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Determining what is Newsworthy

Date post: 12-Jan-2015
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Intended for new media and journalism students at Mercer County Community College in Prof. Holly Johnson's classes. The goal of this presentation is to help students learn to determine what kind of stories are good for new media projects.
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Crafting Newsworthy Article Topics Prof. Holly Johnson Journalism 1 + 2 + N ew Media ©2012
Transcript
Page 1: Determining what is Newsworthy

Crafting Newsworthy

Article Topics

Prof. Holly Johnson

Journalism 1 + 2 + New Media ©2012

Page 2: Determining what is Newsworthy

What is newsworthiness?

Newsworthiness is the term we use to describe whether or not a topic is interesting enough for people to want to know about it.

We call it having good “news judgment” when a reporter knows what kinds of stories will be of interest to his or her audience.

Page 3: Determining what is Newsworthy

How do you develop good news judgment?

There are nine basic elements that contribute to making a story newsworthy.

The more newsworthy aspects or elements a story contains, the more newsworthy it is.

In general, a good article contains at least four elements of newsworthiness.

Page 4: Determining what is Newsworthy

What are the nine basic

elements of newsworthiness?1. Timeliness

2. Proximity

3. Novelty

4. Impact

5. Drama

6. Prominence 7. Conflict 8. Human

interest

9. Usefulness

Page 5: Determining what is Newsworthy

Timeliness

We determine if a story is timely by considering if the story is relevant now but will not be as meaningful in a few days, weeks or months.

Hard news stories emphasize timeliness.

Page 6: Determining what is Newsworthy

If this house fire happened this morning, the story is timely. If it happened five month ago, it is is not.

Timeliness

Page 7: Determining what is Newsworthy

Proximity

In general, people are more interested in things that are happening near them than those that are happening far away. We call this element of newsworthiness proximity.

For people to care about issues that are happening far away from them, those issues have to be very large or have to affect them in some meaningful way.

Page 8: Determining what is Newsworthy

Security officers getting into a physical altercation with LGBT students at MCCC over a kiss-in event in the cafeteria will likely resonate more with Mercer readers than a story about a gay student in Mississippi whose school wouldn’t publish her yearbook photo because she was dressed in clothes that the administrators felt were not feminine enough.

Although both stories are interesting, the MCCC story has the added benefit of proximity to the readership.

Proximity

Page 9: Determining what is Newsworthy

Novelty

How new and exciting is the information you want to report? If a story is old and predictable, we consider it to lack novelty.

Sometimes topics grow old but something new happens that makes them newsworthy again. It’s the reporter’s job to find an angle that makes the story fresh so it still contains some novelty.

Page 10: Determining what is Newsworthy

A day after Capt. Leslie “Sully” Sullenberger made an emergency landing of a USAirways airplane in the Hudson River in New York, everyone knew the basic facts: the plane hit a flock of birds during take off, both engines blew out, the captain had no choice but to land, everyone made it to safety.

The topic was still interesting to people, but they already knew the basic facts. Subsequent stories focused on the bravery of the captain, the individual experiences of the crew, even the experiences of the rescue workers. These stories contained more novelty for readers than another story of why the plane went down.

Novelty

Page 11: Determining what is Newsworthy

Impact

The term “impact” refers to how many people are affected by the issues covered in the story.

We say a story has higher potential impact if the topic is relevant to a large percentage of the audience.

Page 12: Determining what is Newsworthy

Accuplacer cut scores are changed so more students

at MCCC place into remedial classes that

carry no college credit but cost money.

The Honors Program will include three new classes

this semester.

Every student at MCCC has to take the Accuplacer test, so the entire student body (12,000 students) is affected by the Accuplacer cut score changes. By contrast, only students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher, who are taking 12 credits or more per semester, are qualified for the Honors program. At present, 60 students are enrolled in Honors courses. So, although both stories are interesting, the Accuplacer article has more impact.

Impact

Page 13: Determining what is Newsworthy

Drama

Stories with mystery, suspense or heightened emotion, are considered to be more dramatic than stories that lack this feature.

Page 14: Determining what is Newsworthy

A manhunt proceeded throughout the day in search of Ralph

Johnson, who shot his ex-wife and her husband in Hamilton, NJ this morning. . By 5:00 PM the hunt

was over. Johnson shot himself in the head as the authorities closed

in on him at the Ewingville Cemetery in Ewing. He was taken to Capital Health Regional Trauma

Center but did not survive.

Muslim Mercer students celebrate the holy month of Ramadan.

Diversity stories are good, but not surprisingly the drama of a manhunt caused the story on the left to get more reads than the Ramadan article on the VOICE’s website: 647 reads to 4.

Drama

Page 15: Determining what is Newsworthy

Prominence

Ever find yourself wondering why on earth the news would ever bother to cover Lindsey Lohan’s latest breakdown? The answer is prominence. Celebrities, politicians, and well-known or highly ranking business people and officials are considered prominent and so worthy of news coverage.

If prominence is the ONLY newsworthy element to a story, it is likely not a good story to run.

Page 16: Determining what is Newsworthy

Prominence

Page 17: Determining what is Newsworthy

Conflict

Everyone loves a fight. Sports and political stories almost always have elements of conflict. Interpersonal conflict also figures into many features stories.

Topics of human vs. human, human vs. nature, human vs. machine are other staples the conflict category.

Page 18: Determining what is Newsworthy

Man vs. Kangaroo Man vs. Machine Man vs. Woman

Nation vs. Nation Man vs. Nature

Conflict

Page 19: Determining what is Newsworthy

Human Interest

Stories about unusual and interesting people, even if they aren’t very prominent, can be compelling to readers. Features stories often emphasize human interest.

Everyone has a story. The key is for the reporter to find it and convey it effectively.

When writing a profile, the key information must come from those who know the person, not the person him or herself.

Page 20: Determining what is Newsworthy

New Criminal Justice

Professor Elizabeth

Bondurant is former police

chief of Plainsboro,

NJ.

Art Professor Lucas Kelly

uses himself as a canvas.

Mercer soccer star Amit Aburmad, originally

from Israel, gets full ride

scholarship to Boston

College.

Human Interest

Page 21: Determining what is Newsworthy

Usefulness

An article in a newspaper cannot teach you how to land a plane or play “Stairway to Heaven” on the guitar, but it can provide useful information that can provide meaningful assistance to the audience.

What is useful? A map of campus. A how to guide for signing up for spring classes. How to ready your home for a storm. How to avoid getting speeding tickets. These are useful pieces of information that can be part of larger articles or even stand alone pieces.

Page 22: Determining what is Newsworthy

Usefulness

Page 23: Determining what is Newsworthy

How newsworthy is this?

As you consider the newsworthiness of each article, first think about the audience, their location and their needs. Then think about the categories of newsworthiness. Remember that the more elements of newsworthiness a story has, the better. A good story should have at least four elements of newsworthiness.

Are these articles newsworthy? Why? Why not?

Page 24: Determining what is Newsworthy

Park51 – Newsworthy? Or not?

Page 25: Determining what is Newsworthy

Airbags for riders – Newsworthy? Or not?

Page 26: Determining what is Newsworthy

Balloon boy neighbor – watch video – click here.

Balloon boy neighbor – Newsworthy? Or not?

Page 27: Determining what is Newsworthy

Mercer Diversity Day Celebrates Haiti

Lawrence High students protest governor’s education cuts

Which story is more newsworthy?

Page 28: Determining what is Newsworthy

No health center on campus

Mercer’s parking situation continues to suck

Which story is more newsworthy?

Page 29: Determining what is Newsworthy

How do I find a newsworthy topic to cover?

• Be on the lookout for conflict or interesting events. When you see an event in progress, get your notebook out and start reporting!

• Look at bulletin boards and calendars (posted and online) to find out what is happening so you can plan to attend an event. • Be listening to what classmates are saying about things they’ve seen. They may offer you a good topic to cover.

Page 30: Determining what is Newsworthy

END


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