5

Newsworthiness

When writing a news story, you first need a newsworthy idea. This chapter will cover the elements of what constitutes news and how to find those ideas. This is harder than you think. Most new journalists think there are countless story ideas bouncing around in their heads. But when you write them down and do a little research, you might learn that many have been done to death. This chapter includes tips for finding fresh ideas for your news stories. 

When I was a reporter for a local newspaper, I covered a small town. Readers would call or email me with story ideas that they would want me to write about. Some were worth covering, and some were not newsworthy. Newsworthiness is the quality of a story idea that’s interesting enough to warrant a public report about it. 

Reporters use seven elements to evaluate a story idea for newsworthiness. This concept grew out of a research paper by Johan Galtung and Mari Holmboe Ruge in 1965. For the next 50 years, people debated about whether Galtung and Ruge were right. Overall, their criteria held up, though some pointed to a need for updates, according to a 2016 study by three researchers from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

As they write in the abstract: “In recent years, scholars also pointed toward the increasing impact of digital media on journalistic practices of news selection. Likewise, new perspectives on global journalism were introduced into the debate.”

While the news values may require changes with modern technology, learning the basic measurements for a news story is still relevant. Here are the seven to consider when looking for ideas.

• Impact: When I was a reporter, people would call the newspaper to complain about a noisy or problematic neighbor. That may have impacted them and perhaps a few other people on their street, but the annoying neighbor did not impact most of our readers. Impact is the effect of a story on readers. The bigger the impact, the more newsworthy. There is no better example than COVID-19. The virus impacted every country in the world. Most stories have a limited impact. You must decide if a story impacts a few people on a street or an entire city.
• Timeliness: If a car accident causes traffic on the way to work, a reader will care more if it is happening now versus last week. Timeliness is the idea that the more recent a story, the more interesting it is to your reader. The older the idea, the less newsworthy.
• Proximity: A story is more interesting to a reader if it happens near them geographically. If there’s a wildfire, a reader will be more interested if it’s in their neighborhood. Look for story ideas that affect readers where they live.
• Prominence: When a famous person does anything, it is more interesting than if unknown people are involved. This is called prominence. You see this all the time in the endless news about celebrity divorces and politicians’ gaffes. Famous people are interesting to readers. Remember, though, your job as a reporter is to give the reader what they want (chocolate news) but also what they need (broccoli news). Using only this measurement will result in interesting but unimpactful news. A good balance is important.
• Conflict: Arguments or disagreements make a story more interesting. For example, if a city wants to build a new park and everyone agrees on the location, it’s not as newsworthy as if people disagree. If multiple people show up to fight for their side, that is newsworthy.
• Human Interest: This is a measure of newsworthiness based on the notion that readers are naturally interested in their fellow humans. These are often stories about inspiring or interesting people. For example, I received a story tip about a teenager who would spend his weekends playing the claw machine at the arcade. He was particularly good at it and could use the claw to snag a toy. By the end of the day, he would have a trash bag full of stuffed animals that he would immediately take to homeless shelters for the children there. I created a human-interest story about him and why he did this.
• Novelty: Weird is interesting. The measurement of novelty goes that the stranger something is, the more newsworthy it is. Look for something unusual when you are searching for story ideas.

Generating Story Ideas 

Finding a newsworthy story idea is difficult. Journalism students might come to class with three story ideas and discover that they all have the same inspiration. It makes sense: People are drawn to what they are passionate about. The trick is finding an idea that is interesting to the reporter and their audience.

The same techniques work for generating story ideas in both news and feature stories. A news story is a nonfiction, objective article that informs the public about vital information such as current events, concerns and conflicts. A feature story is a nonfiction, objective article that informs the public about interesting and entertaining information.

Using the newsworthiness values we just learned, here are 10 ways of finding story ideas.

It also can be valuable to develop a speciality. Robert Zamith, author of “The American Journalism Handbook: Concepts, Issues and Skills” writes about this: “Going deep on a particular person, topic or beat can help you familiarize yourself with (and develop relationships with) the key stakeholders pertaining to that beat. Once you have identified a niche, continue to follow it and learn more about it.”  

If you love music or sports and want to immerse yourself in that area, you will be able to produce better story ideas than a casual observer. Use your passion to improve the angles in your news stories.

Misinformation

Zamith urges journalists to be wary of misinformation and disinformation in the quest for a newsworthy item.

Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Zamith writes that the “highly problematic term was crafted with the intention of discrediting journalism and blurring the lines between professional news products and general information. Its popularization has been credited with reducing trust in journalism and increasing violence against journalists.”

The terms “misinformation” and “disinformation” help to capture the range of inaccurate information in an accessible way. Misinformation refers to information whose inaccuracy is unintentional (e.g., getting some information wrong during a breaking news event).

Disinformation refers to information that is deliberately false or misleading. Both are battles to fight for journalists. With diligent reporting, research and adherence to ethics, a good journalist can avoid these pitfalls and help restore journalism’s good name.

In a scientific paper, authors Jevin D. West and Carl T. Bergstrom explore the wide-ranging problems with misinformation.

“Humans learn about the world by collectively acquiring information, filtering it and sharing what we know,” they write. “Misinformation undermines this process. The repercussions are extensive. Without reliable and accurate sources of information, we cannot hope to halt climate change, make reasoned democratic decisions or control a global pandemic.”