"VOICE or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy - all you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism .".
Although Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarschall, quoted this in the 1940's he could easily have been making a reference for today's TV news since TV news has a limited power in telling people want to think. Reality is not in any sense 'given', it is constructed. TV news does not reflect reality, it constructs reality. TV news constructs reality in many ways. The structure of the news bulletin itself is used to create the News's reality. The newsworthiness of a story allows the news also to construct reality. Camera angles and strong language paints the news's pictures in the mind of the viewer. By using these persuasive techniques such as these, journalists will structure reality, rather than record it. By the end of this speech, ladies and gentleman, you will be certain that TV does not represent reality, it constructs it.
A news bulletin is constructed to present the most shocking events first, aiming at a male audience. Therefore, news stories are structured to provide a point of narrative closure that relates to a masculine fictional story. In the news bulletin I analyzed on August 19th on Channel Nine, the bulletin started with male dominated stories of hostage attempts, car accidents and murders. It then went onto stories of more interest to women namely, the Hanson case, Warne's affair, civil uproars and finally a public interest story of the white whale that was struck by a boat. Thus, it can be concluded that news tends to be constructed for the male audience more than the female audience.
Those involved in broadcast news must understand several factors that constitute news value, or newsworthiness. This essentially means that an editor will decide whether a story would interest their audience.
