News values for news selection

News values are the sum of the qualities contained in the information that can make up news that are of general interest to the audience. News values are shaped by the general interest of the audience and are based on the views of the general public, not the social elite. The gatekeepers consider news that involves a large number of people, affects a large number of people, and is about social celebrities, especially those in power, to be breaking news.

We know from our daily experience that there are differences in the extent to which different news and different topics (content) affect news receivers. We call the sum of the qualities contained in the information that can constitute news that arouses the general interest of the audience news value.

The idea of news value comes from the empirical generalization of news practice. In terms of the general opinion of journalism and academia in China and the West, there are generally the following five elements of news value:

(1) Timely: news is "fragile", the stronger the timeliness, the more vitality. Newspaper news only 24 hours of life, in the event of major emergencies often issue extra. In today's electronic age, the rolling broadcast of radio and television to ensure that the news audience will not be out of touch with the news for an hour.

(2) proximity: the closer the location of the event is to the reader, the greater the news value. Today it also includes psychological proximity.

(3) Prominence: a prominent person attracts more attention than a non-descendent person.

(4) Significance: the greater the degree of impact of news facts on reality and the future, the greater the news value.

(5) Interest: western journalism believes that "interest is a recipe for attracting readers." Most audiences are more interested in novelty, perversity, perversion, and things with a human face.

★ Simple description boils down to the "five elements", which is also the connotation of the "element-criteria unity":

The "newness", "significance", "importance", "quality", "quality", "quality", "quality", "quality", "quality", "quality", "quality", "quality", "quality", "quality", "quality" and "quality", "importance", "prominence", "proximity", "interest".

(Reference: Yang Baojun, "News Theory Tutorial", People's University of China Press, June 2009)

On the constituent elements of news value, there is also a "seven elements" said abroad. In addition to (1) timeliness; (2) proximity; (3) prominence, there are: (4) audience; (5) impact; (6) singularity; (7) conflict. Here, audience emphasizes differences from one another; impact refers to how many people are affected by something and often determines the range of readers.