definitions, characteristics, values

News

What is the news?

The Concept: News

What is your definition of the news?

Oxford Dictionary

News—information about important or recent events, when published or broadcast

Other definitions of newsNews is what somebody somewhere wants

to supressيقمع; all the rest is advertisingNews is conflict, hardship معاناهand danger

to the community; the unusualخطر(oddityالغرائب, noveltyالشدة); scandal based onالفرديه and individualismالفضيحةthe latter attributes of news

News is what newspaper men make itUnless we understand better the social

forces which bear on the reporting of news, we will never understand what news is

Objectivity and RealityOne way to describe news is to say it is an „objective” account in the media of a recent newsworthy event or trendاتجاه. According to the Western journalistic tradition, a journalist is an impartialنزيه observer who gathers, processes, and imparts news

It has been suggested in the science of communication that objectivity in journalism cannot qualify as a positivisticوضعى, verifiable concept يمكن

المفهوم من Some say journalism does . التحققnot exist as a neutral محايدor objective mirror image of reality as it often chooses to claim.

„The newspaper, seen in its totality, is far more related to a portraitصورة, an

impressionistic portrait االنطباعيه than , الصورةa mirror or a photo image. We select and accentuateابراز; we cannot do otherwise.”

For this reason, researchers have concluded that objectivity in journalism is not possible—that in fact it is a mythخرافة.

One can assume that each journalist’s interpretation of a news event is just as subjective as the reader’s version of an

article at the time it is read.

What are some of the rules of journalistic objectivity?

Does that mean a journalist should not strive يسعىfor

objectivity?

Rule 1 Using a

variety of sources; covering both parties

Rule 2 Separating facts

from opinion and comment

Galtung and Ruge

In their groundbreaking study of foreign news, Galtung and Ruge (1965) identified nine elements or news factors that make up news selection and they are still valid today:

Time Span

The event should best fit the time schedule of the news medium

Intensityشدة or Threshold Valueالقيمة االخباريه

Magnitude حجم or sudden increase in the normal level of events

Clarity

A story with clear facts would rather be published

Cultural Proximity or Relevanceالقرب

The close the event, the better

Consonance النتيجة

Stories that are ‘expected’—for instance, corruption in certain countries—are more

likely to be selected

Unexpectedness االحداثالفجائيه

The more unusual or unpredictable

Continuity

Once a strory is ‘running’ there will be some momentum to carry it further

Composition التركيب

News stories should normally fit the overall balance of the medium

Sociocultural Values

of the society and the gatekeepersحراس at the particular news medium

These news values should be tied with the traditional journalistic 5 Ws and the H

The character in the event (who)The event itself (what)The cause (why)The place (where)The time (when)The manner (how)