W 048 F

1. Introduction

1.2 The project and the newspaper

This essay will present the way of showing events, not only in Hungary but also the world affairs, that somehow related to our country. It will focus on three news values in Népszabadság’s February 14, 1976 edition through giving prominence to how the newspaper reported events by recency, superlativeness and negativity.

Népszabadság had been the central gazette of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party from 1956 until 1989. Today it does not belong to any particular party, but it still has a very wide circulation all over the country. It contains 12 pages with clearly organised articles in it. The front page includes the cover story usually illustrated by a photograph, other important world news. In the further pages articles are divided into sections according to their aim and topic. Népszabadság is available for everyone at the news agencies everyday.

2. The day

2.1 Events in the country

All sorts of events took place in Hungary on the day I was born. A magnificent ceremony went on in Leninváros, because a gas-pipe that was built for the use of Hungarian natural-gas transport, was finished. Losonczi Pal, the President of People's Republic Presidential Council and Lazár György, the President of the Council of Ministers met the Greek Foreign Minister to discuss different topics, such as cultural programmes and exchanges in between the two countries. Another commemoration was organised in Budapest on the 30th anniversary of adult education, when the development of political leaders, economists, members of administrative authority, technicians and cultural leaders-who had risen from working class- was examined. Kecskemét was the chosen place for the Committee of Patriotic People's Front to exchange views on what Hungarians should have known about their native country at that time. The Archbishop of Esztergom swore to be loyal to God, while Havasi Ferenc, the First Deputy of President of the Council Of Ministers arrived in Budapest from Moscow. He had consultations with the Soviet First Deputies of Council of Ministers; Ignatyij Novikov, Vlagyimir Novikov, Zija Nurijev and Nyikolaj Tyihonov , about Hungarian-Soviet economic relationship.

2.2 Events in the world

World affairs were just as interesting-in some cases shocking- as the internal happenings. The MPLA occupied the most important railway lines in Angola. Spanish workers were still on strike, including 150 thousand workmen, in belief of reaching their target to get higher wages and to have a successful fight against unemployment. The Portuguese and Spanish Foreign Ministers agreed to establish a closer cultural and commercial link between their countries. An ineffective attempted coup occurred in Nigeria against General Murita Mohammed, the President of Republic By the leadership of lieutenant-colonel Dimka. It was not the only assault in February 13, 1976, because Teng-Hsziao-ping, the Deputy Minister was attacked as well. The 31st anniversary of the liberation of Budapest was organised by Rapai Gyula, Hungarian ambassador at the Hungarian Embassy in Moscow. At last there is an article on the signs of capitalist crisis in Rome. It is not an event but an interesting topic in which the Socialist government was interested. By showing the crisis, they could suggest that how perfect and progressive the communist ideas were, while the capitalist way of thinking and living was dying.

3. News reporting in the issue

3.1 News in the issue

Népszabadság carried a total of 27 news stories, 2 consultations, 28 short news on Hungarian events and 10 on foreign affairs, 6 literary works and one small sized advert on the 8 pages of the issue. Of these 6 were front-pages stories, 19 inside front cover foreign news stories. A Craftsmen's co-operative advert was published on page 8. The ratio of foreign and home news stories was 1:2. There were only two articles that included photographs; the first one is the cover story about the gas-pipe and the other one is not an article but a photograph on its own with a few comments added to it on page 5. It is about metal accessories. the news elements included reports on ceremonies, meetings, consultations in the world news and in the home news are in Brief ('Külföldi események néhány sorban' and 'Hírek') section.

3.2 News values

3.2.1 Recency

3.2.1.1 Definition

Recency is the news value that refers to events happened not long before the edition's appearance. These events make both journalists and readers interested. Not many people want to know about incidents that happened ages ago, because it does not really related to their lives. In daily papers recency is the most often occurred news value, because journals have to present the freshest news, experiences, affairs. The most important effective stories are usually on the front page but readers can find articles on recently showed up matters on the further pages as well.

3.2.1.2 Identification

In the February 14, 1976 issue of Népszabadság, the main story on the cover page was one of the recent events at the time. It was a 7 paragraphs report on the ceremony of the gas-pipe built for natural-gas transport from the Sovietunion to Hungary. According to details it was only the second half of the pipe, which is about 113 kms long and it goes through Leninváros-Zsámbok-Budapest. This article included a photograph as well.(N.A. 1976:1)

3.2.2 Unambiguity

3.2.2.1 Definition

Unambiguity is the news value that characterise every articles in daily papers, because it is more important to show facts instead of giving invented theories on accidents, meetings or political and economic changes. In magazines, that wants big profit and wide circulation, it is possible to write gossips without any real ground. But in daily news papers People are interested in internal and world affairs, they want facts and not fiction. They should show the audience the real side of life, otherwise noone would ever be able to know about other nations, countries and their problems or difficulties. It is important to know about things happening around us, even if they do not affect our lives we cannot ignore them.

3.2.2.2 Identification

In February 14, 1976 edition with the exception of one news on the assassination against the President of Nigeria, there were not any unclear or indefinite news. According to MTI, there were several theories of Murita Mohammed's state and noone knew for certain what had happened to him.(MTI 1976:2) All the other articles were about meetings, debates, researches and literary works. There was a special report on the progressive changes in the growth of Hungarian population. It was based on facts, that were found out through national census in obedience to investigation. Looking back to the 1960s and the very beginning of the 1970s there was a radical development up to 1976.(MTI 1976:4)

3.2.3 Negativity

3.2.3.1 Definition

The third and at the same time the last news value, I would like to present, is negativity. It is the news value that gets reported the most instantly and widely.

Journalists, reporters, publishers and editors do know what the readers are interested in. They also aware of what the audience need and like to be enlightened by, so for the paper it would give popularity and more profit. To achieve the amount of profit they want, journalists and reporters would do anything. They are trained to look for all sorts of exciting, shocking and entertaining events that somehow has an influence on the readers emotions. Usually these negative news are on the front page, printed in capitals to draw attention. To give emphasis to the issue, they would put a photograph next to the articles.

3.2.3.2 Identification

There were two negative stories on the front page but they did not include any photographs. The first one was about Spanish workers rioting to get higher wages and decrease unemployment.(TASZSZ 1976:1)The other was about the MPLA occupying the main and most important railway line of Angola. This article also contained the Foreign Minister's declaration. It was a 9 paragraphs piece of writing and it continued on page 2. On that page the readers could find a comment from the Russian national paper, Pravda in which they tried to present their theory on the reaction of the USA to the events. Because of the disagreement in between the two countries, they both tried to prove their right. While Afghanistan and the Yemen Arabic Republic accepted the legal government of the People's Republic in Angola, the European countries-France, West-Germany-were not convinced whether they should agree to the government in Angola or not.(MTI 1976:1-2)

3.3 Style of reporting

Except the literary works all the articles were "dry", objective and accurate. Therefore, in some cases the articles are not interesting or entertaining but gave us only information on events and matters in a one-sided way. During the Communist Regime, it was a common feature of news papers to show only one side of the stories. Especially the one that was proving or at least presenting their socialist ideas. Because of the censorship, journalists were allowed to write about affairs that in some way gave proof to the communist ideas. In the articles on world matters, reporters took sides and only demonstrate the events that showed how decreasing capitalism was or to show what a progressive political and economic system Hungary had. The style was conformed to the purpose of the paper. Journalists, at the time managed to write in an incortrovertible style because they could show evidence to what they had written about. Sometimes they invented bits in the news so the events were changed, just to make them more effective.

4 Opinion and conclusion

There are all sorts of newspapers with different style and intentions. Népszabadság is one of those daily papers that does not want to entertain people, but give them information on what is actually happening in Hungary and reports on events going around the world. I am not really interested in reading daily papers because I had to realise in England, that reporters usually write about negative stories and they in some cases make money out of others' suffering. Unfortunately this kind of reports are the most favourable ones among peoples. Maybe they like to be shocked by airplane crashes, explosions, earthquakes, sinking ships and other not so pleasant events. Giving information about problems, difficulties, world matters and internal ones as well, is not the only aim of the papers. They also want to earn money with these information and because of this they are sometimes forget about being ethical and they hurt people's feeling, especially when they write about aeroplane crash victims and about their family's emotion and hurt. It did occur to me that these negative news does not only affect our lives but our way of thinking. Some of my friends and their parents believe that in Hungary it is not safe to be alone in the street, not even in our own flat because of the criminals watching us and waiting for the right moment to hurt us in some way. People become paranoid if they get too many negative news, because they are the news that we will all remember for a longer period.Unfortunately, media is looking for attention and money. To achieve this, they do not select the way of getting attention.