News Values

News Stories

BBC News at Ten 15/04/2013

1. Boston Bombings
2. Cap on benefits
3. Undercover in north Korea
4. Teenagers jailed for life for murdering a homeless man
5. Margaret Thatchers Funeral
6. Kidney produced in lab
7. Court hears how 4 British men discussed bombing a territorial army base
8. Government condemns violence at Millwall.

In the news stories that i watch many of the values that Galtung and Ruge used are in the stories. These are the news Values:


Galtung and Ruge News Values;
1. Frequency - an event has to fit in the cycle/tempo of the news broadcast therefore cannot be out of place for eg. a fast and urgent story will not be in the same broadcast as a story of a slow development.
2. Threshold - the size of the story or the bigger the advent will hinder how likely it is to appear in the news
3. Unambiguity - a story has to be simple and easy to understand you never want the viewers to struggle when watching your broadcast.
4. Meaningfulness - a story has to have meaning for the target audience, the audience of a ten o'clock news will be older so having more mature stories is adding meaning.
5. Consonance - If an event fits in with the expectations of recent journalists or newspapers it is more likely to appear.
6. Unexpectedness - stories that people don't see coming for example, "dog bites man" is predictable and ordinary not major but "man bites dog" is weird and unexpected
7. Continuity - If an event/story appears on the news it is more than likely to appear again at some point.
8. Composition - The structure of the broadcast, balancing the variety and type of  story whether serious or not serious
9. Elite Nations - Some nations are more powerful than others globally making them "Elite" First World countries and countries in the northern hemisphere are more likely to be on the news.
10. Elite Persons - Elite persons ties in with the elite nations, if an individual is famous/well known stories about them will be broadcasted although it may have happened to one hundred people like you and I
11. Personalisation - If a story can be told from the point of view of an individual it will strike the hearts of the viewer than a story from a larger point of view, example a hurricane affected 1,200 people or A story of a woman looking for her child strikes at our hearts making the story more relatable and also makes it seem like a narrative.
12. Negativity - Bad news makes the best news. Disasters make the news more than happier incidences because they fit the dramatic style of the news.

News Values in the Stories i watched

1. Boston Bombings

the news values used in this story are: Elite Nations, Negativity, Threshold, Unexpectedness 

The news story involved Elite Nation as it is in America and it is one of the first world country which is  more likely to get into the news. Negativity was used as it is a bombing and some people died and many others were injured. Threshold was used as it was a big story bombing are on a big scale when it comes to news coverage as it effects peoples lives

3. Undercover in north Korea

The news values used in this story are: Elite Nations, Threshold, Continuity, Negativity.

The news story involved Elite Nations as North Korea is a first world country and it is more likely to be in the news because of it, Threshold is involved as the North Korea story is big with war threats against South Korea and the threats of Nuclear strike threats. Continuity is involved as it is a story that needs continued coverage and is more than likely to be in the news more than once, Negativity is involved as it is threats of nuclear strikes and the lives of north korean people in poverty.

4. Teenagers jailed for life for murdering a homeless man

the news values used in this story are: Negativity, Unexpectedness

The news story involved Negativity as it was a murder against an innocent man, the story also involved Unexpectedness as it is teenagers that murdered the man.


5. Margaret Thatchers Funeral

The news values used in this story are: Elite Persons, Negativity

This story involves negativity and Elite Persons as it is the death of a well known politician.

7. Court hears how 4 British men discussed bombing a territorial army base

The news values used in this story are: Elite Nations, Negativity, Threshold.

The news story involved Elite Nations as it is about the UK which is one of the first world countries and it is in the northern hemisphere which is more likely to get into the news, Negativity is involved as it is a threat of a bombing on a territorial army base the threat of a bombing is a large story so it connotes Threshold.

8. Government condemns violence at Millwall.

The news values used in this story are: Elite nations, negativity, threshold.

The news story involves Elite nations as it is about the uk which is one of the first world countries. the news story is a negative one as it involves violence at the football stadium and it is a big story as football is a big sport in the uk.