ABSTRACT
Common sense explanations of what news might be frequently place an emphasis on the “new” element of the word “news,” often accompanied with the notion that news is unpredictable. Journalists sometimes claim to have a “gut feeling” that informs their judgements of news. In examining news, scholars have often found it necessary to distinguish between news appearing in different sections of the media market, and/or on different platforms. The development of digital technology has altered the news selection process by transforming the journalist-audience relationship. An understanding of news values is clearly of importance for practitioners and scholars of journalism, but they are not the only ones to grapple with the question of what news is. Public relations professionals and “spin doctors” use their knowledge of news values to help them place or influence stories in the news media.
