News Values
News Values
-News today is converged and dispersed across a range of platforms and with a huge range of sources/producers, including audiences who share the news and alter its meaning by adding their own hyperlinks and comments.
-Is about how news professionals decide on what is newsworthy. How to attract the audience.
-In 1981, Galtung & Ruge who are media researchers decided to analyse international news stories so they can find out what factors they all had in common, and what factors placed them at the top of the news agenda worldwide.
-Once they found those specific values, a list of news values was made which was treated like a scoring system. A story which scores highly on each value is certain to appear at the start of a TV, news bulletin, or make the front page of a newspaper.
-Journalists and editors have to think in what an audience should expect, and what stories have had an major impact on the public consciousness in the past. Each news organisation will have their own system of setting a news agenda.
Date-
-The date in which news values was invented is 1981. Which contained a whole list of different news values.
What are they?
-News values is a scoring system which shows how much importance should be given to a story. The higher the score, the more it will appear publicly so the audience can see it.
Convergence- Refers to the crossing over or the coming together of two or more techs/platforms.
Objectivity- Is about balance and showing both sides of a story. Most news professionals believe in this.
Binary oppositions- is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.
The 'other' (Paul Gilroy)-
-When non-white especially working class people are portrayed in the media, they are defined as in terms of the ways they differ from the (white) majority, not any individual characteristics. This is usually negative e.g. Black criminal, Asian terrorist, faith groups.
| News Values- | Definition- |
| -Threshold | -The bigger the impact the story has, the more people it would affect. If the affect is extreme, money and resources are involved. This means that, it is more likely to appear all over the media and different social media platforms. |
| -Frequency | -This value is to do with the time and scale of events which are perceived to be 'newsworthy'. Events such as motorway pile-ups, murder and plane crashes, are abrupt, unexpected actions which fits well in being the headline of the newspaper. Events which happens at inconvenient times of the day are less likely to get reported. |
| -Negativity | -Bad news is seen more exciting than good news. Stories about death, violence, natural disasters and political problems etc. are more likely to grab the audience's attention. Good news are always underrated and reported less than bad news as, bad news stories are scored highly on other news values e.g. threshold, unexpectedness, unambiguity etc. |
| -Unambiguity | -Events which are easier to grasp by the audience are easier to understand while, situations which are opened to more than one interpretation can be complicated. |
| -Unexpectedness | -Events which are out of the ordinary are more likely to grab the audience's attention than general, everyday news. For example, 'if a dog bites a man', that's not news. But 'if a man bites a dog', that is news. |
| -Proximity | -This value is to do with how close to home the story is. An example of this is, the 2017 terror attacks in London and Manchester. This news got so much greater coverage in the UK than those living in Somalia, where at least 300 people were killed. |
| -Predictability | -If an big event is pre-scheduled, than journalist are more likely to write a new story about it on the day. An example of this can be an important vote in the parliament, a demo which is expected to be violent or a sports and film events etc. |
| -Continuity and narrative | -News involves story-telling just like fiction. Journalists sometimes cover stories which are more likely to continue over a long period of time, with new events unfolding. An example of this is, Brexit as it narrates a story with great potential for continuity and narrative story-telling. |
| -Composition | -News stories must compete with each other for space in the media. For example, editors might feel that there is a disproportionate (too large or too small in comparison to something else) type of one news. Therefore, he or she might ask the journalists to balance this out with a human interest or funny story, to add composition. |
| -Personalisation | -People are interested in other people. New stories that centre a particular person, and are portrayed at a particular angle are more likely to make the front page. |
Task-
Do the statistics link to the proportion of news coverage?
-I think the statistics do not link to the proportion of news coverage in the Aljazeera terror attack as, the headline only favours Western Europe. This is seen when the headline says 'Report: 0.7 percent of terror victims in Western Europe'. But when you actually read the article in depth, we find more countries which faced horrible terror attacks that are worse than Western Europe these countries include Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria, Middle East and North Africa etc. I believe the journalists who published this article was mainly biased towards Asia and Africa as, they mention how Western Europe was affected by '0.7%' which seems to be a small minority compared to North Africa and Middle East which is 55%. Developing countries that are massively affected by this terror attack isn't fully taken account by the media as; the headline specifically focuses on 'Western Europe'. An example of this is, when the article says 'Wednesday's report said Western Europe suffered 269 out of a total of 13,488 attacks and 0.7 percent of victims - 238 out of 34,676'. From these statistics we can clearly see how disproportionate the statistics are as, the region around Asia and Africa suffered the most and not Western Europe.
Is this fair or does it disclose an ideological bias/prejudice?
-I believe this article does disclose an ideological bias as; it can refer to the 'other'. This is because; people who are non-white are indirectly labelled as terrorist. This can be said when the article says ’Iraq alone suffered nine of the 11 deadliest attacks in 2016, each claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS) group, the report said'. The journalists are trying to make reference that the ISIS group can be responsible for these horrible attacks. I don't think this is fair as, the journalists portrayed the developing countries in a negative light by saying these countries might be responsible for these terror attacks as, most of the terror attacks happen around these countries. I also think this article is prejudice towards Asia and Africa as; the journalists do not cover much news articles about them. This might be because, these countries aren't related to the UK politically which means the amount of damages that happen to these developing countries UK isn't responsible for it. I don't think this is fair as, the journalists twists and manipulate the story so it focuses more about on Western Europe's concern but not the other countries who are massively involved in this.
Would this story have been covered in mainstream UK news media? If so, which newspaper/online platform?
-I believe this story might not be covered in mainstream UK news media as, it doesn't massively affect the UK in any form or shape. If the article was centrally focused on Western Europe this might be covered mainstream in the UK as, loads of people who live around the UK would know what's going on by going on numerous social media platforms, TV or internet etc. However, I do believe this story can be rarely seen around different social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook as, many communities or individuals might want the audience to take action or donate to help these countries recover from these atrocities
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