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In studying the news, a major initial concept to examine with students is the question as to what constitutes “news.” Students could consider different examples of recent community or school events — passing of a school bond referendum, opening of a new business, a bank robbery, discovery of pollution in a river, death of a prominent citizen, etc. and determine whether or not these events would be considered to be “news” in the context of their own personal conversations/gossip, the local radio station, the local town newspaper, the local regional newspaper, the local television news station broadcast, and a national newspaper. In doing do, they could consider the following criteria to determine the extent to which these events are “news”: |
significance. Does the event have some significance for certain people? What is considered to be significant for some may not be significant for others. Significance may also depend on the interests, needs, and knowledge of certain audiences. An environmentalist may perceive the pollution of a river as highly significant, but not perceive a bank robbery as significant. Students could examine some of the most significant news stories during the 21st Century and discuss why these events were considered to be significant:
Stories of the Century
relevance. The relevance of certain events may also depend on audiences’ interests, needs, and knowledge. A group of high school students may perceive passing of a school bond referendum as highly relevant to their educational future, while perceiving the opening of a new business as irrelevant to their lives.
unusualness/sensational. In some cases, stories of unusual or sensational events are perceived of as “news” because they attract audiences’ attention or are entertaining to audiences. For example, stories from the “News of the Weird” archive focus on bizarre, strange events such as the following:
For an anniversary tribute to Sept. 11 victims, the city of Jersey City, N.J., planned to release a flock of doves at a downtown ceremony, but since officials waited until the last minute to order the doves, all suppliers were sold out. Jersey City wound up having to use pigeons (which had been caged most of their lives), and observers at the solemn ceremony were forced to witness the awkward birds smashing into office-building windows, plunging into the Hudson River and careening into the crowds. [New York Times, 9-19-02]
practical. Audiences may also consider something as “newsworthy” if it has practical, utilitarian value for them. This accounts for the increase in the amount of information on medical/health or consumer topics that audiences may perceive as useful for their own personal health or shopping, even though the information provided may not be considered as highly significant in terms of political or economic considerations
threatening audience beliefs. Audiences may also perceive news that challenges or threatens their beliefs and attitudes as not newsworthy. They may perceive such news as “bad news” or as news that does not belong in a newspaper or broadcast given their own ideological perspectives.
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Webquest: Mass Media: Newsgathering in the Information Age
| Considering community needs/interests. In applying these
different criteria, in deciding to include or emphasize a particular
story, a newspaper or TV news editor may take local community needs
and interests into account, asking the question, is this event significant
or relevant to my community’s own needs and interests? These
considerations are central in considering whether a news story should
be considered as “significant” for inclusion in the
news. In determining whether to include a local crime story, an
editor may consider whether information about that crime would enhance
the community’s larger needs and interests. However, an editor
may also believe that a crime story will attract attention, even
though it may not necessarily enhance the community’s larger
needs and interests, thereby considering the sensational nature
of the story to be a more important criterion than the significance
or relevance of the story. | Other factors related to news value
| Frequency: the time-span of an event and the extent to which it “fits” the frequency of the newspaper’s or news broadcast’s schedule . . . Background to the news, though — e.g., economic, social or political trends — is less likely to make it into the news as such trends take a long time to unfold.
Threshold: How big is an event? Is it big enough to make it into the news?
Unambiguity: How clear is the meaning of an event? The mass media generally tend to go for closure, unlike literature, where the polysemy of events is exploited and explored. An event such as a murder, a car crash and so on raises no problems, its meaning is immediately grasped, so it is likely to make it into the news. In an Observer article of June 11 2000, Peter Preston quoted the results of a survey of 300 leading US media professionals across the US, conducted by The Columbia Journalism Review, which revealed that the most regular reason why stories don’t appear is that they are “too complicated.”
Meaningfulness: How meaningful will the event appear to the receivers of the news?
Consonance: Does the event match the media’s expectations? Journalists have a pretty good idea of the “angle” they want to report an event from, even before they get there. If the media expect something to happen, then it will.
Unexpectedness: “Man bites dog” is news. If an event is highly unpredictable, then it is likely to make it into the news.
Continuity: Once an event has been covered, it is convenient to cover it some more — the running story.
Reference to élite persons: The media pay attention to important people. Anyone the media pay attention to must be important.
Civic journalism. A key concept in considering the relationship
between the news and the local community is the idea of
“civic journalism”—the extent to which
a newspaper attempts to foster public discussion and debate
about local issues with the intent of solving problems and
changing public policy. Journalists who are interested in
civic journalism believe that journalists should be actively
engaged in not only reporting news, but also in influencing
and fostering change. A study, "Measuring
Civic Journalism's Progress," conducted at the
University of Wisconsin for the Pew Center for Civic Journalism
found that “at least one fifth of all U.S. daily newspapers
-- 322 of the nation's 1,500 dailies -- practiced some form
of civic journalism between 1994 and 2001, and nearly all
credit it with a positive impact on the community.”
Most all of the project employed an "explanatory"
story frame to cover public issues instead of a more traditional
"conflict" frame, which often reports two opposing
viewpoints. The projects also allowed citizens to voice
their perspectives.
The study found that: | Some form of civic journalism was practiced in at least a fifth of all American newspapers, in almost every state and in every region. This figure is the most conservative possible, and we believe the actual number may be closer to double.
There is a clear pattern of development in civic journalism content, as journalists learned in what appear to be phases. Civic journalism generally started with elections, moved fairly quickly to coverage of general community issues and problems, and then began to address specific community issues.
There is a parallel development of technique. Civic journalism coverage was “invented” through a series of practical experiments in the early 90s. It was extended through the attempt to develop daily and weekly routine from the mid-90s on. And with the advent of the Internet, new interactive approaches to civic news coverage emerged starting in the late 90s.
The goals of news organizations show a strong commitment to the traditional public news values of informing the public and, to a lesser extent, the civic and democratic values of problem-solving and increased deliberation.
New ways of reporting the news have emerged that help citizens deliberate on important problems, address and solve them, and increase their voices in the community and in the pages of the papers.
A substantial minority of papers, about 35%, continued their civic journalism involvements for three or more years, with almost 20% practicing for more than four years.
Finally, there is significant (but not conclusive) evidence of impact in communities where civic journalism is practiced. About a third of all cases showed some community/newspaper partnerships. More than half reported evidence of improved public deliberation. Other results included: use of projects by others, improved citizens skills, new civic organizations formed, and increased volunteerism.
| For a discussion of the relationship between the news and a local community, see the following chapter “Community as the Context for News” from the book by Cheryl Gibbs and Tom Warhover
Getting the Whole Story: Reporting and Writing the News, Guilford Press.
See also Kathleen Hall Jamieson, The Interplay of Influence: News, Advertising, Politics, and the Mass Media, Wadsworth.
| Activity: making editorial decisions. Students could assume the role of editors of their local school or community papers. They must then decide on whether they should include or exclude the previously developed events from their paper.
| Click here for teaching units from The
Media and American Democracy site on "newsworthyness"
and media ethics issues. | Nothing but the News: Exploring and Creating “Important” News Stories [ The New York Times Daily Lesson Plan ]
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