News Value

News Values

News values are a scoring system that media producers use. Galtung and Ruge 1965 analysed international news stories to find out what things they had in common, this then helped them rate the stories to see which story would rate higher and would make the lead or front page story. Every media organisation has its own news values based on what their target audience expect. There are many types of news values which are different in many ways from one another.

Negativity

Negativity is an example of a news value. This value is based around bad news such as things involving death, violence, damage or even natural disaster etc. they are always rated above positive stories due to the fact people feel emotion when something bad has happened and also shows the shock factor within the story. Bad stories sell better than positive ones due to it seeming more interesting and people can get more information out of it on what is happening. Examples of negativity stories that are in the news lately are the Amanda Knox story about the killing of the young girl in Italy. Another is the well-known actor Phillip Hoffman sadly passing away after his addiction to drugs, also the floods in the South of England is negative due to many homes being damaged.

Proximity

Proximity is stories that are about the closeness to the audience’s home. Audiences relate more to stories that are geographically close or someone from their own country. This is because it feels more locally known to the audience. For example the Olympics made Brits felt proud of the place they lived in. Another for the North East is the Tyneside Derby with Sunderland beating Newcastle 3 nil.

Recency

Recency is about trying to break the news first. This is too show that they are keeping the public updated with anything that is new that is happening. Newspapers are very competitive about breaking news first. For example Phillip Hoffman dying, this story made it straight into the news and was reported every time something new was found out. Another example is when the TV programmes were stopped on ITV to broadcast live to David Cameron becoming Primeminster.

Currency

Currency is the opposite of Recency. This is where stories have been in the public eye for a long time and come across as valuable. An example for this is the Madeline McCann story as new things keep showing up about sightings and also more appeals appear to find her.

Uniqueness

This is stories that come across unusual or unique. Its stories that are very rare, these stories don’t appear in the news a lot but when they do they are big stories. For example in the papers today (1/3/14) a man has had his leg sown on to his arm to keep the blood supply flowing well enough. Another example is the paper weekly world news where they included fake stories about big celebrities.

Simplicity

These are stories that are easy to explain and get the message straight across, such as a cat stuck up a tree. These stories are preferred over stories that are not such as conflicts or debates. An example of this is the the Oscars. The Oscars are well known and people know it’s for celebrities to collect awards for their talent.

Personality

Personality is stories that are centred on a particular person due to humans enjoying reading about them and what they have been up to. For example Miley Cyrus is in the human eye a lot due to the crazy things she does, a story of this is her video of wreaking ball being very different due to her having no clothes on. However some people say that this news value is bad and newspapers overate celebrities for what they are and what they do, however I think it is entertainment for the public eyes.

Expectedness

This is how expected a story is due to people knowing what these types of things are like due to hearing or experiencing them before. For example the Newcastle V Sunderland Derby, people expected trouble and that is what it exactly happened.

Elite Nations or people

These are stories that are based from other parts of the world. It is about nations that are classed as important in the British eye, for example the Russia invading Ukraine is a big story in the British eye due to it may having an effect on us.

Exclusivity

Exclusivity is a big factor for news organisations e.g. Newspapers and websites. If a news organisation is the first to break on a story they will rate that very highly due to the public like knowing things as soon as they happen.  For example when the photos of Prince Harry were posted the other newspapers that then got them from that newspaper had to quote in the story about that organisation publishing them which would come across as advertising that organisation.

Size

The bigger the story the more impact it has as it will affect more people and also the more money or resources it affects the higher the value it is. For example the Russia and Ukraine fight is a big story due to the amount of people it will affect due to it may going to a war. This is why size matters.