1. Postman and Powers consider all new shows “re-creations” by modifying the truth to the viewers. As people watch, they are open to half truths of what is actually going on. Viewers are given a taste of the truth at hand, receiving only “re-presentations” of actual events of what is seen and heard of it. These re-presentations are viewed through image and language.
2. The ways language of pictures differ from spoken and written language are through which pictures in written language gives a chronological side to what is seen in comparison to spoken language, where it can provide a more definite meaning.
According to Postman and Powers, these differences are important for understanding television news because it not only gives factual information but brings out emotions and thoughts on what is happening.
3. The scenes of violence and dynamic destruction appeal to viewers by the change moving pictures make. Moving pictures show events in suspense, attracting audiences who want to be entertained or for those who connect with the story.
Television producers avoid “talking heads” because they are aware many people like pictures that move and not just a person who is in front of the camera and speaks. Without the footage of events occurring, there is nothing to show.
Visual changes must “be more extreme and more dramatic…on television” due to its visual field being much smaller to a movie screen. Unlike a theatre, viewers are confined in their homes and in order to makes things more appealing, changes must be much more dramatized.
4. Television news is considered a form of theater by heavily stressing on daily events. Like theatre, they create symbolism by building up stories through music and people (workers typing new incoming information or answering phones) taking part in each segment, displaying dramatization throughout the program.
News telecasts are staged with an anchor, who is in control of greeting, introductions of the newscast, and providing information and locations of the reports to the viewers. With the help of the newscast, they create a control for the anchor and instill the program to run smoothly.
One dominant theme of television news is providing an order to the world of “news” in which events have no real course. This theme is orchestrated through the newscast by organizing what needs to be heard or displayed to the audience.
5. The features of television news that tend to undermine journalists’ efforts to give context, depth, or sense to the world are due to time limitations, favoritism towards moving and instilled images, and its news appeal to capture the audience throughout the whole show. Stories held in television news are viewed in an order to keep and create more audience. They broadcast a cycle of events in an order in which all viewers see the same thing.
The advantages newspaper readers have over television viewers are that they provide readers straight to what they want to know and read about instead of staying around a whole program just for one report. Like television news, a newspaper contains summaries of latest news, but with a newspaper, more in-depth coverage can be obtained by heading over through a specific section the newspaper.
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