The Social Production of News

This study consists of two main parts: f i r s t , a review and assessment of the literature of the mass media; and secondly, the presentation and analysis of the results of three months' fieldwork i n a local television news and public affairs department. Development of research proceeded i n a dialectical fashion. The i n i t i a l literature reviewed was oriented to the completion of the f i e l d work, while questions raised i n the fieldwork necessitated more thorough study of the hist o r i c a l , p o l i t i c a l and economic basis of news production. Examination of literature i n the sociology of communications was, for the most part, found to be lacking, because i t s orientation was to discovering the responses of an atomized audience to the media, rather then to the way program decisions are made, and the basis for those decisions. A brief review is made of the literature on content analysis of the media, and power structure research, both of which are viewed as static analyses which cannot explain the dynamics of media operations. Two major and interrelated functions of the media are developed as key explanations of the role of the media, i t s economic and ideological functions. Both are understood to be an integral part of the larger capita l i s t economic system. The function of news has two parts. F i r s t , the local station is a commercial organization which makes i t s decisions on the basis of p r o f i t a b i l i t y . The station's source of revenue i s selling audiences to