Newsworthy or not?

"What is news?" is a commonly asked question among journalists. People may have their own opinions about what they consider to be newsworthy based on their personal interests and concerns. Overall, however, there are 9 traditional news values that journalists have in mind while creating their story. Impact can be direct, indirect, or potential and can effect the audience in different ways. Prominence, unusualness, currency, and conflict all help a story become more newsworthy. Timeliness, proximity, affinity, and human interest which evoke an emotional response from the reader are important as well.

I was scanning the Baltimore Sun website looking for interesting articles that I would consider newsworthy, or figure out why they were deemed newsworthy in the first place. The first article I came across was about a fire that burned down a playground in Baltimore earlier today. It was a big fire at the Memorial Stadium site because approximately 35 firefighters were called in to go put it out. This story was short, but I think that it is newsworthy because of its timeliness and impact. It says that the fire was nearly contained at around 3:15 p.m., and I am reading this story a little more than one hour later. That's some very fast news. This fire may have had direct or indirect impact on families with children who live in the Baltimore area and frequently go or have been to this YMCA playground. (Photo taken by Barbara Haddock Taylor)

Everyone in the U.S. has recently become fans of Michael Phelps, the 8 Olympic gold medal winning swimmer, but I probably don't even have to tell you that. So I'm sure that everyone in Baltimore and specifically Towson has been wondering when their American hero would return to his hometown. An article on the Baltimore Sun website announces that Phelps will be coming back to Towson on October 4, a day in which a parade will be held in his and Katie Hoff's honor at Fort McHenry. Since Phelps attended Towson High School and is an Olympic winner this story contains prominence, currency, timeliness, and proximity. It contains currency since Phelps has been regularly featured all over the news and on television since he won his gold medals, and people are still talking about him. Overall, this article is a very good example of what newsworthy is.

The next article I read was very different from the first one. I found it under the section "Weird news" and was intrigued. Apparently, in a Japan zoo there are polar bears who have turned green because of algae. This phenomenon is puzzling the visitors at the Higashiyhama Zoo. It has been a concern if this algae is harming the polra bears, but a zoo official says that their fur coat will return to its normal color when the growth of algae decreases in November. This story can be considered newsworthy because of its unusualness, and it has some degree of human interest attached. It is not every day that polar bears turn green, so people are likely to be interested in this story and finding out the cause. If readers are not yet aware that the polar bears are fine and not suffering from their change of color, they may have an emotional reaction. If it caught my eye, I'm sure other people browsing the Baltimore Sun would notice it also.