Analysis of the Guardian website.

Take note that because this is at school I'm viewing the website on Internet Explorer 6. Internet Explorer 6 is an 8 year old browser that is incapable of displaying much of the rich media content on Guardian.co.uk
Despite this liability I can see that the main stories are organised into short blurbs which lead the audience on to the full article. Below that it resorts to just listing headlines. This leads the audience quickly on to the most important content. The front page of Guardian.co.uk is similar to the front page of the physical paper, it's function is to draw the audience on to specific stories, like a channel to content.

News narratives

When the Haiti earthquake hit it was widely reported in the news. I've recently come into contact with the idea of a 'news narrative'. Some news stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. They conform to certain conventions that make them easier to report. The events are sometimes predictable. There's a hero, possibly a victim, and an evil villain.

For example: Celebrity A is seen courting Celebrity B. Celebrities A & B declare undying love for one another. They marry, Then they either have a child, or they divorce, or do both. It's easy to follow and the romantic theme holds the attention of the audience.

Little girl is lost on holiday in Portugal, parents are distraught. There's a huge emotional outcry. Then when everything seems hopeless people report sightings (due to the increased media attention). Conspiracy theorists theorize and the renewed interest sparks the curiosity of the audience. Eventually the police investigation ends, the case is archived and the inertia runs out.
Episode 2, series 2 of Newswipe explains this a bit better (video later, perhaps).

PCC editor's code of practice.

I've 'done the rounds' on my feeds for today and noticed this came up twice. It's a petition to change the PCC  editor's code of practice, here are the proposed amendments:

1. Like-for-like placement of retractions, corrections and apologies in print and online (as standard).
2. Original or redirected URLs for retractions, corrections & apologies online (as standard).
3. The current Code contains no reference to headlines, and this loophole should be closed immediately.
4. Sources to be credited unless they do not wish to be credited or require anonymity/protection.
5. A longer and more interactive consultation period for open discussion of more fundamental issues.

Incidentally I still have the PCC code of practice in my room somewhere, not quite sure where in my room but I remember that I didn't throw it away.

1 hour timed essay on whether local papers fulfill a more important social fuction than national papers.

The local press is at the grassroots and closer to the people it's reporting about. The content is much more relevant to the audience. The social value of locally relevant news is higher than that of national, generally relevant news. This is because people need to know what's happening around them. The events occurring nationally or overseas may not be as important.

The power of the press release and two-tier social media.

Our lesson on Thursday was about local and national newspapers. I made the point that local newspapers are (I'm making a huge generalisation here based upon no evidence) underfunded, and have underpaid journalists. These journalists have little time to check sources and tend towards just re-writing press releases. This bad journalism actually can work in the favour of certain groups.
For example, in December last year I was involved in a movement which sought publicity about an event, to achieve this they sent a press release to the Oxford Times and the Oxford Mail. The Oxford Times dutifully printed the main details about the event in their following edition.
On Thursday evening I went to another meeting with a different group who also proposed using this tactic. I've now recognised that press releases are a powerful tool and when combined with a lazy journalist can be used to achieve free publicity.

Lola Rennt

Last night I watched run Lola run, it's a German film, and it's significant because it blends perfectly the hermeneutic and proairetic codes (from Roland Barthes's book S/Z). The base story is a fairly simple one: a girl called Lola must deliver 100,000 marks to her boyfriend Manni before 12:00. From there it branches out before the eyes of the audience into the events which occur as Lola tries to procure this money and cross town to reach her boyfriend in time. Each of these events has their own sub-plot, sometimes they're completely unrelated to the base story, sometimes they return later in bizarre twists. Some of the pivotal characters involved in these events are hinted at in the opening 4 minutes.