Hi,
Having already talked about the different kinds of newspapers in my first blog post, I will now proceed to talk about the different types of articles and how I think they are judged. I will also provide some of my personal opinions on which criteria I think is the important when judging the newsworthiness of an article.
Newsworthiness is an important factor in deciding the success of newspapers. If the articles provided are chosen well and engage its audience, then the newspaper will certainly sell well too. I think that there are many factors that determine an article's newsworthiness. For example, the proximity and the number of people involved in the article will affect the impact of the issue and will hence determine the relevance of the article to the readers. The fame of the person involved and the uniqueness of the article will also help to engage the interest of the audience. Some other factors to consider are the timeliness of the article, the shock or titillation factor instilled in the readers and most importantly, there must be a conflict between two parties in order to attract readers.
However, in my opinion, I think that I am naturally drawn to the articles which talk about the issues that I am interested in. For example, being an athletic person, the first section of the newspaper that I read everyday is the Sports section, so as to keep updated on what is happening in the sports field. I also enjoy reading unique news that peak my interest. Most importantly, I find that the most simple yet most important factor is still the timeliness of the article. I feel that the timeliness really affects the other factors, because if the article is outdated, no one will read it even though it may be shocking or unique. Therefore, I learned that in order for a newspaper company to stay competitive, it needs to hire skilled news editors to pick interesting articles that are newsworthy.
Nathanael
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Hi Nathanael,
ReplyDeleteYour post is rather interesting. It would definitely give someone who does not know what newsworthiness is a better understanding. I have some other factors which I would like to share with you as well as some refutation to what you have stated.
I do not agree that timeliness is the most important factor. Let me quote an example, even after one month of the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami, there has still been news about it. The fact is that it arouses interest in people and also shows the future implications of the matter. Human-interest is probably the most important factor. Anything that can arouse interest in people would definitely be a hit. That is the reason people buy the newspapers in the first place. Other than the factors you have mentioned. I would like to talk about the pathos factor. You can say its sadism or any other thing but it is definitely one thing that gets attention. Take for example, the New Zealand Earthquake or the incident in which a mother and daughter jumped off a building together.
Just a suggestion, you may want to work more on your elaboration of the titillation factor and the part on conflict. Something I would like to bring up is that you are repetitive in some of your sentences. Quoted from your last paragraph, “Most importantly, I find that the most simple yet most important factor is still the timeliness of the article.” You mentioned “most important” twice in a sentence to describe timeliness. (You can try reading it by removing the part on “most simple”.) Quoted from your second paragraph, “… and most importantly, there must be a conflict between two parties in order to attract readers.” So which is the most important factor for you? You may want to make it sound clearer. Perhaps it is just me, it may be a transition phrase to you but it sounds like a description to me.
That’s all for today. All the best for your following posts :3. They are really interesting to read.
Cheers,
Leonard