Chapter 3

What is News?

News

• Information that has not been heard before• Something interesting or important• Something that will have an impact on the

public

Gatekeepers

• Directors & producers: select stories & plan shows

• Editors: select & prioritize items for pages or paper

• Gatekeepers ask: “What will most people like?• First page of a paper is like a store front– What interests people most is displayed in the

window just as most interesting news is placed on the front page of a paper.

What is news?

• News is “what is say it is. It’s something worth knowing by my standards.”

– David Brinkley, NBC news anchor

What is news?

• “News revolves around the three W’s—‘Women, wampum, wrongdoing.’

(sex, money, crime)- Stanley Walker, editor of New York Herald Tribune

What is news?

• Events must be a bit out of the ordinary for it to be news.

• “When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often, but if a man bites a dog, it’s news.”– John Bogart, editor of the New York Sun

Characteristics of News

• Timeliness • Prominence• Proximity• Conflict• Impact• Human Interest

Timeliness

• News is timely the day it happens.

Prominence

• People whose names, pictures, and voices appear in public on a regular basis.

Prominence

• Homer Simpson• Sally Wiggin• Madonna• Dr. Killmeyer

Proximity

• Being close

Conflict

• Involves opposing forces

Impact

• Effect or consequences a story has on an audience

Human Interest

• Tugs at the heart strings• People doing normal activities in an unusual

way

Fact, Interest, Audience

• Determine which stories are news• Facts– Is the story material adequate, accurate, timely

• Interest– How much meaning does a story have to readers?

• Audience– Who are the readers or viewers?

Influencing Factors

1. Size of news hole30-minute TV news = 22 minutes news

8 minutes of ads22 minutes of news is subdivided = international,

national, local news

Number of pages in a newspaper = number of ads

Influencing Factors

2. News Flow• Determines a story’s importance• News that happens at the same time may effect

worthiness of another story• Stories may be rearranged or cut from the

budget

Influencing Factors

3. Medium• Certain stories may be more appropriate for

certain news formatso TV = emotional appealo Newspaper = provides more info. & detailso Internet = provides written & video formo Radio = immediate reporting, limits number of stories

and length

Federal Communications Commission

• FCC• Est. 1934• Made up of five commissioners appointed by

president

Federal Communications Commission

• Regulates air waves– Licenses radio & TV stations– Assigns frequencies & amount of power use– Assigns call letters • Example: WDVE, WXDX, WPXI

Influencing Factors

4. Deadlines• Internet, radio, TV = short deadlines• Newspapers = longer deadline

o Example: evening paper = noon deadlinea.m. paper = midnight

o Average-size nsp. = one editiono Larger-size nsp. = two editions

Influencing Factors

5. Editorial Philosophy• Policies set by publishers & station owners• Purpose = to guide reports in knowing what is

news for their nsp. or program• In 1700s press was govt. watchdog• Newspapers have political agenda– Conservative or liberal

Influencing Factors

• FCC prohibited stations from taking political stance due to limited number of stations

• FCC changed policy, but most stations refrain from taking sides.

Influencing Factors

6. Business• nsp. & broadcast stations are a business• Largest income = advertising sales• Ad rates = based on number of subscribers or

viewers of a medium

Finding News

• News Judgment – journalists develop a sense of what is news

• Use wire services, letters, calls, and tips• Must find 2-3 story ideas • Professional – use competitors as sources• Beats – regular contact sources– Example: police beat, educational beat, govt.

Localizing News

• Stories can originate in other places• Local angle (noun)– A fact or person that connects the story to local

audience – Example: Pittsburgh sisters ran orphanage in Haiti –

This story is localized due to the devastation of the earth quake

• Localizing (verb)– To find someone or something in the community that

has ties to a story from somewhere else

Future Files

• Notes editors and reporters make about information they hear, see or think might be good for a story or date of an upcoming event