News Values: Blog task

Read Media Factsheet 76: News Values and complete the following questions/tasks. 

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1) What example news story does the Factsheet use to illustrate Galtung and Ruge's News Values? Why is it an appropriate example of a news story likely to gain prominent coverage?

The higher a news story scores on this list, the more likely it is to become news. Using the example pictured, Afghanistan, in terms of geographical proximity, is far away from the U.K. but when a young British soldier dies, the story gains cultural proximity as British audiences see the soldier as ‘one of their own’. On an intensity scale, the first female officer to be killed is considered more newsworthy as it is unusual. The ongoing war in Afghanistan is a continuity story but often the interest in the story lies in that fact that deaths, even though inevitable, are not predictable; a bomb disposal expert may be expected to live rather than die, which makes the story all the more shocking. There is also clarity of facts from an  authoritative source, namely the Ministry of Defence. This particular story, in its online form, had about 3,100,000 search engine results, suggesting that it was high on the scale of news values for many institutions as well as being of interest to audiences.

2) What is gatekeeping?

Gatekeeping is the process of filtering information prior to dissemination.

3) What are the six ways bias can be created in the news?

Six ways bias can be created in the news is through Bias through selection and omission, Bias through placement, Bias by headline Bias by photos, captions, and camera angles, Bias through use of names

and titles Bias by choice of words.

4) How have online sources such as Twitter, bloggers or Wikileaks changed the way news is selected and published?

WikiLeaks boasts over 1.2 million documents and “more scoops in its short life than The Washington Post has in the past 30 years”. The fact that Wikileaks only publishes raw material bypasses news values, however, this information is passed on to news institutions who will use the information for their own news agenda. It is unlikely mass audiences or casual news consumers will look closely at the Wikileaks data as a source of everyday news, it will be journalists who decipher this information and decide what they consider to be relevant for mass publication.

5) In your opinion, how has the digital age changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values? 

I feel since the rise of digital media Galtung and Ruge's news values such as how fast news can spread now these days has increased significantly since most people have a device that connects them to the internet meaning they are most likely to receive news more faster. 

6) How would you update these news values for the digital age? Choose TWO of Galtung and Ruge's news values and say how they have been affected by the growth of digital technology.

Clarity or lack of ambiguity - A story with clear facts that does not cause confusion would be more likely to be published. This has been affected by the growth of digital technology as there has now started to be a lack of it. This is because with the rise of fake news and fake websites, it is hard to know which news is real online and which is not. 

Continuity - Once a story is ‘running’ there will be some momentum to carry it further and keep revisiting the

story. This has been boosted due to the growth of digital technology as people still go back to old news that was published 2-3 years ago and bring it back into the spotlight. This is because with the rise of the digital age there have been new ways to interpret news such as through 'memes' and jokes that people online make. This is because viewers of online news can take a screenshot or even take the whole video of the news and turn it into whatever content that they like meaning the continuity of the news even if it's nothing special can still be interpreted as way to be made fun of for a long time. 

E.g. Immediacy is more important than ever due to news breaking on social media or elsewhere online. However, this in turn changes the approach of other news sources such as newspapers as the news will probably already be broken so different angles might be required. Newspapers now contain more comment or opinion rather than the breaking story.