How to Make Friends and Influence in the Newsroom with News Values…

In response to HB Media publisher,Vincent Heeringa’s recent criticism of poor PR pitching, here’s a timely reminder about news values (sources: NZJTO’s Jim Tucker’s ‘Kiwi Journalist;’ and Judy’s work on http://www.mediascape.ac.nz/).

Putting yourself in the moccasins of a journalist, what makes the cut as 'news'?

1. News means ‘new’ - Is it previously unknown? First of its kind?

2. Geographical proximity – Think about locality or the New Zealand angle if further afield.

3. Topicality and relevance – Who cares about it? Does it affect the audience personally?

4. Names - Remember people are more interesting than things!

5. Human interest – The unusual in an ordinary life and/or emotional (fear, tear jerking, horror, laugh, outrage) angle.

6. Significance – BBS, or otherwise known as ‘boring but significant’ information.

7. Threshold – Small may be overlooked, until it’s of a certain threshold of scale and/or intensity. (Think tremor versus earthquake)

8. Unexpectedness – Does it meet the ‘rare’ or ‘completely-out-of-the-blue’ test?

9. Not Ambiguous – Tell the facts and not an assumption or a belief.

10. Negativity – It’s true, bad news sells!

11. Visualness – Are your images visually strong?

12. Conflict – Tension, debate, drama, heroes, villains, winners...

13. Predictiveness – Will the audience have an appetite for it or expecting it?For example like a sports victory or results from a political poll?

14. Meaningfulness – Can you link it to the cultural norms and values of a country and/or audience?

15. Continuity – Is it hot and topical? A news item already that can be expanded on?

16. Elite Nations – Chances are stories about the US would be favoured over Tristan da Cunha (the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, 1750 miles off the west coast of Africa.)

17. Elite People/Celebrity – Sad but true, in this age of ‘celeb’ culture.

Knowing news values is ‘PR 101’, an essential fundamental for any effective communicator. You must have a nose for news and be conscious of the agenda of “mass media”. Failure to do so will cost you dearly in the newsroom.

(Read more here from the New Zealand Broadcasting School)