What do you value most?

This week we talked about news values. Although I was aware of such values through touching on them in all of my subjects, never had I learnt about them in so much detail.

Basically, news is:
"Anything that's intersting, that relates to what's happening in the world, in areas of the culture that would be of interest to your audience." -Kurt Loder

I think that sentence pretty much sums up news values and what is worthy enough to become news. But, just in case you disagree, here's the long version.

Newsworthiness - The 12+ Factors

• Negativity - bad news, death, tragedy
• Proximity - how meaningul a story is to the audience
• Recency - stories as they happen
• Currency - stories that have been around for a while and still seem valuable. Eg: Abductions remain high rating stories on the news as the story is not concluded until the abducted is found alive/deceased/releases a media release - whatever captures the attention
• Continuity - something to make the viewers tune in tomorrow
• Uniqueness - a two-headed elephant - often lighter, out of the oridnary news
• Simplicity - easy to explain
• Personality - human interest, often found doing celebrity stories
• Predictability - containing conceived ideas of those covering the story
• Elite Nations/People - importance
• Exclusivity - many stations thrive on "you heard it here first"
• Size - the bigger impact the better

Of course, this is only one perception of newsworthiness. In my other classes there was similarities and differences, and like mentioned in the lecture, different people hold other values. When I really think about it, I can not name one piece of news I have heard recently that doesn't contain one or more of those values.

Browsing ninemsn, (yes, I know, I haven't set Google as my home page...don't start) I found myself clicking onto the link about The Bachelor. Now, refrain from clicking out of me as I explain newsworthiness through The Bachelor. Trust me, I realise this isn't news... Or is it? It was on the ninemsn homepage, and it is entertainment. Even The Bachelor holds certain news values:

• Recency - the sites tell us what is happening in the episodes, as they happen
• Continuity - OF COURSE we want to tune in tomorrow to see if the unhappy couple can patch things up!!
• Simplicity - boy chooses girl, boy regrets choosing girl, girl wants to work it out
• Personality - I suppose you could call them passing reality "stars"

My point is, it is simple to make almost any story newsworthy. Just because we won't all find it interesting, the story appeals to the target group using chosen values. I didn't realise how many news values there were, and how different companies respect different values. I guess I shouldn't get too attached; through different careers who knows which ones I will need to value most. Hopefully they are something to do with The Bachelor - I think I could do continuity well - I must admit I did watch the final episode!

Until next time.