Newsvalues

Print News, Markets & Styles

How headlines vary, Agendas and Strategies

1

What is news?

• Issues relevant to a particular nation…

matters of public interest. E.g. Terrorism,

floods in northern Malaysia, schools

forced to close… Things we should and

need to know – govt, education,

employment, GST – inform us to help us

make sense of the world and entertain.

2

• Main stories are called Headliners.

• … but what and who decides what makes

a headline (main news)?

3

• Headliners are based on several factors

which are standard practice throughout

the world.

• In essence, headliners are stories that are

newsworthy.

4

What is newsworthy...?

• Famous adage:

“When a dog bites a man that is

not news, but when a man bites

a dog, that is news”

– (Charles Anderson Dana, editor and

proprietor, New York Sun, 1882)

5

Introduction

• Millions of events happen every day – but why are

the same stories replicated throughout the media?

6

Pauper press

(Tabloid)

Working class

Traditional press

(Broadsheet)

Educated elite

1-2 pence

6-7 pence

Human interest

Analytical

Revolutionary

Respectable

Controversial

Critical

7

TABLOID

Vs

BROADSHEET

Radical press

Pauper press

Traditional press

Working class

Educated elite

1-2 pence

6-7 pence

Human interest

Analytical

Revolutionary

Respectable

Controversial

Critical

8

Broadsheet vs Tabloid

9

• So how are headlines decided or crafted?

10

11

Traditional factors

1.

2.

3.

4.

market forces

human interest and sensationalism

political decisions and the public good

the speed at which ‘facts’ could be

reported

12

• What happens when media owners have their

set agendas too?

• Also, governments have their own policies,

laws and constitution we have to comply.

• Often, news are “framed” to fit the above - to

satiate the audience and satisfy media

owners.

13

• In Malaysia we have the Constitution to abide.

• Part of the Constitution is influenced by the

British namely 1948 (Suruhanjaya Reid) while

some...