For those reasons, while it was geographically quite distant from Australia, it was close the hearts of many of the Australian public.
2. The main news value I would focus on is conflict, between the police, immigration officials and human rights activists - especially if it was close to election time! The woman appears to have done nothing wrong, so to put her in an immigration detention centre appears too harsh and the human rights activists would be all over it!This would cause a huge uproar in the human rights circles, especially with current detainees being held without charge (Mohammed Haneef for example).
For that reason, the next news values I would focus on are timeliness and currency. With currency relating to controversy and trends, it would certainly flow on from the Conflict value. And terrorism is a very topical issue at the moment, so currency and timeliness would both suit this story.
3. I think it would depend on which publication I was writing for. For the purpose of this question, let's say I was writing for the Newcastle Herald.
It's no secret most Novocastrians love Newcastle.
Novocastrians are supportive of local sport representatives, or anyone else who has managed some sort of achievement. Over the last six months, crime has been a constant reported issue on the news and in the paper. There are calls to introduce curfews in clubs and pubs, and clubs and pubs have already stopped serving shots, all in the hope of reducing crime in Newcastle.
This all leads me to writing the story of the mayoral announcement about an urban renewal plan to resolve inner-city crime. It has a timeliness angle to it, as well as proximity. If written accurately and on behalf of Novocastrians, I think the people of Newcastle would appreciate it much more than an entertainment-type of article on a comment Prince Charles made. While I think this would still make some sort of story, it's not a story I would choose to write about.
4. 'News' is anything new we learn or hear today that we didn't yesterday.
5. I think it depends on the news article being written and who the article is being written for. If the article was about an actor who was tragically killed, obviously the who/how/where/when would be more important than why/what.
The Six Strong Serving Men theory is definitely an important concept when writing a story. Including the main point/s in the introduction, or even the headline, is what makes the story appeal to a reader. The main aim of a reporter/journalist is to have people read their articles and to do that, they need to write an interesting, impacting story with an equally impressive introduction.
KELL'S SAY
On page 79 of this chapter, I loved Turner Catledge's definition of news: "anything you can find out today that you didn't know before"
The reason I liked it so much is because it's straight to the point and I just really agreed with it.
Would readers read an article if they'd read it before? They might know something about the topic, but they might not have a full understanding of it.
People read the news so they can find out what is happening on a local, national and international level.
I thought I would try and search other definitions of "what is news" and found this internet
In particular, the line which says it is "the journalists' responsibility to determine what is news."
This also is very true. Journalists need to be able to determine news which is appealing to the majority of people.
Above all, journalists have a great influence over what the audience reads.
This highlights the point that "news" needs to be 'new' and interesting, something readers didn't know before.
So Catledge is definitely on the mark - 'anything you can find out today that you didn't know before' (I loved it!)
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