WHAT IS NEWS?
News can be defined in a lot of different ways.
One definition is: the communication of select information via a variety of platforms.
Pound for pound news is one of the most valuable commodities on Earth.
Vast amounts of money, time and effort is spent gathering and distributing it.
However, it declines in value incredibly quickly.
Often news can be considered a social construct.
However how this information is selected (and by who) is central to any understanding of the
modern media.
The ability to decide what is and isn’t news could be considered the central power of the media and
transnational media companies.
News values
Galtung and Ruge ‘The Structure of Foreign News’
Frequency
Threshold
Unambiguity
Composition
Reference to the elite people
Reference to elite nations
Meaningfulness
Unexpectedness
Continuity
How do ‘events’ become news?
Norwegian press
Concentrated on foreign events
Selected particular case studies and studied how they were covered
Came up with a range of predictors for whether an event will be judged as ‘news’
Frequency
How often does something happen and how quickly does it happen?
If a news event happens quickly then it will probably get more coverage than something that takes
weeks, months or years to unfold.
Threshold
How important are perceived events?
The more gruesome a murder the more likely it is to receive coverage
Threshold varies significantly from country to country and culture to culture
News can be defined in a lot of different ways.
One definition is: the communication of select information via a variety of platforms.
Pound for pound news is one of the most valuable commodities on Earth.
Vast amounts of money, time and effort is spent gathering and distributing it.
However, it declines in value incredibly quickly.
Often news can be considered a social construct.
However how this information is selected (and by who) is central to any understanding of the
modern media.
The ability to decide what is and isn’t news could be considered the central power of the media and
transnational media companies.
News values
Galtung and Ruge ‘The Structure of Foreign News’
Frequency
Threshold
Unambiguity
Composition
Reference to the elite people
Reference to elite nations
Meaningfulness
Unexpectedness
Continuity
How do ‘events’ become news?
Norwegian press
Concentrated on foreign events
Selected particular case studies and studied how they were covered
Came up with a range of predictors for whether an event will be judged as ‘news’
Frequency
How often does something happen and how quickly does it happen?
If a news event happens quickly then it will probably get more coverage than something that takes
weeks, months or years to unfold.
Threshold
How important are perceived events?
The more gruesome a murder the more likely it is to receive coverage
Threshold varies significantly from country to country and culture to culture
