Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Baltimore Sun - Top Headlines

Photo Taken from Baltimore Sun.com

6 shot, 1 dies in attack in city
Article By: Richard Irwin and Brent Jones

To see the full article for this story click here.

This story was seen on the front page of the BaltimoreSun.com.  The main reason that this story was brought to the front and why it is seen as a very newsworthy story is due to the numerous amount of "news values" the story covers.  First and foremost, the story has a high level of impact.  For readers to see, "6 shot, 1 dies in attack in city," that instantly gives the story a high impact because readers are curious and at times fearing what the story contains.  Readers are effected because they are left wondering if there city is safe, if someone they know was involved and other questions similar to these.  

Second, the story also has timeliness.  This occurrence happened just last night and it has already been posted with a photo on the web.  Therefore, the story is very current and up-to-date for the reader to view, making it very newsworthy.  

The story also has proximity to the paper's circulation.  This happened in Baltimore City and since the readership is in Baltimore, the proximity of the story plays a major role as to why it is newsworthy.  

Story By: Edward Gunts

To see the full article click here.

In this story, the article is explaining a complete makeover of a popular and heavily used road in Baltimore City.  

This story also has a high impact because many citizens are impacted by it.  Many readers will want to know about the new shops then will be passing by on the way to work in the near future.  This in turn, gives the story credit and it becomes newsworthy.  

The story also has timeliness because as it said in the story, the mayor of the city will unveil the final plans of the project some time today.  

Story by: Richard Irwin

To see the full article click here

This story also makes the headlines for a number of reasons.  It contains many of the news values one might look for in a story.

For one, it has a sense of unusualness.  It is very out of the ordinary that you would find someone dying from a gunshot that happened 13 years ago.  Many people would find that interesting and unusual.  

The story also has a great sense of conflict due to the fact that officials have ruled this case as a homicide.  Many people would find this issue controversial and would want to know why it was ruled in this way.  

And as in most cases, this story has timeliness and although he was shot 13 years ago, police just revealed yesterday that the case was ruled as a homicide.

All of these news values contribute to stories to give them meaningful purposes and credibility for being cover stories.  

News Values:

Impact
-How the story impacts the reader.
Prominence
- Stories that are containing high interest names.
Unusualness
-Anything occurring in a story that is out of the ordinary
Currency
-A story that is tied with past stories that have been written regarding similar instances.
Conflict
-Anything that is dealing with crime or punishment or sickness that raises a level of fear or excitement.
Timeliness
-A story that is prevalent in time and current.
Proximity
-An occurrence that happened or is happening within the area of the readership.

-Daniel Gross

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