Lesson 6 – Institutions: Gatekeepers and News Values Lesson 6

Lesson 6 – Institutions: Gatekeepers and News Values

Lesson 6

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News Judgement Activity

You are the editor for your local newspaper. Which story would you report of these three and why? Would your choice change if you were reporting for a national newspaper? • A woman’s cat gets stuck up a tree.• A man dies in a collision with a lorry at a local

accident blackspot.• An earthquake in San Francisco kills two hundred

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Key Terms for Today

News Values – the decisions behind how much prominence a news story is given by a media outlet, and the attention it is given by the audience.

Gatekeeping – the process of filtering information before it is given to the audience through the choosing of stories, the editing of footage etc.

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Denis MacShane (1979)News ValuesDenis MacShane (1979) sets out five key areas in which journalists are likely follow in their decision making process:

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News Value Description

Conflict This can be any kind of conflict from war to relationships.

Hardship or danger to the community

Perceived threats either from people, nature or events.

The unusual Bizarre occurrences, not everyday happenings.

Scandal Bad behaviour usually celebrities or high profile people.

Individualism Individuals and their achievements – not the wider community.

Look at the following front pages for The Daily Mail.

Which of MacShane’s news values are evident?

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Galtung and Ruge (1973)News ValuesGaltung and Ruge (1973) also developed a set of values which are used as a form of ‘gatekeeping’, ensuring that news reporting is relevant and informative for consumers of news broadcasts. These values determine how much prominence a news story can be given.

Some cultures have different ideas of what they consider to be newsworthy.

In the UK, it is said that we are particularly interested in celebrity news.

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Galtung and Ruge (1973)news values

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Factor ExplanationFrequency Short-term events such as murders or robberies that occur frequently are newsworthy. Other frequent newsworthy items are politics,

economics and education.Threshold Events that have impact – large numbers involved, perhaps casualties in an accident, or a particularly gruesome murder – could be considered

newsworthy.Unambiguity

News reports must have immediate meaning and no ambiguity, so they can be easily understood.

ProximityNews must be about the people it is targeted at and relevant to them.

PredictabilityNews that is hinted at, and then becomes real as expected by the media.

UnexpectednessEvents that are unexpected are considered newsworthy. ‘Man eats tiger!’

ContinuityNews stories, once reported, must continue to be reported on, as we expect to see closure, i.e. Royal Wedding, Michael Schumacher.

Composition News must be balanced at the time of broadcast, consisting of relevant news, urgency, importance and domesticity – length of reports adjusted accordingly.

Reference to Elite Nations News which relates culturally to our own and which is relevant to us. We are not necessarily interested in the news of a tiny country we have

never heard of on the other side of the world, but we are interested in European news because it is close to us.Reference to elite

persons News about our monarchy is extremely newsworthy, as is news about politicians.

Personalisation News must feel personal; someone is accountable for their actions rather than an organisation. Celebrity or human interest. Election campaigns will become personal, party leaders representing their parties.

Negativity The newsworthy value is ‘bad news is good news’ and is therefore worth reporting. Death, tragedy and extreme weather conditions are newsworthy reporting.

Visual Imperative Footage or photos of an event can help make a story more newsworthy.

FREQUENCY

Events that are easy to report on

Often these are events that occur suddenly, are short-term and require little explanation

Examples could be murders, robberies, motorway pile-ups

Stories may run for only one day

Other examples could be politics, economics and education news, which change frequently


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THRESHOLD

The bigger impact the story has, the more people it affects, the more extreme the effect or the more money or resources it involves, the more newsworthy it is.

Examples could be a large motorway pile-up or perhaps a particularly gruesome murder!


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Galtung and Ruge (1973)news valuesUNAMBIGUITY

In order for news reports to be clearly understood by their audience, they must be constructed so that they are not ambiguous and portray clear meaning of the event.

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PROXIMITY

The closer to home it is, the more likely it is to be relevant to them.

Examples are stories that are broadcast on regional news.


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PREDICTABILITY

News stories that could occur, depending upon a particular situation, and may be hinted at by the media.An example is when we have snow; we can expect news broadcasts about how the country is brought to a halt by snow.


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UNEXPECTEDNESS

If an event is out of the ordinary, it will be more likely to make it into the news than an everyday occurrence would.

An example could be‘Man eats tiger!’


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CONTINUITY

News stories once reported, if there is a sequence of events, require continuing coverage of the stories in order for us to see closure.

An example could be the announcementof the christening of Prince George.

Coverage would continue with the build-up of the event to the actual event itself.


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COMPOSITION

News stories must be balanced at the time of broadcast, dependent upon the urgency and importance of the news.News reports will also have different lengths depending on the type of information to be given.

For example, you would not expect to hear a ‘soft’ news story at the beginning of the news, particularly if there was ‘hard’ news to be broadcast.


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REFERENCE TO ELITE NATIONS

News that relates culturally to our own and that is relevant to us. For example, we are not necessarily interested in the news of a tiny country we have never heard of on the other side of the world.

But we are interested in European or US news because it is close to us.


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REFERENCE TO ELITE PERSONS

The media pay attention to the rich, powerful, famous and infamous. Stories about important people get the most coverage.

For example, news about the Royal Family, politicians and celebrities. Especially scandal!


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PERSONALISATION

People are interested in people.

It is more personal if a person is accountable rather than an institution. Election campaigns can be more successful if they focus on the individuals, such as the party leaders, rather than the actual party itself.

Particular news stories could have an added human interest angle to give them more emphasis.

For example, the recession has affected many people, but a human interest story might report on how many people are desperately poor and having to use food banks in order to survive.


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NEGATIVITY

Bad news is good news!It is more exciting than good news.

Stories about death, tragedy, bankruptcy, violence, damage, natural disasters, political upheaval or simply extreme weather conditions have more value.


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VISUAL IMPERATIVE

A strong visual can help a story which may otherwise not be as compelling, and also add authenticity.

For example, TV news broadcasts of war zones, famine in less developed countries, the 2011 London riots


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In pairs, listen to the BBC News three-minute summary of the newsheadlines for today.

On the worksheet, indicate the structure of the summary by analysing the news values for eachof the news stories, as well as the length of each story.

You could consider whether it is urgent national news, foreign news or domestic news.

Analysing and applying news values

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/video/

Plenary

Headlines and News Values

Watch the beginning of three TV news bulletins.

Write down some headlines and indicate which news value each story meets.

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Documents

Lesson 6 – Institutions: Gatekeepers and News Values Lesson 6