DURATION: 3 HOURS
KEY TOPICS
- Criteria in assessing news value and newsworthiness
- Considerations in making news judgements or in shaping the news
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this unit, teachers will be able to:
- describe the criteria used in assessing the news value or worthiness of events, persons and ideas, and
- critically discuss the basic principles in making news judgements or in shaping the news
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES and ACTIVITIES
The theory of journalism we have inherited…form(s) the basis of the journalism of the new century, a journalism of sense making based on synthesis, verification, and fierce independence.”
— Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism
Journalists need to make sense of a vast amount of information and consider how to organize it in a way that highlights the issues that are most important so it is comprehensible to an audience that will have very different levels of understanding of the events in question. The judgements involved will include selecting those stories deemed to be important (newsworthy) and deciding how to present the information. Inevitably the form of presentation (sometimes known as the ‘framing’) will reflect the experience and outlook of the journalists themselves. It is important for an audience to understand these framings and to think critically about them.