defining the news

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definingthe news
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What makes newsworthy of our attention?

• News must be factual, yet not all facts are news.
• News may or may not deal with current events.
• It might focus on a past or future event.
• Newsworthiness is highly relevant and
  subjective.
• It varies from person to person or location to
  location.
• Interest and importance are not necessarily
  the same.
• Interesting stories that are sensational may
  not be truly important

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Primary Qualities of News

• Factual
• Based on actual occurences, situations, thoughts,
  and ideas
• Must be interesting
• Must be of interest to a number of people

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Secondary Considerations

• Reports facts accurately
• Offers balanced coverage of an event or issue
• Is objective
• Is concise and clear
• Is timely

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Hard News vs. Soft News

• Hard news has significance for relatively
  larger numbers of readers, listeners, or viewers
  this includes news of government, politics,
  foreign affairs, education, labor, religion,
  economics, courts, and the like.
• Soft news is usually less important but
  attracts more audience. Human interest stories
  of crime, lust, and comedy appeal more to the
  emotion than to the intellect.

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Qualifications for Hard News

• Hard news usually isnt perceived as being as
  interesting as soft news.
• Once interpretation comes into play, hard news is
  not as pure as the definition intends.
• Hard news strives to be objective as well as give
  enough context to help the reader understand the
  importance of the facts reported.
• Many times hard news is written or delivered by a
  perceived expert. Certain reporters become
  associated with political stories and cover them
  exclusively.

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Qualifications for Soft News

• Soft news tends to put a particular face on a
  news story. People will care about the conflict
  in Bosnia if they can relate to a particular
  person suffering the consequences of civil war.
• Soft news can take on tabloid quality and
  sensationalize a story.
• Soft news also can appear in largely hard news
  stories in subtle or obvious ways.
• Soft news can make something be news that is not
  i.e.., a movie premiere.

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Objective vs. Biased Coverage

• If news is objective, it strives to report
  details in a factual, neutral fashion.
• Bias surfaces in reporting that strives to offer
  a specific interpretation or point of view on an
  event, idea, or issue. This subjective kind of
  reporting is usually, though not always, confined
  to editorials and columnists pieces.
• Bias has been creeping onto the front page more
  and more and news stories in general. Sometimes
  it is meant to reflect the overall editorial
  policy of the newspaper publisher. For example,
  a Democratic paper might emphasize the
  negative aspects of a Republican candidate to
  make him look less attractive or honest than his
  Democratic opponent.
• Beware of adjectives in headlines that can
  preview a story with a particular attitude in
  mind , i.e. Dangerous issues discussed at
  difficult council meeting.

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