Class 7: Journalism, what is news?

Really a better question could be what isn't news? After completing two and a half years in Rmit's Journalism course you would think I could answer both of these questions quite easily. However in this day and age the definition of news and it's role in a 'post truth' world is harder to define than ever.

In my own words I defined news as "New information on a topic which is relevant to a large audience". As brief as it is, i felt this contained the necessary ingredients for something to be considered news worthy; New information and an Audience. New information is generated constantly in this buzzing world but I feel it cannot make the transition from information to news until it reaches its relevant audience. This means that news can range in prominince in accordance to it's intended audience. For example an extremely prominent story such as the announcement of imminent nuclear war would be information relevant to all citizens of earth and so would be considered news by many. However the announcement of Iceland's best dairy farmer for 2019 would appeal to a far smaller audience, and for the vast majority outside of this audience this information would be considered just more information not news.

What I am trying to say is that news and newsworthiness is entirely subjective to it's audience. But thats just my two cents on the matter and what can two cents buy you these days anyway? Fucking nothing, especially not the 2011 edition of 'News as it happens, an Introduction to Journalism' Written by Stephan Lamble. If it did give you the chance to read this fine book, you would have learnt that Lamble has identified eight characteristics of newsworthiness; Impact, Conflict, Timeliness, Proximity, Prominence, Currency, Human Interest, and The Unusual.

I am interested in seeing how many of these characteristics are required for something to become news. Is it possible for something with only one characteristic to be considered news? Is something with only a human interest angle simply a documentary? Or with just a conflict angle simply a debate? I don't know if I have the answers (or at least I don't have the energy to research this more deeply within this 30 minute period I have set aside to write this blog post). I think that defining news by Lamble's specific traits complicates the definition of news a little bit too much, except for one trait which seems to encapsulate all the other traits; Prominence. A story can be prominent to an individual for any of the other previously mentioned traits.

I find that Galtung and Ruge's 1960s definition of news factors (Grundy et al 2012) and their subsequent shortening by Judy Mcgregor in 2002, a better angle to define news. Mcgregor shortened the list to 4 definitions and included the factor of Visual Appeal, which is highly relevant today as online news allows every headline to have a visual attached to it, something which was not always possible with traditional media.

At least thats my 2 cents. Would you look at that, now we have 4 cents, just a few more hot takes and I'll be able to afford a zooper dooper.

-T

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Bruce Grundy, Mark Hayes, Greg Treadwell, 2012, 'the inherent value of news'  (Links to an external site.)in: So You Want To Be A Journalist?: Unplugged, Cambridge University Press, Oxford, England, UK, pp. 32-36

Lamble, S. (2016). Chapter 3: News Values. In Lamble, S., News as it happens (3rd ed., pp. 33-47). South Melbourne, Vic: OUPANZ

Thortardson, Kamma 2018. 10 family friendly farms in Iceland. Travelade. Viewed Dec 11 2019. https://travelade.com/iceland/stories/10-family-friendly-farms-in-iceland/

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