MECO1003 lecture By Jock Cheetham Hero or villain Morality and villains Key terms News values Morality Emotions Threats Ideological narratives News values Conley and Lamble Impact Timeliness ID: 784476
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Slide1
Heroes and villains
Morality in news valuesMECO1003 lecture By Jock Cheetham
Slide2Slide3Hero or villain?
Slide4Morality and villains
Slide5Key terms
News valuesMoralityEmotionsThreatsIdeological narratives
Slide6News values
Slide7Conley and Lamble
ImpactTimelinessProminence
Proximity
Unusualness
Conflict
Human interest
Cultural currency
Slide8Many have dissected
Brighton and Foy critique Galtung and RugeWhy bring morality, groups, ideology and evolution into news?
Slide9beyond value judgments
“Sociologically, a social problem is a phenomenon regarded as bad or undesirable by a significant number of people or a number of significant people who mobilise to remedy it.”Robert Heiner, Conflicting Interests, page 21
Slide10All good?
These are intelligent and useful theories. But why are there so many of them? There’s no one answer. So why are we here?
Slide11What’s missing?
Not enough attention paid to: ThreatsEmotionsMorality
Slide12Morality
Slide13Moral foundations theory
Jonathan Haidt et alUS social and moral psychologistBrings in ideas from evolutionary psychology
Slide14Planet of durkheimians
“Events or policies that weaken groups increase anomie – the unhealthy state in which norms are unclear or unshared – and therefore raise suicide rates.”
Slide15How this helps usConnection, order and meaning
Community, authority and sacredness
Slide16Conservatives and liberals
There is a “widespread human tendency to believe that the existing social order is morally good.”Planet of the Durkeimians
Slide17Morality definition
“Moral systems are interlocking sets of values, virtues, norms, practices, identities, institutions, technologies, and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make coordinated social life possible.”
Graham and
Haidt
, Sacred Values and Evil Adversaries
Slide18Five moral foundations
CareFairnessIngroup loyaltyAuthorityPurity/sanctity
Slide19And their opposites
Care… HarmFairness… Cheating/InjusticeIngroup loyalty… Betrayal
Authority
… Disorder/Disrespect
Purity/sanctity
… Disease/ Degradation
Slide20Care
Slide21Fairness
Slide22Loyalty
Slide23Authority
Slide24Sanctity
Slide25threats
HarmCheating/InjusticeBetrayalDisorder/DisrespectDegradation/Disease
Slide26Three related theories
Maria Elizabeth GrabeRoss GittinsJohn Whyte-Venables
Slide27Grabe
News as reality-inducing, survival-relevant
, and gender-specific
stimuli
News and evolutionary psychology
Slide28Grabe: stories, meaning
“Human existence involves a chaotic, meaningless, and fragmentary array of experiences. Stories give meaning to life and enable the members of a society to understand each other and to cope with the
unknown.”
Slide29Grabe: values, cohesion
“The defining commonality among news consumers is not the quest for cold hard facts about politics or economics, but rather the reaffirmation of common values and a sense of social cohesion derived from consuming stories about mutual
hardship.”
Slide30Grabe: journalists’ role
“Shoemaker argues that journalists serve a specialised function in human societies by surveying the environment and
warning against potential survival threats
.”
Slide31Whyte-venables
Risk and news
Slide32Venables: news values
In Understanding News, John Hartley writes: “News values are neither natural nor neutral. They form a code that sees the world in a very particular way
… [they] are in
fact
an ideological code
.”
Slide33Venables: risk alertness
“The one thing, perhaps the only thing, that interest us all – you, me and everyone – all the time, is our security, health and well-being. We are risk aware, and while we draw breath we can’t help being so.”
Slide34Threats and the body
“Whenever an event is interpreted as threatening we are likely to experience a dramatic increase in arousal as the body prepares to deal with risk, both physically and mentally.”
Slide35Venables: change
“Controversy [conflict] is a key element in news. It generates uncertainty, which implies potential change… Novelty grabs our attention. Change is a risk signal.”
Slide36Venables: news definition
News is information characterised by the degree change from the status quo, and the perceived implications of that change for the physical, social, psychological and environmental security of individuals, their families and communities.
Slide37Venables: news formula
Risk signals: News (N) is a function of change (C) and security concern (Sc)R = f (C,
Sc
)
From Brighton and Foy, citing
Making Headlines
(Whyte-
Venables
)
Slide38GittinsThreats and the negative
Slide39Gittins: fear, anxiety
“Natural selection has caused us to be people with strong negative emotions such as fear and anxiety because these alerted us to danger, thereby helping us to survive and propagate.”
Slide40GITTINS: Change
“Our brains have been hardwired to emphasise the negative” in reference to threats. Change is disturbing, potentially threatening.
Slide41Gittins on gossip
“Gossip aids the social bonding within groups… Gossip became a social interaction that helped the group gain information about other individuals without personally speaking to them.”
Slide42Gittins on good news
People are interested in good news when it is outstanding or unusual. That is, Conley and Lamble’s news values: unusualness. What emotions are elicited?
Slide43Conley and Lamble
ImpactTimelinessProminence
Proximity
Unusualness
Conflict
Human interest
Cultural currency
Slide44emotions and values
Prominence: respect, envyUnusualness: surprise, amazementConflict: fear, concern
Human
interest: care/concern
Slide45LittleThe Public Emotions
Slide46Little: public emotions
SurpriseFearGrief Sympathy/empathyAnger/hatredEnvy/jealousy
Hope
Shame/guilt
Pride
Loyalty
Slide47Little: morality
“Selling morals… is what the media does, the more so the more tabloid it is.”
Slide48Emotions and morality
CareFairnessIngroup loyaltyAuthorityPurity/sanctity
Slide49NEXT SLIDE WARNINGThe next slide is distressing with a photo of Alan Kurd, a little boy who lies dead on a beach
Slide50Alan
kurd,
syrian
boy
Slide51Slide52Which?
Slide53Another type of threat
Slide54News values accumulate
Slide55Heroes and villains
Shared emotions and practices related to sacred things bind people together into cults, churches, and communities. Sacredness does not require a God. Flags, national holidays, and other markers of collective solidarity are sacred in the same way – and serve the same group-binding function– as crosses and holy days.
Sacred Values and Evil Adversaries: A Moral Foundations Approach
Slide56Ideological narratives
“Stories about good and evil. They identify heroes and villains, they explain how the villains got the upper hand, and they lay out or justify the means by
which – if
we can just come together and fight hard
enough – we
can vanquish the villains and return the world to its balanced or proper state
.”
Sacred Values and Evil Adversaries: A Moral Foundations
Approach
Slide57Show me a hero
Slide58SUPER TREASURER
Mild-mannered suit wearer by day
Slide59Objectivity not abandoned
Slide60Hero or villains?
Slide61Show me a villain
Slide62Purity and disgust
Todd Carney: footballer
Slide63Threat to purity
Aligns with Hanson agenda
Slide64Threat: cheating
Part of an ideological narrative casting dole
bludgers
as villains who threaten the trust in society, and budgets.
Slide65THREAT: harm
Shark as villain
Slide66Slide67Which moral lapse?
Slide68Many critics perceived her stance – she instead hung her hands in fists in front of her
– as a refusal to pledge allegiance to the American flag and, thus, America.
Slide69Slide70Fairness or envy?
Slide71Everyday villains
Law breakers are a threat to social order and legitimate authority
Slide72Final thoughts
Morality is formed within groups, aiding cohesionGroups are power structures. Morality serves powerMorality explains the world to a groupMedia outlets identify/use a group’s moral language Tabloid outlets identify heroes and villains according to ideological narratives that favour the business interests of proprietors and the elites that support themA media outlet needs to know its audience in order to know what version of the world to
present them
Slide73References
Maria Elizabeth Grabe, “News as reality-inducing, survival-relevant, and gender-specific
stimuli,”
Applied Evolutionary
Psychology
,
ed
, S
. Craig Roberts
John
Whyte-
Venables
,
What is News?.
2012, Available from Amazon as e-book
Paul Brighton and Dennis Foy,
News Values
, Sage Publications
Jesse Graham and Jonathan
Haidt
, “
Sacred
Values and Evil Adversaries: A Moral Foundations
Approach”, at the conference:
Social
Psychology of Morality: Exploring the Causes of Good and Evil
"Planet of the
Durkheimians
, Where Community, Authority and Sacredness are Foundations of Morality"
. In
Social
and psychological bases of ideology and system
justification
J
.
Jost
, A.C. Kay and H.
Thorisdottir
(
eds
), New York
,
2009
Ross
Gittins
, “The
Science of
Journalism”, in
Gittins
: A
Life Among Budgets
,
Bulldust
and
Bastardry,
Allen &
Unwin
, Crows Nest. Pp. 241-263
. (2015)