Making Headlines:

News Values and Risk Signals in Journalism

by John Venables

A5 book wirebound,

in polypropylene box with spine,

156 pages

ISBN 978-1-85450-126-4

GBP £15.95

(ISBN-10 1 85450 126 7)

Aimed at trainee journalists and PR executives as well as media studies students, this accessible and comprehensive introduction to news evaluation explains the factors that influence journalists' news judgment, and explores how and why audiences react to news. It is written to be suitable for a range of countries and cultures.

Journalists are directly responsible for the news we see and hear on TV and radio and in the newspapers. They decide which stories are used and which are left out. Through the way stories are presented, they decide the significance the public attaches to world events.

This book looks at the criteria news producers use to make such important judgements on our behalf; it looks at what news is, the influences which affect the way news is processed and offers a framework for assessing the impact of news stories on their intended audience. Thoroughly revised and updated, this second edition of the popular textbook What is News? includes the latest theories, contemporary examples and a discussion of the future role of journalism.

Writing from a professional and academic perspective, former BBC journalist John Venables answers many outstanding puzzles about the nature of news, and reveals how to select and write stories that are relevant to the audience.

He examines the operational factors that affect news coverage and looks at the structural influences that determine the way journalists see the world. He asks to what degree journalism is governed by spin-doctors and other external influences, and delves into the way our use of language can shape the news agenda.

With the help of leading evolutionary psychologists and anthropologists the author uses risk communication theory to model audience response to news. His findings shed new light on how we relate to the world about us, and offer a practical tool to help journalists write and select news that will be meaningful to the audience.

“Making Headlines is an excellent compendium of practical guidance for young journalists. It also serves a valuable purpose in making everyone - including the general reading, listening or viewing public - think about some important issues. They include the effects of ‘loaded language’ (e.g. words linked in our minds with terrorism) and the irrational perceptions which we have about risk.”- Bill Kirkman, former Director, Wolfson College Press Fellowship Programme. August 2005

Contents of Making Headlines

At the Crossroads - Man bites dog - Internal Pressures - External Pressures - The Missing Link - A Pricking of Thumbs - Risk Signals - Working with News Values - Conclusion

Glossary References Further Reading Index

A5 book wirebound, in polypropylene box with spine 156 pages

ISBN 978-1-85450-126-4 GBP £15.95

Student discounts (only direct from publisher)

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