Q Media Writing Lab News values handout and assignments Week 1 For instructors and students News is: 1. A break from routine: the unexpected. 2. Information people need to know. 3. Information people want to know. It provides: • Relevance • Usefulness • Interest The audience helps determine what is newsworthy. Two kinds of news: Hard (breaking news) – impact/consequence is most important news value Soft news (features) – human interest is most important news value Most common news values: Impact/Consequence on audience Timeliness Proximity Prominence (remember, this has to do with people, not places) Conflict Human interest Novelty or oddity Humor Helpfulness/usefulness to audience News Values Assignment 1 Directions: Assume you are and editor for the Omaha World-Herald. For each scenario, indicate whether you would cover this story and why. Use your understanding of news values to support your decisions and list which news values apply. If you decided not to cover a story, explain your reasoning by listing the news values that do not apply. Please type your answers. 1. Omaha City Councilman Vinny Palermo calls a news conference today to announce that he is resigning from the City Council because of his frustration with the mayor and the internal politics on the council. 2. A powerful thunderstorm is headed toward Omaha tonight, and forecasters believe it produce baseball-sized hail and multiple tornadoes. Area schools react by canceling class for tomorrow. 3. The University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, announces it will conduct all lectures online for the next school year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 4. An attempted burglary at an Omaha Walgreens is quickly solved because the perpetrator mistakenly leaves his company ID behind. The perpetrator works at the nearby Marriott Reservation Center. Police officers make a quick arrest because his name is on his ID badge.