News Values.

"News values are one of the most opaque structures of meaning in modern society... Journalists speak of "the news" as if events select themselves... Yet of the millions of events which occur daily in the world, only a tiny proportion ever become visible as "potential news stories": and of this proportion, only a small fraction are actually produced as the day's news" - Stuart Hall 1973-

News have so much value. The value is found in what we deem important to be told to an audience. 

In the ninth lecture, it was looked at news values and variations of newsworthiness according to many leading journalists.

The four main points of News Values included:

1. Impact - things that makes a reader/audience say 'GEE WIZZ"!

2. Audience identification - events happening in area of the culture that would be of interest.

3. Pragmatics - ethics

4. Source influence - "Journalism loves to hate PR... whether for spinning, controlling access, appraising copy, or protecting clients at the expense of the truth. Yet journalism has never needed public relations more, and PR has never done a better job for the media." - Julia Hobsbawn, UK PR Executive-

These four values are crucial in news journalism. I love impact in news stories. Even though the below clip is from 2008, I feel it really is very impacting. It brings nervousness to the audience and therefore is highly interesting.

According to TV Veteran John Sergeant, 'Journalists reply on instinct rather than logic when it comes to the defining of a sense of news values." (2001).
I felt this became incredibly evident when looking at Galtung and Ruge's '12+ Factors' of newsworthiness from 1965. They had ultimately analysed international news to discover common factors and news agenda's, in order to understand why certain stories lead a TV or radio bulletin. They were as follows:
1. Negativity - bad news (death, tragedy)
2. Closeness to home (proximity) - stories that are close to audience geographically.
3. Recency - breaking news!
4. Currency - stories that have been in public eye for some time are deemed valuable.
5. Continuity - events with a continuing impact (war)
6. Uniqueness - covering a unique or unusual event.
7. Simplicity - easy to explain stories.
8. Personality - Human Interest stories
9. Expectedness (Predictability) - the story matches the expectations of a news organisation and its audience.
10. Elite nations or people - covering important, powerful nations and people.
11. Exclusivity - you want to be the only news organisation covering a story!
12. SIZE - the bigger impact a story has, the more people it affects. (Size does matter in journalism!)

Galtung and Ruge were on the money. All these elements are so important when it comes to News Values and Worthiness. While listening to this lecture, I could easily automatically think of a news story I had recently seen that fitted the criteria of at least one of these values.
Further, Galtung and Ruge brought about three hypotheses (1965) in regard to newsworthiness.
1. Additivity - the more factors an event satisfies, the higher the probability is will become news.
2. Complementarity - the factors will tend to exclude each other.
3. Exclusion - the events that satisfy none or very few of the factors will usually not become news.

It was mentioned in our lecture of the Royal Wedding being a prime example of the additivity hypothesis. It included an elite nation, currency, elements of personality and size.

Following in the footsteps of Galtung and Ruge, came Golding and Elliot's News Values (1979).
-drama
-visual attractiveness
-entertainment
-importance
-size
-proximity
-negativity
-brevity
-recency
-elites
-personalities

Then came Lanson, Gerald and Mitchell Stephens 1994 variation.
-impact
-weight
-controversy
-emotion
-the unusual
-prominence
-proximity
-timeliness
-currency
-usefulness
-educational value

Then O'Neill and Harcup in 2001
-The Power Elite
-Celebrity
-Entertainment
-Surprise
-Bad News
-Good News
-Magnitude
-Relevance
-Follow-up
-Newspaper Agenda

All these values linked so closely to each other that it became very clear of the expectations and values in news journalism.
I feel my favourite outline of news values were by Murray Masterson (1995) which he called the "Big 6" News Values.
1. Significance - IMPACT! (I LOVE IMPACT)
2. Proximity - location plus emotional, historical, cultural and social significance.
3. Conflict - war, government, celebrities, sport, neighbourhood fights (classic ACA coverage, just what I love).
4. Human interest - nothing better than getting involved in other people's success
5. Novelty - a bit of something unusual
6. Prominence - high profile people.
The all relate so well to exactly what I love in my news. These "Big 6" emulate my approach to news broadcasting.

Another element covered in this lecture was the possible threats to newsworthiness. Ultimately they were the effect of the lazy, incompetent journalist who is untrustworthy and misleading, the hyper-commericialisation of the media where what is read and seen is very controlling, and finally, the influence of Public Relations in what is told to the public.

I found this lecture very educational in regard to what is actually expected in delivering news. I guess in a way it is all very obvious, however the application of appropriate news values is crucial in delivering a perfected news story. I hope to be able to capture this ability in the near future. Hopefully I don't have any of this happen below..

30.04.2012