Why is it that mass media outlets feature particular news stories prominently while others receive little, if any, coverage? Just as individual audience members have access to so much news that they need to decide what kind of information they want to consume (and how they access it), news outlets must decide which events are worth covering and which events are not. Although every outlet is different, mass media gatekeepers have traditionally relied on some predictable values to evaluate the newsworthiness of a story. Their decisions impact if and how any given story is covered, including how many resources are spent following the story, and how prominently the story is featured. The following is a brief overview of two conceptual news values models that journalists continue to use today to evaluate the newsworthiness of potential stories. Gatlung and Ruge developed the first model in 1973 and Shoemaker et al. followed up with a similar model in 1987. Gatlung and Ruge, 1973
Shoemaker et al., 1987
Every news outlet has a different protocol for selecting which stories to run, but some shared, traditional values can also determine the “newsworthiness” of a story. The more of these news values a story satisfies, the more likely you are to see it prominently featured in mass media outlets. ReferencesCampbell, Vincent. Information Age Journalism: Journalism in an International Context. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. 117-123. Fleming, Carole, et al. An Introduction to Journalism. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2006. 4-26. |