News values

News values are the factors defined by Galtung and Ruge that help to explain how journalists and editors decided that certain news stories an image were accepted as newsworthy, while others were not. While they applied these factors to news stories in newspapers, they can also be applied to radio news bulletins.

Immediacy: Has it happened recently? Is the story 'breaking'?
often if it is a new story it will appear first on a news bulletin or at least near the top.

Familiarity: Is it culturally or geographically close to us in London/Britain/Europe/USA?
If the story has happened a location of relevance to the reader he will be more interested in finding out what happened.

Amplitude: Is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people?
This will more often then not push the story up the bulletin.

Frequency: Does the event happen often?
Frequency can result in the editors pushing the news down the bulletin however it can also have the opposite effect.

Impact: Can we identify with the story as having a profound effect on our own lives? Does the story contain elements that would make us feel threatened?
This again can push the story up the bulletin.

Predictability: Did we expect it to happen?
this can push the story down the bulletin.

Surprise: Is it an unusual or unexpected event?

This tends to push the article to the top of the news bulletin and then this will shock the readers because it would be unexpected.

Continuity: Has this story already been defined as news? Is it part of an ongoing or long-running story?

If the news story is huge, the further away it is from the breaking news title, the further down the new bulletin it will appear.

Conflict: Does the story contain drama in describing disagreements, arguments, fights or battles between two or more people/ organisations? Many of news stories contain this news value and will be at the top of the news bulletin.

Elite people: Does the story concern well-known people, such as celebrities? This type of story would be found near the top of the news bulletin, especially certain type of radios like Kiss FM, entertainment magazines. These type of stories will focus on celebrities.

Personalisation: Is it a human interest story?

Negativity: Is it bad news? 

Pushes up and dominates

Scandal: Is the story likely to provoke moral outrage from parts of the audience?

Balance: The story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death. Positive stories.

The 5 Ws

The 5Ws are the main information that readers/viewers and listeners expect to find within a news story itself. Most journalists tend to include the 5W's in news articles so the audience knows what the news tends to be about. Often the 5W's usually appear towards the beginning of the news story. This will help the audience determine whether they will keep reading, watching or listening, but this also means that the reader will be informed of the most crucial information about the article. This has shown me that when I create my news stories I should include the 5Ws in my stories and within the first two paragraphs.


Who is it about:

what happened:

Where did it take place:

When did it take place:

Why did it happen:

preliminary task - music and SFX

preliminary task script

This is my script for my made up radio station which will contain a jingle, a presenter introducing a guest, the guest responding and a clip featuring the guest. My guest is a pop music artist who has just preformed a record breaking show.


Jingle: Finchley FM, your home of music.

 presenter (Bill Bryson): My name is Bill Bryson of finchley FM radio station. Today we have a very exciting guest in, who just broken the world record for the biggest attendance in a single concert! im honoured to introduce, John Carlton.         John welcome to the show! Thanks for coming!

John (singer): Thank you very much Bill, its a pleasure to be here.

Presenter (Bill Bryson): Now id like to start off by asking how you're feeling and what your emotions are after last nights performance.


John  (singer): Well to be totally honest with you i am still getting over it, it was a mesmerising event and i just cant believe where i have got to today.

Presenter (Bill Bryson): well for those listeners that dont know, John is promoting a documentary of his road to fame which will be out in February. Now lets have a listen to a small clip from the documentary;

Clip from the documentary:

John: Well this is the pub where my career all started. Brings back a lot of good memories. ( background noise of a pub).

Interviewer: Do you remember your first performance here?

John: Yes, i remeber it like it was yesterday. the place was very busy for a saturday, about 100 people here and i remeber i was a nervous wreck and i just walked out on to the stage which was not really a proper stage, and i just started playing and all the punters loved it so it became a regular occurrence. and thats where it all started.

Jingle to end the show: