News values in a digital age: Intra-media, inter-media, and extra-media platforms

Lisa Merete Kristensen*, Peter Bro

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

News values and newsworthiness have been central concepts of Journalism Studies since they were first introduced to the public over a hundred years ago. Seminal studies of 20 th-century media examining news values and the intricately connected concept of gatekeeping have been cited, added to, and rigorously criticized. In the digital age, news travels effortlessly across the Internet, permeating the once exclusive and closed-off platforms of legacy news organizations. Audiences increasingly rely on alternative platforms for news consumption. This complicates our previous understandings of the flow of news, and it invites new gatekeepers to the table, simultaneously shaping and deciding what is considered newsworthy. This article recontextualizes the classical concept of news values by reviewing news value research of 21 st-century digital legacy media resulting in three archetypical platform types through which legacy media news travels: intra-media, inter-media, and extra-media platforms. Inspired by social psychologist Kurt Lewin’s gatekeeping theory and the concept of platformization, this article presents a new conceptual framework that delineates the forces and factors that affect news flow in a digital era.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournalism
Volume25
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)819-836
ISSN1464-8849
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2024

Keywords

  • algorithmic news values
  • digital journalism
  • gatekeeping
  • news selection
  • news values
  • newsworthiness
  • platformization

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