News Values

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News Values
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News Values

• Timeliness
• Impact
• Prominence
• Proximity
• Conflict
• The Unusual
• Currency
• Necessity

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News Values Timeliness

• Events are immediate, recent.
• Present tense.
• News value diminishes over time
• Timeliness is important for democracy.

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News Value Impact

• Events likely to affect many people.

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News Value Prominence

• Events involving well-known people or
  institutions
• Names make news, even when the event is of little
  consequence

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News Value Proximity

• Geographically or emotionally close to people
  interest

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News Value Conflict

• Strife, antagonism, warfare
• Basis of many stories
• True from the earliest days.
• Basis of sage, drama, story and news.
• Is there an overemphasis on conflict?

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News Value The Unusual

• Events that sharply deviate from the expected,
  that depart from the experiences of everyday
  life.
• The different, the bizarre, the strange the
  wondrous.

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News Value Currency

• Long simmering situation will emerge as the
  subject of discussion and attention.

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News Value Necessity

• Discovered something that journalist feels is
  necessary to disclose.