Qu'est-ce que c'est "News?"

The idea of "news" is not a simple dichotomy of Newsworthy vs. Not; rather, it is mightily subjective, dependent on such factors as one's intended audience, medium, competition's coverage, and perhaps most importantly, one's (or one's editor's) judgment.


Newsworthiness can be determined by how a story fits into the traditional news values, as the majority of news stories encompass several of these values. Towson professor Thom Lieb lists the news values as follows:

* Prominence - The more famous or important a person is, the more news coverage they receive, even for their most minor actions. This is true for both powerful figures such as politicians, whose lives can directly affect ours, but also (perhaps more so) for celebrities whose only direct impact on our lives will be starring in a romantic comedy we hate.

* Unusualness - If a story is unique or strange, it will receive greater coverage, despite its unimportance.

* Currency - Whether a story relates to other, current stories will impact how much coverage it gets.

* Conflict - People love reading about conflict! No one wants to read a story about Sarah Palin shaking Joe Biden's hand, but if Palin attacks Biden's Senate record, the story will certainly make the news.

* Timeliness - News is, by definition, new. More recent stories will get more coverage than older stories. Period.

* Proximity/Affinity - News is more appealing to people when it affects them, or barring that, affects people similar to them. This similarity may be geographic, by affecting someone in their neighborhood, or it may be a racial similarity, or religious, or any number of other characteristics that people identify with. The local news is very popular for this reason, and has the added benefit of cutting out the competitors that appeal to a different demographic.

* Human Interest - Emotional content, while not always important in terms of the other news values, is very useful as a quick and easy way of getting readers/viewers who would not otherwise be interested in the news. Just don't expect to garner any journalistic credibility.


Having discussed what makes a story viable as "news," perhaps now it's time to examine a few news stories and probe them for newsworthiness. The Baltimore Sun claims to be "among... the most distinguished" of American newspapers. Let's see for ourselves.


One of the two flagship stories on the website is headlined, "East Baltimore shooting leaves 1 dead, 5 hurt." The article tells of a drive-by shooting in East Baltimore on Tuesday night, tells what police think may have happened, and details the conditions of the victims. There is an interview with a police spokesman, and one with a witness, and the website provides a link to a story of a shooting earlier in the day, as well as a handy (and depressing) interactive map of all the homicides in Baltimore City dating back to 2007, color-coded by cause of death.


This story meets several of Lieb's news-value criteria for newsworthiness: Timeliness, as the story occurred less than two hours before the writing of this blog; Proximity, as the Sun's target audience lives in or around Baltimore; Conflict, because, of course, the story deals with a direct, physical conflict; and Currency, because unfortunately, Baltimore is a violent city, with regular homicides, and there was even an unrelated shooting less than 16 hours earlier, less than 2 miles away. It is a sad comment on the state of the city when I say that this story does not meet criteria for Unusualness.


The second 'front-page' story, "Fire destroys city playground," tells of a blaze that destroyed a Waverly playground built on the site of Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. The author goes on to tell of the impact that the 3-year-old playground had had on the community, details of the playground's ownership and maintenance, and how the community plans to rebuild. There were quotes from several people, including Waverly residents, a police spokesman, and a mayoral spokesman, and a picture of the fire.


This story also has several points of news value: Timeliness, as the blaze happened today; Proximity, as it occured in Baltimore; Currency, as a similar fire damaged another community center the day before; Human interest, as the story of a playground being the victim of potential arson tugs any number of heartstrings; and perhaps Conflict.


The last story I will deconstruct is called "KFC shoring up security as secret recipe is relocated." I chose this story, under the heading "Nation," because after those last two stories, I needed something lighter. And crispier. And finger-lickinger. The secret recipe, according to this story, is being removed from KFC's corporate headquarters for the first time in 20-odd years, where it had been stored under lock and key, in a vault accessible only to two anonomyous executives. The story details the specifics of the recipe's former security measures, and the security measures being taken in its transportation, but notes that security upgrades are being kept secret. The end of the article tells of the history of KFC's famous recipe, and its famous inventor, Colonel Sanders, then goes on to detail KFC's current financial situation.


This story meets a few of the news value criteria, but not as many as the previous stories. The story is Timely, as the recipe was transported earlier today. It is moderately Unusual, because it is unheard of for a simple recipe to be given such extreme security precautions; it is doubtful even the Declaration of Independence would warrant such paranoia! The story has a bit of Proximity appeal, as it takes place a mere 600 miles from the Sun's readers. There may even be some Human Interest, because hey, if fried chicken doesn't Interest you, I doubt you're Human.


As you can see, all three stories are quite newsworthy by any standards. Although the first two articles are quite local, that appeals to the Sun's target demographic, and there are of course news from around the nation, and the globe, present on the page. The Baltimore Sun is certainly doing a fine job in hitting the traditional news values, which is why it's my second-favorite Baltimore-based newspaper. If it allowed curse words, it would perhaps even overtake my current favorite, the CityPaper.


But it would have to allow a TON of curse words to do that.