JOURN 305 - Ingredients of News

Ingredients of News JOURN 305

What News Is
Relevance
Usefulness
Interest

Relevance
What is Newsworthy?
Some factors to consider:
Who is your audience?
Who is the publisher?
What type of media are you writing for?

What is Newsworthy?
Proximity
Timeliness
Human Interest/Novelty
Conflict
Eminence and Prominence
Consequence and Impact
Visuals (TV)

Proximity
How close is the event to you?
Example: Car accident in Miami vs. Pullman

Timeliness
How recently did (or will) the event happen?
Live event?
The more time that passes, the less newsworthy a story is

Human Interest/Novelty
What is the emotional impact of the story?
If it is “interesting,” then it may be newsworthy to your audience

Eminence and Prominence
How well known is the subject matter?
Example: Sex scandal with a neighbor less newsworthy than with a president or congressman
Privacy
Who has a right to privacy?
Celebrities and politicians are
“ fair game” in today’s media

Conflict
Conflict and tension is more interesting than peace
Example: Two countries at war is more newsworthy than two regions without conflict

Consequence and Impact
How does the event impact the audience?
Example: Change in WSU tuition may be of great interest to you since it impacts you directly
Example: Pullman to Moscow road closure effects our commute

Visuals (TV)
An exciting event captured on video becomes newsworthy
The same event undocumented may not even make the news

Other Factors
“ News holes”
Influence from publishers/advertisers
Instinct
Competition

The Role of the Journalist
Questions to Consider:
Do we serve the will of the audience?
What if the audience doesn’t want to hear what we have to report?
What is truth, anyway?
Who defines the standard of “truth”?
Isn’t it subjective?

Civic vs. Traditional Journalism
Civic Journalism:
In a democratic society, reporting that seeks to strengthen democracy/citizenship
Traditional Journalism:
Remain neutral at any cost

“ Agenda-Setting”
The placement of a specific issue on the public agenda
Numerous academic studies on how individuals and media decide what is important
Postulated by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in the 1970s (based on earlier studies by Walter Lippmann in 1922)
May originate in many legitimate and illegitimate ways

Agenda-Setting Theory
It predicts that if people are exposed to the same media, they will place importance on the same issues.
It has explanatory power because it explains why most people prioritize the same issues as important.
It has predictive power because it predicts that if people are exposed to the same media, they will feel the same issues are important.

Examples
The O.J. Simpson case
The Clinton scandal
During these historic events, there was media placement of full page, color articles and top stories on news programming
While the public was deeply divided on both of these issues, the media played the role of communicating to the American public that these events were important for an extended period of time.

Agenda-Setting
Can you think of any other recent examples?

Some more examples

Gatekeeping
The media serves as a gatekeeper that lets in certain stories and keeps out others
A very powerful position
Internet is weakening the traditional mass media gatekeepers

The Gold Standard
A journalist aims to be fair and accurate
We strive for “the best obtainable version of the truth”

Reality Check
Absolute “truth” may be difficult (if not impossible) to put into words
What if there are no words in the English language to explain a concept?
What if there is a deadline that prevents you from telling the whole story?
What if a source refuses to talk?
What if… What if… What if…

Limitations
One of the biggest challenges is telling a story with the inherent limitations of time and money
How do you convey the complexity when you are limited to a two-minute newscast or only 500 words?
How do you know that the piece won’t get edited incorrectly after you file it?

Accuracy and Fairness
Do the best you can to be:
Accurate
Fair

Accuracy
Spell names correctly
Quote correctly
Some debate about whether bad grammar should be corrected
Most publications/broadcasts do not let the subject review their quote before it goes public
Never misrepresent the context of the quote

Context
You can change the meaning of a quote if you use it incorrectly (or use only a portion of a longer quote)

Example
Movie Ad: Seven
(New Line Cinema, 1995)
Ad copy: "A masterpiece." -- Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly

Example
What Gleiberman really said: "The deadly sins premise...is actually rather corny; it's like something out of a Clive Barker potboiler.... The credits sequence, with its jumpy frames and near-subliminal flashes of psycho-paraphernalia, is a small masterpiece of dementia."

Objectivity
An ideal that journalists strive for
Presenting the observable factors without biases from the source, writer or reader
Is true objectivity achievable?

Hard News/Soft News
Hard News
Event that is important because it has impact for the audience
Example: World Trade Center destruction
Soft News
“ Feature” news
Enjoyable to know about, but not essential

Differences Among Media
The medium is the message
Each form of media offers different opportunities for telling a story

Differences
TV News
Visually driven
Soundbite heavy
Often superficial by design
“ Emotions” emphasized
Coverage subject to censorship of violence and sexual content to meet TV broadcast standards

Differences
Newspapers
Offers more detail than TV
More room for coverage beyond the “30 minute format” of TV News
Slowest to deliver the news

Differences
Internet News
Readers can often post “comments” or feedback on the stories for others to see
Personalization technologies can change the “front page” according to interests of readers
No “gatekeepers” to prevent access to alternative-leaning viewpoints
Infinite amount of space to publish

Know Your Audience
Who is the readership?

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JOURN 305 - Ingredients of News

by Brett Atwood on Feb 27, 2007

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