Defining News - Slideshare

COM 13500 Introduction to Journalism
Unit #2 – Defining News, Careers, Laws, and Ethics
Defining News

Today’s Concepts
Newsworthiness
News Values
Knowing Your Medium

Guess What?
In newsrooms across the country, some of the youngest people in the operation are writing stories and making decisions.
It isn’t uncommon for associate producers and assignments desk personnel to start right out of college, even in some of the largest markets in the country!

What Makes Something Newsworthy?
Newsworthinessis a highly subjective matter, but people in the news business must decide every day which stories are the most deserving of coverage.
This is based on:
which stories the audience is most likely to listen to
which stories will attract the viewers
Is undeniably part of the equation and because of that news businesses strive to present what’s been called infotainment---information presented in an entertaining way.

The “GateKeeping” Process
News Values
Proximity
Timeliness
Impact
Prominence
Conflict
Human Interest

Proximity
Where an event occurs is important.
In earlier days if a story happened far from the station, it was simply impossible to get to the scene and cover it and get back to do all of the necessary things to be able to air it that evening.
Now, that has changed dramatically with the introduction of electronic news-gathering and satellite news-gathering technology.

Timeliness
WHEN
Some news observers contend that timeliness is even more important on today’s local news scene than it was in earlier days, because of technology.
Timeliness also has a lot to do with recent stories that are similar. For example, another car manufacturer having problems is “timely”, because of the Toyota investigation. Or, flu stories during flu season—H1N1 items.
Local stories can be covered live and with very little time needed.
How does the Internet change the news gathering process?

Impact
One of the things news managers consider when deciding which stories to cover is which ones will impact the greatest number of listeners or viewers.
Who cares about this? Why?
Who is your audience?

Prominence
One of the things that makes stories about celebrities of interest is their prominence.
A person’s standing in society or recognize-ability plays a role in making stories about that person newsworthy.
Is this person in the public eye?

Conflict
One side against the other
Disagreement makes for good copy and even better for video.
Good broadcast writers know how to highlight conflict without embellishing it.

“Human Interest”/Unusual Stories
some television news producers seek out interesting, and unusual stories to place at the end of news blocks or at the end of the program.
These stories are typically called kickers and involve something amusing or cute, such as a water-skiing squirrel or a ladder climbing dog
These stories aren’t likely to have an impact on anyone’s life, but they do give the viewers a little bit of relief from what some complain is too often 30 minutes of death, destruction, and corruption.

“Human Interest”/Unusual Stories
Stories about “average” people are interesting if those people do unusual things.
Example: If a local person has a few unpaid parking tickets, that might not be of interest, but if he or she had 200 unpaid parking tickets and was thrown in jail, that would probably attract some attention.

Does the story fit the medium?
Ask yourself, what are the strengths/weaknesses of the medium?
Newspapers?
Online?
Television?
Radio?
Some stories make television that wouldn’t cut it in a newspaper, and visa versa.
http://am.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/14/incredible-rescue-from-burning-motorcycle/
Knowing what medium works for what story will make you a skilled journalist in a “converged” world. Why is that?

Defining News - Slideshare

by Jill Falk on Sep 24, 2011

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