Galtung and Ruge proposed 11 news values that influence whether an event will be reported by the media: frequency, threshold, unambiguity, meaningfulness, consonance, unexpectedness, continuity, composition, reference to elite persons, reference to elite nations, and personalization. They argue that events that score high on several of these values, like celebrity gossip or disasters, are more likely to be deemed newsworthy and reported than events that score low, such as long-term issues. The theory aims to explain what drives media perceptions of newsworthiness.

1. NEWS VALUES
(Galtung and Ruge)

2. • Galtung and Ruge (1973) believed that our perception of what
constitutes and event is culturally determined and not a natural
occurrences- but they also believed that it related to ‘human
culture’ and therefore should not vary too much globally.
• Their theory argues that the more and event accessed these criteria
the more likely it was to be reported on in a newspaper (although
the individual factors are inter-related, not independent of one
another).
• An example: in the Western word we re obsessed with celebrities
and their lifestyles. David Beckham for example splits with Posh
Spice and on the same day five children re killed in a minibus
accident. The tabloids will carry the split story on the front page
because we as a society have decided that celebrity gossip is more
interesting and news worthy than the other story.
Theory

3. • 1. Frequency- short- term events like murders are preferred over long-term
developments
• 2.Threshold- basically, the size of an event indicates its importance
• 3.Umambiguity- events do not have to be simple but they must be accessible to the
public- i.e. simplified by the media
• 4.Meaningfullness- divided into two categories after Galtung and Ruge’s’ cultural
proximity and relevance
• 5.Consonance- where the familiar is more likely to be thought than the unfamiliar
• 6.Unexpectedness- where it is the rarity of an event which leads to its circulation in the
public domain
• 7.Continuity- once a story achieves importance will e continued to be covered for some
time
• 8.Composition- this is to provide sense of balance, gloomy news with good
news, foreign with domestic
• 9.Reference to elite persons- the famous and the powerful re more newsworthy than
ordinary people
• 10. Reference to elite nations- events are more likely to be reported if they occur in the
developed world; the threshold system would apply for developing countries’ vents to
be reported
• 11.Personalisation- vent are seen as actions of people as individuals; an institution my
be personalised by reference to a prominent person with that organisation
• 12.Negativity- bad news is good for the press and TV news; the threshold is much lower
for bad news than for good news