Hard and Soft News

What is news?

News is free information, story developments and diary events.

Hard news?

This refers to news that is current and hard hitting, typically involving issues such as death, crime, politics and current affairs.

Examples – the war in Afghanistan, someone being murdered, the recession, an armed robbery

Soft news?

Refers to entertainment and more light hearted stories.

Examples – Simon Cowell releasing a single for earthquake victims in Haiti, Footballer Wayne Rooney breaks his leg, a new film being released, a band splitting up

News Values

What are news values?

These are a set of criteria that judge news worthiness. They also suggest what audience the news should be presented to.

In 1965 Galtung and Ruge outlined the first list of news values that suggested a selection of news for news broadcast.

Frequency – The time span of an event and how often it occurs in news

Threshold – How big an event is Unambiguity – How clear is the meaning of an event? Meaningfulness – How meaningful will the event be to the

receivers? Cultural Proximity – Events happening in cultures different to our

own. Consonance – Does the event match the audiences expectations? Unexpectedness – News such as ‘man bites dog’, highly

unpredictable. Continuity – The running of a story that has already been

introduced. Composition – The matter of the balance of news. Elite Nations – Those that are culturally closest to our own will

receive the most coverage. Elite Persons – The media pay attention to ‘important people’,

this can link to celebrities. Personalisation – This connects with unambiguity and

meaningfulness – events are seen as the actions of individuals. Negativity – Bad news that is good news in terms of context.