What is a narrative? What do all narratives have in common?
A narrative is a story (a sequence of events) that is structured to maximise engagement and has an overarching point or theme. All narratives have a message in common and differ from stories as they have meaning and wider application.
How have news stories traditionally been structured? Make sure you talk about: newsgathering, news production, news distribution, the inverted pyramid
A traditional story is structured with a beginning middle and end, in the case of a news story it traditionally has 3 stages; newsgathering, news production, and news distribution. Newsgathering is the process of finding and collecting the news for the story. News production is the process of making it a news story, so researching to add depth, through context and extra details. News distribution is sharing the story. Traditionally news would have been shared through newspapers and the news hour every day, however nowadays we have 24-hour news and social media which means news is constantly distributed. Also, now everyone can complete these 3 stages at any time, whereas before it would have been journalists collecting, producing, and distributing news. The inverted pyramid model shows what we actually use to create a story. The most newsworthy information should be more abundant in a story, things like What? When? Who? How? and When?. Other important details should also be included but less than the newsworthy information. Lastly, other general and background information should be included but is not as important as the other too when writing and structuring the story.
What is the news cycle? Describe the stages. What impacts the length of time a story spends in the news?
The news cycle is the life cycle of a news story, it's born, it lives and then it dies. A standard news cycle sees the news break and then journalists scramble for additional information to add to the story and make their own narratives. The public excitement then grows as journalists release more information and the narrative develops. The story then reaches its peak when many will talk about it, discussed by experts and also people with opinions, and it will be shared a lot, it will be on people's minds. However a story can't always be new and fresh, so people will eventually begin to forget about it, so it becomes old news. In the end, the story dies and not many will talk about it again.
Pick either 24 Hour TV News or The Internet and Social Media. Describe the impact these have had on narratives and the news cycle. Think about: speed, maintaining the cycle, where news stories first break, how audiences can shape news interactively
Social media has increased the speed at which news is broken and then distributed. Nowadays, social media is normally where news breaks, a lot of the time by members of the public who witnessed an event. Journalists then respond to this adding more information and depth to the story through research and investigating the news. Also, a lot of news now includes public interaction, whether it is in the form of a poll on social media, or a vox pop, the public is commonly asked for their opinions and this is included in news. In order for a news cycle to be maintained, and for a story to be kept alive, interaction from people on social media helps it be shared and keeps it on the minds of people. People may voice their opinions on the subject of the news or give expert advice, but any form of interaction between a news story and the public on social media means the story doesn't become old news as quickly. However, there is such a saturation of information on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok that news stories are constantly breaking, so the news cycle shrinks massively, and for some stories, the news cycle could be only a matter of minutes between it breaking and it becoming old news.
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