News values. We finally get into the nitty gritty of what
constitutes a news story. As I sat down to write this, my first thought was of
the opening of The West Wing season 1 episode 7. While I can’t find a (legal) video to upload
of the opening sequence, I have found a transcript:
C.J.So, let me see if I have this.
[looks at Josh] A hurricane's picked up speed and power and is heading for Georgia.
[looks at Sam] Management and labor are coming here to work out a settlement to avoid a crippling strike that will begin at midnight tonight.
[looks at Toby] And the government's planning a siege on 18 to 40 of its citizens, all the while we host a state dinner for the President of Indonesia.
[Sondra the journalist walks in and tries to get C.J.'s attention]
C.J.Amazingly, you know what I'll get asked most often today?
JOSHWhat?
C.J.Sondra?
SONDRAI'm sorry, C.J....
C.J.[Describing the first lady’s shoes] Black suede and velvet. Manolo Blahnik slides with a rhinestone and mother of pearltoe buckle.
The West Wing is a show about the inside workings of the White
House. C.J. is the White House Press Secretary and despite all the other highly
relevant stories of the day (the hurricane, potential workforce strike and
hostage situation) the press wants to know about the First Lady’s outfit to the
state dinner – typical!
So, let’s get back to the lecture content. A. Boyd says that "News
journalism has a broadly agreed set of values, often referred to as 'newsworthiness'...”
News values can be broken down into four sections:
1. Impact
- the gee-whiz effect from the audience
- the gee-whiz effect from the audience
2.
Audience Identification
- working out what’s of interest to the audience, be it global, cultural, social, etc
- working out what’s of interest to the audience, be it global, cultural, social, etc
3.
Pragmatics
- What is in the news and its creation, the ethics, facticity, practice/practical, current affairs, everyday (24/7 news)
- What is in the news and its creation, the ethics, facticity, practice/practical, current affairs, everyday (24/7 news)
4.
Source Influence
- Where does the information come from, especially in relation to the love-hate relationship that the PR-spin-doctors and journalism have
- Where does the information come from, especially in relation to the love-hate relationship that the PR-spin-doctors and journalism have
Of course we’re not all the same when it comes to news values,
that’s why they differ from countries/cultures and even between different news
services in the same area. For any news station, the news it produces takes the
inverted pyramid form. Not only are the individual stories ordered from most to
least important information, so too are the news stories presented in an order
which news outlets believe to be the most relevant and engaging with the
audience.
Traditionally news had the slogan “if it bleeds it leads” promoting
stories about death, war, violence and accidents. However, with the vast
emergence of local news stations, it’s turned somewhat more to “if it’s local
it leads” with recent stories such as the floods and elections. Personally, when
watching the news, I see the traditional slogan in use more often… probably
because the producers have more fun using the rhyme to create the news!
So how do news stories take the order that they do? How do
particular institutions shape their own news values? Obviously it’s all about
ratings (at least for commercial media). As such, it comes down to what their audience
wants to see, and how they get more people to use their media.
Numerous academics/journalists have constructed and updated what
they believe to be the criteria for news values. Galtung and Ruge outlined 12criteria in 1965:
Negativity
Closeness to home (Proximity)
Recency
Currency
Continuity
Uniqueness
Simplicity
Personality
Expectedness (Predictability)
Elite Nations or People
Exclusivity
Size
Further to this, Galtung and Ruge created three hypotheses:
The additivity hypothesis that the more factors an event satisfies, the higher the probability that it becomes news.
The additivity hypothesis that the more factors an event satisfies, the higher the probability that it becomes news.
The
complementarity hypothesis that the factors will tend to
exclude each other.
The
exclusion hypothesis that events that satisfy none or
very few factors will usually not become news.
News values over the years have been transformed, moved around and
edited. Judy McGregor in 2002 reduced it to four news values
Visualness – Appeal to TV/Online audience
Conflict – a tried & true news value… if it bleeds it leads!
Emotion – tied up with human interest
Celebrification of the journalist
It’s interesting to note that the latest set of values is from
2002. With the increase of internet news, it should be easier to track the news
stories that have prevalence with audiences. For example, you only have to look
on the home page of numerous sites to see the highest viewed trending articles.
Though, I suppose, when viewing articles on pages such as Ninemsn the highest
trending articles are rarely ever the hard hitting news and only the sensationalized
or celebrity gossip stories. On that, it’s interesting to note that online
sites, even when going on to look at the Seven and Nine news websites, the
local news stories rarely ever go to the top of the news, and it’s the
national/international/celebrity stories which continually make it to the top.
As for everything we have idealized notions, and journalism is no
different. These include:
·
A first obligation to the truth
·
A first loyalty to citizens
·
An essential discipline of verification
·
Independence from faction
·
Monitoring power and giving voice
to the voiceless
·
Provision of a forum for public criticism
and compromise
·
Striving to make the significant interesting
and relevant
·
Keeping the news comprehensive and
proportional
·
Freedom to exercise personal
·
Conscience
What are the threats to newsworthiness? Three different aspects
have been identified:
·
Journalism / Commercialization of
media and social life
·
Journalism / Public Relations
·
Journalism’s ideals /Journalism’s
reality
The harsh realities in relation to newsworthiness are that journalists
have become lazy and incompetent, with information being untrustworthy, stories
incomplete, misleading or just irresponsible. PR has also had a great effect on
journalism, with churnalism taking over news stories, and PR tactics,
propaganda, media falsehoods and distortion all effecting the news the
audiences are exposed to. Hyper-commercialization also has allowed news cartels
to form, controlling what news stories make it to the public eye.
We’ve also seen a shift in the audience. We as individuals are no
longer just take in media, we can make our own stories – for example, a blog!
As Jay Rosen says
The people formerly known as the audience are simply the public made realer, less fictional, more able, less predictable. You should welcome that, media people. But whether you do or not we want you to know we’re here.
From Gultung and Ruge in 1965 to Judy McGregor in 2002, we see
changes in media news value and general newsworthiness. We longer take a back
seat, but create our own, and in view of threats to journalism it’s probably
not a day too late. News is changing from day to day. We have different stories
everyday, so it’s safe to say, each day brings new news values.
“News is what a chap who doesn't care much about anything wants to read. And it's only news until he's read it. After that it's dead.”Arthur Eveyln Waugh
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