News values and credibility

"What you see is news, what you know is background, what you feel is opinion." - Lester Markel
..

News is new - to the user

...but what makes it newsworthy?

Relevant to the audience: 'people like me' Simple to tell - clear action/reaction; cause/effect; good/bad; fact/fake Unexpected: "man bites dog" Connected to other events - worth investing resources in

...but what makes it newsworthy?

Different to the day's other stories; adds to the 'news mix Negativity - bad news

Status: if a person or country with power

Adding credibility
Facts: who, what, where, when, how, why

Evidence: documents, photos, video, audio, links Media: images, video and audio
Witnesses: named or recorded

Adding credibility
Reaction: what do those responsible say? Why did this happen? Context: what's the background? According to who? Clarity: don't get distracted

How is online different?

Each new fact and reaction reported separately Newsworthiness can be the 'trending' of something, e.g. "emerging anger... Credibility comes from linking to evidence, not from job title

Key points
Link to evidence wherever you can - in as raw a format as possible Make your information relevant, and connect it to ongoing and future events Publish as you go but add round-up posts to sum up the balance of information

Links

Delicious.com/paulb/newsvalues

 Check Desk Project ArabCitizenMedia.Org

This presentation belongs to a set of guiding materials to help citizen journalists improving the quality of their media production