What is Newsworthiness?
Newsworthiness is the term we use to
describe whether or not a topic is interesting
enough for people to want to know about it.
We call this having good “news judgment”
when a reporter knows what kinds of stories
will be of interest to his or her audience.
What Makes Something
Newsworthy?
There are eight basic elements that make a
story newsworthy.
The more elements a story contains, the
more newsworthy it is.
In general a good news story contains at
least 3 elements of newsworthiness.
The Eight Basic Elements
of Newsworthiness
Timeliness
Conflict
Proximity
Novelty
Relevance
Prominence
Impact
Human Interest
Timeliness
Timeliness relates to the newness of the
facts. The more recent the event or situation,
the more likely it is to be newsworthy.
Timeliness can be an issue for school
newspapers that come out several times a
year.
Hard news stories emphasize timeliness.
If this house fire happened today, it would be
timely. If it happened last month, it is not.
Proximity
Proximity refers to the nearness of a given
event to your place of publication. Events
occurring in your school generally have
more news value than those occurring on
the other side of the world.
Reporters are always looking for a local
angle to a national news story because it will
make a story that seems far away tie in to
your readership.
Students raising money to help aid earthquake and
tsunami relief would resonate with more readers
that just writing a general story about the
earthquake in Japan.
The added element of proximity concerning the
local students makes the story more interesting.
Relevance
Relevance refers to the story mattering to
your readers.
What stories are relevant will depend on
your readership. Community newspapers will
cover events of particular interest to the
community. School newspapers will look at
issues and events relating to teens and may
ignore other local issues that students will
not care about.
What Could be Relevant
Teen Issues?
Homework
Social Networking
Sports
Facebook
Fashion
Twitter
Depression
Bullying
Instagram
Movies
Eating Disorders
Impact
The term “impact” refers to how many
people are affected by issues covered in the
story.
We say a story has a higher potential impact
if the topic is relevant to a larger percentage
of the audience.
The Clayton School
Board has decided
not to cut the after
school strings
program that is
offered in its
elementary schools.
After this year, all
students will be
required to take an
end of the year
assessment in all core
subjects.
Every student in Clayton has to take the year end
assessments. In contrast, only 50 or so students
will be affected by the string program still being
offered. While both stories are interesting. The
story about assessment will have more impact.
Conflict
Conflict involves tension, surprise and
suspense. Everyone loves a good fight.
Anything that involves a struggle is of
interest to readers—war, elections, sports.
People are intuitively drawn to conflict.
Anything with a winner or a loser has
conflict.
Man vs. Woman
Person vs. Nature
Nation vs. Nation
Person vs. Machine
Novelty
If something is out of the ordinary, it may be
newsworthy just because of that fact. The
strange or unusual is fascinating to many
readers.
It’s a reporter’s job to find an angle on a
story that may be told a lot that will make it
fresh so the story contains some novelty.
A day after Capt. Sully Sullenberger made an emergency landing of a
plane in the Hudson River in New York, everyone knew the basic facts:
The plane hit a flock of birds during take off, both engines blew out, the
captain had no choice but to land, everyone made it to safety.
The topic was still interesting to people , but they already knew the
basic facts. New stories focused on the bravery of the captain, the
individual experiences of the crew, even the experiences of the rescue
workers. These stories contained more novelty for readers than another
story of why the plane went down.
Prominence
Prominence refers to the
“newsworthiness” of an individual or
organization. Basically, the more wellknown an individual is involved in the
story, the more newsworthy a story is.
Examples of this are stories about
celebrities, politicians and royals.
Human Interest
Human interest stories appeal to emotion.
They cause the reader to laugh, cry, to feel
emotion, they tickle the funny bone, cause
feelings of sorrow or pity, or amazement.
Human interest stories deal with the
qualities of love, hate, compassion,
sympathy, curiosity, anger and grief.
Everyone has a story. It is a reporter’s job to
find it and convey it effectively.
In the 1980s, baby
Jessica was stuck
in a well for 58
hours. The nation
was captivated by
the struggle to
free her.
After not being able
to afford her own
prom dress, alumni
Sarah Smith starts a
charity that donates
dresses to girls who
can’t afford them for
dances.
A son and father
are reunited
after being
estranged from
each other for a
number of
years.
How Newsworthy is
This?
As you consider the newsworthiness of each
article, first think about the audience, their
location and their needs. Then think about
the categories of newsworthiness.
Remember that the more elements of
newsworthiness a story has, the better. A
good news story should have at least three
elements.