News values

News values are criteria journalists and news organizations use to judge which events to select, emphasize, and publish. They shape news judgment but vary across cultures, outlets, and periods.

Newsworthiness: The perceived suitability of an event or issue for coverage as news. News values are the criteria used to assess this broader quality.
Editorial meeting: A newsroom discussion in which staff assess, assign, and prioritize potential stories. Editors often compare stories using shared news values in these meetings.
Johan Galtung: A Norwegian sociologist and peace researcher known for influential work on journalism and conflict. His research with Mari Holmboe Ruge helped establish a systematic account of news values.
News bias: Systematic distortion or imbalance in news selection, presentation, or interpretation. Selection shaped by news values is not automatically evidence of partisan distortion.
News desert: A community with little or no reliable local news coverage. Commercial judgments about newsworthiness can leave some communities underreported.
News judgment: The professional assessment of which information deserves attention and publication as news. Journalists apply news values when making these selection decisions.
News cycle: The recurring period in which news is gathered, published, and updated. Deadlines and competition within the cycle affect which events meet selection criteria.
Mari Holmboe Ruge: A Norwegian scholar who co-authored a landmark study of international news selection. Her study with Johan Galtung proposed factors that help explain which events become news.
Media framing: The ways media organize and present information to make particular interpretations more salient. Framing concerns how stories are presented, while news values also shape whether they are selected.
Foreign news: News coverage of events and issues beyond a publication's home country. Classic news-values research showed how selection criteria shape international coverage.

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