Tuesday, May 8, 2007

W 032 F

Newspapers are used for informing the population about how the society works and what goes on all over the world. The way that they carry out their task reflects a certain period of a country. This makes it possible for one to examine how life was under a former political system. Because the author of this essay has considered that a great change of disposition has occurred in her state since her birthday and she has always lived in Kaposvár this paper will discuss the presentation of three news values in Somogyi Néplap's September 11, 1975 edition. It will highlight – after the description of the days before – how the newspaper reported events that were characterized by unambiguity, negativity and eliteness. It will use the framework of Allen Bell's classification (Bell 1991 quoted in Horváth 1995).

The home news of the chosen issue suggested that on 10th September, 1975 the superiors of Hungary worked hard at different meetings. At the Parliament the autumn conference term was prepared. Agricultural exhibition was visited by Kádár János. The Hungarian Trades Union Council published a statement to express its sympathy with the Chilean population's battle against fascism. In the House of the Hungarian Academy the IV. International Finno-Ugric Congress was opened. The Club of the International Agricultural Journalists was in session from 8th to 14th September. On Wednesday its members were present at the state farms in Agárd and Balatonboglár. The Cuban delegation, whose aim had been to get familiar with the Hungarian secondary schools left the country. The 62th conference of IPU was dismissed, as well.

In the field of culture a significant event was held the prospect. The Week of the contemporary fine arts was to be organized, from 20th to 28th September all over the country.

The most shocking local news was the one which described the death of a baby who was suffocated by her own mother. Other articles emphasized the progress of agriculture in Somogy.
On 10th September, 1975 stormy occurrences happened in Portugal. In front of the military command in Evora several hundreds of landowners turned up to claim back their lands which had been confiscated because of the agrarian reform. The Trades Union of Agricultural Workers started to demonstrate against the squires' demand. There was resort to violence which was stopped by the police.

In Lisszabon and Porto the journalists protested against the law which said that no news, documents and opinions about military were allowed to be published unless special permission.
In different areas of the world other negative events occurred. Lebanon was reported to have to solve the problem of the armed clash between the Muslim and the Christians that had begun 10 days before.

CIA was accused of owning biological guns that were prohibited in Tripoli.

Within the few days before the writer was born two conference were held. At one of them Ford, the president of the USA, vetoed the bill that claimed the price of the American oil to be controlled for another six months. In France Jacques Chirac, the president promised that companies would be supported by the state.

Two positive pieces of news arrived from Phom Penh and from the Soviet Union. Returning from exile of Prince Szihanuk was celebrated on 9th September, 1975. In West-Siberia the 134th oil field was discovered.

The examined issue of Somogyi Néplap carried 46 articles on its 8 pages. On the front page there were 7 home- 1 foreign- and 1 local news stories, but no leading article. The rest of the newspaper contained 7 sport news stories, a weather forecast, two letters to the editor, nine jokes and a full page of advertisements. The ratio of foreign and home news was 10:9 and it was 19:12 between them and regional news. 11 photos was used to illustrate the articles.
Unambiguity is most likely to be the news value which can be required at any manifestation of journalism as readers must get a clear picture about what they are reported on. News stories must be provided with their circumstances: their time, place and participants. Unknown abbreviations and titles must be explained, otherwise they are only meaningless.

Sometimes an article must contain many facts. It is not advantageous for journalists to solve this problem with one attributive structure before a noun; data have to be cut from one another, often a new sentence is needed.

In the framework of Allan Bell's work if's, but's and maybe's are advised to be avoid because they express uncertainty. The 'facts' should be clear, the sources impeccable.

Through searching the local paper of Kaposvár I managed to find some mistakes which had been made on the field of unambiguity. I could read about some considerable occurrences but I could not find out when they happened: the statement of the Hungarian Trades Union Council, meeting in the Capital of the Soviet Union, Conference in France and the one of IPU.

Other news stories did not informed me about the place of an agricultural exhibition and of the installation of a new drawing computer.

Dán Tibor wrote a report under the title of 'A kombájn meg én' on page 5. He made a conversation with Cincsi Albert, the winner of the weat harvest competition in Somogy county. However, he ignored important facts about the event itself, such as when and where it happened how many workers took part in it, what the exact exercise was and how it was assessed.
In the article of 'Minden katedra gazdára talált' on page 3 the focus and clearness were weak. It began with establishing that all the jobs for singing-teachers had been filled in the school of music in Fonyód. Then a few words about the lackness of singing teachers in the country was written. Afterwards the author continued with the new instructors in Fonyód. The next good news was that the school had been given new buildings. Then the story turned back to the fortune of having enough teachers. It was finished with the plan of getting room for concerts in a trade school. The facts got distorted because of the usage of expression such as "elég kevés...úgy tûnik...hamarosan".

When I read a foreign news story I felt that it was cut into pieces. It informed about four different events without linking them: demonstration in Lisszabon, laws against journalism, Melo Antune's claims from the government, Sousa E Castro's opinion about the opposition (N.A.'Tüntetés és ellentüntetés').

The accuracy in journalism is obvious. Journalists must be aware of the fact that newspapers are sources for the population of a society and also documents for historians. In assessing history correctness and clearness are essential. The writer of Somogyi Néplap was superficial in this field on that day.

It is because people are afraid of the effects that may influence their lives painfully and they want to know about these events as quickly as possible. They are, damage, injury and death. Conflict between people, political parties or nations is a staple of news.

The issue of Somogy country regional newspaper published 4 negative events. Of these, no one was home news, 11 was a local story and 3 arrived from abroad.

Probably the local one was the most shocking. It was about the death of a baby, caused by the child's own mother. However, we must consider that it happened 3 months earlier than she issue came. Other frightening story was the incidents in Lisszabon. There were 3 more articles which involved negative elements. The story about the Hungarian Trades Union Council wrote about the Chilean population's bottle against fascism. There had been clash between the Muslims and the Christians in Lebanon and the government had to face the problem. A local news reported on the had circumstances of having a shower in the clothes factory.

It must be considered that 10 positive articles were arrived. Most of them were about the progress of the regional agriculture.

When one gets through the paper' he or she does not feel pressed. It might be because the most dreadful events happened either earlier or far away. Besides, the articles of the country and Somogy suggest that people can work fluently.

It is a human feature to accept authorities. People tend to follow the ones' opinions who have proved their special abilities. They pay more attention to a famous individual than to a common one. That is why "reference to elite persons such as politicians or film stars can make news out of something which would be ignored about ordinary people."

This can be noticed in Somogyi Néplap, as well. Meetings and programmes are always reported together with the most well-known persons present there. The fact that Kádár János visited the agricultural exhibition raised its importance in people's mind. When H.B. informed population about the week of the contemporary fine arts, he (or she) also let them know that Mészáros Mihály, sculptor, the secretary of the alliance of the Hungarian Fine Arts was between the organisms. (H.B. 'Gazdag program').

Any regional newspaper is expected to publish information about special fields which characterize that certain territory. That is why Somogyi Néplap carried 9 articles on agricultural and factory life. Three of them introduced common workers, and non of them dealt with any elit person. Two mechanical engineers, Bodosi Tamás and Nagy Kálmánné spoke about the difficulties of adapting to the Spinnery of Kaposvár. Király László and Orsós István, two agricultural workers, were asked about their jobs. Cincsi Albert described why he was able to win the farming competition. (Gombos, J. 'A diplomásnak is tanulnia kell', M.F.'30 vagonos pótszerzõdés, Dán, T. 'A kombájn meg én').

It is clear that this newspaper refers to famous individuals in connection with ceremonies to show the consequence of the events.

However, it also focuses on average people. By writing about their lives journalists make them feel important members of the society.

Reading through the issue of Somogyi Néplap published on 11th September, 1975 one may realise that unambiguity is the news values which was carried out perfectly. Most of the problems were related to accuracy and focus.

On that certain Thursday events went ahead normally. In Hungarian politics mostly preparing efforts were made for further actions. The agriculture of Somogy county was successful. In the world there was no threatening occurrence for our country.

The journalists were enthusiastic about the progress of husbandry. They showed it this my writing about forming in details and reporting about satisfied people.

The author of this essay most consider that journalism has changed since she was born.

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