News Values

Immediacy:

Social networking sites now allow us to find out the news instantly, this may be as you are following news accounts such as BBC or the people you are following are tweeting about these immediate events and you can then look further into this. So Twitter for e.g. lets you find out news straight away as a tweet gets sent in seconds. This means that people no longer have to wait for a newspaper to be released to find out a breaking story.

Familiarity:

New and Digital media allows us to interact with each other and discuss our views which may as a result leave us more familiar with certain stories and opinions.

Amplitude:

Due to globalisation and the reach the Internet provides we are now more frequently exposed to international events from sources such as twitter etc. and despite the size of the event we will still gain some form of information about it whereas before without new and digital media we would not.

Frequency:

If an even occurs frequently in contrast to a news story that is very rare, it is much less likely to be aired if it happens regularly as it is not new news, and people are more interested in new stories.

Unambiguity:

Articles online and blogs can often expose flaws in news stories. Often many conspiracy theories for example come from online bloggers spreading their views on an incident. If an event is clear it may also be more likely to be aired as it can be properly reported on the news

Predictability:
If an event is predictable then it is much less interesting for viewers and news institutions are likely not going to chose a main news story that everyone is expecting.

Surprise:

New and digital media allows us to instantly become notified of surprise news stories such as unexpected deaths. These surprise stories are also likely to quickly become the number one news story when it is first know due to the breaking nature of it and people like to know breaking news.

Continuity:

If a story has already been covered by the news multiple times, if not a massive story like 9/11 for example, it is not going to be covered regularly as new stories will come out and people will become disinterested if the same story is constantly reported.

Elite nations and people:

If an elite nation like the USA or UK have some kind of minor incident such as a trains crash, it is much more likely to be reported as opposed to if the same event in a smaller less powerful country. An incident or scandal with an A list celebrity or Politician is likely to become news as they are elite people, compared to it probably not even making the news if it is a normal person.

Negativity:

Bad news generally tends to gain more attention in the news that good news as it interests and grabs people's attention more if a negative story is reported. Very rarely do we see charitable actions reported on the news but crime is a regular feature.

Balance: 

A story may be pushed up in importance if it counter balances another story that has already been reported to avoid institutions being accused of bias in certain issues. For example a human survival story may be aired to balance a death story.