Workshop Report: What is News?
This workshop report comes from Alex, who is an account executive at Porter Novelli and one of the core yMedia crew.
For the seventh session in our series of yMedia workshops Helen Sissons from the AUT journalism department joined us at Media Design School to give us a presentation on the ever-relevant topic of ‘what is news?’
With over 10 years experience in the journalism field working for the likes of BBC and many other newspapers in America and the UK. Helen lives and breathes all that is news and was more than happy to share with us some of her key insights on what makes good news and what makes a news editor hit the delete button!
Drawing on this extensive experience, Helen’s presentation touched on all the factors that make a good news story; timing, significance, proximity, human interest and prominence.
Timing:
The word news means exactly that - things, which are new. Topics that are current are good news. Consumers are used to receiving the latest updates, and there is so much news around that old news is quickly discarded.
A story with only average interest needs to be told quickly if it is to be told at all. If it happened today, it’s news. If the same thing happened last week, it’s no longer interesting.
Significance:
The number of people affected by the story is important. For example a crash in which 4 people died will not rate as highly in the news agenda a plane crash killing hundreds.
Proximity:
Stories that happen near to us have more significance. The closer to home, the more newsworthy it is. For example what makes the front page in the Waikato may be very different to what makes the front page in Southland. Therefore it’s important to understand what media publications cover news in proximity to the community group you are working for and targeting them accordingly.
Prominence:
Famous people get more coverage because they are famous. If you break your arm it won’t make the news, but if John Key breaks his arm it’s big news. This is why many campaigns employ the use a well-known personality to act as their media ambassador. Think Robyn Malcolm and the Greenpeace Sign On campaign.
Human Interest:
Last but not least is the human-interest story. These stores often disregard the main rules of newsworthiness; for example, they don’t date as quickly, they need not affect a large number of people, and it may not matter where in the world the story takes place.
Human interest stories appeal to emotion. They aim to evoke responses such as amusement or sadness. On a regular news day human interest stories usually feature within the body of the paper while on a slow news day a human interest story can make the front page.
A great blog to check out is www.badpitch.blogspot.com, which covers everything to do with pitching a story to a journalist. One point Helen reiterated was to give the reporter what they want by pushing their ‘hot buttons’. These ‘hot buttons’ include all of factors mentioned above while also listening to what reporters want, finding that point of difference and delivering what needs to be delivered.
Finally know what’s going on around you – whether it’s reading the paper, logging onto the Herald online or watching the news, to make news you have to know news!
