Reporters and editors cannot cover everything. News values are the criteria they use—often implicitly—to decide which events and issues deserve coverage and how prominently to play them.

Common values include impact on the audience, conflict, novelty, prominence of the people involved, proximity, timeliness, and human interest. Different outlets weight these factors differently according to their mission and audience. A local paper and an international wire service will not rank the same story the same way.

Awareness of news values helps explain why some stories dominate while others receive little attention. Critics argue that conventional values undervalue slow-moving structural issues. Newsrooms that periodically examine their own values can adjust coverage to better serve public needs.

• Criteria for judging newsworthiness
• Include impact, conflict, novelty, and proximity
• Weighted differently by different outlets
• Shape what audiences see and hear