Constructing the Story: Truth, Profit,& News-Making Study Days 2012 Exploring how media make stories & impact the contexts we inhabit.

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 value, KR $3.8 billion value of Apple, $3.8 billion 2011 value Apple, $300 billion 2011 value Knight-Ridder – gone

Digital challenges for News Producers 25-% of U.S. digital advertising views delivers. 50-% of online advertising dollars controls

What’s happened to the paper?  McClatchy Co % 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? WWho are you? WWhat do you know? WWho do you know? WWhat do you care about? WWhere do you live? WWhat kind of government do you have? WWhat language/s do you speak? WWhat is your gender, age, level of education? W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”  Analyze this.... 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 ?