News?
1
How is it view ed?
&
Who is the audience?
Quotes about what is news 1
2
 When a dog bites a man that is not news, but when
a man bites a dog that is news.
Charles Anderson Dana, American journalist,
1819-1897
 News is what somebody somewhere wants to
suppress; all the rest is advertising.
Lord Northcliffe, British publisher 1865-1922
Quotes about what is news 2
3
 Well, news is anything that's interesting, that
relates to what's happening in the world, what's
happening in areas of the culture that would be of
interest to your audience.
Kurt Loder, American journalist, b. 1945
 It is hard news that catches readers. Features hold
them.
Lord Northcliffe, British publisher 1865-1922
Quotes about what is news 3
4
 News is anything that makes a reader say, `Gee
Whiz'!
Arthur MacEwen, American editor
 No one says "Gee Whiz!" very much these days, of
course, not even in America — both because that
expression has long since been supplanted by others
more colourful and less printable, and because our
capacity for surprise has long since been dulled by a
surfeit of sources.
Shashi Tharoor, Indian writer and diplomat, b.
1956
Quotes about what is news 4
5
 To a journalist, good news is often not news at all.
Phil Donahue, American entertainer, b. 1935
 No news is good news.
Ludovic Halevy, French author, 1834-1908
Quotes about what is news 5
6
 For most folks, no news is good news; for
the press, good news is not news.
Gloria Borger, American journalist, b. 1952
 The real news is bad news.
Marshall Mcluhan, Canadian
communications theorist, 1911-1980
Quotes about what is news 6
7
 [News is] a first rough draft of history.
Philip L. Graham, American publisher,
1915-1963
So what is news?
8
 News has two priorities: it must be current, and it
must mean something to people.
 A story about the environment and a story about the
Oscars can both be newsworthy, for different
reasons.
http://www.mediaawareness.ca/english/special_initiatives/toolkit/news_industry/what_
is_it_news.cfm
9
What Is News?
 As a journalist, you
typically write articles
and get to choose your
story topics.
 But first you need to
understand your
audience.


How do they view news?
What is news to them?
 Then once you have
done that, it's
important to
understand what
makes something or
someone newsworthy.
Journalism History
10
A brief look
How has the news audience changed?
11
Media
Audience
 Newspapers
 First American
newspaper, Publick
Occurrences, Both
Foreign and Domestick, is
published in Boston —
1690
 Declaration of
Independence — 1776
 Only wealthy & clergy were
 Photography —1826
educated
 Almost exclusively white male
audience
How has the news audience changed?
12
Media
Audience
 Magazines
 McCall's Magazine and
The Saturday Evening
Post
 Used advertising to
Cover of
1911
McCall's
magazine
keep pricing low
 Between 1890 and
1905 the circulation of
monthly periodicals
went from 18 million to
64 million.
How has the news audience changed?
13
Media
 Magazines
 Good Housekeeping and
Vogue began targeting
niche markets
 General interest and ladies
magazines flourished.
Audience
 Women’s
readership
increased
as they
were
targeted.
1930’s Vogue Cover
How has the news audience changed?
14
Media
Audience
 Newspapers
 1917 Ethnic papers reach a
peak with 1,323 foreignlanguage publications
1910-1914 Number of
newspapers in the US
reaches a high.
 Faster presses helped to
lower costs
 Readership increased
among minorities.
Freedom’s Journal 1827
First African American owned and operated
newspaper published in the United States.
How has the news audience changed?
15
Media Then
Audience
 1900’s Magazines &
 Penny papers made news
NSPs


Yellow & Muckraking
Journalism
McClure's Magazine,
owned by Samuel McClure
 Magazines—1920’s-
40’s Founding of Time,
Reader’s Digest, Life,
Look
available to most.
 Those “interested” in editors
exaggerations of news events,
scandal-mongering, or
sensationalism. YJ
 Public interested in of
researched investigation of
corruption and social problems.
M
How has the news audience changed?
16
Media
 Telegraph — 1900
 Radio — 1910 (about)
 The First Radio News
Broadcast August 31, 1920
 The first radio news
program is broadcast by
station 8MK in Detroit,
Michigan.
Audience
How has the news audience changed?
17
Media
Audience
 Newspapers
 After 1954 More News
Was Distributed
Electronically than on
Paper 1950
 According to Asa Brigg’s
The History of British
Broadcasting in the
United Kingdom, Vol. 4, p.
524, newspaper
circulation in.
 Thereafter more news
was distributed over
radio and television
than through print.
18
Media
 TV
 Commercial black and
white television
broadcasting began in the
US.
 Regular color broadcasts
1963
Audience
How has the news audience changed?
19
Past
Audience
 Personal Home
Computers — late
1970’s




The Apple founded 1977
Tandy TRS-80
Commodore Pet
Apple released the
Macintosh — 1984
 Public
Educators
Students
How has the news audience changed?
20
Media
 Cable news just started
 The Cable News Network
(CNN) was launched at
5:00 p.m. EST on Sunday
June 1, 1980
Audience
CNN's first broadcast
with David Walker and
Lois Hart on June 1,
1980.
 Cable
subscribers
How has the news audience changed?
21
Media
 ARPANET — 1962
 Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA) of
the U.S. Department of
Defense
 A future-oriented funder
of ‘high-risk, high-gain’
research, lays the
groundwork for what
much later becomes the
Internet.
Audience
"In the Beginning, ARPA created the
ARPANET. And the ARPANET was without form
and void.
And darkness was upon the deep.
And the spirit of ARPA moved upon the face
of the network and ARPA said, 'Let there be a
protocol,' and there was a protocol. And ARPA
saw that it was good.
And ARPA said, 'Let there be more
protocols,' and it was so. And ARPA saw that it
was good.
And ARPA said, 'Let there be more networks,'
and it was so."
—- Danny Cohen
How has the news audience changed?
22
Media
Audience
 Internet
 199o ARPANET formally
shuts down after 20 years.
 Internet first became
viable for public use.
 1994, journalists made
their first tentative steps
onto the internet.
 Scientists
 Government workers
 Military
How has the news audience changed?
23
Media
 Internet
 Associated Press (f. 1846)
launches AP Streaming
News to give news sites
and broadcasters
multimedia content —
2000
Audience
 News Professionals
 Public
How has the news audience changed?
24
Media
 Internet
 Online journalists were at
the cutting edge of news
reporting, both during and
after the destruction of the
World Trade Center on 11
September 2001.
Audience
 As 9/11 crisis unfolded,
telegraph.co.uk serviced
600 page requests per
second.
How has the news audience changed?
25
Media
 Internet
 July 2005 Eyewitnesses
sending photos and
reports on mobile phones
provide the first onlocation material ahead of
professional journalists.
Audience
 Professional
photographers worry that
their jobs are threatened
by the rise of 'citizen
journalism', but many
publishers feel the content
provides a valuable
supplement to their core
coverage.
Where does the audience view
news now?
26
2006 Study Points the Way
Let the public guide you
27
 Study released by
 Pew Research Center for the People and the
Press
 July 2006
 An average day
 81 percent of Americans access news
 Where are they getting it?
Snapshot of Typical Day
28
 13 million people listen to "Morning Edition" on NPR1
 9 million people watch ABC World News Tonight2
 2.4 million people watch The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News3
 1.6 million people watch The Daily Show4
 1.4 million people visit NYTimes.com5
 1 million people buy The New York Times print edition6
 715,000 people buy The Washington Post print edition7
 500,000 people visit Daily Kos8
 350,000 people watch CNN's American Morning9
 55,000 people visit Power Line10
Snapshot of a Typical Day
29
Snapshot of a Typical Day
30
On a typical day Americans...
31
 57% watch TV news
 40% read a newspaper
 36% listen to news on the
radio
 23 % get news online
On a typical day Americans...
32
 Online news visits





18% visit news aggregators
(Google News, Yahoo! News,
AOL News, etc.)
14% visit national TV
networks' sites (CNN.com,
MSNBC.com, ABCnews.com,
etc.)
14% visit newspaper Web
sites
4% visit news blogs
3% visit online news
magazines (Slate.com,
Salon.com, etc.)
On a typical day...
33
 57% of Americans watch
TV news




54% watch their local
news
34% watch cable news
channels
28% watch the nightly
network news
23% watch the morning
news programs (The
Today Show, Good
Morning America, etc.)
On a typical day...
34
 57% of Americans watch
TV news




54% watch their local
news
34% watch cable news
channels
28% watch the nightly
network news
23% watch the morning
news programs (The
Today Show, Good
Morning America, etc.)
Overall audience trends:
35
The total number of Americans getting news
on an average day is down almost 10 percent
from 1994.
On average, Americans spend 67 minutes of
each day gathering news from various
formats.
Young Americans (under 30) on an average day
36
Most likely to get no news at all.
 27 percent of people report they get no news
on an average day.
 Those who do get news, half go to multiple
sources.
Americans on an average day
37
As points of comparison:
 63 percent watch non-news TV
 44 percent exercise or play a
sport
 38 percent read a book,
 24 percent read a magazine
 24 percent watch a movie at
home
 17 percent play video games.
Your Turn
38
Find out where people find their news.
Fill out handout
39
Homework Corner
Pick up from the front desk copy of
Where do people find their news?
1. Listen to directions given by
instructor and written on handout.
2. Talk to people not in this class.
3. Do all five interviews and tally by
next class.
4. Do not fill out the last three
questions until next class.
5. Remember to put your name on the
paper.
6.
PBS Frontline
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/p
art3/stats.html
40
 These questions will always give you the
Asking
questions
1.
Open-ended
2.
Follow-up
best answers.
 These are questions that cannot be simply
answered yes or no.
 This forces the respondent to give you
better, longer answers.
Ask questions like:
1. How do you obtain your news
information?
2. Where do you find news information?
3. How often do you read, listen or watch
news?
4. Which news sources do you believe are
most trustworthy?
41
Asking
questions
1.
Open-ended
2.
Follow-up
 These build off of a response from the
interviewee.
 These often get a reporter their best
information.
Ask questions like:
1. How do you obtain your news information?
2. Where do you find news information?
 Which channel, web page, paper specifically do

3.

4.

you use?
What is the specific name of the location you
use?
How often do you read, listen or watch news?
What time of day do you do this?
Which news sources do you believe are most
trustworthy?
Why do you find them to be trustworthy?
Example
42
KATU Ch.2
TV
X
OregonLive
Online NSP
X
The Review
NSP
X
Facebook
Online
X
She did not seem to be very aware of what was going on in
the news.
KOIN
Ch.6 Did know not to trust Facebook.
Online TV
X
Fill out handout
43
Homework Corner
Pick up from the front desk copy of
Where do people find their news?
1. Listen to directions given by
instructor and written on handout.
2. Talk to people not in this class.
3. Do all five interviews and tally by
next class.
4. Do not fill out the last three
questions until next class.
5. Remember to put your name on the
paper.
6.
PBS Frontline
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/p
art3/stats.html