COMM260W:

Lesson 2 Overview

 

Introduction

Previously, we pointed out that journalism differs from other types of writing because of its mission to serve the public interest by providing people with the information they need to make decisions about important issues.

We also noted that news stories are fact-based accounts driven by solid reporting and not simply the writer’s opinion about something she or he finds interesting.

We stress the idea of informational value. By selecting the most important facts and writing efficiently, our stories meet the needs of people who live busy lives. We also noted the ways that news stories differ from other types of writing you’ve done previously.

Before you dive into writing the news yourself, it’s important to understand what is newsworthy. This is an ever-changing definition, and one of those questions with no easy answers in today’s media environment.

However, there are a few guiding principles that help reporters and editors—and marketing and public relations professionals—determine what information the public needs to know. We’ll review those principles this week, and you’ll have the opportunity to try them out for yourself.

Objectives

Here are the objectives for this lesson:

• Identify the elements that make a story newsworthy.
• Recall the questions that reporters ask in approaching a news story.
• Understand the importance of attribution and credibility when using sources for a story.
• Recognize the importance of being ethical in reporting and writing news stories.

Lesson Readings and Activities

By the end of this lesson, please complete the readings and activities listed in the Lesson 2 Course Schedule.

 

Newsworthiness

Those in the news business generally agree on a number of elements common to a story that makes it newsworthy:

• Timeliness or immediacy: This is also known as the “breaking news” mindset. In general, the more timely something is, the more newsworthy it will be. This is especially true of social and digital media, but not as much in magazines and other long-form stories that deliberately take a long view. However, cable news has been criticized for turning everything into “breaking news,” which can increase feelings of fear, anger, and anxiety among viewers.
• Proximity: This refers to how close the news is to the people who will consume it. People need to know what’s happening in their communities, but news coverage tends to be dominated by national issues in politics, business, and other areas.
• Impact and consequence: The greater the impact, the more newsworthy a story is. Think of a major employer leaving an area or going out of business. Not only does this change have an immediate impact on the firm's employees, but it also can have consequences for the entire community from businesses to schools. Government decisions at all levels—local, state and federal—also have high impact.
• Prominence and eminence: When someone is in the public eye because of their position as an elected official, business owner, or other community leader, that person's actions are often considered newsworthy because of the influence the individual has. Similarly, if someone is recognized as an authority or an expert on a given topic, that person's actions relating to that topic are considered newsworthy. For example, it’s newsworthy when a professor recognized as one of the leading scholars on climate change releases a new report about their findings on sea level rise.
• Conflict: Stories involving conflicts also are newsworthy. Everything from activists protesting in the streets to politicians debating legislation to public spats on social media  speak to conflicting world views, values and policies. While journalists report on conflicts, professional communicators often are expected to respond to conflicts. Some PR firms specialize, for instance, in conflict management. It’s important for professionals working at those firms to understand what reporters will want to know and how that relates to what their client wants to share.
• Novelty: How unusual is the event or circumstance? Generally, the more novel something is, the more newsworthy it is considered. Case in point, this story froma Des Moines, Iowa TV station in 2023.

Like most things in life, the news does not always fit neatly into these boxes. In fact, some of these elements stand in contrast to one another. Someone making news in close proximity to an audience is not likely to rate high in prominence. Situations like this require journalists to use editorial judgment in determining what information is presented to readers, viewers or listeners.

It’s also important for those working in public relations to understand what journalists find newsworthy so they can craft pitches that are more likely to generate media coverage for their clients.

Real-World Example

Erica Mandy, a former broadcast journalist who now hosts and produces a podcast called The Newsworthy, has to make these judgments every day when she distills the most important stories from across the U.S. and around the world into one 10-minute podcast episode.

On Instagram, she summed up how she applies the principles of newsworthiness to her editorial process

There are essentially 3 things we consider when deciding WHAT goes in each 10 min of our news show:

1. How much does this IMPACT the lives and decisions of our listeners and their loved ones? And/or impact the country and world overall.
2. Is this part of the national CONVERSATION? So, would our listener be expected to know this while talking with friends, family, clients or colleagues? Or perhaps it allows them to start or add to an interesting or important discussion.
3. Does this provide VARIETY to our show? We always share the necessary serious stuff you need to know for the day, but we also want to make sure to have some fun! From what’s happening in tech to what’s trending in entertainment and beyond, we ensure every episode keeps you super well-rounded.

 

How to Approach a Story

Every piece of news that’s created is a combination of deciding what is newsworthy and how to appropriately gather and present information to your audience. Regardless of the format (story, Tweet, 60-second TV spot, etc.), a reporter will approach each story by asking these three basic questions.

Click each question to learn more.

 

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For professional news reporters or students in COMM 260W, adding context to what happened is critical to achieving informational value for their stories.

Anyone who was in the neighborhood that day would know there was a fire, and those who weren’t might have already seen something about it on social media. Why should they take time to read, view or listen to your story if it simply tells them what they already know? That's why solid reporting and smart use of sources are vital to providing information that people can’t get solely from a social media post or by talking with someone who observed the event you’re writing about..

 

Sources, Attribution, and Credibility

Some of the information in a news story might come from personal observation or knowledge. However, most of it will not. That's where sources come in.

For news stories to be seen as credible by the public, journalists need to reveal where the information is coming from (attribution) — and why those sources are in a position to know what they are saying (credibility).

Drawing from the building fire example, we'd want to tell our readers when the fire started and how difficult it was to extinguish. So, our story might include the fact the blaze broke out at about 5:15 p.m. and it took 90 minutes for a crew of a dozen firefighters to bring it under control. In our story, we'll attribute that information to Sally Edwards.

While our story lists Sally Edwards as the source, is she credible (or believable) for readers based only on what we've written? Who is “Sally Edwards”? Is she someone who also was watching the fire or the barista at a nearby coffee shop who always seems to know what is going on? But, if our story further identifies Sally Edwards as the captain of the fire company who also responded to the initial call, those facts about the timing and intensity of the blaze are much more credible.

So, for the public to trust our news stories, we must attribute the facts to various sources (whether people or documents) and establish their authority to provide the information.

Journalists should always strive to get a diversity of sources for news stories. Certainly, the public is diverse in terms of race, sex, age, economic standing and other factors. The same is true for the people who read, watch or listen to news stories produced by journalists.

That means when you are interviewing people for a story, you should not just talk to people who are like you. You will have a more complete and representative story if you have found a range of subjects.

Engaging in these unethical practices will impact your grade in the course. In extreme cases, it can be grounds for failing the course and even constitute a university-level academic integrity violation that carries severe penalties.

 

Being an Ethical Journalist

Let's apply our critical thinking skills to the sources required for a different news scenario. Say you plan to report on the local homeless population. You interview the director of a local homeless shelter. Will that single source produce an informative story?

While the shelter director will know something about the area homeless, he or she will bring a limited perspective to our story. By choosing to interview only the shelter director we ignore a source with perhaps the most direct connection to the issue: the homeless themselves. Furthermore, our director might have an agenda for speaking with a reporter. Can you figure out a possible agenda the shelter director might be looking to advance?

Because the shelter depends on private donations and government allocations, the director might be tempted to inflate the scope of the local homeless problem to secure even more funding. Conversely, she might be tempted to downplay the problem and play up her shelter's effectiveness to look good in the press and ensure consistent funding based on past performance.

Interviewing just one person for our homelessness story will limit its value to the public when they try to make decisions about the issue. Who else should you interview? Why would they be credible sources?

• We'd certainly want to talk to people who are currently homeless.
• We'd also want to interview those who were homeless to discover how they were able to overcome the problem.We'd also want to interview workers or volunteers at the shelter, who might not have the same financial incentives as the director.
• Since members of the clergy, police officers, firefighters, EMTs and emergency room workers might also encounter the homeless, they would be good sources.
• We might interview officials of the town and people who live or work in neighborhoods where the homeless can be found.
• By no means is that an exhaustive list. You might have come up with some other great ideas for sources on this story.

Single-source stories do not serve the public interest because they fail to provide people with a complete picture. The public cannot hope to make an informed decision about an important issue when they don’t have all the facts.

 

Lesson 2 Wrap Up and Looking Ahead

Summary

A journalist has a responsibility to report the news fairly and accurately, which involves being curious and talking to people who can provide you with the information you need. There are also many judgement calls that need to be made about whether something is newsworthy and how information should be presented. These standards are ever-evolving, but rooted in several key principles that we covered in this lesson.

Check and Double Check

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Lesson 2 Course Schedule.

Looking Ahead

The rest of the class will shift away from the theoretical framework of journalism and into the mechanics of how to report and write stories and other types of content. We’ll start next week by breaking down the anatomy of a news story and reviewing the fundamentals of Associated Press style.