News values

Immediacy: has it happened recently?

Immediacy is more important than ever due to news breaking on Twitter 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.

Familiarity: is it culturally close to us in Britain?

Local news tends to focus on what is happening in Britain as we tend to care less about other countries and in particular, those that are seen as minority. International news however is easily accessible online e.g. The India Times. The development of new media allows international news to be more accessible as apps are available also.

Amplitude: is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people?

Due to the rise in user generated content, events are now recorded and more footage is available from the public. This has caused an increase in citizen journalism as news companies then use this footage when describing events e.g. protests as they involve a large number of people and tend to have a large impact. User generated content is also widely available on social networking sites e.g. Twitter as people post and share their content. 

Frequency: did the event happen fairly quickly?

It is not always possible for news companies to capture an event that happens fairly quickly as it is time consuming for them to get their reporters down to an event. This again links to the rise in user generated content and the fact that citizen journalism is taking over regular journalism as the public who are already at the event tend to record it on their phones anyway, which is later used by news companies.

Unambiguity: is it clear and definite?

News companies have to be very careful when reporting news as it needs to be 100% certain and correct before the story is made available to the public. It may however take a while for companies to be certain and in that time before the release, the story can already out break online and through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Predictability: did we expect it to happen?

For news that is expected to happen, news companies organise for their reporters to be present at those events. This then allows them to cover stories and gain visual content which can then be displayed on TV, online and through social networking sites for audiences to view.

Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected event?

If an event is rare or unexpected, it tends to create a 'hype' depending on the severity of the story. This leads to the topic becoming big on social networking as the story is spread across the social networking sites. Sites such as Twitter use hashtags which then promote the story or event. For example, Alice Gross' recent death was unexpected and placed itself all over the news, including the BBC. There was also a #findalice campaign in search for the young girl which boosted the awareness on Twitter.

Continuity: has this story already been defined as news?

With developing technology and media, it is important for news companies to release the latest stories and not repeat 'yesterdays news'. Therefore, if a story has already been released online and through social networking sites, news companies will need to find a different approach when releasing the story or take another approach on it.

Elite nations and people: which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-

known people?

International news is widely available online, on TV and on the radio. Stories that have an impact on the world tend to make the news. For example, if Obama makes an important speech then it will reach news stories as he is an elite person. It would also be available on sites such as YouTube where people can comment, share, like and dislike the video.

Negativity: is it bad news?

Reporting bad news can be quite controversial, depending on the severity. Events such as ISIS is obviously bad news for most of us in the UK, however with people fleeing from the UK to join ISIS in Iraq. It therefore might be bad news for some but not for others. During ISIS, people in Iraq were posting videos of the assassinations of citizens all over social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook which the police then removed.

Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death.

News companies tend to balance bad news with good news quite often, however usually if it puts someone or something in a negative light. With the recent outbreak of Ebola, the story is not being balanced with many human survival stories as the disease is air born and therefore not anyone's fault and nobody is to blame, so it does not portray anyone in a negative way. The 'hype' for the disease spreading into different countries however is carried out through social networking sites such as Twitter which hashtags e.g. #ebolaoutbreak, #ebola, #stopebola and #ebolavirus.