Galtung and Ruge developed categories to analyze what factors make international news stories more likely to be reported. Some of the key factors they identified include negativity, proximity, recency, continuity, uniqueness, simplicity, personality, expectedness, prominence of nations or people involved, exclusivity, and size of the story. Higher scores across these categories mean a story has a greater chance of being picked up and screened by the news media.

1. GALTUNG & RUGE’S
NEWS VALUE
Toby Middleton And Charlie Wright

2. Galtung & Ruge
■ Media researchers Galtung & Ruge, set out to categorise International
News Articles.
■ They created categories by comparing different factors that stories
had in common.
■ Often a story was scored, if it had a high score then the story would
make the news. If the story was scored low, it had a much smaller
chance of being screened.

3. Categories
■ Negativity
■ Closeness to Home (Proximity)
■ Recency
■ Currency
■ Continuity
■ Uniqueness
■ Simplicity
■ Personality
■ Expectedness (Predictability)
■ Elite Nations Or People
■ Exclusivity
■ Size

4. Negativity
■ This category rates highest out of all. Bad news such as Death, Political
Upheaval and Violence etc stories; Are shown rather than ‘positive’
news.
■ Over the past 8 days the reporters in this local area have seen 7
shootings in Harrisburg.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/03/post_14.html

5. Closeness to Home
■ Viewers in most cases prefer to relate themselves to stories that are in there
area. A story about there local MP is going to be more interesting to them,
then a story about an MP in a different area.
■ A story that’s based in their country is also much more relatable.
■ This story found in our local newspaper, talks about Harry Day a previous
sex offender from Hemsby has recently just been imprisoned for a further
three years.
http://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/former_norfolk_youth_leader_
harry_day_jailed_for_another_three_years_for_sex_offences_against_boys_1_
4464607

6. Recency
■ This category is relevant for 24 hour news channels such as CNN, as
they want to broadcast stories as soon as they become live.
■ Although it’s a great feature to be able to post the story as soon as
possible, it does come with its faults. The story may not yet be
coherent to the current situations or there might not actually be a
story to produce.
■ Scientists have just discovered one of the Paris Bombings attackers
accomplish.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35860157

7. Currency
■ Stories that have already been aired are more related to currency as
the audience wishes to see how this specific story wants to develop.
The viewer will watch it to keep themselves updated with what is
happening.
■ Donald Trump goes on defence as more rally incidents occur.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2016/mar/20/donald-
trump-campaign-violence-arizona

8. Continuity
■ This sort of story wants the viewer to come back for another day to
find out what is happening. It ensures that there is enough information
to broadcast over two days or it may be that the story has arouse
today but the information won’t come out till tomorrow as its not
currently strong enough.
■ England win the Rugby Six Nations trophy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35854358

9. Uniqueness
■ Any story that may have a unique feature about it. Viewers love to see
things that they have never seen before, as it may be classed as eye
opening or life changing.
■ A man is able to solve three Rubiks Cubes whilst juggling them in 22
Seconds.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/speedy-rubiks-cube-juggler-just-
7574794

10. Simplicity
■ Easy stories that are simple to explain are sometimes much more
popular, as the viewer can simply watch the story at any point to find
out what is happening.
■ Daily Mail put up a story about how this group of parents have never
let there children watch TV.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3501892/Not-having-TV-set-
house-latest-status-symbol-pushy-middle-class-parents.html

11. Personality
■ This sort of story tends to come up mainly in papers such as the sun, as
its much more focal towards a specific person. This could be a sports
person or a famous celebrity, as long as its an interesting story that the
public want to see.
■ Amanda Holden reveals that she went on a date with Simon Cowell,
when he was her boss.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3502357/I-pre-ordered-
cab-10-30pm-Amanda-Holden-reveals-went-DATE-boss-Simon-Cowell-
exit-pre-planned.html

12. Expectedness
■ If the story is related to do with something that the news has already presented as
going to happen then the view count may be higher.
■ A suicide bomber has killed 4 and injured around 20. This event happening in
Istanbul.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/19/turkey-suicide-bomber-kills-four-in-
istanbul-injures-20/

13. Elite Nations Or People
■ Viewers enjoy hearing about important nations, in most cases countries that nobody
knows about have very little effect on the news. This is also the case for some
important figures such as Barack Obama or David Bowie.
■ The Royal family are visiting Delhi to celebrate the Queens 90th Birthday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36022964

14. Exclusivity
■ If a broadcasting channel is infact the first one to post that specifc story, then they
will ensure that its rated high. This means that more people will visit that channel.
■ A plane crashed in Russia and CNN were the first to broadcast the story to the
nation.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/20/europe/russia-plane-crash/index.html?eref=edition

15. Size
■ The bigger the story, the more likely its chance to get onto the news. These depends
on the variables such as how much money is involved, how much land is involved
and whether it could effect peoples lives.
■ This story talks about the effects that the future 2016-2017 year, will have on Tax.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tax/news/income-tax-calculator-how-thresholds-and-
allowance-changes-for-2/