Lecture Nine

"News journalism has a broadly agreed set of values, often referred to as 'newsworthiness'..." A. Boyd


This lecture was all about the value of the news. Millions of things happen every day, yet only certain events end up on television, online, in newspapers and on the radio. Obviously at some point people in newsrooms have to ultimately make editing decisions and determine what the most important things to report are. 'News Values' are essentially degree of prominence a media outlet gives to a story, and the attention that is paid by an audience.


News values are not the same across different news services, countries or cultures. To use an example I just thought of; the current conflict in Afghanistan. Afghani media would be reporting on entirely different aspects and angles compared to another country directly involved such as the US or Australia. Even countries not directly involved in the conflict would report on events differently depending on their culture, geographic location and the public significance of events. While this example is obviously a lot more complex, even in this simple explanation, it becomes clear that news values are very subjective. This is not necessarily even a matter of conscious 'bias,' merely that some events are deemed publicly more important than others for completely legitimate reasons. 


In more general terms, there are obviously certain types of events that attract more attention. "If it bleeds, it leads," is a saying that came up in the lecture. Tragedy generally trumps most news stories. Accidents, wars, natural disasters, robberies, murder, fires and other crimes are highly valued because society deems that it is important for these events to be known. Additionally, the audience perpetuates this perceived importance by being interested in, and seeking out these types of news stories. 


Local issues are also highly valued within the media. Audiences are always interested in events that are happening around them, not only nationally, but at a macro-community level. While a report on vandals at a local library might be a serious and important issue to the specific community, the same report probably isn't going to interest a community on the other side of the country. News outlets cater for this by having local news programs in addition to national coverage.