What’s News and What’s Not: How Media Professionals Make Decisions

1)News editors decide what to broadcast on television and what to print in newspapers. What factors do you think influence these decisions? Do we become used to bad news? Would it be better if more good news was reported? IELTS sample essay Posted by Nova English Campus (Possible bands 9.0)

There are many co-related factors that the editors need to consider before finalizing the content of the news to present to the public – whether in print or on air.

The most important factor to consider is how relevant and latest the news is. If the editors pick up a piece of news which has already been talked about a lot, it may put a reader away. Likewise, in this cut-throat competitive media world, everyone is interested in the latest of the latest news. The next thing of consideration is the target audience. The interest in a particular news varies from person to person. To make it clearer, a teenager is more likely to be attracted by the news about the modern fashion, gizmos and sports updates; but such things may not appeals to a businessman or religious person. It’s a big challenge for editors to satisfy the readers or viewers. Apart, the news content must not trigger controversies, unrest or riots among the people. Publishing explicit articles on religion, politics or other emotive issues must be handled with a lot of care. The world has witnessed a number of social unrest and bloodsheds ignited by newspapers and other media. Therefore, the editors must make the content safe, informative and read worthy.

It is also true that each morning welcomes us with a lot of exclusive news coverage on crime, sex and violence. Interestingly, it seems that newspapers and television channels are competing hard to give as much bad news as possible to the masses.

Obviously it would be much better if people were exposed to plenty of really good, inspiring and informative news.

It is said that “no news is good news”. There are two types of news; good news & bad news.Television & newspapers are the resources of current information. All the news depends on the circumstances of the country. News editors are just playing their role. They are not a story teller who can make any news good or bad.They are just informer or presenter who keep the citizens up-to-date through those news which they collect from the real events. But occasionally some facts influence these decisions like; the strong Politicians, Political parties & government who can pressurize them to hide the reality from the citizens by hook or by crook. If there is dictatorship in the country, then obviously news editors will follow the dictator. But if there is democracy, then media will be free.

Mostly news are related to the law agencies, their do’s & don’ts, government authorities, their policies, political parties, current affairs, sports, traffic & violent citizens etc. And all these things to keep in order is the responsibility of government & judiciary who are the most important pillars of the country & who runs it.

Now question is that are we used to bad news? & is it better to be reported good news mostly? And the answer is that after receiving bad news on the trot, we become immune, then news lost its charm. people avoid to heard or read those type of news & mostly spend their time on other activities. It can also make the citizens hopeless. Similarly, it is not better to be reported good news all the time because it can give people wrong impression. It may happen that the news editors will be blamed that they are playing a foul game.

In short, excess of everything is bad. News editors should broadcast & print a mixture of good and bad news. They should be broad minded not narrow minded. They shouldn’t present bad news in a negative way. They should spread the optimism not the pessimism through television or newspapers among the citizens. News editors are just playing their role.

You need to be clear about the difference between “editor” and “reporter” because in the following sentences you blur the two together. The editors are the ones who have decided what to report and have written the story. The reporters just transfers information to the public. Both editors and reporters are journalists.

But occasionally some facts influence these decisions like; the strong Politicians, Political parties & government who can pressurize them to hide the reality from the citizens by hook or by crook. If there is dictatorship in the country, then obviously news editors will follow the dictator. But if there is democracy, then media will be free. Try to be very clear and direct with what you say here. ewThis is an important point, it is more than occasional that the media tells people what the government wants them to hear. Almost all mass media is controlled, and the USA is a democracy where this media control is very common.

Mostly news are related to the law agencies, their do’s & don’ts, government authorities, their policies, political parties, current affairs, sports, traffic & violent citizens etc. And all these things to keep in order is the responsibility of government & judiciary who are the most important pillars of the country & who runs it. You have some good reasons to support your argument, but you need to organize them better, in order to answer the question. This statement sounds like a lot of rambling. Be more specific> you are trying to write WHY and WHAT influences the editors– focus on that, its the main point of your paper.

6) We get knowledge from news, but some people think we cannot trust the journalist. What do you think? And what do you think is the important qualities that a journalist should have?

Nowadays, we are surrounded with so much information, the majority of which comes from journalists. While some people assert that journalists are unworthy to trust. I suppose their behavior can be understandable.

Everyone, undoubtedly, has his own views towards a news story as we have different educational backgrounds and upbringing environments. Journalists judge things by what they experienced. Therefore, prejudice cannot be avoided. Also, the media converge is normally controlled by the government. It is not easy for newsman to present the news to the public under certain rules created by the government. One careless mistake might lead to be cut down. Further, the most important trait of news is up-to-the-minute. Journalists have to report the news to the world within an hour, or even minutes. Thus, it is too limited for correspondents to get the whole picture of the emergencies, which result in the imperfect in the reporting.

In order to be an outstanding journalist, personally, learning to be neutral is a primary course, what I mean is that the main duty for journalists is to present the facts rather than instill the right and wrong on audiences. They should conceal their own feelings while doing their jobs. Additionally, a journalist ought to have the courage to break through the rules which prevent the public from learning the truth. The strong will to peruse truth, more vital than any other qualities, distinguish the remarkable from the average. Journalists need to rush to the primary scene immediately as soon as something happened, which may scarifies regular eating and sleeping habits temporarily.

Journalist, sacrifice a lot but receive a little, should be respected rather than be blamed. Whether we should believe the news presented by the journalist depends on our personal thinking. Prompted by the fast development of the media, people can get lost of knowledge and information from news, but whether we can fully trust the journalist has become a thorny issue. People have been attaching greater weight to this problem. In this essay, I will try to explore this controversial issue and seek out some effective factors. When it comes to news of today’s newspaper, different people have different attitudes. Personally, I think some news in some newspaper are misleading and cheating, especially the news about entertainment?Some journalists even produce or imagine a story and write it as a piece of news. The only task for they do so is just to achieve the major’s attentions. However some news from some famous media, for instance, BBC and Guangzhou Morning Post are true and responsible. This kind of news are always accompanied by data and evidences which are much more believable. They just tell the truth and what happened exactly.

Why some news is unbelievable while some are responsible and true? I believe that the qualities of a journalist contribute to this complicated phenomenon. Firstly, as a journalist, he or she should have a strong sense of responsibility. The journalist needs to tell the truth and the fact, be responsible of what he writes and talks. Furthermore, he must have skills of expressing himself by writing. He just needs to use exact words and suitable phrases to tell the public the fact, with out any imaginations. The last but not the least, he should be objective. What he needs to do just to tell what the fact is, it doesn’t need any personal ideas or emotion. It is a brazen violation of the people’s basic right to know the truth of the world that journalists are cheating in the newspaper. As we should read a novel when we want to read a story, we should read a Newspaper when we want to now the truth. It is high time that both the government and the whole media make concerted efforts to let all the news are believable. I strongly hope that we can know what we want to know and what we should know from our media.

(TODAY) is
the era of information but the question of which (SOURCE) of information is reliable still remains controversial. Some people believe that by dint of news we can accumulate our knowledge, while others claim that we cannot thoroughly trust journalists. Each idea has its own validity, my writing will discuss both of them.

First, it is
undeniable that news enables readers to gain (A) variety of information without going to somewhere. For example, while you are in Vietnam, by reading daily newspapers you still can easily know the rough competition between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in the election of the US or the (WEDDING) of Rara – a famous singer in Japan. However, who can state that journalists give us plausible information without knowing exactly their ability? Facts have shown that many investors in Singapore’s bond market made wrong decisions because of the daily statistical analysis in a well-known financial newspaper.

Second, it is
the moral issue of journalists that decide the quantity of news. The possibility is that some journalists receiving bribe money from someone, deliberately provide readers with wrong information (IN ORDER TO) mislead them. Nevertheless, we (CANNOT) deny the effort of (JOURNALISTS) who dare sacrifice even their life to .(REACH DANGEROUS DENS OF CRIMINALS SO AS TO PROVIDE US WITH AUTHENTIC

(ON) television or on the internet. Nonetheless, journalists must have some particular
.(QUALITIES NAMELY BRAVERY, WILLINGNESS TO LEARN, ATTENTION TO DETAIL IN ORDER TO GIVE READERS GENUINE AND USEFUL INFORMATION)

2) The mass media, including television, radio and newspapers, have great influence in shaping people’s ideas. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give reasons for your answer.

* You should write at least 250 words.
* You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. model answer: The mass media have a powerful influence in shaping our lives. We have come to depend on them for information and entertainment, and in doing so we let them affect important aspects of our lives.

The undeniable usefulness of the media in almost instantly providing information about events around the world is largely taken for granted. But in our dependence on the media we have allowed them to mould our notions and opinions of events, places and people. Though few of us probably think about it, our conceptions of, say, our elected officials spring from television images and newspaper stories. Most of us will never meet prime ministers or presidents, but anyone who is regularly exposed to the media will have an opinion of them. When it is time to cast our vote, we will make our decision based on how the media portray the candidates. We are similarly swayed by coverage of wars. The media, representing the values of their owners, societies and governments, tend to report wars with a bias; which is the ‘good’ side and which the ‘bad’ is determined for us by reporters, editors and commentators, and sure enough the public begins to form opinions that reflect the coverage they see, hear and read in the major media.

The media are also influential in the way they facilitate the spread of culture and lifestyle. The so-called ‘global youth culture’, in which one finds young people around the world displaying a common interest in music, clothing styles and films, is an example of the media’s enormous sway in this regard. A popular figure such as Michael Jackson would never be so well known were it not for the media’s extensive reach into every society on the globe. Nowadays some may hold the opinion that using mass media,including television,radio and newspaper obviously influence on the thoughts and behaviors of people,but others think that what people think and behave in daily life has nothing to do with mass media. As far as I am concerned,I agree that television,radio,newspaper more or less affect in shaping people’s ideas. My arguments for this point are listed as follows. The first reason is that the time people spend watching TV,reading newspapers leaves them almost no time thinking on their own.

If they using these mass media too much,it may cause mental laziness because most time they just listen to radio or stick eyes to television,newspaper and let scenes films,lines in newspapers flow in their mind without thinking by themselves. Another reason why I agree with the statement above is that many people watching films are influenced by the characters or scenes. For example, last year a film called ” Full house” was on TV in my country.This film was so famous that it raised a “fever”,everyone watched it,especially teenagers. The main character is a very beautiful and cute girl. Immediately after 2 weeks “Full house” was on TV, many teenagers seek to buy clothes like the main character’s. Adding to films, many advertisements on TV have a great influence in the decision of people.

For example, my brother bought a purifier water to remain alive last week just after watching an advertisement on TV,saying that the water we are drinking is heavily polluted. Finally,when you read newspaper or listen to radio, you are often persuaded by their analysis,argument,or persuasive voice. You will see everything in newspaper,on radio is reasoning,which may affect on the way you think,the way you say in daily life. You don’t know people who write papers,speak on radio are trained to do it. They always have the way to make listeners or readers believe them. In a word, from reasons above, we may reach the conclusion that the mass media certainly affect people’ ideas. People should not spend too much time watching Tv,reading newspaper or listening radio.