Factors That Make a Story Newsworthy

News is anything that is new, interesting or significant. It can be about people, places or events and is usually reported through words of mouth, newspapers, postal systems, broadcasting and the testimony of witnesses.

News Values

There are six main values that a story should meet in order to be considered newsworthy: Timeliness, Proximity, Impact, Conflict and Prominence. Some of these may be common, while others are less commonly found, but the more of these values a story meets, the more likely it is to be newsworthy.

Timeliness

It is very important for news to be recent. This is because people are more likely to be interested in stories that happen recently, and if they aren’t, they will lose interest quickly.

Proximity

It’s also important for news to be local or near-home. This is because people will be more likely to care about something that happened in their neighborhood or area.

Impact

It’s also very important for news to be impactful, or relevant, to the reader. This is because people are more likely to pay attention to stories that have an effect on them, whether it’s good or bad.

Conflict

It’s also important for news to be conflicting or causing strife, because it’s more interesting and more likely to attract readers. This is because readers want to see how things will turn out and are more likely to pay attention if they know that they’ll have to make some decisions about what happens next.

Prominence

It’s also very important for news to be prominent, or visible, to the reader. This is because people will be more likely than not to pay attention to a story that has a famous person involved in it.

In addition to these six major values, there are many other factors that a news story must meet in order to be considered newsworthy. Some of these include: