NEWS AND NEWS VALUES
=Problems of the News.= As news is the _sine qua non_ of the newspaper,
the problem of newspaper making resolves itself into the three
questions: What is news? Where and how is news to be obtained? and,
How is news to be presented to the reader? The first question involves
the definition of news and the determination of its value, the second
concerns the gathering of news, and the third has to do with structure
and style in the writing of news.
=What is News?= Although every good newspaper worker recognizes news
at once, and almost instinctively decides upon its value, most of
them find it difficult to express in brief form what news is and what
determines its value. In a symposium recently conducted by an American
magazine,[2] a number of editors throughout the country undertook to
define news, giving the following definitions:—
News is whatever your readers want to know about.
Anything that enough people want to read is news, provided it does
not violate the canons of good taste and the laws of libel.
News is anything that happens in which people are interested.
News is anything that people will talk about; the more it will excite
comment, the greater its value.
News is accurate and timely intelligence of happenings, discoveries,
opinions, and matters of any sort which affect or interest the
readers.
Whatever concerns public welfare, whatever interests or instructs
the individual in any of his relations, activities, opinions,
properties, or personal conduct, is news.
News is everything that happens, the inspiration of happenings, and
the result of such happenings.
News is the essential facts concerning any happening, event, or idea
that possesses human interest; that affects or has an influence on
human life or happiness.
News is based on people, and is to be gauged entirely on how it
interests other people.
News comprises all current activities which are of general human
interest, and the best news is that which interests the most
readers.
The essentials of news, as brought out by these definitions are: (1)
that it must be of interest to the readers; (2) that it includes
anything and everything that has any such interest; and, (3) that it
must be new, current, timely. Furthermore, these definitions emphasize
the fact that the value of news is determined (1) by the number of
people that it interests, and (2) by the extent to which it interests
them. The composite of these definitions, therefore, would be: _News is
anything timely that interests a number of people; and the best news is
that which has the greatest interest for the greatest number_.
By the application of these tests to each event, idea, or activity,
the reporter can determine for himself what is news and what is not,
as well as what value a piece of news possesses. He must ask himself
concerning each piece of news that he gets: “Is it new and timely?”
“How many readers will it interest?” “Has it great interest for a large
number?”
Many times an incident seems, at first glance, to possess little that
will interest, but, on closer examination, reveals some phase that is
of considerable news value. Keen observation and insight to see the
significant aspect of a person, an event, an idea, often leads to the
discovery of news that may escape the notice of less acute observers.
The reporter must find for himself those aspects of the day’s events
which are of the greatest interest to the greatest number.
=Timeliness in News.= Freshness, timeliness, newness is one vital
qualification for all news. “Yesterday” has almost ceased to exist
for the newspaper man. Even “to-day” has become “this morning,” “this
noon,” “this afternoon.” “Up to date” has given way to “up to the
minute.” Improved mechanical equipment, which makes possible lightning
speed in turning news stories into a complete newspaper in less than
half an hour, has made possible a degree of freshness in the news
that would seem marvelous were it not a daily, in fact, almost an
hourly phenomenon. Competition among newspapers, and the publication
of frequent editions, increase the necessity for the latest news. The
reporter must catch this spirit of getting the news while it is news,
and of getting it into print before it loses its freshness.
=What Interests Readers.= How general will be the interest in any
activity, idea, or event is determined by what the average person likes
to hear, read, or see. Whatever gives him pleasure or satisfaction,
interests him. Consideration of the fundamental bases of news values,
therefore, involves a determination of the general classes of things
that give pleasure and satisfaction to the average individual.
=The Extraordinary.= The unusual, the extraordinary, the curious,
wherever found, attracts attention and is interesting because it is
a departure from the normal order of life. Humdrum routine whets the
appetite for every break in the monotony of regularity. So long as
the daily life of the average man conforms to the generally accepted
business and social standards and is not affected by any unusual
circumstances, it has little interest for his fellow men. As soon as
he violates the usual order, or is the victim of such violation, his
departure from the level of conformity becomes a matter of greater
or less interest according to the extent of the departure. Because
hundreds of thousands of bank employees are honest, the dishonesty
of one of them is news. So all crime, as a violation of established
law and order, is news, unless, as unfortunately is sometimes the
case, it becomes common enough to cease to be unusual. Every notable
achievement in any field of activity, because it rises above the level,
is news. A record aeroplane flight, an heroic action, the discovery of
a new serum, the invention of a labor-saving device, the finding of
remains of a buried city, the completion of a great bridge,—all are
sufficiently out of the ordinary to attract attention. Accidents and
unexpected occurrences, because they break in upon the usual course of
events, are matters of news. The thousands of trains that reach their
destination safely are as nothing compared to one that jumps the track.
Millions of dollars’ worth of property that remains unharmed from day
to day does not interest the average man, but the loss of some of it
by fire, wind, or flood immediately lifts the part affected out of the
mass and gives it interest to hundreds of persons in no way concerned
in the loss. It is not the crimes and misfortunes of others that give
the reader pleasure; it is the fact that these are departures from
the normal course that makes them satisfy his desire for something
different from the usual round of life.
In almost every event the good newspaper man can find something that
is out of the ordinary, and by giving due emphasis to this unusual
phase can give interest to what might otherwise seem commonplace.
What that something will be is determined by the reporter’s or the
editor’s appreciation of what will appeal to the average reader as the
most marked departure from the customary and the expected. If, as in
a recent accident, the front trucks of a trolley car jump the track
and upset a baby carriage, throwing out the baby; and if the baby
alights unharmed on a pillow that was tossed out of the carriage by the
collision, such peculiar circumstances the reporter knows will appeal
to most readers as the interesting feature of the accident. That a
sneak thief should be caught as he was escaping from a house with a few
dollars’ worth of plunder, will attract the average reader much less
than the fact that he jumped through a plate-glass window in his effort
to escape, or that he gained access to the house by wearing a Salvation
Army uniform, or that he carried away a pie as part of his booty. How
a man lost a purse containing $50 is scarcely worthy of notice, but
how, while looking for his purse, he found a diamond ring, is strange
enough to make good reading. A lecture at an agricultural society
meeting on the advantages to the farmers of the state of raising barley
would not ordinarily be considered of much interest to city readers,
but an interruption of the lecture by an advocate of prohibition with
the charge that to urge barley growing is to aid the brewing interests,
might make a good news story. The character and the extent of the
departure from the usual, considered from the point of view of most of
the readers, measure the news value of any phase of an event that is
out of the ordinary.
=Struggles for Supremacy.= Struggles for supremacy, also, have an
almost universal appeal. Competition in business, contest in sport,
rivalry in politics, are based on the love of fighting to win. Strikes
and lockouts, as part of the contest between labor and capital, appeal
to this interest. So does the fight to secure control or monopoly
in any part of the commercial field. The enthusiasm manifested over
baseball, football, boxing, racing, and other sports grows out of
the love of contest for supremacy. In political warfare the interest
of many is largely in the struggle for victory, with the power that
victory brings, rather than any results that will affect the individual
directly. Accounts of all these forms of fighting to win make good news
stories.
=“Human Interest.”= The fellow feeling that makes all the world akin,
the sympathy that binds together men who have little in common, is the
basis of interest which we have in the actions, thoughts, and feelings
of others. The “human interest” which newspaper and magazine editors
demand, involves emphasis on the personal element in the affairs of
life. The characters that appear in news stories, fiction, or special
articles must be made to appeal to the readers as real flesh and
blood men and women. The human side of events is what the average
reader wants. How one man is saved by a new serum is read with more
attention than is a discussion of the therapeutic value of the serum.
The privations of an arctic explorer in reaching the pole have almost
as much interest for most readers as the discovery of the pole itself.
The experiences of strikers and their families are read by many who
know little and care less about the economic conditions that produce
the strike. So vitally do we feel ourselves concerned with the fate of
our fellow men, even when we do not know them personally, that accounts
of human life lost or endangered are read with great eagerness. “Many
lives lost!” is the cry that the newsboy knows will sell the most
papers. From the point of view of the newspaper the greater the number
of lives thus involved in the event, the better is the news.
=The Appeal of Children.= The unusual appeal that children make gives
news of their activities especial value. Whenever a little child
plays a part in an event, it is pretty sure to be the best feature of
the story. The letter which a small girl writes to the mayor asking
that her pet dog be restored to her from the dog pound, will take a
place in the day’s news beside the interview with the mayor outlining
his policies of city government for the following two years. A child
witness holds the attention of the entire court room and is “featured”
in the story of a trial, partly, no doubt, because the appearance of
a child in these circumstances is unusual, but largely because of our
interest in children. Just as a child’s plea to a judge saves its
worthless father or drunken mother from a prison sentence, so the story
of that plea will move every reader. Anecdotes and sayings of children
readily find a place in newspapers and magazines.
=Interest in Animals.= The popular interest in animals, wild or
tame, in captivity or at large, makes news stories about them good
reading. Whether we are attracted by the almost human intelligence
that animals often display, or by their distinctly animal traits, we
read of their doings with keen interest. Anecdotes of animal pets if
well told are always readable. The fascination which the “zoo” or the
circus menagerie has for most people is akin to the pleasure given
by anecdotes of animals in captivity. Every city editor knows the
value of the zoölogical garden as a source of effective stories when
other fields fail. Wild animals at large, particularly when they come
into any relation with men, afford good material for the reporter or
correspondent.
=Amusements and Hobbies.= The favorite pleasures and amusements of
readers form another large group of activities that must be considered
in measuring the value of news. Besides the contest element in sports
that interests the spectator, there is the attraction of athletics for
the players. Golf, tennis, automobiling, and similar activities furnish
news that is read by those who engage in these diversions. Accounts of
the theatre, of concerts, and of all forms of amusements are read by
the thousands who patronize these entertainments. Pastimes and hobbies,
such as amateur photography, book-collecting, fishing and hunting,
canoeing and sailing, whist and chess, have enough devotees to give
value to news of such avocations. Here again the number of readers to
whom such news appeals determines the space and the prominence that it
is worth.
=Degree of Readers’ Interest.= Persons, places, or things that go
to make up news excite a degree of interest proportional to (1)
the reader’s familiarity with them, (2) their own importance and
prominence, (3) the closeness of their relation to the reader’s
personal affairs.
=Local Interest.= Local events interest readers because they know the
places and often the persons concerned. Local news, accordingly, takes
precedence over news from elsewhere of equal or greater importance as
measured by the general standards of news value. Interest in most news
stories may be said to vary inversely in proportion to the distance
between the place of the event described and the place where the paper
is published. Just as the splash is greatest where a stone strikes
the water, the ripples growing less and less marked as the force of
the shock spreads out over the pond, so the impression made by an
occurrence grows less and less the farther one goes from the scene of
action. We read more eagerly the account of a small fire in a building
that we pass every day than the dispatch telling of a fire that wiped
out a whole town two thousand miles away. The arrest of a man for
speeding his automobile will cause more comment among his friends
than the capture of a gang of automobile bandits that has terrorized
another city. Local phases, or “local ends,” as they are called, of
events that take place some distance away quite overshadow in interest
more important phases of the event itself. Every effort is made in the
newspaper to bring events, ideas, and activities elsewhere into some
local relation.
=Interest in the Prominent.= The interest which all readers have in
what is familiar to them extends to persons, places, and things that
they may not know personally but that they recognize as important or
prominent. They like to read about men and women who are leaders in
social, business, or political activities in the city, the state, the
nation, or anywhere in the world, even though these persons exist for
them only in name. A high position itself gives added importance to
news concerning the person who occupies it, although many readers may
not have heard of him before. Thus, in order to appeal to this general
interest in the doings of persons of position, some less scrupulous
reporters and editors describe the characters in their news stories as
“prominent,” “well-known,” “a college graduate,” “a beautiful young
society girl,” when the facts do not warrant it. Personages who are
well known do not need such introduction; their names alone serve to
identify them. The value of news concerning a person may be said to
vary in direct proportion to his prominence. A slight accident to a
candidate for the presidency of the United States attracts much more
attention than a serious one to a candidate for Congress. A story of
the wedding of the daughter of a multi-millionaire has thousands of
readers because of the prominence of her father, whereas the account
of the wedding of the corner grocer’s daughter attracts only a small
number who know the families. The daily life of the great affords daily
pleasure to the humble.
Places that readers have often heard of, but in many cases have never
seen, such as New York, Paris, Washington, Coney Island, Niagara Falls,
possess an attraction that makes news from them the more interesting
even though it may consist of no more than gossip and trivial
happenings. Well-known places as the setting for events give added
importance, therefore, to the news value of these events. Institutions,
such as universities of national reputation, the Library of Congress,
the Rockefeller Institute, the Young Men’s Christian Association, the
Salvation Army, because they are generally known, likewise attract
attention to news involving them. Familiar names of great ocean
steamships, of large commercial companies, and of important railroad
systems, increase the news value of stories in which they appear.
Size and prominence, then, of places and things, like importance and
prominence of persons, determine news values.
=Home and Business Interests.= The most vital concerns of both men and
women, however, are their business and their home, their prosperity
and their happiness. Whatever in the daily round of events affects
these interests most directly will get their closest attention. Upon
this principle depends the news value of many newspaper stories.
Stock brokers and investors read the stock market reports; buyers and
farmers, the produce and live stock quotations; owners and agents of
real estate, the records of transfers and mortgages; business men
generally, commercial and industrial news, because of the relation of
such news to their own business affairs. A marked rise or fall in the
price of butter, eggs, meat, or other staple articles of food concerns
not only the dealers but housewives and other purchasers of such
commodities. Announcement of the proposed construction of a new trolley
line appeals to readers whose transportation facilities or property are
affected. Income tax legislation, parcel post, adjustments of railroad
rates, state or federal supreme court decisions, the tariff, and other
political and economic problems, usually interest the average reader
in proportion as he thinks that they will affect him and his business.
For most women readers home-making and fashions are of vital concern.
Besides matters pertaining to the cost of living, which affect men and
women alike, pure food laws and their enforcement, schools, the health
and welfare of children, the servant problem, the milk and the water
supplies, as well as the latest styles of dress,—all come very close
to the everyday lives of women, who constitute no small part of the
number of newspaper readers. Incidental concerns of both men and women
readers, such as organizations to which they belong, general movements
with which they are connected, or the social life of which they are a
part, give interest for them to news concerning these activities. News
values, therefore, are measured by the extent to which news affects
directly the lives of readers; the greater the effect and the larger
the number of readers affected, the better the news.
=Combination of Interests.= If one event possesses several of these
different kinds of interest it is very good news, because of the
greater number of readers to whom it appeals and because of the
stronger appeal that it makes. Thus, for example, the “Titanic”
disaster was extremely unusual in that the largest ocean liner on its
first trip was sunk by an iceberg while proceeding at a high rate of
speed on a clear night. Greater still was its interest because of the
very large number of human lives involved. Added to this was the fact
that many of the passengers were prominent. The result was that news
of the disaster was read with the greatest eagerness by all classes
everywhere in this country as well as abroad. The combination of
sources of interest and the greater degree of interest that results
must be taken into consideration in measuring the final value of news.
SUGGESTIONS
1. Ask yourself concerning every piece of information, How many readers
will it interest? How much will it interest the average reader? Is it
really new and timely?
2. Examine every phase of an event or idea for what will be of greatest
interest to the greatest number.
3. Look always for what will appeal to the average reader as most
unusual, curious, remarkable.
4. Consider the things that give most persons great pleasure and
satisfaction.
5. Don’t overlook the “human interest” element in the day’s events.
6. Remember that a good fight interests many, whether it is in
politics, business, or sport.
7. Don’t neglect children in the news; though small they make a big
appeal.
8. Keep on the look-out for good stories of animals.
9. Provide reading for men and women with hobbies.
10. Measure the value of your news on the basis of its local interest.
11. Remember that readers are most interested in persons and places
that they know.
12. Consider the news value given by the importance and prominence of
persons and things.
13. Bring your news as close as possible to the reader’s home and
business.
14. Sharpen your “nose for news” on the grindstone of experience.