News can be described in terms of relevance, magnitude, impact, and nearness. This article explores the various values of news and how they have changed over time. We start with a taxonomy of news values first developed by Galtung and Ruge in 1965. We examine each value and how the media have responded to those values.

Relevance

Relevance of news is a complex construct constituted by the linguistic strategies used by news users to interpret news content. These strategies involve self-reference and collective pronouns. News users who found a story relevant used a different distribution of these pronouns than those who did not. This difference was statistically significant. Moreover, news users who identified with a larger social collectivity found the story more relevant.

Magnitude

Magnitude of news is a concept used to describe the impact of information on financial markets. The impact of news varies based on its kind, for example, news about the economy can affect stocks differently than news about central banks. While stock prices typically react positively to news about central banks, bonds generally react negatively to such news. There are many practical applications for the notion of magnitude of news. The higher the magnitude, the greater the impact of the news on a market.

Nearness

Proximity is a key factor in news coverage. It refers to how close a story is to the audience. Stories that are close to readers increase their interest in the news.

Politics

Politics is a branch of social science that studies government and groups of people. It is the study of decisions made in groups, power relations, and the distribution of status and resources.

Self-interest

Self-interest is a nebulous concept that is difficult to define, but it can be attributed to various different dimensions. Self-interest is defined as a person’s perception of a particular issue, especially if that issue has consequences for himself personally. Politics is another area where self-interest can be related. For example, the political orientation of a person can impact whether they believe government intervention is legitimate.