News is inviolable -- news reflects the ugliness of society, acting as a mirror to portray what is happening in the community.

The news pages are to do with what is happening now, rather than what has happened in the past. Or that is perhaps how the journalist will view it.

Yet is news presented "as we would like it, or as it is''? What influences are there on the reporter and editor? What is "news''? What is the role of the media? Although written in England by four English University lecturers, the book "Culture, Society and the Media'' deals with some of these questions.

The book is substantially derived from a University Course in "Mass Communication and Society'' and is essentially a study of the way British newspapers deal with the race issue.

In the absence of a similar book in Bermuda, it is perhaps as worthwhile a study as any and still serves to highlight the difficulties faced by the media in reporting race issues.

Also in this part of "Racism in Focus'', on this page and Page 7, are the views of five people either involved in or users of the media. They are: Dr. Ewart Brown, PLP MP and co-founder of the Bermuda Times; Mr. Tom Vesey, Editor of the Bermuda Sun; Mr. Walton Brown a lecturer in Political Science and chairman of the Committee for the Independence of Bermuda; Mr. Gavin Shorto, Director of Government Information Services; and Mr. David L. White, Editor of The Royal Gazette .

A large English regional newspaper, the Yorkshire Post, which covers an area with a substantial Asian and Black population, published stories on an outbreak of smallpox in Bradford -- which has a large Pakistani population.

Its news pages reported that "there was open evidence that the public as a whole was blaming the Pakistani population (and) conversation was mainly centred on the lines of "send them home''. An editorial published later said the Pakistani population could not be blamed for the outbreak and criticised the "few hooligans'' who were violently threatening Pakistanis.

The book concludes that the paper spoke with two voices -- giving credence in its news pages to the things that were likely to raise tension, but condemning those same things in the editorials.

Coverage was defended by the Post which said in its news columns it "gives the news as it is, not as we should like it''.

Editorial columns, says the book, often veered towards `news as we would like it to be'.

Readers can be persuaded of one argument -- racial harmony over racial tension -- by giving weight to one argument in the editorials. Such weighting is regarded as out of the question on the news pages.

"News values, it would seem, are sacrosanct or somehow beyond the editor's control,'' says the book.

The Press Council, a British regulatory body, said: "It is a complete misconception of the function of the Press to imagine that it can or does control what is news.'' So the news is inviolable -- if the news pages are ugly it is because the Press acts as a mirror reflecting the ugliness of society.

"Even if this analogy is appropriate it should be remembered that a mirror does not only reflect what is ugly,'' says the book.

Of the cliche "news is news is news'', the book says that it is left to the reader to understand how the media arrives at a decision on which news is fit to print or broadcast.

That means, essentially, that the ordinary person on the streets is ill-equipped to understand why certain stories are on the front page and why some never see the light of day.

One reason may be that news stories neglect background material, leaving the story out of context or lacking depth.

"Events are likely to appear as sudden and unexplained or as having only direct and immediate causes,'' says the book.

"The underlying state of affairs which social scientists would say helps explain or gives rise to particular events tends to be absent or to be taken for granted in the news report.

"And of these dramatic and immediately-caused events, those which are readily associated with conflict, tension, threat and violence are the most likely to make the news.'' How does a journalist judge which stories will make news and which will not - what ingredients influence his or her `news values'? Part will be the reporter's `news sense' -- their nose for a story -- part will be his or her cultural background.

One reporter may look for the most sensational, one may look to an issue, another may be interested, personally, in a particular aspect of society and will therefore be influenced.

News values will dictate what is selected as a story and they will help shape how a story is presented to the reader or listener.

"Whatever ingredients a story has to recommend it, it will be more acceptable, however unexpected or dramatic it appears, if it can, at the same time be readily slotted into a framework which is reassuringly familiar to both journalist and reader,'' says the book.

"The coverage of race relations is very likely to change in tone and scale according to whichever views currently prevail about the state of race relations throughout the media as a whole or within an individual newspaper.

"For example, a race riot or disturbance could be portrayed as an isolated incident, the result of a conspiracy or as part of a growing wave of racial unrest.'' Reporting, says the book, is not just about collecting facts. "Facts do not exist on their own, but are located within wide-ranging sets of assumptions and which facts are relevant to a story depend on which sets of assumptions are held.'' One American media observer said: "The small group of men who control the media decide what forty-five million Americans will learn of the day's events in the nation and the world -- these men can create national issues overnight.'' (Also see Page 7)