Galtung and Ruge (1981) defined a set of news values to explain how journalists and editors decided that certain stories and photographs were accepted as newsworthy, while others were not.
Immediacy: has it happened recently?
Familiarity: is it culturally close to us in Britain?
Amplitude: is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people?
Frequency: does the event happen fairly regularly?
Unambiguity: is it clear and definite?
Predictability: did we expect it to happen?
Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected event?
Continuity: has this story already been defined as news?
Elite nations and people: which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people?
Negativity: is it bad news?
Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death.
2) News story from the last 12 months for each of the categories suggested by Harriss, Leiter and Johnson:
Progress : World leaders react to Donald Trumps victory
Disaster : New Zealand earthquake
Consequence : Jungle camp demolition
Prominence : Kim Kardashian held at gunpoint
Novelty : The supermoon
3) The factsheet uses the Afghan bomb blast article to illustrate Galtung and Ruge's News Values. The factsheet highlights that it is an appropriate example of a news story likely to gain prominent coverage due to the story having a cultural proximity (familiarity) as British audiences see the soldier as ‘one of their own’. In terms of intensity, the first female officer to be killed is considered more newsworthy as it is unusual (surprise). Furthermore, the ongoing war is a continuity story.
4) Gatekeeping is the process of filtering information before it is published and circulated. This process is usually done through the editor. The gatekeeping process could also be seen to be more than simply an editor choosing one story over another, it could also refer to how journalist select certain lines of questioning, or use some words over others to describe people and event. Gatekeeping is in general a way for news institution to control the flow of information passed on to the audience.
5) The 6 ways in which bias could be created by the news is:
- Bias through selection and omission (An editor can express bias by choosing whether or not to use a specific news story, or if certain details are ignored, or others can be included to give readers or viewers a different opinion about the events reported)
- Bias through placement (Where stories are placed, stories on the front page of the newspaper are thought to be more important than stories in the back)
- Bias by headline ( Misleading headlines)
- Bias by photos, captions, and camera angles (The perspective of the image can have an influence on the audience, the photos a newspaper chooses to run can heavily influence the public’s perception of a person or event)
- Bias through use of names and titles (News media often use labels and titles to describe people, places, and events, these can be biased)
- Bias by choice of words (Bias through the use of positive or negative words with certain connotations. They can also be influenced by the tone that a newscaster uses when saying certain words.)
6) Online sources such as Twitter, Bloggers and Wikileaks have now changed the way in which news is selected and published due to the fact that majority of news stories now form on these sites. News institutions rely on Twitter and amateur journalists who have blogs to select certain news stories, and Wikileaks is now being used even more whenever a great leak that might appeal to the public takes place.
7) The Panama papers were leaked, investigative journalism on the papers has led to a worldwide reporting on the news story.
8)
- The email reveals that Sky news is now understanding the great impact of Twitter and its credibility as a news source.
- The email suggests that breaking news is now being produced through UGC, rather than the traditional way in which news stations would produce their own footage etc.
- The email suggests that the audiences have a far greater role in producing media than expected, most of the breaking news comes from sources that are outside of the news industry and this suggests that UGC is becoming more relied on.
- This however might be a problem for journalistic standards due to the fact that there will be a lack of gatekeepers if more and more institutions rely on social media sites. News on social media is also not entirely reliable and the quality of news may decrease.
9) New and digital media technology has effectively changed Galtung and Ruge's news values as certain aspects such as immediacy now have a greater importance in news than they may have in the past, readers of the news want to get their news as rapidly as they can and new technology has allowed this to take place. . Nevertheless, the majority of these news values are relevant in currenty society despite the theory being created over 50 years ago.
10) News values that have been affected by the growth of new and digital technology.
Elite people and nations: As the majority of prominent politicians and elite people are now on social media, more people are relying on social media to get news and announcements. Elite nations are also being given a greater priority on the news as the connection between Britain and these countries is continuing to become a greater public interest.
Familiarity: More and more stories based outside the UK are being reported as audiences feel their is a greater link to other countries than in the past. Also, the increasing diversity within the nation has led to more news stories based outside the UK being reported as the concept of "culturally close" has changed over the years. Institutions such as the BBC are naturally also reporting stories such as these due to their charters.
Amplitude: Big events that happen around the world now have a greater appeal to the audience
Surprise: Rare and unexpected events are being reported more quickly and are being given more coverage as they appeal to the public
Balance: Audiences have become more desensitised to the news, and their seems to be less of a balance in the news i.e. novelty stories. However this could be challenged as this depends individually on the news source.
Immediacy: The growth of users of social media has led to users relying on breaking news from sites such as Twitter due to its immediacy.
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