The Nature of News in Three Dimensions

Five studies conducted at Oklahoma State University on the nature of news are reported in this volume. The first study reports the similarities and differences in news values among 10 city editors. The second and third studies replicate the first, one with city news editors and the other with wire service newsmen as subjects. Study 4 summarizes a before-after study of news judgments of 19 students and the instructor in a beginning reporting class. The last study asked the readers to judge the input of structured news. All of these studies are exploratory and their results are offered as suggestive rather than conclusive findings. The patterns of the news judgments, however, indicate strongly that practitioners and educators alike could benefit by orienting themselves to the notion that news seems to revolve around a fairly consistent underlying framework or structure. Until this underlying structure is defined, refined, and developed into a more operational construct, the question "What is news?" will remain unanswered. (TO)