4.1: News values
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News values
In order to write news, it helps to first have a sense of what it is. Not every event that happens or issue that arises is likely to be interesting to audiences. Of course there are targeted audiences and small groups that wait for every drop of information in their different fandoms, but for large, general audiences we need to understand in an essential sense what kinds of information people consider so important that they want to be consistently updated about them.
Understanding news values helps to answer the question, “What is considered news?” In the 1960s, researchers Johan Galtung and Mari Holmboe Ruge examined news stories worldwide to determine their similarities, and their seminal study, which created the first list of news values, is still cited and referenced in updated examinations of what news and other media professionals consider to be worthy of public interest.1 Their somewhat scholarly list of the values exhibited by news professionals included 12 topics. Some of those values are more useful from an analytical perspective than a practical one, but they are foundational concepts.
This section pares the list of general news values down from the 60-year-old academic list of 12 and adds some contemporary values to the mix. Journalism Professor Meredith Clark, Ph.D. offered perspective to the discussion of news values with her article for the journalism training outfit Poynter in 2016. What follows is a list of nine values derived from historical research and practice and from Professor Clark's additions. These are not listed in order of priority. They should be given equal weight and should be analyzed consciously, critically, and continually just as other value systems are.
List of nine news values
Authentic autonomy
Journalism is more believable when it is reported firsthand by people who are not afraid to share who they truly are and be open about their personal values. Originally reported stories that can be presented transparently by people acting as their authentic selves should be considered more valuable than stories curated from other outlets or presented from behind a mask conforming to dominant interests and expectations. Stories that include more curated content than original reporting might still be considered news, but they are not as authentic as other reports. Stories from outlets that expect journalists to conform to objectivity or partisan political standards might still contain valuable information, but they are not presented with autonomy, and their authenticity may be diluted. To be clear, biased news reporting is not the same as authentic and autonomous journalism. If a journalist finds themselves downplaying facts that they consider to be interesting or important for audiences, they have to question whether the news they are putting out is authentic and presented from a position of autonomy.
Conflict
Strife or power struggles between very large groups including ethnic groups, smaller groups and organizations, and individuals within society often grab the attention of audiences. For example, stories about war, social discord, government budgets, and crime are newsworthy because there is embedded conflict and a ready narrative likely to spur readers' interest. The continual coverage by U.S. media outlets of worldwide terrorism is an example of conflict reporting. Stories about major sports competitions, such as the National Basketball Association finals or the Super Bowl, also contain an element of conflict because teams are vying for a prestigious title.
Human interest
Stories that are emotionally compelling capture the audience’s attention and appeal to their attitudes and beliefs. Feature articles are often good examples of human-interest stories when they depict a person, organization, or community in a way that triggers an emotional connection between the audience and the characters. Other examples are behind-the-scenes reports about athletes or celebrities, or stories about people struggling to overcome obstacles in life.
Impact
Generally, people are more likely to care about stories that directly affect their lives. The larger the possible or real effect and the larger the number of people affected, the greater the potential impact of a story. News editors and writers often devote more time and resources to stories that have implications for their respective audiences. An example of stories about impact include hurricanes in the United States. Hurricanes are often covered for days in coastal communities from the time when they threaten landfall; whereas, in landlocked states hurricanes tend to garner coverage only when they are quite large and almost certain to hit the US.
Inclusivity
News stories that can and do include perspectives from multiple stakeholders should be given priority over news that only includes information from powerful, easy-to-access sources, who often have massive budgets to help them try to influence public opinion. Stories where stakeholders affected by events are available and included should be considered more valuable than news that parrots powerful agendas and perspectives, which are always relatively easy to find. An example of adhering to the inclusivity news value is to speak to people who might be affected by a legislative change before the law is passed so that they may have a chance to weigh in.
Novelty
Stories that are odd, unusual, shocking, or surprising have novelty value. An example would be a story about an unusual animal friendship, such as this one between a dog and a deer. Because such a friendship is not a normal occurrence, it can spark audience curiosity.
Prominence
Stories that feature well-known individuals or public figures, such as politicians, entertainers, and professional athletes carry news value. From the summer of 2023 to the summer of 2024, much news attention was dedicated to covering the developing relationship between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, both world-class performers in music and professional football, respectively.
Proximity
When the geographical location of an event is nearby in relation to a journalist's or news organization's target audience, the proximity news value is in play. Audiences are more likely to pay attention to stories that take place in their local communities. For example, a news station in Ohio usually wouldn’t cover day-to-day events at the Indiana State Fair. However, happenings at the annual Ohio State Fair always get daily coverage in central Ohio news outlets. The same could be said for almost any neighboring states in the US.
Timeliness
Events or stories that have recently taken place or will happen in the immediate future have an element of immediacy or timeliness. Breaking news stories or stories about unexpected events that are developing are good examples. Newswriters and editors sometimes deem these stories so important that they interrupt regular television schedules to immediately bring audiences the information. Social media sites, such as X, a.k.a. Twitter, thrive on the constant flow of new information. Recent events typically carry more news value than yesterday's news. Timeliness also takes into consideration factors such as seasonal events, commemorations, and holidays. For example, it is common for magazine editors and others who produce long-form journalism to plan many of their articles around seasonal calendars.
Long-form journalism refers to news articles that typically cannot be reported in a single day and that are longer in length or runtime than standard stories. Although the norms for "standard" story length in text, audio, and video are evolving, there will always be formats for audiences interested in learning more about a topic, an issue, or a certain type of news. Common forms of long-form journalism include in-depth investigative news stories, feature news stories that run longer than 500 words, most magazine articles, broadcast news stories that run longer than two minutes, and news podcasts.
1. Galtung, J. & Ruge, M.H. (1965). The structure of foreign news: The presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus crises in four Norwegian newspapers. Journal of Peace Research, 2(1), 64-90.