News values revisited (again!)
AJE members Tony Harcup of University of Sheffield and Deirdre O’Neill of University of Huddersfield have re-examined news values in the latest issue of Journalism Studies . [Image: BBC / Wikipedia]
What is News? It certainly feels like an apt time to re-examine that commonly set undergraduate essay question. Have traditional news values really gone out the window in an era of clickbait, listicles and immersive advertising? Let’s hope not.
Harcup and O’Neill write:
The deceptively simple question “What is news?” remains pertinent even as we ponder the future of journalism in the digital age. This article examines news values within mainstream journalism and considers the extent to which news values may be changing since earlier landmark studies were undertaken. Its starting point is Harcup and O’Neill’s widely-cited 2001 updating of Galtung and Ruge’s influential 1965 taxonomy of news values. Just as that study put Galtung and Ruge’s criteria to the test with an empirical content analysis of published news, this new study explores the extent to which Harcup and O’Neill’s revised list of news values remain relevant given the challenges (and opportunities) faced by journalism today, including the emergence of social media. A review of recent literature contextualises the findings of a fresh content analysis of news values within a range of UK media 15 years on from the last study. The article concludes by suggesting a revised and updated set of contemporary news values, whilst acknowledging that no taxonomy can ever explain everything.
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