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News
• Information that has not been heard before• Something interesting or important• Something that will have an impact on the
public
Gatekeepers
• Directors & producers: select stories & plan shows
• Editors: select & prioritize items for pages or paper
• Gatekeepers ask: “What will most people like?• First page of a paper is like a store front– What interests people most is displayed in the
window just as most interesting news is placed on the front page of a paper.
What is news?
• News is “what is say it is. It’s something worth knowing by my standards.”
– David Brinkley, NBC news anchor
What is news?
• “News revolves around the three W’s—‘Women, wampum, wrongdoing.’
(sex, money, crime)- Stanley Walker, editor of New York Herald Tribune
What is news?
• Events must be a bit out of the ordinary for it to be news.
• “When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often, but if a man bites a dog, it’s news.”– John Bogart, editor of the New York Sun
Fact, Interest, Audience
• Determine which stories are news• Facts– Is the story material adequate, accurate, timely
• Interest– How much meaning does a story have to readers?
• Audience– Who are the readers or viewers?
Influencing Factors
1. Size of news hole30-minute TV news = 22 minutes news
8 minutes of ads22 minutes of news is subdivided = international,
national, local news
Number of pages in a newspaper = number of ads
Influencing Factors
2. News Flow• Determines a story’s importance• News that happens at the same time may effect
worthiness of another story• Stories may be rearranged or cut from the
budget
Influencing Factors
3. Medium• Certain stories may be more appropriate for
certain news formatso TV = emotional appealo Newspaper = provides more info. & detailso Internet = provides written & video formo Radio = immediate reporting, limits number of stories
and length
Federal Communications Commission
• FCC• Est. 1934• Made up of five commissioners appointed by
president
Federal Communications Commission
• Regulates air waves– Licenses radio & TV stations– Assigns frequencies & amount of power use– Assigns call letters • Example: WDVE, WXDX, WPXI
Influencing Factors
4. Deadlines• Internet, radio, TV = short deadlines• Newspapers = longer deadline
o Example: evening paper = noon deadlinea.m. paper = midnight
o Average-size nsp. = one editiono Larger-size nsp. = two editions
Influencing Factors
5. Editorial Philosophy• Policies set by publishers & station owners• Purpose = to guide reports in knowing what is
news for their nsp. or program• In 1700s press was govt. watchdog• Newspapers have political agenda– Conservative or liberal
Influencing Factors
• FCC prohibited stations from taking political stance due to limited number of stations
• FCC changed policy, but most stations refrain from taking sides.
Influencing Factors
6. Business• nsp. & broadcast stations are a business• Largest income = advertising sales• Ad rates = based on number of subscribers or
viewers of a medium
Finding News
• News Judgment – journalists develop a sense of what is news
• Use wire services, letters, calls, and tips• Must find 2-3 story ideas • Professional – use competitors as sources• Beats – regular contact sources– Example: police beat, educational beat, govt.
Localizing News
• Stories can originate in other places• Local angle (noun)– A fact or person that connects the story to local
audience – Example: Pittsburgh sisters ran orphanage in Haiti –
This story is localized due to the devastation of the earth quake
• Localizing (verb)– To find someone or something in the community that
has ties to a story from somewhere else