This week's COM00481 Fourth Estate lecture seeks to define news and looks at news values and how they play a significant role in what actually is published and broadcast. We brief discuss news versus opinion, the 5Ws and the H, and meet the inverted pyramid for the first time.

1. The Fourth Estate: News Journalism
Topic 2

2. What is news?
 Mencher in News Reporting and Writing (p. 71) gives
us two definitions:

News is information people need to make sound decisions
about their lives

News is information about a break from the normal flow of
events, an interruption in the expected

3. NEWS VALUES
Impact
Timeliness
Proximity
Prominence
Conflict
Currency
The Unusual

4. IMPACT
 'synonymous with newsworthiness' says Conley
and Lamble (p85)
 Has breadth and depth:
 Either LOTS of people impacted somewhat or
 SOME people impacted heavily.
 Impact varies from group to group

5. Interest rate rises & falls
Broad impact
Deep impact
 MANY people to varying
 SOME people impacted
degrees
 Affects all households with
mortgages
heavily
 Examples:
 Pensioners and households
on lower incomes
 Households with very large
mortgages and only medium
incomes

6. Deep and tragic impact
 Car crashes into childcare
centre, causes fire
 Critically injures several
children
 Only a FEW people
impacted but impact is
heavy and tragic
Image source: The Australian

7. TIMELINESS
When
 Also relates to the news value of
'currency'.
 Journalists risk being scooped by
others on the same story
 Anniversaries of major news
events and recurring events –
opportunities for a related story
 Online news media challenged
traditional media’s news cycle
Image source: The Age

8. PROXIMITY
‘Where did the event happen?’
 But also more importantly for a
newspaper's readers - how did
it affect local people, and for
international stories Australians?
 Media constantly localise
international / national events
by looking for local (ie
Australian) connection
 Not just a geographic bias - but a
cultural and often ethnic one
 Cultural and national biases in
news values still prevalent, and
reflect Australia’s connections
and alliances with UK, NZ and
the US.

9. Proximity versus Prominence
One dead celebrity
Many dead ‘nobodies’
CNN wrote in Feb an article on the
imbalance on reporting famous and
ordinary people:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/06/us
/heroin-investigations/

10. PROMINENCE
 'Names make news'
 Celebrity dominates many areas of news reporting
 Position and power also qualify for prominence.
 Prominence has different values in different communities,
whether geographic or special interest.
 Social media puts the celebrity further into public
spotlight.

11. Prominence (and authority) has different
values for different communities
Surfing champ Steph Gilmour
Sex Discrimination Commissioner

12. CONFLICT
 Attracts readers and therefore journos
and editors love to write about conflict.
 From war to brawls to neighbourhood
disputes to differences of opinion – all
are conflict-related
 Crime, politics, sport, business - all have
elements of conflict
 Report conflict accurately and in a fair
and balanced manner.
 Conflict should be put in its proper
context
 Media should not inflame racial/tribal
tensions should not be inflamed or
exploited – eg Alan Jones and the
Cronulla Riots.
“Pussy Riot attacked with whips by Cossack militia at Sochi
Olympics“
URL: www.theguardian.com/music/2014/feb/19/pussy-riot-attacked-whip
cossack-milita-sochi-winter-olympics
Image sourced: The Guardian

13. CURRENCY
 Linked to timeliness
 Tied to lifecycle of a news event or perceived trends.
 When story ceases to provide new information or public
tires of the story, it has lost ‘currency’
 May be seasonal like the Bushfire season, the football
season,
 Or tied to an-going event: Philip Seymour Hoffmans’ death
and coroner's reports, court trials, anniversaries.

14. THE
UNUSUAL
Man Bites Dog
Get your facts
correct!!!
Image source: Gawker

15. News Values
 Generally accepted list but constantly debated
 Journalists’ ‘news sense’ tends to become internalised
 Application is flexible and depends upon:
 Perceived audiences
 Place, day, time of publication
 Newsworthiness ultimately hangs on the sense of
disorder. (Hartley)
 Journalists tend to favour conflict, prominence and
unusual values

16. How do editors determine what
gets a run in their paper?
 News flow exceeds editorial space (Sally White)
 Advertising volumes and the shrinking 'news
hole'
(Sally White)
 Stories which will get readers clicking on it run
 Financial interests of the newspaper itself

17. HARD NEWS VERSUS SOFT NEWS

18. HARD NEWS VERSUS SOFT NEWS
Soft news
 human interest story,
 the how-to and self-
development or
 lifestyle features,
 the entertainment yarn.
Hard news

19. HARD NEWS VERSUS SOFT NEWS
Soft news
Hard news
 human interest story,
 Front pages & early news pages
 the how-to and self-
 Top stories on news website
development or
 lifestyle features,
 the entertainment yarn.
homepage
 fair and balanced,
 accurate and brief
 account of issues or events.

20. Opinions – whose are they
Editorial
Opinion/Commentary
 In opinion section, or
 Opinions of ‘the newspaper’
 http://www.smh.com.au/com
ment/smheditorial/whatever-theresult-in-wa-senate-pollfarce-must-end-20140220333w8.html
 Position that the newspaper
supports, supported by
evidence
identified as analysis
 usually penned by experts or
senior editorial staff because
of their extensive knowledge
on a topic.
 GOOD commentary is
supported by argument
and evidence

21. News writing conventions
 5Ws and the H
 Inverted pyramid

22. News writing conventions
 5Ws and the H
 WHO
 WHAT
 WHEN
 WHERE
 WHY
 And HOW
 Inverted pyramid

23. News writing conventions
 5Ws and the H
 WHO
 WHAT
 WHEN
 WHERE
 WHY
 And HOW
 Inverted pyramid
 Most important to least
important

24. News writing conventions
 5Ws and the H
 WHO
 WHAT
 WHEN
 WHERE
 WHY
 Inverted pyramid
 Most important to least
important,
 with a summary
lead/intro.
 And HOW

25. Inverted pyramid
Most important
Least important

26. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/nsw-beaches-closed-on-tsunami-threat-20100228-paii.html (accessed 28 February 2010)

27. Summary
 News is that which is happening now, has just happened




or will happen;
Journalists rely upon set of ‘news values’ in deciding
what stories to cover;
Application of news values is contested by journos +
editors
Hard news – a fair and balanced, accurate and brief
account of issues or events.
Conventions of news writing include the 5Ws + H, plus
inverted pyramid