Who cares method of news judgment HiLights I

Who cares method of news judgment Hi-Lights I

Who Cares? • A concrete (but not scientific) way to measure the value of a news event • A way to be aware of your audience – Who is your audience? – Who cares about this? – How many people will be interested in this? Just about everyone? No one?

Who Cares? • If you can answer “Most of the newspaper’s readers will want to know or need to know about this, ” you’ve got news. If not, toss it out, or carefully consider where it should be placed.

Try it. . . • The mayor signs a proclamation of designating next week as Clean. Up, Paint-Up, Fix-Up week • The mayor announces an investigation into the disappearance of $350, 000 from the city’s general fund • Your next door neighbor gets accepted to UW-Green Bay

News judgment • News is the unique, the different, the departure from the normal course of events. • Few news decisions are clear-cut, but the elements of news, news arithmetic, and “who cares? ” can help you develop good news judgment

Who cares? • • • Does it work for all events? Your neighbor and his cousin get into a fistfight. Interesting? . . . Maybe. News? . . . No. Why not? Most readers enjoy gossip on some level, but a newspaper’s duty is to rise above ugly stories and invading the privacy/upsetting the lives of innocent people. • Always ask – “Could this offend the reader? ”

Brainstorming • How does a news staff decide what information to print/broadcast? • Brainstorming – all possible ideas explored – Consideration of elements of news, news arithmetic, who cares method – After lots of experience, intuition takes over