News Values

Immediacy: has it happened recently?
Familiarity: is it culturally close to us in Britain?
Amplitude: is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people?
Frequency: does the event happen fairly regularly?
Unambiguity: is it clear and definite?
Predictability: did we expect it to happen?
Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected event?
Continuity: has this story already been defined as news?
Elite nations and people: which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people?
Negativity: is it bad news?
Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death.

Immediacy: It is very important to today's society as people expect the news to be accessible as soon as it happens therefore platforms such as Twitter are key to providing news to the public. However this results in a decline in traditional newspapers as they are only relevant at the time they are published, within the next few hours of it going on sale a new news story will become more important.

Familiarity: News stories which relate to British culture are likely to get more attention from the audience as they affect the lives of British people. For example a war in England would effect us much more than a news story on a war in Iraq as we are not geographically there and it won't harm them particularly. News stories that revolve around the political party are more likely to create topics of discussion amongst the audience resulting in more popularity in the news article.

Amplitude: News stories about protests or riots generally create a lot of media attention and are widely talked about therefore reporting these stories is likely to appeal to the audience as it is always an interesting topic. 

Frequency: Some stories from a specific category are always in the news as they generate a lot of attention from the audience because people are interested in this type of content. For example rape or murder cases are always a major news story when they occur as they are seen as inhumane and typically create the same response every time but still manage to remain popular.

Unambiguity: Sometimes newspaper articles can be unclear, using videos makes them much clearer especially for the younger generation meaning they're more likely to finish the story. If information on a news cooperation's website doesn't make sense and someone comments saying this, they are able to change it unlike with printed newspapers which would remain the same.


Predictability: New and digital media has made news stories a lot more predictable as they tend to post similar stories to the past. It is predictable that Google will take over advertising as they are such a huge institution however it is much easier to piece parts of this story together using different news providers than it would be by using a physical newspaper.

Surprise: Having news stories that are unpredictable tends to create a social media uproar especially on Twitter which wouldn't be possible without the developments in technology. It allows various users to share their views on unexpected events and for this news to travel very quickly worldwide. 

Continuity: It is much easier to continue a news story online than it would be in a physical newspaper as journalists publish a story the next day they may find more information on it which will result in the story being continued. This is much harder to do with paper newspapers as once it is printed it cannot be changed and readers may not be consistent so will be confused if you leave out details when the story is continued without previous background.

Elite nations and people: Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook allow elite people to portray themselves in the way they want but the things they post and tweet can form a news story if it is significant. This is less possible with printed newspapers as the articles are formed by these people's actions rather than words meaning social media allows scope for these "elite" people to be judged.

Negativity: Bad news is the easiest kind of news to deliver whether it is online or paper based as audiences seem to be majorly interested in it- it creates a topic for discussion. It can be easily delivered on a channels main news bulletin or online and create a worldwide response much faster for example the Madeline Macann case.

Balance: It is easier to balance out negative stories with a positive one through television or for tabloid newspapers as they can compliment the person  for broadsheet it is much harder unless something significantly important happens such a female MP is elected or running.

Update for 2015:
I would get rid of unambiguity as nobody tries to figure out what a news story means if it doesn't make proper sense and I would add in a positive news value as positive news stories aren't only used to balance out the bad news, they deliver information to the audience too.