News Values

There are millions of stories that happen everyday which could make the news and journalists need a method to help them decide which stories to include. Thery use a set of criteria called news values to help them select stories.

Frequency
The more similar the frequency of the event is to the frequency of the news medium, the more likely it is to be reported. For example, 'the rape outside Asda at Harrogate'

Threshold
The sizwe of an event will govern the amount of attention it is given. Obviously the bigger the better (epidemic).

Umambiguity
The simplicity of a story would also make it more attractive to the media as it will be easier for the journalist to investigate and easier for the audience to understand. E.g 'Bin Laden is bad'.

Meaningfulness
Cuturally relevant or culturally proximate events are more likely to make the news. For example, 'Fifteen landrovers robbed in a month in Harrogate'.

Consonance
Events which meet our expectations are more likely to become the news. For instance,  the Royal Wedding was expected to happen.

Unexpectedness
Events which hold a large number of surprise. E.g 'Harrogate has ther highest number of porn viewings in the country'.

Continuity
Events which have been initially defined as the news will continue to carry importance in news agenda. For example the Iraq war.

Composition
Most news organisations try to balance their news output.


Reference to Elite nations
Nations such as the U.S.A, France or Germany for example are more likely to be mentioned if there is a murder than a third world nation.


Personalisation
Events which are personal are more likely to be shown as people can relate to them, for example families suffering from the bad state of the N.H.S.


Negativity
Bad news makes good news! The rape outside ASDA is a good example of this.


Actuality
If a newspaper has pictures of an event it is much more likely to get reported, as pictures can explain an event more clearly and also grab the readers' attention.


Dead Donkey
Funny, light hearted article towards the end of the paper to end on a good note. 

News Agenda



News agenda is to do with which stories you select for your newspaper and the priority that you give to those stories. More important stories will have more text and more images to go with them. News values are the same for all organisations and whoever your target audience is but different newspapers give priority to different news values. For example a broadsheet newspaper might give priority to elite nations but a tabloid newspaper will give priority to personalisatuion. Local newspapers prioritise meaningfullness and stories that are directly related to the audience.

News Selection

All news involves the selection of information by journalists because it would be impossible to include every single detail. Also when photographs are taken, that also involbes choices by the photographer about how they wish to represent the event. Captions underneath pictures help to lead readers towards a prefferred reading of the image.

Ideology

Ideology is a set of beliefs and ideas which are held by a society or groups of people or by individuals. In our country the dominant ideology is probably white, male, middle class, middle aged, and conservative. Newspapers keep with this idea to please a mass audience. The layout is very fomal, to give a sense that the newspaper is trustworthy and reliable - a formula which has been used for almost a century. Front page is like an advert for the paper, up to date on a range of features.