Selection & Presentation of the news

News coverage is shaped by the way television news companies and newspapers are organised and which audiences they are aimed at

Sources of news

• Most newspapers/tv news producers purchase most of their news items from press agencies
• Many stories appear on the news simply because a press agency thinks that it is important
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Time or space available

• News is tailored to fit either the time availiable for a news bulletin or the column space in a newspaper. Sometimes stories are included/excluded simply because they fit or don't fit the time or space available

The audience

• The content of the news and the style in which news is presented are very much a reaction to the type of audience that is thought to be watching or the characteristics of a newspaper's reader

 Spencer-Thomas (2008)

New values are general guidelines or criteria that determine the worth of a news story/how much prominence it is given by newspapers or broadcast media

Galtung & Ruge (1970)

Identified the following sets of news vaulues used by journalists;

• Personalization - events that are personalized by referring to a prominent individual/celebrity associated with them
• Negativity - bad news is regarded by journalists as more exciting and dramatic than good news and is seen as attracting a bigger audience. Stories about death/tragedy are therefore ranked above positive stories.
• Reference to elite persons - the famous and the powerful are often seen as more newsworthy to the general public than those who are regarded as 'ordinary'.