Item
What is News?
- Author
- Tony Harcup and Deirdre O’Neil
- Year
- 2017
- Publisher
- Taylor and Francis Group
- Abstract
- The deceptively simple question “What is news?” remains pertinent even as we ponder the future ofjournalism in the digital age. This article examines news values within mainstream journalism and considers the extent to which news values may be changing since earlier landmark studies wereundertaken. Its starting point is Harcup and O’Neill’s widely cited 2001 updating of Galtung andRuge’s influential 1965 taxonomy of news values. Just as that study put Galtung and Ruge’s criteriato the test with an empirical content analysis of published news, this new study explores the extentto which Harcup and O’Neill’s revised list of news values remains relevant given the challenges (andopportunities) faced by journalism today, including the emergence of social media. A review ofrecent literature contextualises the findings of a fresh content analysis of news values within arange of UK media 15 years on from the last study. The article concludes by suggesting arevised and updated set of contemporary news values, whilst acknowledging that no taxonomycan ever explain everything