News Values

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   Media use congruent news values to make a daily determination of what makes the daily news and how that news is portrayed to the public. Journalists choose news stories based on news values, which are in fact frames, i.e. they are categorical definitions of the situation of interest. This implies news values are a structural feature of the media, which can be measured, grouped, and manipulated.

   Journalists rely on news values to decide what issues are newsworthy. Typical events don’t make the news. News values determine which stories will be covered, as well as the length and depth of that coverage. News selected by news values "implicitly prioritizes some issues over others." This selection promotes "a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described."

   Yet the reliance on news values can cause journalists to unconsciously frame issues. Using a set of values explained in a common collegiate text, general problems with news values are identifiable.

1. Timeliness (Immediacy) - Timeliness answers the question of "When?" as the world attempts to keep up-to-the-minute reports on the issues of the day. Providing context, it usually appears in the first sentence after the verb in an article, e.g. "Classes started Thursday at Southeast College but students could still register online."
   
   Timeliness requires journalists to interview the "usual suspects" when reporting on any issue. Due to deadlines, little time exists to acquire different viewpoints from multiple sources concerning contentious issues. In broadcast media particularly, each news segment's time limitations (and TV's visual requirements) make timeliness critical. Even with print media, only so much time exists to gather information and still beat a deadline.
    
2. Impact - Impact describes an issue’s effect on the public. Impact often appears in the lede and answers the "How?" or "So what? Why do I need to care?" questions. Impact should not be confused with magnitude, which describes size, e.g. the turnout for Bonnaroo, the number of deaths from the swine flu, etc. Print media focus on impact since online and broadcast media are more timely.
   
   Typically, government officials or experts quantify magnitude. These official sources often keep this type of information readily available, and thus have an advantage of being automatically quoted. Smaller-market journalists may not have the time to investigate a contentious issue’s possible impact to their audience.
   
   While the Internet provides immediate information that previously would have taken weeks or months to obtain, it also provides alternative sources the opportunity to promote their frame of an issue’s impact. The savvy reporter gets details from the Internet to provide additional background and support for the article, being sure to point readers to the sources providing this information.
    
3. Currency - Articles with currency describe ongoing issues, e.g. war in the Middle East, Michael Jackson's death, O.J. Simpson trial. When questioning "Why?" sometimes the answer remains elusive.
   
   Some issues have a chronic nature with ambiguous risks, making them harder to cover. Also, the currency of one issue (e.g. 9-11, O.J. Simpson trial, Elian Gonzalez, "Zippergate," etc.) may be detrimental to the coverage of other issues, e.g. Princess Diana's death overshadowed the death of Mother Teresa.
   
4. Conflict - Perhaps the most common news value, conflict appears in nearly every imaginable story as reporters question who benefits or suffers and who is involved. Conflict often provides action, answering the question "What?" and providing the verb of the sentence, e.g. A drunk driver nearly killed a single dad riding home from work on a moped.
   
   Many news stories revolve around a conflict of frames. Once a master frame is set, it must be responded to or attacked. Alternative sources are at a disadvantage, especially in situations where media are unable to get an immediate response. An attack on the master frame may be perceived as improper or dangerous, leading to possible de-legitimization through terminology such as "so-called," "radical" or "fringe."
    
5. Unusual/human interest (Novelty/Emotions) - Where a dog biting a man may not make the news, a man biting a dog will. An unusual aspect to a story often gets front-page coverage. Be careful when covering the unusual aspects of people as some may consider them to be "freaks" or unnatural.
   
   Detailing individual efforts to overcome life's challenges grabs reader's emotions. Stories about children and animals add additional attention, e.g. the general public became outraged over Michael Vick's dog-fighting operation, but paid less attention when Rae Carruth killed his wife.
   
   When trying to answer the "Why?" question, human-interest stories require more space than hard news to properly explain an issue. They may thus be bumped in favor of a shorter piece that fits the news hole.
   
6. Prominence - Prominence answers the question of "Who?" Prominent individuals (e.g. politicians, celebrities, etc.), organizations and corporations receive coverage by virtue of their position in society. Sometimes individuals associated with prominent individuals become newsworthy by proxy, e.g. Kato Kaelin became newsworthy because of his relationship to O.J. Simpson.
   
   Politicians know media deadlines, and schedule events to take advantage of those deadlines. By relying on elites and government officials, a reporter’s routine coverage is presented as the "normal state of affairs." A prominent governmental position will be covered regardless of who resides in the office or which political party is in power. Alternative voices are not as likely to have their viewpoints reported.
    
7. Proximity - Proximity answers the "Where?" question and requires the information to be relevant to the audience by space; i.e. events in areas close to the audience are considered to be more relevant than events further away. Reporters look for the local angle to make national events interesting to readers, e.g. coverage of Mike Ross keeps Southeast Arkansans aware of the Health Care debate.
   
   If a media outlet is not nearby, the event is less likely to be covered. Geography and convenience affect whether television cameras will be taken to the scene for visuals on which television news is based.
   
   Emotional proximity cuts across geographical borders, i.e. college students find information about other college students interesting as they relate to similar experiences. Reading other publications may provide ideas for similar angles that can be explored in your area.

   While reporters use news values to gather news, editors use news values to determine where news will be played. Some publications' designs determine where stories will be played, requiring editors to rank stories based on news values. Typically, articles containing multiple news values are more likely to appear at the top of the newscast or on the front page of the paper.

   In Intro to Journalism, Harrower covered news values in Chapter 1 (p. 19). Melvin Mencher's classic text (Chapter 3) claims impact and the unusual provide the most-used news values. Mencher lists eight news values, where Harrower and I cover seven. Other authors list only four: timeliness, prominence, impact and the unusual. What have they left out? Which do you prefer?

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