Matakuliah : O0394 – Teknik Reportase dan News Caster
Tahun
: 2010
The Content
Pertemuan 21 - 22
Learning Objectives
This section (1) will discuss news from its psychological
aspect. The discussion will focus on 2 (two) components:
(1) The Content-Based Approaches to News Media, and
(2) The Information Processing Approaches to News
Reception.
The material will discuss how news are put together to set
the mind of people. It is actually known that news can be
arranged in line with certain situation or even demand.
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Content-Based Approaches to News
Media
Which one is the most preferred way of receiving
news?
 It was predicted that the arrival of new media
technologies will invariably be accompanied by fears
that traditional new sources will become redundant;
 But newspapers have remained popular perhaps
because they perform functions different than those of
television and online news;
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Content-Based Approaches to News
Media
 When first aired, the BBC radio was severely restricted
by newspaper owners for fear of losing sales, until the
BBC became the state corporation (Scannell & Cardiff,
1991);
 There are 3 (three) reasons of fearing the lost of sales:
First, the more varied program that can be aired in
almost as simple and clear way: even the news bulletin
can be aired in less than 15 minutes;
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Content-Based Approaches to News
Media
 Second, another reason is that the new media offered a
more varied news subjects from “human interests” to
serious crimes;

Third, with the improved technology, the new media can
now provide news 24 hours a day, with the most well-
known Cable News Network (CNN) – a US channel that
achieved worldwide fame with its breaking news on Gulf
War in early 1990s;
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Content-Based Approaches to News
Media
 On contrary, the newspapers are also favored for its
general interest in political issues and current affairs and
being a better predictor than television;
 It is also stated (Gunter, 1997) that television is less
effective in conveying semantic messages than is the
newsprint:
First, it takes just a slight of time for television to present
more than the essential facts while the newspaper may
devote several pages for a story/ news;
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Content-Based Approaches to News
Media
Second, news programming is chronological and it may cause
the loss of attention for a less interest news subject, or it may
cause the switch off the television for other activity.
With newspaper, we can move to another interesting headline
Third, the television does not allow us to refresh our memory
on certain interesting subject, while the newsprint allows us to
re-read the earlier parts and update our memory.
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Content-Based Approaches to News
Media
Then how can the news and the reader be put
together?
 First, the approach that concerns with the content
itself;
 Second, the approach that examines the impact
of news on the viewer or the reader.
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Content-Based Approaches to News
Media
The approach that concerns with the content itself. What is
That?
The Content-Based Approach is the way the news is put
together by journalists and broadcaster to obtain the expected
effects. Meaning, the news is set to form a certain situation.
It is the opposite of “magic window” theory that argues
that television news is simply a reflection of what’s really
happening in the world.
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Content-Based Approaches to News
Media
 Agenda Setting is the popular content-based approach
where it views news as the reflection of the interests in
media owners;
 Agenda Setting is mostly used in purpose by
politicians during their elections day - that they
cunningly disguise the news or advertisement as their
vehicle to win the election;
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Content-Based Approaches to News
Media
 Other components that use Agenda Setting to set their
goals are celebrities, public relations or advertising
firms upon the launching of commercial products;
 The most explicit form of Agenda Setting concerns
with the censorship of news where the all sensitive
information is hidden on the interest of the news
sources.
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Content-Based Approaches to News
Media
 Another explicit issues of Agenda Setting concerns
with large sums of money that is used to secure the
“exclusives’ or to compensate for running the
scandalous gossip;
 In politics, there is a term called ‘money politics’ – an
amount of fund provided by a certain people or group
for the purpose of running their political programs.
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Information Processing Approaches to
News Reception
How to measure our ability to interpret or understand
news?
 The knowledge of news reception (how readers and
viewers actually understand and interpret news) has two
theoretical approaches: the short-term cognitive
approach, and the cultivation approach;
 The short-term cognitive approach is where memory for
news material is measured in laboratory-type settings; 14
Information Processing Approaches to
News Reception
 The cultivation approach is where we look at people’s
general media use and their understanding of news content;
 As Gunter (1987) stated that our memory for news is not
particularly good due to distracting visual footage that does
not always tally perfectly with the verbal material;
Means that people may switch their attention from a
message because there is a more/ less interesting picture
that follows the message.
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Information Processing Approaches to
News Reception

With that fact, a news producer would usually delay showing
pictures until the details of the story have been read out;

Or if the images shown are negative, it will be better if the
images are shown upfront because the emotive pictures are
considered heighten the viewers’ attention;

As Schlesinger (1978) pointed out, news producers organize
bulletins in clusters of stories based on thematic similarity (for
example: sports, fashion, technology, food, etc).
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Information Processing Approaches to
News Reception
 The Schelinger’s theory of putting news items in
similar theme is very much different with Mundorf and
Zillmann (1991) that pointed out the existence of the
powerful effect of memorable or spectacular single
items that distract viewers or listeners from
remembering neighboring items that are rather less
spectacular.
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Closing
By learning this material, it is expected that the students can
also see news from its other interesting aspect, the
psychological aspect.
By understanding the other side of news, hopefully the
students may be able to view news differently, apart from
the meaning of news itself.
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