Lecture Series #3: How Do Journalists Determine the "Newsworthiness" of Information?
A lecture on a pressing topic by a university journalism professor.
{Note: This is the third in a series of university lectures on the current state of journalism in the United States. The first lecture in the series, “What Is Journalism?”, can be found here, while the second lecture, “How Does One Study Journalism in 2021?” can be found at this link.}
I gave this lecture on protocols for determining the “newsworthiness” of information as part of a course entitled Twenty-First Century Journalism. To be clear, the lecture was not developed with Substack or even a general audience in mind. But I believe it may be useful to a larger listenership at a time when the question of what does or does not get reported by contemporary journalists—and why—is of intense interest to many.
The lecture is about 73 minutes, and as you might expect given the purpose for which it was first created, it proceeds at a stately pace. But I think if you bear with it, you’ll find it illuminating. To read the early pages of the journalism textbook it mentions, see here.
One attribute of a news story which is a deciding factor relating to trustworthiness for me is the diction used by the author. Diction in terms of word choice. Are the word choices used to clarify the facts or color the facts. To me this is a tangential repercussion of the enhanced emphasis on entertainment. This loosening of and or movement toward persuasive language in news reporting contains an element of danger. Other observation, not to pick on this publication but in speaking to placement, the WAPo places news of the courts under the Politics heading. I have wondered if this placement is realistic or influential. I agree in a global society, there are far more stories that could fill up 24hrs. than the same story numerous times.
This is excellent. And the kind of foundational thinking that might have prevented the devastating effects of not checking the Fox news variants and social media distribution earlier.