News Values

In our journalism class this week we looked at news values, the things that make news important enough to be news. We covered the cult of celebrity, looked at drama and quirkiness and considered the way in which news needs to have some degree of proximity to us to be considered newsworthy. Our lecturer Marie used the example of how after an overseas plane crash, local news agencies will always mention Australian casualties. While Hurricane Sandy was battering New York, local media used the fact that footy star Jonathan Thurston was coincidently visiting the city, to try to add an Australian connection to their story, something I found superfluous considering the size and impact of the main story. (In relation to Marie's point, I often find myself sarcastically muttering "that's all right then" after hearing that 400 people have died but none of them were Australian.)

Timeliness was also mentioned. A story has to be new or at least have a new approach or angle to have news value, something that was certainly demonstrated to me yesterday as the day's news unfolded. 


Just before our tutorial, I watched Julia Gillard's speech to people who were forcibly adopted, and Simon Crean talking about Labor's leadership woes on my iPad. An hour later, while leaving Townsville to head home, I heard Simon Crean on the radio during another press conference, talking about a leadership spill and how he was now nominating himself for deputy leader behind Kevin Rudd. By the time I'd reached the outer suburbs of Townsville, Tony Abbott had called for a vote of no confidence in the government, though just as I started thinking how Australia could be without a government before I got halfway to Ingham, this motion was defeated. I was at Tully when ABC Radio announced that Julia Gillard was still Labor leader. So much news in four hours! At least that's the last we'll hear of Labor's leadership problems for a while. Ha, I don't think so.

We also looked how news values change depending on the type of news medium itself. A newspaper can fill an entire page with details of what happened at a council meeting, yet for television, footage of that same meeting would be the equivalent of watching paint dry.