Media Factsheet 76: News Values

1) Read Media Factsheet 76: News Values and complete the following questions/tasks.
2) Come up with a news story from the last 12 months for each of the categories suggested by Harriss, Leiter and Johnson:

• Conflict- Westminster attack  
• Progress- Catalonia Independence
• Disaster- Hurricane in Florida
• Consequence- Brexit negotiations
• Prominence - Trump presidency
• Novelty- John Lewis Christmas advert

3) What example news story does the Factsheet use to illustrate Galtung and Ruge's News Values? Why is it an appropriate example of a news story likely to gain prominent coverage?
The example the factsheet uses is Afghanistan as an example. In terms of "geographical proximity its far from the UK" , but it involved a British soldier. Its also a continuous story- often the interest in the story lies in the fact that deaths, are not predictable.

4) What is gatekeeping?
Gatekeeping is a way of mediating certain content before it is published online.It could also refer to how journalist select content- they might use some words over others to describe a specific event or person. 

5) What are the six ways bias can be created in news?

• Through selection and omission - Choose a specific story; some details in the story are ignored 

• Placement- Stories on the front page are more important. TV and radio broadcast usually mention important stories. 

• Headline- Often printed in large and bold fonts. Can be misleading, conveying excitement when the story is not exciting. 

• Photos, captions and camera angles- Pictures can alter the persons appearance and personality. Photos used by newspapers can heavily influence the public's perception of a person or event. 

• Names and titles- Labels and titles are used to describe people, places and events. E.g in places around the world, someone can be named a terrorist, and on others a freedom fighter. 

• Choice of words- People can be influenced by the use of positive and negative words with certain connotations.They can also be influenced by the tone that a newscaster uses when saying certain words. 

6) How have online sources such as Twitter, bloggers or Wikileaks changed the way news is selected and published?
Twitter provides the public with eye witness accounts of a particular event, most of which is used in the news. This allows the public to post content online that is used by various news organisations. Wikileaks is a "whistle blowing site" that provides a "raw source" of information for news. It offers a way for audiences to access news stories that might have been mediated or censored prior to being reported. Bloggers can "unprofessionally" post content online which often does not get used by mainstream press. Most people who use blogs as their news source however is "still not comparable to the amount of people viewing institutional sources."

7) Give an example of a news story from the last WEEK that was reported as a result of online technology - Twitter, Wikileaks or similar.
Wikileaks released documents on off-shore tax havens. 

8) Complete the task on the last page of the Factsheet regarding Sky News and Twitter:

• What does this reveal about how Sky views Twitter as a news source?

It suggests that Sky views Twitter as a source for exclusive photos of important events.

• What does it say about how news is being produced?

News is now being produced by the public, as they provide eye-witness accounts of significant events and publish them on social media

• What role does the audience have in this process?

It empowers them in a way as they now have control over what content people should see on the news, rather than news organisations providing a vague account of the event. 

• Why might this be a problem for journalistic standards?

It becomes less professional- the footage is mostly low quality, sound problems may occur. Also the content only covers one perspective, which again makes it difficult for audiences to fully understand the different aspects of the event. 
9) In your opinion, how has new and digital media technology changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values? 
Galtung and Ruge's news values were used to mediate content that is submitted to a news organisation, in order to cover specific news stories. However new and digital meia has allowed audiences to be the producers of their own news, and in turn diminish the role of existing gatekeepers in major institutions. Citizen journalism e.g recording an event on your phone has allowed audiences to submit unfiltered content to a news institution without the presence of gatekeepers or a mediation process.
10) How would you update them for 2016? Choose SIX of Galtung and Ruge's news values and say how each one has been affected by the growth of new and digital technology.

• E.g. 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- News stories that trend on Twitter are mostly UK based. This means that we have access to a large amount of stories that affect us in the UK, as well as global stories which are also broadcast on TV and available on social media. 
• Amplitude- If the event involves a large number of people, citizen journalism allows various individuals to post different accounts of the same event (the wider the variety of footage). Usually an event that involves a large amount of people, is most likely to be one of the most popular stories on the news.
• Predictability- Social media has allowed people to comment on global news stories, especially political events. If an event is unexpected, it usually gains more publicity as its controversial. 
• Elite nations and people- The most popular news stories are about "elite nations and people". This is due to the vast amount of attention they get on social media- trending stories on social media sites such as Twitter are usually about "elite nations and people".
• Negativity- Usually citizen journalism relates to negative news stories e.g terrorism, racial or political violence. Most often, negative news gets more publicity as people find it more interesting. Recently acts of terror were recorded by victims and witnesses on their phones and published online to depict the events. 
• Balance- However other content is published/broadcast to show balance out the negative news in the media. Thsi may be a viral video, or a heartwarming story. Since there is no professional mediation process when it comes to citizen journalism, people tend to post content on a variety of things that are entertaining e.g a prank.