News Story Values

Every time you open up a newspaper or read a news story online you are coming in contact with different news values. Impact are events or stories that change people's lives. Timeliness refers to how long ago the event or news story occured. Prominence is an individual who has an impact in almost everything they do. Proximity refers to the area the event or story occurs. Close proximity would be your home town. Conflict is any kind of disagreement or fight. The conflict can be between individuals, countries or businesses. Bizarre or unusal events are rare or strange things that occur to people. Currency is when then event or story has recently occured. Each news story may contain a few or all of these news values.





The New York Times news story on President Obama advising Mayors to spend wisely incorporates many different news values. The impact of this story on the American people is huge. How US Mayors spend the stimulus money could make or break our economy even more. Americans want to be informed of this information and stay updated so they know how our country's money is being spent. This also shows the prominence of President Obama. Anything he does is of interest to our country especially if it involves the decisions he makes for our country. This story is very current. It is happening and constantly been updated throughout the past 48hours.



A news story about a women who has been married 23 times caught my attention. This story is an example of a bizarre or unuasual event. It's common for people to marry multiple times however, most people don't make it to 23 marriages. This also involves conflict because many people may be angered by this woman's choice to marry multiple times. Religious groups have a hard time understanding how individuals don't follow their beliefs.

A final news story is from the Manhattanville College website about the new President of the College. This story is current and shows timeliness. It has great impact on the students of Manhattanville and the community around it. I found this news story important because it has a lot of impact and makes Molly Easo Smith prominent within the Manhattanville community.

Should newspapers abandon the inverted pyramid

Some people feel that newspapers should abandon the inverted pyramid story structure and find a way to give their readers the news faster like television and radio does. Although it is true that television and radio release their news events fast they are not always detailed. Many people value the paper. I know personally I’ll listen to a news story on the TV and then go to the paper to get the accurate and descriptive details. The story structure in papers is almost comforting. You always know you have a reliable and consistent place to get your news. I know many people who would rather read the paper than listen to the radio or the television because they do not have to listen to the opinions or biases of the news reporters. Newspapers should keep the inverted pyramid structure so the traditional way of getting news stays in tact. The newspaper is what started it all so without it there would be no radio or television. Television and radio are great for informing important events that are occurring at that very moment. For example, without TV and radio on September 11 so many people would have been in more of a panic due to being uninformed. All three mediums are so important to our society but each has their own benefits and disadvantages. The fast pace news on TV and radio benefits us in so many ways but the traditional style of the inverted pyramid will always be able to provide us with the most accurate news.