who decides what is news?

[Dark Knight]

Looking at the recent news coverage, I cant help but wonder who decides what constitues news and what does not
Surely there must be more important issues than MP's expenses, "celebrity deaths", who takes over on a dancing programme and some barely know runner ,who may or may not have shot his girlfriend
is the news now no more than sound bites and gossip? tailored to a population with the attention span of a mouse?

What happened to proper news?

[Stephen]

Flipping the coin. What constitutes news.

[david63]

I must agree that at times there would seem to be a disproportional amount of air time/newspaper space taken up with "trivial" matters - however as to who decides what is news is basically down to the editor.

There are a couple of problems with deciding what is/is not news. Firstly it is down to our own preferences - what one considers newsworthy another may not (I have little interest in most sports so when half of the news is taken up with who some footballer has been seen with is not news to me - but may be to others). The second issue is that some time/space needs to be given to as many items as possible and this is where newspapers have an edge over TV news.

What I find more disconcerting is the way that most (all?) news is biased.

[Meg 50]

the decision is based on what sells the paper - so the higher brow the paper the more 'serious' the news... Low brow papers have more 'rubbish' news..

Bloody 'ell, beginning to sound like MM!


Also, bad news sells more papers than good news

[Onelife]

Hi DK,

The way l look at things is that if l can't remember what l watched or read the previous day then it aint news.

l think Megs post just about sums it up for me.

Regard

Keith

[Silver_Shiney]

The death of Peaches Geldof is, indeed, a tragedy ... to her family and friends. Not to the rest of us. Did it really need to take pages one, two and three of the Daily Mail yesterday to cover it - maybe the gutter press gave it even more coverage?

The South African legless runner - famous just for being legless: as DK says, may or may not have murdered his girlfriend. Tragic waste of a young girl's life but is it really international news? They had a resident BBC journalist on the news reporting on it last night. A local businessman has just been extradited to South Africa, accused of arranging the murder of his bride. Again, is this really worthy of so much international coverage. And why did the BBC not use their resident journalist to comment on it, rather than send Jon Kay out there to cover the case?

Yes, bad news sells papers, but there's enough bad news out there, or are we just becoming hardened to it? What about the continuing devastation being brought on innocent Syrians, Iraqis, Lybians who are caught up in civil wars, not to mention the conflicts in various African nations. What about the state of the international economy, with sovereign states on the verge of bankruptcy, money being printed with no assets to back it up? House prices spiralling out of control to another bubble which will surely, and shortly, bring untold misery to thousands in this country? What about the presecutions, rapes, murders of ethnic or religious groups because another group disagrees with them?

But no, a beautiful young lady has died. All's well in the world.

[brillo]

I think an Minister ripping off the expenses system is news !!!
And the fact that she has now resigned it is about time !!!

[davecttr]

The death of Peaches Geldof is, indeed, a tragedy ... to her family and friends. Not to the rest of us. Did it really need to take pages one, two and three of the Daily Mail yesterday to cover it - maybe the gutter press gave it even more coverage?

The South African legless runner - famous just for being legless: as DK says, may or may not have murdered his girlfriend. Tragic waste of a young girl's life but is it really international news? They had a resident BBC journalist on the news reporting on it last night. A local businessman has just been extradited to South Africa, accused of arranging the murder of his bride. Again, is this really worthy of so much international coverage. And why did the BBC not use their resident journalist to comment on it, rather than send Jon Kay out there to cover the case?

Yes, bad news sells papers, but there's enough bad news out there, or are we just becoming hardened to it? What about the continuing devastation being brought on innocent Syrians, Iraqis, Lybians who are caught up in bl**dy civil wars, not to mention the conflicts in various African nations. What about the state of the international economy, with sovereign states on the verge of bankruptcy, money being printed with no assets to back it up? House prices spiralling out of control to another bubble which will surely, and shortly, bring untold misery to thousands in this country? What about the presecutions, rapes, murders of ethnic or religious groups because another group disagrees with them?

But no, a beautiful young lady has died. All's well in the world.

Eh! the Daily Wail is a member of the gutter press. You need to read the Times/Torygraph/Gruniard for more in depth coverage.

You can bet they are secretly hoping it was a drug overdose, nothing better than celebrity scandal for selling papers.

[Silver_Shiney]

Eh! the Daily Wail is a member of the gutter press. You need to read the Times/Torygraph/Gruniard for more in depth coverage.

I would disagree with your assessment of the Daily Mail but agree with your assessment of the Times and Telegraph. The gutter press I class as the Sun, Star and Mirror.

[Meg 50]

.... the Times/Torygraph/Gruniard

point of order:

isn't it called The Grauniad

[davecttr]

Yep, the Guardian, a bit lefty for me.

The Wail is obviously a gutter paper, or more properly a tory propaganda sheet.

What about the Express, that is a real joke, a once mighty paper laid low. Still banging on about lady Di i see!.

[brillo]

Compared to the Express and Mail the Mirror is a High Class provider of news !!!

[Onelife]

Hi Mr Shiney,

I'm m not knocking what you are saying as l understand where you are coming from but the three instances that you have mentioned are in my opinion worthy of news coverage....Bob Geldof is a international celebrity not only for his music but also for his charity work so it is understandable that this tragic event involving his daughter is reported. The buissnessman who has just been extradited for the suspected murder of his wife should be reported, as is any other murder of a British citizen. As for Oscar Pistorious l hope this blubbering scumbag gets what he deserves (after he's had a fair trial that is) nethertheless he is an international super star therefore the reporting on this young ladies murder trial is of interest imo....even if it's only that justice can be seen to be done.

I would agree with you in that that we have become harded to some of the most barbaric tragadies that have/are taking place around the world but these events are old news and old news doesn't sell papers. Sadly we are all becoming hardened to what goes on around us because most of us feel powerless to do anything about it....those that do become tomorrows news and can leave this world with a clear conscience.

Regards

Keith

[Dark Knight]

back on track
it seems that of late the content of the news has got less and less and it is now endless days of celebrity dross, over hyped court cases and political none entities
I am fairly sure there is a whole world out there with important political, economic and ecological stories happening that are much more serious than "celebrity" deaths and some one fiddling expenses
it is shameful that we are so insular and narrow minded that this is what the broadcasters thing we want to see day after day

[Onelife]

I was on track....just taking a different approach.

[Dark Knight]

yes Keefy quite so
and you approach was wonderful and enlightening as always

[Onelife]

The truth about "news" is that it'll be of interest to some and of no interest to others. As to what is intresting to some and not others will be influenced of by their upbringing and their educational understanding/interest of the news being broadcast. The only interest of those who distribute/ braodcast the news will be that they can reach the biggest audiance possible.

[towny44]

My main gripe is with TV news, as far as papers are concerned you read only those items that interest you but with TV, or radio, you have to watch the whole bulletin or risk missing something of interest.
And rather than just reporting the news, TV then goes into endless detail and speculation as to what might have happened, and even worse when the report is about politics they introduce bias.
The BBC is the worst offender, they report items from green and left wing groups as though these are immutable facts and never identify the source as left wing, but when it comes to right wing reports they never fail to highlight the right leaning organisation it came from.
If the BBC wants to keep the license fee I would propose that all political/economic reporters should have their voting allegiance tattooed on their forehead.

[Andrea S]

The trouble with so called news is that it is reported as ' breaking news' and is someone 's interpretation of this story .

Years ago my Mum read the Daily Mirror and believed every word they wrote.
In this day and age most people see the same item on television, newspapers and mobile devises all with a different twist.
Nowadays, the only newspaper I buy is a Sunday one as I like the supplements, and occasionally the local paper to catch up on forth coming events.

[suespud]

If I'm being very honest..the majority of political, financial, foreign affairs news, goes straight over my head.
I do however sit up and listen when I hear about some sad tragedy, loss of life, or something I can relate to. Yes,the Peaches Geldof news, did make me sit up and listen.

[gfwgfw]

Evening All

I am a very, now retired, had nigh on a very happy 4 decades in the noble Newspaper industry

The main objective was to top the table by the desk editor

Most nights the "headers" were held on the galleys until the penultimate hour

My ploy in this fascinating well paid industry was to take over from all and sundry to get the edition plated and on the press to hit the streets/newsagents on the dot

Methinks the honorable press are misaligned by many sad skeptical newsprint readers of our illustrious isles

A very peaceful night to all

The Inky Giant of Cerne Abass

[Frank Manning]

BBC News is always a lot of bad news, and even on local news, anything bad they can say or prolong about the current government they revel in. The Daily Wail represent an isolationist imperial vision of the Uk which was discredited years ago, it supports UKIP not the Tories. Most of the tabloids are comics, the Times (much as I dislike Murdoch) is the best of the rest, Telegraph and Guardian are too biassed right and left respectivbely.

Sorry...pretty extreme I know, but its how I feel about them these days. I've stopped watching BBC News, I watch ITV or Sky because they are more balanced.

Bournemouth Daily Echo for ever eh Graham?

[Meg 50]

.........

And rather than just reporting the news, TV then goes into endless detail and speculation as to what might have happened......

The worst illustration of this that I have seen was the Lockerbie plane crash.

I carried on watching because loads of my Mother's family live nearby - it went on and on saying the same old trite hypotheses based on surmise for hours