COM 13500 Introduction to Journalism

1. Defining News

2. Today’s Concepts

4. • Newsworthiness is a highly subjective matter,
but people in the news business must decide
every day which stories are the most deserving
of coverage.
– This is based on:
• which stories the audience is most
likely to listen to
• which stories will attract the viewers
– Is undeniably part of the equation
and because of that news
businesses strive to present
what’s been called infotainment--
-information presented in an
entertaining way.

5. The “GateKeeping” Process
• News Values
– Proximity
– Timeliness
– Impact
– Prominence
– Conflict
– Human Interest

6. Proximity
– Where an event occurs is
important.
– In earlier days if a story
happened far from the
station, it was simply impossible
to get to the scene and cover it
and get back to do all of the
necessary things to be able to
air it that evening.
– Now, that has changed
dramatically with the
introduction of electronic news-
gathering and satellite news-
gathering technology.

7. Timeliness
– WHEN
– Some news observers contend that
timeliness is even more important
on today’s local news scene than it
was in earlier days, because of
technology.
– Timeliness also has a lot to do with
recent stories that are similar. Local
stories can be covered live and with
very little time needed.
– How does the Internet change the
news gathering process?

8. Impact
– One of the things news managers
consider when deciding which
stories to cover is which ones will
impact the greatest number of
listeners or viewers.
– Who cares about this? Why?
– Who is your audience?

9. Prominence
– One of the things that makes
stories about celebrities of
interest is their prominence.
– A person’s standing in society or
recognize-ability plays a role in
making stories about that
person newsworthy.
– Is this person in the public eye?

10. Conflict
– One side against the other
– Disagreement makes for good copy and even
better for video.
– Good broadcast writers know how to highlight
conflict without embellishing it.

11. “Human Interest”/Unusual Stories

12. Does the story fit the medium?
• Ask yourself, what are the strengths/weaknesses of the medium?
– Newspapers?
– Online?
– Television?
– Radio?
Some stories make television that wouldn’t cut it in a newspaper, and
visa versa.
– http://am.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/14/incredible-rescue-from-
burning-motorcycle/