News Media and the Hiilsborough tragedy

 The Hillsborough rulings have once again brought traditional media and the newspaper industry into the spotlight and it is worth looking at this issue as an example of how traditional media could set the news agenda and establish lies as truth.  It has taken 26 years years to establish the truth and newspapers owned by Murdoch were complicit in covering up the true facts of the disaster.

Its is harder to conceal lies as truth in the age of social media and online media undermines attempts to conceal or misguide audiences, by misrepresenting the news.

Here is the original front page which caused such an outcry.

Sales of The Sun newspaper in Liverpool are still low as this representation caused such offence.  It took a long time for any apology to be issued.

It was very noticeable this week that the Murdoch press chose not to report the big story that was splashed over all other front pages.

They chose to go with...

By the time their omission had become obvious it was too late to change the print run.  They had to offer some explanation instead.



This shows that traditional media still set the news agenda but cannot control it, particularly any backlash as audiences now have the right and the means to reply and interact in web 2.0. and the age of 'we media'.


Galtung and Ruge established a system of news values to explain how traditional media set its news agenda.  Gain an understanding of this system.


Online media has changed how the news agenda is set and it is no longer totally dictated by 'Big' Media.