Lecture 9: Does it really matter?

When we pick up a newspaper or read news stories online, we accept that they have been written for the purpose of informing an audience. However, I had never thought much about how and why these stories end up in the news as opposed to others. In this week’s lecture for JOUR1111, we learnt about the importance of ‘News values’ or how to judge a story’s ‘Newsworthiness’. 

 Image sourced from: http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/mfl/lowres/mfln3001l.jpg

 

News Value is, by definition, “the degree of prominence a media outlet gives to a story, and the attention that is paid by an audience.” But, as aspiring journalists, how can we ensure that what we write about is interesting in the eyes of our audience? There are four values which help to find the answer:

• Impact

“news is anything that makes readers say, “Gee Whiz!” –Arthur MacEwen, US Editor

• Audience Identification

“news is anything that’s interesting, that relates to what’s happening in the world, what’s happening in areas of the culture that would be of interest to your audience.” -Kurt Loder, US Journalist

• Pragmatics

“ethics-facticity-practice/practical current affairs- everyday (24-7 news)”

• Source Influence

“Journalism loves to hate PR… whether for spinning , controlling access, approving 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 Hobsbawm, UK PR executive

These four terms were helpful for me to see what it means to engage an audience and how to implement techniques to ensure that my work is engaging. A strange term used to sum up the entire concept of News Values is “newsworthiness”. This relates to how valuable a story is for the audience and whether the story is ‘worthy’ for publication.

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After learning about the basic principles of News Values, we then learnt what kinds of stories make the front pages. For example, the phrase ‘If it bleeds, it leads’ is used to describe the way that stories such as shootings and deaths often dominate the news cycle due to their “newsworthiness.”

This concept was especially relevant for this week’s lecture as, in the week leading up; there was continual coverage about missing Brookfield mother of three, Allison Baden-Clay. The information regarding News Values was pertinent considering the news which we had been exposed to nightly about the incident.  

Apart from learning about the significance of News values, we also learnt about the potential threats and the future of News Values. Potential threats include:

• Journalism/Commercialization of media and social life
• Journalism/Public Relations
• Journalism’s ideal/Journalism’s reality

This topic was relevant to learn as we will continue to consider these concepts in our future studies and into the real world of Journalism.