Week 9- News Values

What makes a story a lead story? Immediately I thought back to the lectures on commercial and public media and the different approaches towards reporting due to the different business and audience structures. A story needs impact, audience identification, pragmatics and source influence. I liked Kurt Loder's quote "news is anything that's interesting." But whats interesting to some may not be interesting to others. So you need to take into account different cultures, geographics, socio-economic, religious views etc etc.

One of the biggest stories of the last few months has been the ongoing saga of embattled MP Craig Thomson. Yet the Sydney Morning Herald broke to story in April of 2009. Why did it take so long to become saturated in the press? Amid the myriad press coverage I read an opinion piece in the SMH, I can't quite remember who wrote it, I think it was Philip Coorey or Michelle Grattan but it could be someone else entirely different. They wrote that the reason it was a small story in 2009 was because the Labor government under Kevin Rudd was so popular that the Coalition didn't think it was worth pursuing. Only after the 2010 election when Labor held power with the slimmest of margins thanks to Independent and Greens support did Tony Abbott see Thomson as an Achilles heel. Now it's almost impossible to go a day without reading or hearing more stories about Craig Thomson. I think the story is a wonderful example of news values at work. Thomson's constant denials and new revelations from the FWA report have the 'gee whiz' factor. It interests people because as an MP he is a public figure, and people seem to be interested in the classic story of a fall from grace. It's pragmatic, its ongoing. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the story is the source influence. There are political experts, union figures, politicians, media personalities all lining up to have their say on the story.

There have been many attempts to narrow down stories to a one word description. The list seems endless:
Negativity
Proximity
Recency
Currency
Continuity
Uniqueness
Simplicity
Personality
Predictability
Elite People/Nations
Exclusivity
Size
Drama
Visual Attractiveness
Entertainment
Importance
Brevity
Personalities
Celebrity
Power Elite
Surprise
Bad news
Good news
Magnitude
Relevance
Follow-up
Newspaper agenda

With the emergence of the internet and television there is now perhaps a skewering towards appealing visually as well as mentally. Plus the advent of 'churnalism' and lazy journalism are all significant threats to the future of journalism. The Leveson Inquiry currently underway in the UK should have lasting repercussions though hopefully. Perhaps media monopolies and mergers may soon be a thing of the past.