All the Notes That Are Appropriate to Print

I’m sure the speedy turn over of my lecture notes is legendary by now.

News Values

The concept of ‘news values’ refers to the degree of prominence the media gives to a story or event. News values also refers to the attention the public gives a story, most probably as an affect of this publicity.

Even 40 years ago people were struggling to define news values and the undefinable ‘news sense’ that journalists miraculously possess. Stuart Hall writes

“All true journalists are supposed to possess (news values)…Journalists speak of ‘the news’ as if events select themselves. Further, they speak as if which is the ‘most significant news story, and which ‘news angles are most salient are divinely inspired….”

If, as Hall suggests, news is rather ephemeral, and the knowledge of which story will be on the front page does arrive out of the blue, it makes sense that journalists have certain routines and methods, certain ‘values’ they implement and follow, to ensure they gather ‘all the news that’s fit to print’.

But I may be getting off topic here.

News journalism has a set of broadly agreed set of  values, often referred to as ‘newsworthiness’…

News Values

1. Impact

·      News is anything that makes a reader say ‘gee wiz!’

2. Audience Identification

·      news is anything that’s interesting, relates to what’s happening in the world, what’s happening in areas of the culture that would be of interest to your audience.

3. Pragmatics

·      ethics – facticity – practice/practical – current affairs – everyday (24/7 news)

4. Source Influence

·      Journalists love to hate PR… whether for spinning, controlling access, approving copy, or protecting clients at the expense of the truth.

Some Thoughts:

- Are news values that same across different news services?

- Are news values the same across different countries/cultures?

No – they vary across different news service and different cultures/countries.

“A sense of news values is the first quality of editors – they are the human sieves of the torrent of news, even more important even than an ability to write or a command of language” – Harold Evans 2000

Then I could showcase the 33 different/same news values theorists who’ve never worked in the field pontificate on, but I’d rather get to the meat of the lecture.

Suffice to say the main news values we were told about were

- Significance

- Proximity

- Conflict

- Human Interest

- Novelty

- Prominence

But apparently there are concerns about the tackiness of some of these news values or something?

 “Media mergers are rapidly creating one huge news cartel … controlling most of what you see, hear or read. These mergers further corrupt the news process… news organisations cut down on serious coverage…”

This is exactly what I imagine when I hear the phrase 'media cartel'.

Some of the reasons people think journalism is crappytacky is because of:

- Lazy, incompetent journalism

- PR influence

- Tabloidization, hyper-commercialisation

“All of which leads to an unfortunate trend… in which pressures of the news room (or according to some, laziness or inadequately trained journalists) result in everyday reuse of press releases without re-writing, checking or analysis” – McKinnon

Harsh Realties?

-Journalistic practice is infected with PR

- Raid news cycles and commercial production makes journalism thin, incomplete, untrustworthy, irresponsible.

- Media mergers create news cartels that corrupt the news process, reduce serious coverage and limit the diversity of news

The consuming masses.

And then rebellion from the cattleconsuming masses:

“The people formerly known as the audience wish to inform media people of our existence, and of a shift in power that goes with the platform shift you’ve all heard about…

You don’t own the eyeballs. You don’t own the press, which is now divided into pro and amateur zones. You don’t control production on the new platform, which isn’t one-way. There’s a new balance of power between you and us. The people formerly known as the audience are simply the public made realer, less fictional, more able, less predictably. You should welcome that, media people. But whether you do or not we want you to now we’re here.”