news values, again and again and again.

"News is what a chap who doesn't care much about anything wants to read. And it's only news until he's read it. After that it's dead." 
Evelyn Waugh, English Author.


I love the immediacy of news. I have to say, as much as I do not like the way out society is moving 'online', the internet is the perfect release platform for news. Just like the story, the internet is immediate. It really is a perfect match.


But what about the stories themselves? Are they compliant with this 'news values' umbrella? And what exactly are these news values that, as journalism students, seem to be hammered into us? 


News Values:
1. Impact
2. Audience Identification
3. Pragmatics - ethics, facticity, practice
4. Source Influence


The thing that society hears frequently and probably knows the most about is: if it bleeds, it leads!


However, it also stands that "if it's local, it leads!"


The Sunday Mail, however, isn't a fan of blood, sweat and tears and on Sunday, I was very disappointed. The front page story on the paper this past weekend was '51-year-old woman celebrated first mothers day'. 


You can read a related story here: 
Say Hi to Australia's Oldest First-Time Mum


That's not frontage news of a paper - that's the cover of WHO or New Idea, or some other celebrity news tabloid. Surely, there was something more terrifying or newsworthy happening in Australia - let alone the world. Good one Courier Mail - that really improves your credibility. 


Anyway, an analogy that was used in the lecture was that 'editors are "human sieves of the torrent of news' (Evans 2000). I find that statement beautiful - that the editor's job is to place stories through 'sieves', eradicating the unnecessary and being left with a clean, consistent and perfect product. 


Factors of 'newsworthiness' include negativity, proximity, recency, currency, continuity and uniqueness - just to name a few. 


Clearly the Courier Mail doesn't consider these - not for its front page stories anyway. I really wish it had more credibility as a newspaper, it's a much more convenient size than the Australian. 


However, unless I want my morning coffee accompanied a paper akin to Cosmo magazine, I really have no option.