‘Value added’: Language, image and news values

In this article we explore the discursive construal of news values across the modalities of written language and image, with a focus on attitude/evaluation/stance. From this perspective, news values are not beliefs that journalist hold or criteria that they apply, they are values that are constructed by choices in language and image. We argue that attention needs to be paid to the contribution of both modalities to this construction to gain a fuller understanding of how events are retold and made ‘newsworthy’. We illustrate our ‘discursive’ approach to news values through close analysis of online reporting of the 2011 Queensland floods on smh.com.au (the website of The Sydney Morning Herald, an Australian metropolitan broadsheet newspaper). As will be seen, a discursive perspective on news values provides a framework that allows for systematic analysis of how such values are constructed in both words and images. It allows researchers to systematically examine how particular events are construed as newsworthy, what values are emphasised in news stories, and how language and image establish events as more or less newsworthy.

► We take a discursive approach to news values.
► News values are constructed by choices in language and image.
► We focus on attitude/evaluation/stance.
► We analyse online reporting of the 2011 Queenslands floods in Australia.
► This perspective allows systematic analysis of how events are construed as newsworthy.