1. Ethics and News Values.
In this article I will be talking about a serious and sensational story that I have been assigned to do. I will
talk about what certain things that are included in news articles. In October 4 2013 a 4 year old blonde
Romanian girl was found living in a gypsy site with a couple. The 4 year old girl had blonde hair and bright
green eyes which were different from the couple that she was living with. The couple were a male and
female which were dark skinned and both had black/brown dark hair and brown eyes. This caused major
controversy and local authorities to believe that the child had been kidnapped from her real parents.
Over a short period of time this story has gotten really popular throughout Europe in hope that people
would know who her real parents are. This then made the story a priority and became breaking news all
over Europe including BBC, ITV, Sky, and Channel 4 and so on. The news reached all of the newspaper
companies throughout Europe also, making it headlines for a long period of time. This story caused gypsy
camps to be viewed as dangerous for other people but also caused local police to investigate the camp in
search of other children that might be kidnapped of some sort. The immediacy of the story was very
important due to the fact that the local police wanted to know who the parents of the 4 year old girl are
and return her to them as quickly as possible. Due to the importance and immediacy of the story other
famous missing children cases was raised and gave their families a sense of hope to find their missing
children. An example of this will be Madeline McCann’s parents have been interviewed to show what
they think of this story and what they feel about it. Other parents of missing children were also
interviewed with hope of finding their children within the gypsy camp. This caused more publicity
amongst people within Europe. The Madeline McCann story was the main follow up story due to the fact
that a suspicion of kidnap of a 4 year old girl was mentioned. People then assumed that Madeline
McCann might be in the gypsy camp therefore giving her parents hope of finding her within the area. The
story was also on TV and radio all over Europe, with this being on TV and radio this will obviously include
audio clips from news reporters investigating at the scene. Newspaper, TV and radio all had quotes from
insiders who knew what was going on with the situation. These are all good examples of availability of
audio. A lot of quotes were gathered throughout the news story such as “they told us that they didn’t
give her any money, and that they met by accident”. This was required from an inside source within the
gypsy camp. The story is a human interest due to the fact that many people are also affected by this
problem. This story gave hope for the parents that have been inflicted by this problem. Other people are
generally interested in story similar to this due to the fact that it is un human to do such a thing, this will
trigger a lot of peoples emotions.
Celebrities are known to be in a way a ‘public’s property’ due to the fact that they reveal themselves
completely to the public. The phone hacking scandal that occurred, news of the world’s was
cantered and targeted, mainly involved the celebrities, and also the public. The phone hacking
scandal has drawn claims that up to 3,000 celebrities, politicians and sports stars had their
communications monitored. This topic of news involved phone hacking towards celebrities and the
public therefore made the story a priority. The importance of the news became so high that it
appeared on nearly every news tabloid all over Europe. It was also on TV, radio and other media
sources relating the news. The duration of the news did not easily go away either. The more the
press looked into the problem the more problems they eventually found out. The immediacy of the

2. story was so important that the police got involved with the whole situation. Celebrities were also
suing certain news companies that are involved with the phone hacking scandal. As the story
expanded more and more celebrities eventually found out that they are victims of the phone
hacking scandal. Like I mentioned before, it wasn’t just celebrities involved. Politicians and sports
stars were involved as well. Some stars have been vocal on the issue, especially Hugh Grant and
Steve Coogan, who both claim to have had their mobiles tampered with. Actress Sienna Miller won
£100,000 in damages from the News of the World in May, after the paper admitted hacking her
phone. The phone hacking scandal involved a lot of important people such as celebrities, politicians
and sports stars. From the public’s point of view, we would understand that they too would get
scared about getting their phones hacked. This led to more follow up stories such as if newspapers
companies can hack celebrities they can also hack the public, this would spark a lot of controversy.
When Hugh Grant was interviewed this is what he had to say. ‘There has been a section of our press
that has become allowed to become toxic over the last 20 or 30 years and its main tactic is by
bullying and intimidation and blackmail’. This is a good example of availability of audio. From what
we can see from the feedback of what the victims had to say, we can see Hugh Grant is very upset
with the situation and is showing why he is upset. Different radio stations will have newsroom policy
because of their target audience. Radio stations such as Key 103 and Capital will have a higher
priority because of their target audience which are young teenagers and young adults, therefore the
phone hacking story will interest them more. Other radio stations will still broadcast it because of its
priority but radio stations aimed at the younger audience will appeal to it more. The phone hacking
incident will be a human interest because it applies to us. In this day and age, nearly everyone will
have a mobile phone on them which we use every day. To hear from a publics point of view that
there are news companies hacking the phones of celebrities, politicians, sports stars and the public,
will generally scare them. Therefore, this will scare them and would want to learn more about the
story.
Overall in terms of celebrities dealing with the public and of course their privacy, in my opinion even
though they are celebrities and they deal with the public nearly all the time, they are still entitled to
have their privacy. Just like any other human being, we have the right to privacy.