The Eight News Values

Aug 20, 2010
Sarah Mathiesen

Identifying newsworthiness - [BarZaN] Qtr [Boston]

There are eight major values that determine newsworthiness - prominence, proximity, currency, timeliness, conflict, impact, human interest, odd or unusual.

When determining whether a potential news story has ‘legs’ or not, journalists often look for one or more of the eight news values – prominence, proximity, currency, timeliness, conflict, impact, human interest and the odd or the unusual.

The more news values a story possesses, the more newsworthy it is deemed to be.

News Value of Prominence

The term ‘prominence’ applies to the people a news story is about. If the people are well-known, then the news story is deemed newsworthy because of prominence.

Prominence is relative to the audience of any given publication. For example, the lavish wedding of a city’s well-known police chief may make front page news in the local paper, but this story isn't apt to be broadcast nationally.

On the other hand, while Michael Jackson’s death made international headlines in 2009, very few local newspapers would have provided comprehensive, heavy coverage because the news was unlikely to have a direct impact on readers.

News Value of Proximity

Proximity refers to the physical or emotional closeness of a news story to a media outlet’s audience and helps readers/viewers relate to a story on a more personal level.

An example of physical proximity is singer, Susan Boyle’s rise to fame on British reality show, The X Factor. While Boyle’s winning journey on the show was watched by the world, the closer the media got to Boyle’s hometown, the greater the newsworthiness and the heavier the reportage.

Boyle can also be used to illustrate emotional proximity. While readers of business, teen or sports magazines would not have been interested in Boyle’s story; magazines that target older women continued to run stories about Boyle for months after she won The X Factor. This is because women at roughly the same stage in life as Boyle could relate to her in a unique way.

News Value of Currency

Currency is the ‘flavour of the month’ news value. Currency comes into play when a particular story or theme is already being covered by the media and further developments or side stories are likely to be appreciated.

For example, prior to, during and just after the 2010 FIFA World Cup, many media outlets ran stories loosely related to the Cup. Travel media were talking about holidays to South Africa, women’s magazines featured stories about the hottest players, men’s magazines discussed the hottest WAGs, children’s media dealt out football tips, and so on.

News Value of Timeliness

Not to be confused with currency, timeliness refers to harder hitting stories and important developments in a story that would lose their newsworthiness if not reported as soon as possible.

For example, it would not be timely to report that an earthquake had “just killed 34 people in downtown Los Angeles” if the quake had, in fact, happened two days ago. News with a timeliness factor must be reported at the earliest possible opportunity.

News Value of Conflict

Conflict refers to conflict or dispute between two or more parties. This may include international conflict such as war, political conflict during an election, conflict of opinion, conflict between two sporting teams or reality TV competitors.

Conflict is a great news value because it often encourages audiences to take one side or the other. Therefore, readers, listeners and viewers become emotionally invested in the story.

News Value of Impact

Impact refers to the shock or “wow” factor of a news story and generally requires a story to affect a large group in a large way.

Natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis are a good example of impact as a news value because even footage of the destruction can have great impact.

News Value of Human Interest

Human interest stories are simply heart-wrenching stories — happy or sad — about people and their challenges or achievements. Human interest stories are often about people who have overcome a great challenge or tragedy such as young people who have sailed solo around the world, athletes who have overcome a disability or people who have done something selfless for others. Human interest stories are typically considered soft news or feature-style stories.

Odd or Unusual Components as a News Value

As the name suggests, this news value is all about things that are out of the ordinary. Nadia ‘Octomum’ Suleman and her set of octuplets became international news in 2009 because their story was entirely unprecedented. UFOs and aliens are often in the news because of their odd and unusual appeal, also.

Many news stories possess more than one news value. A combination of news values strengthens a story’s newsworthiness by making it more interesting, thereby drawing in a larger audience. Journalists are trained to identify these news values and play on them when they are writing their story in order to piece together a story that is both informative and entertaining.