Journalism Reporting and News Values

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental journalism concepts, news values, legal limits, story structure, and attribution techniques.

Reporting Techniques

Methods used by journalists to gather information, including interviewing sources, looking through government documents, researching old articles, and observing events firsthand.

News Values

Criteria used to decide what information to give first in a news article, which articles to display on a newspaper's front page, and what questions to ask in an interview.

Timeliness

A news value where recent events have a higher news value than less recent ones.

Proximity

A news value where stories taking place in one's hometown or community are more newsworthy than those taking place far away.

Prominence

A news value where famous people and those in the public eye have a higher news value than ordinary citizens.

Uniqueness/Oddity

A news value describing a story with a bizarre twist or strange occurrences, summarized as 'Man bites dog' instead of 'dog bites man.'

Impact

A news value where stories that impact a large number of people may be more newsworthy than those impacting a smaller number of people.

Conflict

A news value involving stories with strife, whether actual violence or not, often summarized by 'If it bleeds, it leads.'

Libel

The published defamation of a person's character based on misleading or inaccurate facts.

Lede (Lead)

The first sentence of a news article, usually written as one paragraph, that tells the most important information of the story.

Nut Graf

A section of a news article that provides additional context that you cannot quite summarize in your lede.

Inverted Pyramid

A news writing structure where the reporter puts the most important information first.

Attribution

The requirement that all information in a news article must indicate the source where the reporter obtained the material.