News Values

NEWS VALUES

Gultang & Ruge (1965) The pair analysed international news stories to discover what

factors all these news stories had in common and what factors placed them at the top of the news agenda worldwide. They came up with the following list of news values: -

Immediacy: Has it happened recently? Familiarity: Does it mean something to us where we live? Amplitude: Is it a big event? Frequency: Is it something that has happened fairly quickly? Unambiguity: Is it clear? Predictability: Do we expect it to happen? Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected event? Continuity: Is it a running story? Elite Nations: Does it concern well-known people? Personalisation: Is it personal? Negativity: Is it bad news? Exclusivity: Are we the only newspaper to have this story? Visual Impact: Is there really a strong Image? Balance: Is it being used to counterbalance other stories?

Personalisation: Actions of the

individual

Elite People: Power person

treated as being

important

Negativity: bad news of policeman main story

because it’s shocking

Unambiguity: shows limited meaning of

cows

Meaningful: WARNING/ THREAT to our culture

Unexpected: police

harassing woman

Composition so not all stories are

bad

Holds a lot of newspaper looking at the space consumed

Does not have a lot of news value

takes a little space

Significant news value in terms of space consumed

Immediacy:

happened recently

Familiarity: Happening where we live (UK)

Amplitude: it’s a big

event thousands

have turned up

Elite people: ROYALTY

Visual: Strong image of

togetherness

Other news: less significant smaller website

space

Personalisation: those who take interest in

sports

Visual: Strong image

(contrast) child & adult

breaks barrier

Continuity: same story

different area within the website