A2 Media Studies

1. Gaultung and Ruge’s Theory
THEIR THEORY ON NEWS VALUES FOCUSSES ON WHAT MAKES A STORY
NEWSWORTHY.

2. Each news story will fall under one of
these categories of news:
 Continuity – Carries on with a story that is already in the news.
 Familiarity – To do with people or places close to home.
 Elite Persons- to do with a famous or important person.
 Negativity – Bad news and suffering.
 Conflict – War, fighting and argument.
 Unexpectedness – sudden or unusual event
 Personalisation – a story with a human interest angle or one that can be portrayed
through how it affects a person/
 Consonance – fits with the way the institution audience thinks already.

3. Example Story – Malaysian Airline Fight
MH370 Disappearance
This news story fits into more than one of categories identified on the previous slide.
They fit into the following categories of news:
 Negativity – This is because of suffering, mainly the families involved of the victims.
 Conflict – this is because of the war currently taking place over where the plane was
flying.
 Consonance – this will fit with the way the audience thinks because they will have a
negative view of extremists and link this with the Islamic religion.
 Familiarity – this is because a few of the victims on board were from the UK.