There are several factors that determine the value of the news. These include its source, magnification, and relevance. This article will discuss these factors and how they affect news value. It also covers the skills and techniques used to gather and present news. This article is not an attempt to be a liberal propagandist. Rather, it is intended to inform and educate.
Factors that affect news values
Various factors affect the news values of stories and events. These factors are related to the way the story is produced and published. Some of these factors are composition, co-option, and proximity. Composition news values concern the fit between a story and an event, while co-option news values seek to ensure a balance between similar stories and different topics.
As news outlets fight for market share, the importance of news value is increasingly important. As a result, they need to be more open to the views and contributions of their audiences. Moreover, news organizations must document these values to explain publishing policies to their contributors. This document can also serve as an educational tool for internal stakeholders.
The factors that affect news values are cumulative and compensatory. More factors make a story more newsworthy, while a story with few factors does not get any attention.
Skills and techniques in gathering and presenting the news
Traditionally, journalism has been defined as the process of gathering and presenting news stories. Today, the world’s fast-paced media landscape requires journalists to be quick in their reporting and to meet the deadline. However, the speed of today’s newsrooms is based on a variety of factors that are not necessarily permanent.
Gathering the news requires many skills. One of the most important is the ability to observe events. A skilled newsgatherer will observe and report events, using their eyes and ears to gather information and compile it into a news story. Using a variety of tools to record information, including notebooks and tape recorders, the journalist should search for dramatic or colorful situations to write about.
Gathering news stories requires the journalist to be able to process large amounts of information. The ability to organize and prioritize the large amount of information requires a keen sense of priorities. The journalist must also have an ethical compass, knowing when to avoid ethical landmines (such as graphic video). It is also important to have a firm grasp of the language and the tone used in reporting. Lastly, interviewing skills involve the skill of asking good questions and spotting important information.
Magnitude and relevance of stories
The magnitude and relevance of stories in news largely depends on the scale of the problem or event and the number of people affected. For example, a tax hike would impact the majority of people, while the pandemic of Covid-19 was most relevant in the early 2020s. Moreover, stories about an event or issue that is not new may have only marginal impact.
News is made up of different types of stories that compete with each other for space in the newspaper. The editor’s decision will determine how much prominence is given to a story based on its news value and the other competing stories. Editors use twelve different news values when selecting stories, and emphasize those that are most newsworthy based on those values.
A story is more newsworthy if it has a large number of people affected, involves a prominent public figure, is out of the ordinary, or involves disagreement. Stories with all seven of these values would be compelling, but few stories meet all seven.