Galtung and Ruge’s New Value Model in Journalism

This article discusses Galtung and Ruge’s New Value Model in Journalism, which defines the standards adhered to by media professionals in the production, structuring, and selection of news. It also covers the criticisms and factors involved with this model.

Running Head: Journalism
Journalism
Galtung and Ruge’s New Value Model

Journalism
Galtung and Ruge in the year 1965 made this empirical research and then went on to the
theoretical approach on models of the values of news. They defined it as the particular
standards which are adhered to by the media professionals in the production, structuring and
selection of the news which is worth reporting to the audience by reporters or the journalists.
Values of the news are actually based on various ideas which help in forming the background
over the work of the reporters, journalists and editors (Jorge, 2008). The ways with which the
news is reported is highly reliable and is dependent on processing of news provider. Values
of the news can be analysed in both ways, whether it is global or local. It can be analysed
with the help of Galtung and Ruge model of new values which provides all the insights of the
media industry and its relevance in the culture practices of news in both international and
national media.
Model of Galtung and Ruge is very straight forward and includes all thoughts of research as
to how news is being structured. They also do not criticize other scholars for the relevance of
the news values. The recent study has shown that Cohen and Young also supported Galtung
and Ruge models and also appreciated the idea of the selection of news and the values which
makes news trustworthy for the readers. For understanding news production, there are
fundamentals which work when the journalists have to face decision making as to which
news is trustful and which one is not. For finding out about the trustful news, it has to go
through particular references, ethical standards, policies and guides in the models of news
values of journalism (Badenes, 2014). Many journalists took this as an initiating point and
developed a set of principles from it. These are used for identifying trustworthy information
(Bednarek & Caple, 2017).
It is illustrated that these rules of news values do provide a basis for journalists for reporting
stories which are good for the audience but only after ensuring that they abide with the ethics.
If these news values are always adhered to, the news will be successful in reaching to the
audience by keeping them informed. Galtung and Ruge realized that audience are not able to
absorb the large information in terms of news. That is why they involved the selection
choices of the news and by doing this, those journalists only selects what is interesting for the
audiences. In this process, new organizations select the information which can appeal its
customers. At last, all the news comes at one place with the help of news producers and is
ready to achieve great interest of audience.
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These news values can be sub-divided too. The sub-division includes the basic universally
accepted values and some culturally specific values. The general factors of these values are
amplitude, meaningfulness, unexpectedness, frequency, unambiguity and consonance
(Kheirabadi & Aghagolzadeh, 2012). Some more factors are threshold, cultural proximity and
negativity when seen on the cultural specification front (ADREA, 2016). The stories that one
chooses can be culturally determined based on the probability on the attraction towards the
news of the audiences. Values like these, provides journalists with great sorting of news
selection and information.
Though, Galtung and Ruge model was founded thirty years ago, still it is the most acceptable
news value model in creation of news and journalism. Mostly all media will follow the news
values of Galtung and Ruge irrespective of the criticism of other scholars which gives the
ideology that stories that are important, scores high and is likely to become headlines. News
values are mostly implemented by journalists and media producers in the west countries.
According to some schools, there is no end of lists of news criteria (Meissner, 2015). To be
seen as valuable news, it has to go through remarkably specific model attempts for describing
it as news.
Cohen and Young states that the selection of the news can be highlighted with the help of
these news values. The more concerns are in events of elite people or nations, the more
trustworthy news will be. The front page will always be filled with the news of the elite
people and nations. This type of news is worked upon by the editor making them the
headlines which will create interest within people and hence, the relevance of the news will
be impacted. The news means fullness for the people if they are from the same culture or
share same values or ideology (Shareslide, 2012). This develops an interest of reading in
people who relates to the news and when the news go from word to mouth, it attracts more
people making it a continuity of being accessible to people. Galtung and Ruge always
believed that if the news is important for the audience and are running in media for quite
long, it will be of great importance and will continue to cover the reporters for quite a time.
The evaluation of Bell about these values stated that the presentation of the news plays an
important role in enhancing the chances of making it newsworthy for audience. The powerful
people’s story is always considered to be of importance when it comes to making it as news
of the front page as the actions and decisions can influence common people in daily lives. It
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is important to make the news worthy for the audience so the journalists make sure that they
provide elite people’s news as they know it will be liked by them. Sun newspaper editorial
critically evaluated the model on the front-page story that publication might not interest
everyone outside of the culture proximity.
Galtung and Ruge's news values:
First is negativity. It refers to the very common sentence i.e. the only good news is bad news.
For example, the recession and the rise of unemployment have negativity in it. Another one is
threshold. It is based on the size of the story (Mediaknowal, 2011). For example: The number
of people it involves in the news. A manager, when have the salary cut of many employees
then it can be called as a threshold. Then proximity comes into picture. It is based on the
viewer’s closeness to geography or economy. Unexpectedness is a value that is self-
explanatory. Example: it contains the news value of 9/11.
Another value is known as continuation story. It is a sequence which is established. Example:
A story which keeps on going or fascinates readers since the day it happened. Such as:
someone is missing. This is a mystery and that attracts people. Galtung and Ruge has this
belief that if the story has more news values, the more priority it will have in journalism.
Such as Tsunami that came in 2004 included a lot of negativity as many people lost their
homes and lives. No warning signs were there, hence, it was unexpected too. Threshold that
involved a lot of people at the same time and continuity because the news went on for weeks
after the event actually happened.
Major criticism was made by Tunsall in 1971 that the news model should be updated further
because detailed photos are more used in journalism. The reason can be many such as
technology being advanced (Tumber, 2006). Numbers of citizens are also growing in
journalism and the journalists who are not trained usually jump upon for taking pictures.
Sending those pictures to the news editors will make lot money for the photographers.
Again, a huge criticism came from Harcup and O’Neil in 2001 about the way the news being
defined by the journalists. This was also made clearer by Harcup only. They used threshold
(one of the news values of Galtung and Ruge) and raised the question if threshold is open for
subjective interpretation. For example: Can the model tell which one is bigger in between the
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two incidents: Twenty people die in 10 road accidents or 5 in a rail crash. The model surely
couldn’t explain. Hence, the model is still unclear and it should definitely be updated if more
clear results want to be seen. Also, further Harcup and O’Neill argued that “The factors of
Galtung and Ruge seem to be problematic for identifying while a few others may be
identified easily (Jensen, 2013). To state it in a simple way, they said that Galtung and
Ruge’s model works more on the basis of how the story is being told by the journalist
(Bednarek & Caple, 2013).
Later, the alternative thought for Galtung and Ruge was found out. That news value model is
Harman and Chomsky propaganda model of manufacturing consent. This pair of professors
analysed the reason of news output of US and the reason as to why it works in the capturing
of the priorities of journalism. This analysis further proposes a five-filter theory. These five
filters are ownership, sources, size, anti-communism and advertising. These filters work
independently and on self-censorship rather than direct control (Heinrich, 2008)f. Herman’s
perspective was that these filters themselves decide as to what information should pass as it
helps in shaping up the media choices.
The first filter is size and ownership which has become progressive and concentrated.
Herman believed that small number of proprietors in a small number is concerned and that
the bigger fish always eats the little one. They also believed that market which is owned by
the wealthy people is totally emphasized upon the profit and there are always a few barriers
while entering into the ownership market.
Another filter is advertising. The pair said that media is the business in which audiences are
sold to the advertisers. Advertisers work as an unofficial licensing authority. Advertising
makes the newspaper earn lots of profit and revenue. Advertisers provide a lot of money to
the newspaper agencies in order to appear in a supportive selling environment.
Third filter is the primary sources in which the journalists are under obligation for viewing
official sources which are reliable than others. Sources that are considered alternative
however are marginalised else ignored.
Next filter is flak. These are the negative responses that are received from phone calls and
threats etc. All these types of negative responses are called as flak (Jorgensen & Hanitzsch,
2009). This all receives respectful attention and are not ignored at all as it is an updating
activity for the advertisers.
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Final filter is anti-communism. This filter believes that the media of US has an inherent bias
against communism and also against socialism. Hence, it tends to support US with respect to
ring-wing regimes abroad.
Usually in journalism, proximity is used as news value for helping to define and refine news.
In 2006, Conley and Lamble argued that if something is far away, it is more significance it
will display in the local news list (Customwritings, 2017). Moreover, in the increasing
globalization, newsworthiness cannot be limited to the locals and it is becoming extremely
redundant. Hence, news value that is centered with human condition shreds light on the
people of the community, the sense of community and the environment. This is always
critical.
In the conclusion, though it is believed that 1960 model of news values is suitable in some
aspects but it needs to be modified a little as it is now considered to be outdated. This model
does not include any news about the celebrity and it will definitely be a new modification that
can be made. British culture has always been enchanting with the lives of celebrities and they
want to find as to where the celebrity is, what he is up to etc. Harcup and Neil studied that
Galtung and Ruge’s model when mentions about the news values, referencing of the elite
people are not necessarily celebrities as such. They can be powerful people or people with
good authorities. The news involving the information about the scandals and celebrities,
concerns have been raised about the dumbing down of the news and that possible growth is
known as tabloidization. This is the time where political news is replaced by the celebrity
news (Harcup & O'neill, 2017). This essay focuses all such theories related with Galtung and
Ruge model of news values. Also the criticisms and the factors involved with this model is
discussed. Now, whenever this question arises as to why the news seems to be trustworthy,
there will always remain the truth for reply that it surely is.
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References
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