WEEK 4- Chapter 4 ‘A ‘know’ for news’

WEEK 4- Chapter 4 ‘A ‘know’ for news’

1. How did Australian news outlets give proximity to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami?

Australian news outlets gave proximity to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami by focusing on the closeness of the geographical distance, the Australian death toll and the fact that it was a popular holiday destinations by Australians. These issues contributed to news outlets giving proximity to the tsunamis. Also the fact that it was such a massive natural disaster gave it global media attention.

2. If you were a reporter covering a story about a mentally ill Australian women who was found by Queensland police in Cairns talking what they thought was German, who was subsequently arrested and found herself locked up in an immigration detention centre in South Australia for 10 months, what main news value would you focus on when writing the story? In order of importance, what would be the next two subsidiary news values?

I remember this story being plastered all over the Adelaide Advertiser. It was an embarrassment for the police and immigration department. The next two subsidiary news values I would focus on would be human interest and unusual. Human interest, due to the fact that the police and immigration department made a huge mistake. Unusual as the whole case was not something you see in the media everyday.

3. As a reporter, which information would you feature more prominently: a) a mayoral announcement about an urban renewal plan to resolve inner-city crime problems or b) a comment by Prince Charles, in Australia on a visit, who says after the mayor’s speech that such problems can often be attributed to building regulations formulated by city councils?

If Prince Charles were not visiting this town that the mayor has commented on then obviously the mayor’s announcement would be more newsworthy. But if the Prince happened to be in the same town and at the same time as the major’s speech then I would use the prince as an attraction for the public to read the story then follow onto the mayor’s announcement in depth. Who doesn’t love the royal family? Dirty Harry.

4. Define ‘news’ in 20 words or less.

Information that would be in the publics interest and educate them about issues in the community, country or worldwide.

5. Should Kipling’s Six Strong Serving Men be assigned equal value when writing a news article?

What, why, when, how and who are all equal news values. But it would depend on what kind of news article was being written when deciding which of Kipling’s six strong serving men would have more news value.

Journalism Issue

Soft news v’s Hard news. It would be interesting to see what the main news agendas would be in the future. It is evident today that society prefers to read/view soft news rather than hard news. Within newspapers the preference of soft news is evident through the lifestyle sections, lift-out sections as well as the focus on celebrities. Could this reflect society wanting to detach from everyday life, preferring to be entertained and provided with infotainment. The softening of news is based on how news values have changed over time with society preferring to have weekend litfouts and celebrity scandals.

'Major print media outlets rate only marginally better than television at providing hard news over soft news coverage. The leading example of newspaper soft news journalism is the USA Today, which from its inception has adopted an editorial direction that seeks a "television in print" style, with a heavy emphasis on color, photos, flashy graphics, brief articles, and lifestyle, entertainment, and news-you-can-use coverage. '

http://www.csicop.org/genx/infotainment/