The Handbook of Journalism Studies

172 O’NEILL AND HARCUP
within the media, and a fruitful area of research is likely to be the ways in which the availability
of such material results in variations in news values. At the same time, continuing study of the
news values of 24-hour broadcast news (itself a relatively recent phenomenon) will help shed
further light on the changing journalistic environment of the 21st century. However, “old media”
such as newspapers are likely to remain fertile areas of study, including comparisons of local,
regional, national and international news outlets; comparisons between genre and/or different
delivery platforms. Historical comparisons of news values could help inform what has come
to be known—in the UK at least—as the “dumbing down” debate. There is also a great deal of
potential in extending the study of news values and selection decisions to incorporate other areas
of research, such as the potential impact on news of changes in the journalistic workforce in
terms of gender, race or social class. Another area ripe for further investigation is the interaction
between news selection and the sources used or privileged in news production; this issue could
also usefully include exploration of the claims of alternative media to offer alternatives both to
mainstream news values and to the mainstream cast of sources.
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 place or infl uence
stories in the news media. Critics of mainstream media use an understanding of news values either
to urge changes in such values or to inform the creation of alternative forms of media with an
alternative conception of news values. Groups who fi nd their viewpoints marginalized in mainstream
media, such as environmental groups or unions, can use an understanding of mainstream
news values to obtain some access for their message (Manning, 2001; O’Neill, 2007). And, last
but by no means least, a society’s citizens can benefi t from the increase in media literacy that may
potentially result from the efforts of journalism studies scholars to scrutinize, unpick and explain
the ways in which news is selected and constructed.
REFERENCES
Allern, S. (2002). Journalistic and commercial news values: News organizations as patrons of an institution
and market actors. Nordcom Review, 23(1–2), 137–152.
Atton, C. (2002). Alternative media. London: Sage.
Bell, A. (1991). The language of news media. Oxford: Blackwell.
Beharrell, P., & Philo, G. (Eds.). (1977). Trade unions and the media, London: Macmillan.
Chaudhary, A. (1974). Comparative news judgment of Indian and American journalists. International Communication
Gazette, 20, 233–248.
Chu, L. L. (1985). An organizational perspective on international news fl ows: Some generalizations, hypotheses,
and questions for research. International Communication Gazette, 35, 3–18.
Curran, J., & Seaton, J. (2003). Power without responsibility: The press, broadcasting, and new media in
Britain. London: Routledge.
Donsbach, W. (2004). Psychology of news decisions: Factors behind journalists professional behaviour.
Journalism, 5(2), 131–157.
Evans, H. (2000). Essential English for journalists, editors and writers. London: Pimlico.
Franklin, B. (1997). Newszak and news media. London: Arnold.
Galtung, J., & Ruge, M. (1965). The structure of foreign news: The presentation of the Congo, Cuba and
Cyprus crises in four Norwegian newspapers. Journal of International Peace Research 1, 64–91.
Gans, H. J. (1980). Deciding what’s news. London: Constable.
Golding, P., & Elliott, P. (1979). Making the news. London: Longman.
Greenberg, J. (2004). Tories, teachers and the media politics of education reform: News discourse and the
1997 Ontario teachers’ strike. Journalism Studies, 5(3), 353–371.