News Values Flashcards
Negativity (Bad News)
Involving death, tragedy, bankruptcy, violence, damage, natural disasters, political upheaval and extreme weather conditions- is always rated above ‘positive’ stories (royal weddings, celebrations etc.)
Right-Wing
Proximity (About the UK)
Audiences supposedly relate more to stories that are closer to them geographically, or involve people from their country, or those that are reported that way (e.g. 12 Brits aboard Australia plane crash). News gatekeepers must consider how meaningful a story will be to their particular audience
Right-Wing as value of patriotism and more involved in the UK than other countries
Recency (Breaking News)
Newspapers are very competitive about breaking news- about revealing stories as they happen. 24 hour news channels such as CNN and BBC World also rate this value very highly. However, as we have seen with the events of September 11, stories may take a while to develop, and become coherent, so recency is not always the best value to rate
Applies to all newspapers
Currency (Continuing Stories)
This is almost the opposite to recency, in that stories that have been in the public eye for some time already are deemed valuable. Therefore a story- for instance about the abduction and murder of a child- may run for weeks and weeks, even if nothing really new happens
Left- Wing newspapers have a tendency for this because more sophisticated audience meaning they pay more attention and remember the rest of the story
Continuity (Events that have a lasting impact)
Events that are likely to have a continuing impact (a war, a two weeks ago sports tournament) have a high value when the story breaks, as they will develop into an ongoing narrative which will get audiences to ‘tune in tomorrow’
Applies to all newspapers
Uniqueness (Not seen before)
‘Dog bites man’ is not a story. ‘Man bites dog’ is. Any story which covers a unique or unusual event (two- headed elephant born in Birmingham) has news value
Applies to all newspapers
Simplicity (Easy to understand)
Obvious, but true. Stories which are easy to explain and are preferred over stories which are not (anything to do with the Palestinian conflicts)
Left-Wing newspapers more commonly do this because their readers are not as sophisticated
Personality (Story about a particular person)
Stories that center around a particular person because they can be presented from a ‘human interest’ angle, are beloved of news broadcasters, particularly if they involve a well-known person. Some say this news value has become distorted, and that news organisations over- rate personality stories, particularly those involving celebrities
Right-Wing newspapers particularly broadcast this as it is simpler stories and those who are lower- class are more interested in this
Predictability (Unexpectedness)
Does the event match the expectations of a news organisation and its audience? Or, as what was expected to happen (violence at a demonstration, horrific civilian casualties in a terrorist attack) actually happened? If a news story conforms to the preconceived ideas of those covering it, then it has unexpectedness as an important news value
Applies to all newspapers
Elite Nations Or People (Powerful governments or people)
Any story which covers an important, powerful nation (or organisation) has greater news values than a story that covers a less important nation. The same goes for people. Barack and Michelle Obama are newsworthy whatever they do
Applies to all newspapers
Exclusivity
Also a major factor when setting the news agenda. If a news programme is the first and only news organisation breaking a story, then they will rate that very highly
Applies to all newspapers
Size (Bigger stories affecting more people)
Size does matter when it comes to news stories. The bigger impact a story has, the more people it affects, the more money/ resources it involves, the higher its value. This is also known as threshold
Left-Wing predominant because have a bigger interest in bigger and more affecting stories
