News values

News values

There are millions of stories that happen every day which could make the news and journalist need a method to make sure which stories to include. They use a set of criteria called news values to help them select the news.

·         Frequency – the more similar the frequency of the event is to the frequency of the news medium, the more likely it is to be recorded

·         Threshold/amplitude/numbers – the size of an event will govern the amount of attention is given. Obviously the bigger the better

·         Unambiguity – a simple stroy is good for the journalist to investigate And it is also easier for the audience to understand

·         Meaningfulness – Culturally relevant or culturally proximate events are more likely to make the news. The audince is more interested in event that are closer to home

·         Consonance – Events meet our expectations arre more likely to become news

·         Unexpectedness/surprise – events which hold a large element of surprise are more likely to hit the headlines.

·         Continuity – events which have already been defined ad news will continue to carry importance in the news agenda

·         Compositon – editors make sure there is a balance of home and foreign news, they will put in lighter news to make it less depressing

·         Reference to elite nations – other major western nations are more likely to make news

·         Reference to elite nations – events which contain references to stars, politicians and royalty etc are all likely to become news

·         Personalization – events which are personalised are more likely to be reported  than those which have no specific individual concerned

·         Negativity – bad news makes good news?

·         Actuality – news which has a sound bite, clip or radio station is more likely to be reported

News agenda

The news agenda is to do with which stories you select for your newspaper and the priority you give to those stories. More important stories will have more text and images to go with them. News values are the same for all news organizations and whoever your target audience is but different newspapers give priority to different news values. A broadsheet newspaper might give priority to elite nations, but a tabloid newspaper will give interest in personalization. Local newspapers will prioritise things with meaningfulness.

News selection

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

Ideology

Ideology is a set of beliefs or ideas which is 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. Your local newspaper is more likely to support this ideology so they don’t upset their wide audience. The layout of the newspaper is very formal, gives the feeling that the newspaper is trustworthy and reliable. The front page is like an advert for a paper, shows that it is up to date and has an array of features.

Audience

Going to be targeting a local but very broad audience, broad means that the age range of 10 – 100, people from different social/ economical groups will be reading it, people with different religious beliefs, politics, family circumstances, retired etc. Primary media is when we pay very close attention to a media text, secondary media is when you skim through a paper and see if something catches your eye. Tertiary media is when media is present but were not consciously aware of it. One person can buy a newspaper but it is not only read by one person, it could be read by several other people. Local newspapers tend to be kept for the whole week and not thrown out, people will check for such things as events etc.