Social, cultural and political significance — AQA GCSE Media Studies
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Social, cultural and political significance explained
News values are the criteria used by journalists and editors to determine how newsworthy a story is and whether it should be published or broadcast.
Read the full explanation
Common news values include proximity (how close the event is to the audience), timeliness (recent events), negativity (bad news often leads), prominence (involving famous people), and unexpectedness (surprise events). For example, a local celebrity involved in a sudden scandal hits multiple news values, making it highly likely to be featured. Understanding news values allows students to analyse the social and cultural significance of news selection and how it shapes our view of the world.
Your focus
- Define the concept of news values and list key examples.
- Apply knowledge of news values to analyse the selection of stories in specific media products.
- Explain how news values contribute to the social and cultural significance of news media.
Social, cultural and political significance exam tips
Marking Points
- Identify specific news values such as proximity, timeliness, negativity, prominence, and unexpectedness.
- Explain how news values influence the selection and placement of stories in media products.
- Analyse how different media outlets prioritise different news values based on their target audience.
- Evaluate the cultural and political significance of relying on specific news values to construct the news agenda.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Memorise a standard list of news values to quickly identify them in an exam text.
- 💡When analysing a front page, explain why the lead story was chosen by referencing at least two distinct news values.
- 💡Consider how the rise of digital and social media has impacted traditional news values, such as the increased importance of shareability.
Common Mistakes
- Mistake: Believing that news is a purely objective reflection of reality. Correction: Understand that news is a constructed product, filtered through the subjective criteria of news values.
- Mistake: Listing news values without applying them to a specific media text. Correction: Always use examples from set products or unseen texts to demonstrate how news values are applied in practice.
- Mistake: Assuming all news outlets use the exact same news values. Correction: Recognise that a tabloid newspaper might prioritise prominence and negativity, while a broadsheet might focus on consequence and political significance.