Pre-Production: Local Newspaper Lesson 1

As I've chosen to create a local newspaper for my A2 coursework, I need to answer the following questions to give me a better understanding of the production and distribution of a local Newspaper. As I'm based in Portsmouth I'll also be analyzing 'The News' which is the local paper. 

What is newsworthiness? News values? bias?

When determining what story/article is appropriate for the news there are certain factors and criteria that should to taken into account. These could also increase or develop the worthiness of your news. Firstly you need to examine the impact and consequences of your story or event; people respond more to life altering consequences as well as highly significant.
Then there's the involvement of conflict. As a species, human beings are fascinated by examples of conflict, because without this there would be no initiation of drama of literature within the story. It can vary from the smallest disagreement involving minimal people, to a large incident concerning large populations.

Loss of life/property destruction is also deemed newsworthy. The provocation of an emotion such as sadness or despair is a powerful tool when writing a story. It also allows the attended demographic to sympathise and relate to what they're reader, as the subject is a collective human experience. However when focusing on a story involving both incidences, loss of life will be the main focus as it's more influential and important.
Proximity and prominence are also key points to take into account. How close, geographically is the news? and are the people involved more prominent characters in society i.e famous? If so that then instigates newsworthiness.
Timeliness and currency are ways keep an established demographic but maintaining relevance and exclusivity with regards to news. With ongoing stories involving long periods of time it's essential to keep things up to date.
Finally the novelty is a defining factor to take into account when deciding newsworthiness. Any deviation from the norm is automatically referred to as appropriate and valuable.

It's a common accusation that news readers/writers are bias, however despite the journalists idea of 'objectivity' they are influenced by all elements that merge to create their story. For example interviewers, photographers, editors, and others writers. Evidently the majority of news within the media cannot be defined as neutral or unbiased; not differing from their reliability though.

What is a local newspaper?

I believe the term 'local' is defined by a region or community. A person's local paper is the combination of information regarding their surrounding area as well as national and international affairs/ entertainment/ poltics etc. It also includes advertisment that can vary  from small companies to large conglomorates. My local paper is the Portsmouth news as that's my current location:

 'The News' Media Package

You can then have national newspapers that are sold and distributed to audiences all over the country:

What is human interest?

You find much of the news is focused on presenting facts and statistics, which unless you have a keen interest in the subject, can become boring. This is where human interest fits in with continuing a demographic. By closing in on a specific figure in society, be it a famous figure, politician, disaster victim etc, it can encourage a reader emotionally in presentation of the news. It creates a focal 'object' (Person, culture, group of people etc) to target our feelings and views more specifically. It's creates empathy between the audience and the story, generally intending to garner sympathy or awareness in the process.