Constructing the Story:
Truth, Profit,& News-Making
Exploring how media
make stories & impact the
contexts we inhabit.
Study Days 2012
How do you get your news?
Where does America get it’s news?
 18 to 29:
 65% Internet
 21% newspapers
 50 to 64
 34% Internet
 38% newspapers
CJR: The Story So Far
The Danger of the Single Story
“What difference
does it make to
the Council what
the journalists
write about?
Journalists are
the waves and the
winds. They are
not the captain,
not the crew, not
the barque.”
-Louis Veuillot
secretary to the curia
Vatican Council I, 1870
“The communications
revolution affects
perceptions even
of the church, and
has a significant
impact on the
church’s own
structures & modes
of functioning.”
- Aetatis Novae #4, 1992
The Goal
Understand the shift
Learn to be savvy
consumers
Integrate what you learn
into your preaching
mission
The Plan
1. Intro the news business
2. Tools for media analysis
3. Unraveling the threads:
A multi-analytical approach
to the CDF & the LCWR
4. Sorting the threads
– what we learned
Part One: Media Contexts
The News as Business
Knight-Ridder & Apple
2001
2001
2011
2011
value, KR $3.8 billion.
value of Apple, $3.8 billion
value Apple, $300 billion
value Knight-Ridder – gone
Digital challenges for News
Producers
25-%
of U.S. digital
advertising views
delivers.
50-%
dollars
of online advertising
controls
What’s happened to the paper?
 McClatchy Co. 2010
17.3%
I-net visitors
2.4%
digital $$$
Aggregation (Truthout, Yahoo, etc.)
“The definition of
a competitor now
is someone who
gives away your
story for free.”
– Aaron Kushner, Boston Globe
How do you get your news context?
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Who are you?
What do you know?
Who do you know?
What do you care about?
Where do you live?
What kind of government do you have?
What language/s do you speak?
What is your gender, age, level of
education?
What media delivery systems do you
have access to?
Part Two: Tools for Media Analysis
Journalistic Genre
 Reporting
 Analysis
 Op-Ed
 Public Interest
Constructing news ”texts”
for power & profit
Deconstructing Taizé
 Author
 Format
 Audience
 Content
 Purpose
Toyoto Venza: “Social Network”
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Analyze this....
Concept #1:
Authorship
All media messages are
‘constructed.’
Key Question:
Who Created it?
Concept #2:
Format
They are Constructed using
creative “language”
with its own rules.
Key Question:
What techniques are
used?
Concept #3:
Audience
Different people experience
the same message differently.
Key Question:
How do different
people understand it?
Concept #4:
Content
Media have embedded values
& points of view.
Key Question:
What values & POV are
present? Absent?
Concept #5:
Purpose
Most media messages are
organized to gain
profit or power.
Key Question:
Why was
the message sent?
Part Three: Do-it-yourself Analysis
The CDF Mandate & the Single Story
Process
 Guiding questions handout
 Text – either hard copy or
electronic
 30 minutes
A few notes
 Read aloud
 May not be able to read all
 Look at headlines,
illustrations, first lines, last
paragraphs.
 Use guide questions that are
helpful or ask your own.
 Return with one discovery to
share
Discoveries
?