There are a number of factors that influence how news stories are chosen by Journalists. These include their values and the effect of scandals and violence. Familiarity is another factor that can influence news selection. A review of the previous scholarship on news values is available here. Similarly, Caple and Bednarek describe how news affects cognitive processes.
Journalists’ values
Polling of media consumers and journalists reveals that people have varying attitudes about journalists’ values. A majority of Americans firmly support the values of accuracy, independence, and social criticism, but fewer people agree with others. The opposite pattern was found with the values of social criticism, transparency, and authority.
Today, hyperpartisanship has displaced the golden era of journalism, in which objective, independent news was the norm. It is a challenge to the media industry and those who teach it. The media profession must evolve and re-orient itself to reflect the new environment.
Factors determining their selection of news stories
The news coverage of news organizations varies across the globe, and the choice of which news stories to feature depends on several factors. The type of news organization, the type of news outlet, and the budget are all considerations in determining what stories get featured. Some news outlets are more likely to feature high-profile stories, while others may have a limited number of features.
Most news organizations are run for profit, so they focus on stories that will draw the largest audience. This way, they can increase advertising rates and generate revenue. However, this approach can bias news coverage towards stories that are visually appealing and cheap to cover. In addition, stories that are close to the news outlet’s headquarters are more likely to receive coverage.
Impact of violence and scandal
Media violence affects the way that people view reality. While violence occurs in all media, news is especially damaging because it is a product of fiction. However, the fact is that violent events are not always depicted in the most negative light. For example, violent crime news can make women feel more unsafe. Furthermore, violence in the news can act as a model for future violent behavior.
The language that the news uses can also affect how people view the world. By normalizing violence, a society will become desensitized to it. This phenomenon is known as depersonalization, and it has a significant effect on our ability to prevent violence.
Familiarity
Familiarity with news can be a powerful social practice and a way of civic engagement. Professors who incorporate news into the classroom help prepare young adults for lifelong learning in a democracy. Researchers Alison J. Head, senior researcher at Harvard University’s metaLAB and visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Erica DeFrain, assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, share their insights on how students can develop a greater familiarity with the news.
Familiarity with news may influence political participation, but the extent of participation is not yet clear. Research has shown that news consumption can be influenced by social connections, both in person and online. In one study of young adults from the U.S., researchers found that family members’ influence on news consumption holds regardless of how the respondents gained access to news.
Timeliness
Timeliness of news has long been a critical issue for journalists. Throughout the nineteenth century, journalists increasingly valued timeliness as a way to engage their audiences. The telegraph, for example, became so popular that some powerful sources even set publishing dates for their stories. In addition, journalists often used terms like “advance copy” or “release copy” to describe stories that were transmitted before publication. Timeliness was also an important element in the presentation of news in newspapers, which was why many of them raised the dates of mail correspondence. This gave the impression that a story had just been published.
In the early twentieth century, news organizations argued that their content must be timely. Providing timely accounts of news events allowed them to engage a larger audience and enhance readership. It also strengthened the ritualized quality of news and increased reader participation in faraway affairs. Despite the controversies surrounding objectivity, timeliness remains a core value in journalism.