News Judgment

1: Terms to Know (Examples would clarify understanding here)

News Judgment- a journalist uses their judgment to decide if a story will be good enough to put in the news

Advance- promoting the time in which the story accured

Timeliness- relates to the newness of facts -> how current are the facts

Proximity-refers to the nearness of the story-> meaning where the story took place in location

Prominence- refers to the “newsworthiness” of the story (names-some create more news then others)

Consequence- simply refers to the importance of the story--events

Localization-defines where something is going on/taking place

Human-Interest Story- deals with other human interactions and it is one of the most popular types of story

Conflict-an element of news that deals with conflict

Brainstorming- helps a writer figure out what type of story to write about

Random Sample- samples that are taken at random from the public

Filter Question- Questions that require a yes or no answer in order to narrow down facts to gain the most important information.

2: Key Concepts

News Judgment: Using ones sense of judgment by deciding what is more important in the mass media. This is something that is learned from experience.

Example: A journalist has a list of 12 articles, They decide what needs to be heard first.

The “Who cares method”: The journalists ask themselves “who cares bout this topic? Whom does this relate to?” If it is something that there is genuine interest then it is news.

The Element of News: Timeliness, Proximity, Prominence, Consequence, Human interest, Conflict, Other

Generating News Story Ideas: Come up with possible newsworthy stories and who would be interested in them.