanitarians who would want to see the fall of the Libyan dictator, Colonel Gaddafi, for authorising unethical shootings of Libyans who were merely standing up for their cause.
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| by bbc news |
News Report 3: Libya protests: Oil prices rise as unrest continues
The ideological features in the third news report Libya protests: Oil prices rise as unrest continues by BBC Business News is the hardest to detect compared to the other two news reports. Statistics makes up most of the content, and as statistics are regarded as pure facts, it seems that the news report are unlikely ideologically constructed and therefore unbiased. However, frame, language and discourse imply otherwise.
The ideological features in the third news report Libya protests: Oil prices rise as unrest continues by BBC Business News is the hardest to detect compared to the other two news reports. Statistics makes up most of the content, and as statistics are regarded as pure facts, it seems that the news report are unlikely ideologically constructed and therefore unbiased. However, frame, language and discourse imply otherwise.
Like the other news reports, the angle used to present the story is a sign of ideological influence. Every time there is war or conflict in the Middle Eastern countries, speculations on the rise in oil prices have always become a newsworthy story. And this news report is no different. The angle used conforms to the ideology of oil business where a conflict in Middle East equals to the rise in oil price. This ideology of oil business also filters through to the syntagm of the news report. Even though, statistics are factual, the syntagm of the statistics and the quotes hints at ideological influence. For instance, the statistics illustrating risen oil prices are placed immediately after quotes that support them. Quotes such as “We expect that the violent outbreaks of civil unrest seen in Libya's...”, “The market is reacting to violence in Middle East” and “The market is very nervous over news of violence in Libya, and that's driving prices”, are used to support the statistics, while representing the negative aspect and outcome of the Libyan civil unrest. The statistics might not be ideologically constructed but the quotes were said and used by people with ideologies.
The language used by the journalist also defines his/her ideological orientation, in terms of business context– business is a specialised field, and hence the use of jargon and “business speak” is required. The use of economy, finance and business discourses exclude readers who do not speak the jargon. Again, this leads back to the ideology of business where it is not for everyone, and is exclusive to people of a certain calibre.
Though all three news reports present the Libyan civil unrest in a negative light, their perspectives and presentational contexts differ from each other. As illustrated above, this variation is due to the journalists' ideologies in the context of civil unrest, politics, economy, religion, humanitarian aid– just to name a few. In the news reports, it might not be mentioned or written the journalists' religion, or whether they're left wing or right wing, but the news reports are the blue print of the journalists' ideologies. Each journalist's ideologies, both consciously thought out and embedded, have influenced the language, discourse and structure they have used in presenting this event to the world. Therefore, media reports are not completely unbiased.
