Galtung and Ruge defined a set of news values to explain how journalists and editors decide that certain stories and photographs were accepted as newsworthy, while others were not.
The following list is adapted from their work:
Immediacy: has it happened recently?
Familiarity: is it culturally close to us in Britain?
Amplitude: is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people?
Frequency: does the event happen fairly regularly?
Unambiguity: is it clear and definite?
Predictability: did we expect it to happen?
Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected event?
Continuity: has this story already been defined as news?
Elite nations and people: which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people?
Personalisation: Is it a personal or human interest story?
Negativity: is it bad news?
Exclusivity: do any other newspapers have this story?
Visual impact: are there amazing pictures accompanying the story?
Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death.
Read Media Factsheet 76: News Values
1) Come up with a news story from the last 12 months for each of the categories suggested by Harriss, Leiter and Johnson:
- Conflict
https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2017/11/24/over-200-murdered-in-egypt-marking-an-escalation-of-the-battle-for-sinai?zid=312&ah=da4ed4425e74339883d473adf5773841
- Progress
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45698446
- Disaster
https://news.sky.com/story/at-least-832-dead-in-indonesia-quake-tsunami-disaster-11513150
- Consequence
http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2018-10-01/forensic-evidence-which-led-to-brutal-murder-conviction/
- Prominence
https://www.ft.com/content/fd3582b6-c2f5-11e8-95b1-d36dfef1b89a
- Novelty
https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-grants-citizenship-to-robot-sophia/a-41150856
Galtung and Ruge's 1965 list when selecting news stories / news values:
- Time span
- Intensity or threshold value
- Clarity or lack of ambiguity
- Cultural proximity or relevance
- Unexpectedness
- Continuity
- Composition
- Socio-culture
The higher a news story scores on this list the more likely it will be used for news.
3) What is gatekeeping?
Gatekeeping is the process of filtering information prior to dissemination. This process is usually done via the editor, but the gatekeeping process could be seen to be more than simply an editor choosing one story over another, it could also refer to how journalist select certain lines of questioning, or use some words over others to describe people and event. In general, gatekeeping is about opening or closing the channels of communication and, in the case of news, it is a way for news institution to control the ‘flow’ of information passed on to the audience.
4) What are the six ways bias can be created in news?
Bias is created by selection and omission:
By choosing the story to publish it is bias of the editor and others are included to give different opinion.
Bias through placement:
Where a story is placed influences its importance and what the people think about its importance.
Bias by headline:
Headlines can be misleading and it is the must read part of the newspaper as they are big and bold.
Bias by photos, captions and camera angles:
They way the pictures are composed to the audience has a huge effect to how they are positioned to make anything look as certain way.
Bias through use of names and titles:
Certain names and titles are used to describe people and events which can vary.
Bias by choice of word:
The choice of work positive or negative has certain connotations that make audiences read the news in a certain way.
5) How have online sources such as Twitter, bloggers or Wikileaks changed the way news is selected and published?
Wikileaks cites itself as being a ‘raw source’ of information for news. Its only agenda is to bring about ‘transparency’ and ‘freedom of speech’ and it offers a way for audiences to access news stories that may have been mediated or censored prior to being reported. The fact
that Wikileaks only publishes raw material bypasses news values,
however, this information is passed on to news institutions who
will use the information for their own news agenda. Online news put out more raw news that hasn't been as pre meditated as print media.
6) Complete the task on the last page of the Factsheet regarding Sky News and Twitter:
Look at this leaked email about Twitter sent to Sky Staff:
“The Twitter phenomenon continues to explode. A photo with
an eyewitness in Lahore yesterday came to us through Twitter.
Last night’s breaking story on the death of a Briton in the
Alps came to us from Twitter. The first phone on the Buffalo
plane crash came from Twitter. The first photo of the Hudson
River rescue came from Twitter. Convinced?”
- What does this reveal about how Sky views Twitter as a news source?
Sky news views twitter as a useful source in generating news as well as accumulating evidence for news stories. Sky news recognise that people use twitter as a way to report 'news' and what happens around them which contributes to differentiating stories from fake news and real news - "convinced?"
- What does it say about how news is being produced?
It touches upon the idea that news is produced more and more through ocular sources such as picture evidence or phone calls due to the increased use of digital technology and digital media for news reporting and citizen journalism.
- What role does the audience have in this process?
The audience are essentially playing the role of journalists and are creating citizen journalism to present news.
- Why might this be a problem for journalistic standards?
Citizen journalism is news reported, presented and founded by everyday people, often using their phones and means of social media to present their news. This may be a problem for journalists who go out everyday to find news stories as they are their job is essentially being done everyday by ordinary people. Citizen journalism is based on capturing the situation in the moment of it happening.
7) In your opinion, how has the digital age changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values?
The digital age has changed Galtung and Ruge's theory of news values because now it is much harder to keep up with the updates and everyday current affairs. The fact that now many students are being convinced to watch the news and keep up with everything it is quite difficult as a result.
8) How would you update them for 2018? How have Galtung and Ruge's news values been affected by the growth of digital technology?
Time span - digital technology has made breaking news accessible at the specific time of events as social media has created greater access to these stories - breaking news can be shared via facebook, twitter, instagram and can be uploaded on news sites immediately. This is a limitation for print media as they are not as able to report immediate news through newspapers and may have to wait for the next day - by then people may have already seen the news story through digital media. There is little time span between events and how quickly it is reported online.
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.
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