News elements: breaking, explanatory, deep backgroundA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWAs well as providing popular film and TV
entertainment, News Corp’s services are most
closely identifi ed with sport – in the UK, premier
league football and test cricket in particular;
areas seen by some commentators (and rivals)
as veering dangerously towards News Corp
monopoly (see murdoch effect). News
Corp makes large donations to the Republican
Governors’ Association and the US Chamber of
Commerce.
As well as BSkyB in the UK (see british sky
broadcasting, bskyb), News Corp either owns
or has a substantial stake in Sky Deutschland,
Sky Italia, Star TV of India and Greater China
and Tata Sky, India. Th e main subsidiary of News
Corp in Britain is News International, respon-
sible for The Times, Sunday Times, Sun and
(until it was dramatically shut down as a result of
sensational revelations of phone-hacking – see
journalism: phone-hacking) the News of the
World.
The foundations of the News Corp empire
were badly shaken in July 2011 by the NoW
scandal. Th e chief executive of News Interna-
tional, Rebekah Brooks resigned and she, Rupert
Murdoch and his son James were summoned to
appear before a UK House of Commons select
committee while the government launched a
public inquiry to be chaired by Lord Justice
Leveson. News Corp’s ambition to secure full
control of BSkyB was put on hold.
News elements: breaking, explanatory, deep
background In an article ‘Public broadcasting:
imperfect but essential’ posted on the openDe-
mocracy website (www.openDemocracy.net), 26
June 2001, Jean Seaton identifi es three central
elements of news provision: (1) Breaking news,
what she describes as ‘attention-grabbing top
stories that are often visually dramatic ... that
attract audiences by virtue of their drama’; (2)
Explanatory or ‘understanding’ news – longer-
format news programmes such as the UK’s
Channel 4 early evening news, ‘which provides
some context to understand headlines and
breaking news’; and (3) Deep background news
formats ‘that track issues to the root’.
In Seaton’s view, examples of element (3)
‘are rare – that’s part of the problem’, for she
sees, in the light of new technologies, of digital
convergence and remorseless pressures of
competition, the threat of cost-cutting and the
undermining of deep background, investigatory
journalism. She considers that ‘mainstream
broadcast news is wilting under the pressure
of the market and is losing intelligence, style,
authority and audience’, and argues that ‘in ain a comprehensible way’ and the success in this
relates to the way news stories are structured
and the way they tackle the complexity of events.
See framing: news.
News: audience for news Th e Pew Research
Center of the US in a phone survey conducted
between April and May 1998 identified six
groups of news consumers in America. The
results, stated the Center’s research report,
indicated ‘how diff erently the generations are
responding to the information explosion’. Th e
news-consuming groups identifi ed were (1) the
Mainstream news audience, deemed to have
‘middle-of-the-road’ preferences; newspaper
readers who also regularly tune into local and
networked TV news shows; (2) the Basically
broadcast audience, relying primarily for its
news on TV; (3) the Very occasional audience
which ‘only follows the news when something
major is happening’; (4) the Constant audience
‘that watches, reads and listens to just about
everything – seemingly indiscriminately’; (5)
the Serious news audience, equally committed
but more selective; and (6) the Tabloid audience
which ‘rejects broadcast news and favours the
National Enquirer, tabloid TV and the tell-all
talk show ...’
‘Ironically,’ the Pew report states, ‘the daily
newspaper, the oldest format, is the only news
source used regularly by a majority of all groups.’
See topic guide under audiences: consump-
tion & reception of media.
News consensus See consistency.
News Corp One of the world’s largest and most
diverse media corporations, News Corporation
was created by Australia-born Rupert Murdoch
in 1979. Its portfolio includes newspapers, book
publishing, film production, TV and satellite
broadcasting, cable networking, integrated
marketing and information services.
In the US, News Corp controls 20th Century
Fox and Fox News, Fox Interactive Media, Th e
Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the
online game store Direct2Drive, the recruiting
agency Milkround and much more.
News Corp owns many national, metropolitan
and regional newspapers in Australia (not to
mention the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier
and the Fiji Times). Th e organization’s expan-
sionary trajectory extends into cooperative
ventures with other media conglomerates, such
as Disney and NBC Universal: for example in
2009 Fox’s Interactive Media TV’s immensely
popular American Idol was translated into Th e
American Idol Experience at Disney’s Hollywood
Studios theme park in Florida (see synergy).