A news item is a report of something that happened, usually recent. It is delivered in various ways, such as through newspapers or on television.
Usefulness: Stories affecting daily life such as train timings, weather forecasts and information on government policies are important to many people. Educational values: Columns on different educational courses, career options and opportunities are also a popular feature in most newspapers.
Objectivity: Journalists aim to publish news items that are fair and objective. This means that they do not have any personal or political bias.
A lot of research has been conducted on news values since 2001, largely in an attempt to update Galtung and Ruge (1965). Some studies take an overview of previous scholarship (Harrison 2006; O’Neill and Harcup 2009; Caple and Bednarek 2013; Harcup 2015), others use ethnographic observations and interviews (Schultz 2007; Dick 2014). The latter type, referred to as “cognitive” studies, help us understand the judgements that are made when journalists select news, described as “cognitive” news values by Caple and Bednarek (2015, 3).
