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MODULE 2 WHAT IS NEWS?

Defining what is news with diversity in mind.

Diversity and the voices of minority members of the community enrich and enliven the coverage of the community as a whole.

Everybody has a story, but not every story is news!
To determine what is news, we must start with the above question.
The seminar leader asks: What is your definition of news?

As this exercise shows, many of us have to struggle with defining what is news. Why? Because there are many layers to the definition. Each of us brings our own historical perspective to defining whether certain events constitute news that should be reported to readers and viewers.

• Inform the public about current events that reporters, and editors determine relevant to our readers.
• Provide official information from numerous sources to the community.
• Cover what reporters and editors deem to be important information which must be provided to our readers.

Each of us defines news based upon our personal life experiences. A journalist who is raising a child with disabilities will view related stories as more newsworthy than someone who has not experienced life with a person with disabilities. A person who is caring for an elderly relative will define certain topics related to the elderly as more newsworthy than someone who is not caring for an older person.

The seminar leader asks: How do our personal experiences impact our definition of news? What new elements would be added to the definition of news based upon personal experiences, ethnicity, age, race, religious affiliation, and gender? The discussion can be a large group discussion or you can break the group into smaller groups. Each group should designate someone to take notes and report the responses back to the entire group at the end of the discussion.

The following statements can be used to help draw participants into a discussion regarding the definition of news in a diverse society where that diversity becomes an element of how we provide information to our communities:

• Not just covering people who are traditional news makers or are the most prominent businessmen.
  An example of opportunities for news stories here would be small businessmen and women who are helping to employ residents, adding to the economy, providing innovation in the workplace.
• Personal, so that people can relate to the news.
• A means to understand our communities, and the rights, obligations, and capacities of our members.
• News is relevant.

The seminar leader should ask: What does the group think about what they talked with their families about the night before; what did they talk about over coffee or breakfast or lunch the day before? What were the things that left an important impression upon them as they went about their normal activities as a member of the community - not as they went about their duties as a journalist?

The seminar leader should ask: How does this value present itself in your community? Is it a value that is shared by all for all? Are some groups excluded and can that exclusion be inferred from reading, listening, or viewing the area news media?

The seminar leader should engage the participants in a discussion about relevance. Relevance to whom? Will the relevance issue be different if the reader is a woman, a woman over 65, or a woman from a specific ethnic background? Encourage a lively discussion about the challenge and opportunity of defining relevance as more layers of diversity are added to the definition of the reader to whom relevance is directed.

The seminar leader should be able to make the following points in recapping the discussion regarding what is news:

• The definitions of news should encompass relevance of the news to people's lives.
• Relevance is difficult to define because there are so many types of people with so many definitions of their own sense of relevance as they consume the information provided to them by the media.

Questions to ask the participants: Is the search for relevance to the widest range of readers more appropriate than defining news based upon the leaders and those who represent the status quo? What are the risks to the newspaper, the journalist - if any - of focusing on relevance rather than maintaining the status quo or the old order in our delivery of information?

Questions to ask the participants: If relevance is the focus, how do we handle the fact that what is relevant to you may not be relevant to me? How do we get both perspectives on relevance into our stories?

• Those events - large and small - that tell us how we live, where we live, explain our times, and help us continue our human history with knowledge, tolerance and open inquiry.
• That information that is deemed important by the individual, the group, or the community.
• Anything that affects a person. Isn't it true if something effects you, it's news? It's something you want to know about whether it's emotional, financial, or physical. Whether this news becomes a story in the newspaper is based upon the priorities set each day and at each newspaper.
• When determining what is news, you're building into the newspaper process everybody's individual prejudices. When you start down that road then you're going to end up with a much more fractionalized approach to news. Everybody's going to have their own agenda and definition of news.
• A much broader and inclusive view of what is news is needed.

Question for participants: What would you define as a broader and more inclusive view of what is news within your work and your newspaper, radio, or television organization?

The seminar leader should elicit answers to the question from the participants. To get the discussion rolling or to move it forward ask:

• What about the impact of diversified staffs: age, gender, ethnic groups, religious backgrounds, sexual orientation?
  Since it appears news is defined by the people who work in the newspapers, the news will by that definition be more diverse if the staff is diverse.
• What people are talking about?
  Since news appears to be what people are talking about we must be able to translate what people are talking about to the staff inside the newspaper. We must bring news from our neighbors, the coffee shop, the lunch counter and help determine whether there is more to the issues the public talks about that we are missing in our news pages.

Leader's wrapup: As we can see from the discussion on the issue of what is news, each journalist comes at the issue from a different angle. Each participant gave a different definition of what is news and each of us responded differently to the issues and questions raised throughout this exercise.

Each of us must consider whether our definition of news matches the definition of news set by our newspapers, radio, or television organizations. If it is not the same, what do we do daily to bridge the gap? Compromise? How can we take the issue of diversity and make it work for each of the stories we work on? How do we move the issue of inclusion and diversity past ourselves as individuals and begin changing the news culture within our organizations? Our communities?