Читать книгу Feature Writing and Reporting - Jennifer Brannock Cox - Страница 42

When journalists assess an event, they use news values—attributes that determine whether they should pursue a story, how much time and length to devote to it and where it should be placed in the news product. To make these decisions, reporters and editors ask questions about the occurrence, guided by the following news values (see Figure 2.1).

Figure 2.1 News Values Impact

 Impact. How much does the story matter to our readers? How many people might be affected by it?

 Timeliness. Did it happen recently? Is there a particular day/month when this story might be most relevant to our readers?

 Proximity. Did the news event occur within our proclaimed coverage area? Is this a larger issue that can be localized to our readers?

 Prominence. Does the story involve people or organizations most readers would know or those who make decisions affecting our readers?

 Oddity/Novelty. Is this an unusual occurrence that would pique our readers’ interest? Is it something that has never happened before or has happened only rarely in the past?

 Conflict. Does the story involve two or more people/parties disagreeing? Will our readers want to weigh in on this issue with their opinions?

 Human Interest. Does the story involve average people doing extraordinary things? Are there elements of tragedy, inspiration or triumph to which our readers can relate?

 Helpfulness. Does this story help our readers make decisions about their lives or learn new information that might be useful to them?

News stories may contain any or all of these values. All stories should include impact. If the audience would neither be affected nor interested by the article, it probably won’t make the publication. Many articles also contain timeliness and proximity if they are published in a newspaper or magazine with regular deadlines and a specific geographic location. The other values—prominence, oddity/novelty, conflict, human interest and helpfulness—vary from story to story.