What Is News?

Let’s Keep It Simple...

News

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What’s New

News value the criteria editors and reporters use to decide what news is fit to

print or broadcast

Professor Villarosa’s son catches huge fish

How to Judge News Value

• Relevance (Does it matter?)

• Usefulness (Is it important that people know this?)

• Interest (Who cares?)

Journalists look for these elements, when selecting news

stories: • Timeliness• Impact• Conflict• Novelty• Prominence• Proximity• Engagement• Solutions

Timeliness

News is supposed to be new. These days that means instantaneous.

Weather Channel Boasts Record Ratings, Thanks to Hurricane

Sandy; 300 million page views!

Impact

How many people are affected? The greater the

impact, the better the story.

Hurricane Sandy Pummels East Coast

Conflict

Turkish Forces Strike Syria

Obama Blames Republicans for Government Shutdown

Broncos Beat Patriots to Play in Super Bowl

Novelty

Some events are newsworthy just because they are unusual.

Cat Survives 26 Story Fall

Diana Nyad

Prominence

The bigger the name, the bigger the news

Royal Baby!

Proximity

People care about what happens close to home.

Laundry Lounge Opens in Harlem!

Atlanta Snowstorm Shuts Down City

Engagement

Sometimes a news report marks the beginning of a conversation—that keeps

going.

Jury Acquits George Zimmerman in Trayvon Martin Killing

Solutions

Many news stories discuss problems; the best ones also offer

solutions.

College Debt Reaches All-Time High

• 7 Ways to Reduce College Debt

• MTV Helps Battle College Debt with New Facebook App

• Experts discuss solutions for the College Debt Crisis

To recap…Journalists look for these elements, when selecting

news stories: • Timeliness

• Impact

• Conflict

• Novelty

• Prominence

• Proximity

• Engagement

• Solutions

Assignment due next Tuesday

• Write 300 words about a news event that affected your life. What was it? When was it? Why was it important to you? How did you first find out—TV, social media, word of mouth?

• Print it out, double space, pay attention to grammar.

• Come prepared for news quiz.