Lecture Ten - News Values

"The degree of prominence a media outlet gives to a story, and the attention that is paid by the audience"


There are numerous news values with News Values in many ways being the 'newsworthiness' of the story. Different news organisations and countries will have different News Values. Two of the biggest news values that we see day to day are 'If it Bleeds it Leads' as well as local news leads.

Essentially if it 'bleeds it leads' refers to the idea that stories of crime, gore etc are the most newsworthy. A similar approach is seen with the idea that local news leads. This was particularly evident during the 2010/2011 Queensland Floods, when the media coverage was almost solely concentrated on this event.

There are several identified values which determine the newsworthiness of a story. This table from the lecture details some of the news values -

Some critics believe that by editors sticking to the newsworthy values they have neglected to report news which may be more important. News Values and picking what is newsworthy is difficult, after all everyone will find something more important. This evident when looking at publications and what they contain. A magazine like New Idea contains stories almost solely about celebrity gossip, a country newspaper will discuss the price of cattle or grain, a health magazine will have articles which relate to healthy living. The audience is aware of this when they pick up their publication.