LxC Task2: Is it really news if it only talks about the President?

In The Structure of Foreign News, Galtung states that “the more the event concerns elite people, the more probable it will become a news item.”[1] On the main news channel in Russia, Первыи Канал, this is most certainly true. More specifically, it is true of the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the President Medvedev. It is from personal experience growing up and my parents watching the news channel that I can attest that not a single day goes by without the channel mentioning the two heads of government. As “nikolay” points out on an online forum, “Знаете, я давно уже телевизор отказался смотреть. А то постоянно приходилось переключать с Путина на Медведева и наоборот!”[2] Translated, this means: “You know, I have stopped watching television a long time ago. I always had to switch channels from Putin to Medvedev and back again.” As shown, bloggers have been posting on forums to express their anger at the domination of the news by two people.


Galtung points out that “the actions of the elite are, at least usually and in short-term perspective, more consequential than the activities of others.”[3] Yes, the actions of the two head government officials matter. Therefore, they must make the news more often than “ordinary people.” However, how much is too much?

Furthermore, the continuity effect triggers the consistent flow of news about the two leaders. “Once an event has ‘made it’ the news channel will be more readily open for the follow-up events, at a lower threshold value.”[4] The question that begs to be asked for this scenario is: “how low can the threshold value get?” Also, when, if ever, does it become too much? These questions require further research that is beyond the scope of this blog post.


Last but not least, the government has the controlling share of the stocks in the news channel. This has to be considered when evaluating and researching the answers to the questions in the preceding paragraphs.

[1]Galtung, Johan/Ruge, Mari Holmboe. "The Structure of Foreign News." The Presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus Crises in Four Norwegian Newspapers.Volume 2 (1965), Page 69.
[2]Nikolay. ОРТ Первый канал. On-tv.ru. December 13, 2010. http://on-tv.ru/ort_pervyi_kanal/ Accessed April 4, 2011. Internet.

This is a forum that allows users to communicate with each other to discuss streaming of channels over the internet.

[3]Galtung, Johan/Ruge, Mari Holmboe. "The Structure of Foreign News." The Presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus Crises in Four Norwegian Newspapers.Volume 2 (1965), Page 83.
[4]Galtung, Johan/Ruge, Mari Holmboe. "The Structure of Foreign News." The Presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus Crises in Four Norwegian Newspapers.Volume 2 (1965), Page 82.