Deciding What is News

What is news?

Easy to define in the past Equaled events Now is more in-depth coverage and analysis

of major issues as well as events Shifting attitudes and demographics = a

facelift for the news in the last few decades News now covers a wider range of topics

Change in Direction

Serious news traded for more colorful, upbeat journalism by some such as USA Today

Declining literacy, loss of young readers, and a mobile society led to this change

Economics has caused papers to compromise More news going on Internet

Where We Are Now

News still needs to emphasize the government

Events still covered, but many new additions Lifestyles of rich and famous, fashion,

health, arts, leisure, exercise, recreation, and nutrition are some of the topics covered now because of the new demographics

News Judgment

Journalists must evaluate what is out there and select stories that will interest, inform, educate and amuse the audience

Must balance what the audience wants and what it needs

Use new judgment to decide what story to cover out of multiple choices and how to cover it (which angle to take)

Who Cares?

Journalists ask themselves “Who cares?” to decide if something is newsworthy

If they can honestly say that the story, person, or event is important to an audience than they have news

You Choose…

A) The mayor signs a proclamation designating next week as Clean-up, Paint-up, Fix-up Week

B) The mayor announces an investigation into the disappearance of $750,000 from the city’s general fund.

Who cares about these stories? Are they news?Which should go on the front page?

Elements of News

Timeliness/Immediacy – Relates to the newness of the facts The element that makes a story about the

evolution of the Christmas tree more interesting in December than April

Ask yourself, “Is this story new? Is this the best time to interest people in this story?”

Elements of News

Proximity - Refers to the nearness of an event to your

place of publication Events occurring in your town generally

have more news value than those happening half way across the world

Remember, people like to read about things they are familiar with

Elements of News

Prominence –

• Refers to the newsworthiness of an individual

• Example: Julia Roberts gets married = newsworthy; I get married = not newsworthy

• People interested in people they are familiar with

Elements of News

Consequence/Impact - Refers to the importance of an event Example: If you flunk a math test = not news;

The star quarterback flunks the math test and therefore cannot play in the play-offs and therefore the team may lose CIF = news

More people interested in the football game, and therefore the QB’s grades, than they are in your personal life

Elements of News

The CA state Senate passes a bill to expand all freeways in the state by two lanes

This news may take place in Sacramento. but it has consequence for you here in LA

Elements of News

Emotions – Stories that cover what humans are generally

interested in Cause readers to laugh, cry, feel sorrow, pity

or amazement (feel emotion in general) Should tickle the funny bone or evoke

feelings or pity, sorrow, or amazement

Elements of News

Novelty - Unusual stories Example: A fifteen-year-old genius

graduates from college with honors Shortest basketball player Youngest teacher Oldest custodian

Elements of News

Conflict - Involves tension, surprise and suspense Eg.: a divorce, a sports game, a strikeOther Factors – Progress, money, disaster, novelty, oddity,

drama, and so on No easy rule for what is news; have to figure

it out yourself with practice

News Arithmetic

1 ordinary person + 1 ordinary life = 0 1 ordinary person + 1 extraordinary adventure = News 1 husband + 1 wife = 0 1 husband + 3 wives = News 1 person + 1 achievement = news 1 ordinary person + 1 ordinary life of 79 years = 0 1 ordinary person + 1 ordinary life of 100 years = News

From Editing the Day’s News by George Bastian and Leland Case