Lecture 9: News Values

So what makes a story a story, and what makes a story news?

There is firstly and obviously, impact. Hearing about severe,world-changing events, such as 9-11 or the death of Michael Jackson, creates a huge impact everywhere.
Secondly, there is identifying with the audience. No-one in Australia cares whether or not Uzbekistan's newest politician will become mayor, so no-one will bother to buy that story. No corporate business cares whether or not Katy Perry and Russell Brand will recover from their shock divorce, just as no teenage girl cares whether the stock interest will rise or fall for Apple.
There is also pragmatics: dealing with ethics, the facticity of information, for everyday, 24/7 news.
Lastly, there is source influence. This was best summed up by Julia Hobsbawm, a public relations executive:


‘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.’

The lecture noted two main focuses on news values:
If it bleeds, it leads!
And if it's local, it leads!
Definitely true. an example of both was Daniel Morcombe, a sad story that happened to the local population.

When running a newspaper, the Editor's job has to have a defining quality, one which some determine to be the most important: A good sense of news values. News happens everywhere, and journalists frequently have to rely on their instincts in choosing the relevance of a story. If the editor doesn't know what to choose, they might as well be blindfolded. Relevance is extremely important. They must be the funnel that directs the correct news to their newspaper.

But, as we know, some stories are absolutely irrelevant to absolutely anything. Soap opera, movie, or reality TV stars get loads of attention from papers, despite doing nothing at all. The commercialisation of them gets money for the papers, which I find similar to eating sugar: it may taste great the first few times, but it will destroy you from the inside.

Finally, it appears there is large debating over the term of the word newsworthy. What makes a story? What does the audience think is newsworthy today? What will they think is newsworthy tomorrow? The future of journalism depends on those questions.

-Charlie Morris