4.4 News Values

Topic 4.4 The Selection and Presentation of the news

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  • Galtung & Holmboe-Ruge News Values
    • Spencer-Thomas defines this as general guidelines that determine the worth of a news story
    • Extraordinariness
      • rare, unpredictable events
      • e.g. disasters, celebrity deaths
        • Michael Jackson, Amy Whinehouse
    • Threshold
      • the 'bigger' the event size, the more likely it is to be nationally reported
      • e.g. national newspapers report murder, rarely street robberies
    • Unambiguity
      • more likely to report events that are easy to understand rather than those that are open to interpretation
        • The Columbia Journalism Review (2000)- stories don't appear as they're 'too complicated for the average person'
    • Reference to elite persons
      • those at the top of the socio-economic hierarchy are seen as more newsworthy
      • celeb gossip is increasingly in the tabloids
      • 'cult of celebrity' has extended the definition of who counts as worthy of pubic interests
    • Personalisation
      • events are 'personalised' by associating an individual with them, more likey to be reported
      • journalists try to reduce complex events and policies to a conflict between 2 personalities
      • e.g. British politics is presented as a personal showdown between party leaders
    • Reference to elite nations
      • cultural proximity - similar audiences receive more news coverage
      • events in USA and Australia more likely to be covered in British media rather than Asia
    • Frequency
      • structural social trends  occur slowly  and invisibly over a long period- outside frequency
      • e.g. inflation only reported when government releases figures
      • sudden events= meaning established quicker
    • Continuity
      • event covered for some time
      • news teams in place to report
      • previous reportage makes story more accessible to the public
    • pluralists believe these values are of crucial importance as news producers are under commercial pressure to increase audience
    • Negativity
      • more exciting/ dramatic= bigger audience= higher rating
    • Composition
      • news outlets try to 'balance' reported events

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