It must be TRUTHFUL to be newsworthy

As a communications professional I have often been asked whether I think something is newsworthy.? This can be reactive - someone may have read a news story in print or online, or heard or seen it in the broadcast media and wondered why it was warranted inclusion.? It can also be proactive - someone with a less well-honed understanding of newsworthiness may want to get something into the media.

?The conversation typically goes like this:

?Them: “This is really interesting, it should be in the media.? Can you get someone to write about it?”

?Me: “Is it truthful?”

?Them: “Of course it’s true.”

?Me: “I don’t mean true as in honest, I mean truthful as in TRUTHFUL.”

?Them: “I don’t understand.”

?Me: “Let me explain.”

?My explanation then goes like this:

?If you analyse pretty much any and every news story, it will have at least one of eight attributes.? It may be timely, relevant, unusual or transformational; it may be a human interest story; it will be factual, it is unlikely to have been reported before and it will be lucid.? In a word, TRUTHFUL:

Timely

Relevant

Unusual

Transformational

Human interest

Factual

Unreported previously

Lucid

?Let’s unpack this further.

?The clue’s in the name, news needs to be new, in other words timely.? There’s little point reading that a section of the M25 was closed last weekend, whereas advance notice of a forthcoming closure is much more helpful

?All news is relevant to someone.? This may be because it’s happening in a location with which they’re familiar, an industry in which they work or to someone that they know.? Even the most obscure Z-list ‘sleb holidaying in a far-flung location will pique the interest of someone.

?Whether it’s a tennis match halted because of an army of angry apians or a round of golf interrupted by a mob of manic marsupials , such unusual events are far from being every day occurrences.

?The irrepressible advance of artificial intelligence, the latest breakthrough in the fight against cancer or even refurbishing a pub have the potential to be transformational, albeit for different numbers of people.

?Who doesn’t love a human interest story?? News of a lady being hoisted into the air when her coat got caught in some shutters could have been little more than ephemeral, although the appearance of a Banksy-style mural on those same shutters may give it greater longevity, at least in south Wales.

?All new stories are factual, in that they contain facts, in contrast to opinion pieces, which represent the personal view of one individual.? Of course the definition of ‘facts’ may vary from democracy to ‘democracy ’.

?As with timely, news needs to be new, or unreported previously.? Of course this doesn’t preclude new developments about existing stories, in which case ‘U’ stands for updated.

?News stories also need to be lucid, or written in a clear, easy to understand way.? In a world of 24 hour scrolling news and short attention spans, new stories need to ‘cut through’ more than ever.? Even complex topics should be explained in a way in which they can be understood by an educated but inexpert audience.? Einstein may have been referring to scientific theory when he said that everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler, although he could just as well have been talking about news stories.

?In short, if it’s TRUTHFUL it’s probably newsworthy – as long as there’s not too much else to push it to the bottom of the agenda.