Media studies-news

1. News
Natasha House

2. What is news?
• Information that is new/fresh
• Information that is important to
the audience
• Information that the audience
either needs to know or wants
to know

3. Where can we find news?
• Other local media outlets-county press, Isle of Wight Radio, local news
websites (although you should be wary of these);
• National media outlets- can you localise a story?
• Press releases- Most large organisations have a media centre-check out their
websites for press releases;
• Friends and Family- often what sounds like idle gossip could be a potential
story.

4. Galtung and Ruge (1973)
• Galtung and Ruge (1973) developed a set
of values which are used as a form of
‘gatekeeping’, ensuring that news
reporting is relevant and informative for
consumers of news broadcasts. These
values determine how much
prominence a news story can be given.

5. Key Words…
• Frequency-events that are easy to report on. Often these are events that occur suddenly, are short term and require
little explanation;
• Threshold- The bigger impact the story has, the more people it affects, the more extreme the effect or the more
money or resources it involves, the more newsworthy it is;
• Unambiguity- In order for news reports to be clearly understood by their audience, they must be constructed so that
they are not ambiguous and portray clear meaning of the event;
• Proximity- The closer to home it is, the more likely it is to relevant to them;
• Predictability- News stories that could occur, depending upon a particular situation, and may be hinted at or by the
media;
• Unexpectedness- if an event is out of the ordinary, it will be more likely to make it into the news than an everyday
occurrence would;
•
•

6. Continued…
• Continuity- News stories once reported, if there is a sequence of events, require continuing coverage of the stories
in order for us to see closure;
• Composition- News stories must be balanced at the time of broadcast, dependent upon the urgency and
importance of the news;
• Reference to elite nations- News that relates culturally to our own and that is relevant to us;
• Reference to elite persons- the media pay attention to the rich, powerful, famous and infamous. Stories about
important people get the most coverage;
• Personalisation- people are interested in people;
• Negativity- Bad news is good news, it is more exciting than good news.
•
•

7. Continued…
• Continuity- News stories once reported, if there is a sequence of events, require continuing coverage of the stories
in order for us to see closure;
• Composition- News stories must be balanced at the time of broadcast, dependent upon the urgency and
importance of the news;
• Reference to elite nations- News that relates culturally to our own and that is relevant to us;
• Reference to elite persons- the media pay attention to the rich, powerful, famous and infamous. Stories about
important people get the most coverage;
• Personalisation- people are interested in people;
• Negativity- Bad news is good news, it is more exciting than good news.
•
•