What makes an event newsworthy?

Open up a newspaper, any you can find. How many news stories do you find? Twenty, thirty news stories? Is this all that happened in the world since yesterday? Of course it isn't.

But... just maybe these are the thirty most important things that happened? Hmmmm. How do journalists go about deciding what's important? What to put in the paper, radio and television -- how do they determine what's newsworthy?

15 miljarder nya händelser vi har hela listan Every day there are billions of different things happening in the world. There is no limit to how many things media could potentially report on... ... So, they have to make a selection of news, that they believe is the most important for their readers, listeners or viewers. There are several criteria that help determine what the media chooses to report about. Here are nine of them: nine criteria for determining what's newsworthy.

For something to be news, it must deviate from the normal... Snöstorm i juli! ... possibly in some dramatic way. If everything is as usual, and as expected, it's not news. So, criterion one for 'what is news': unexpected change.

Snöstorm i juli! 300 förfrusna! And the event must matter -- it must affect someone. If a lot of people are strongly affected, it's bigger news. Criterion two: consequences for people.

Then, of course, news has to be new. Just nu: Tre rånare på flykt! What happened last week, and is already known, is hardly considered news. So, criterion three is: the distance in time to the event. What is considered newsworthy is also affected by how far away the event was.

Bussolycka utanför din dörr - 4 döda! News about a 'bus crash killing four' in the same city as the newspaper is issued, can be much bigger news than a bus crash with 100 dead on the other side of the world. The closer something is, the bigger the news. We call criterion four: the geographical distance. But the geographical distance isn't all that matters.

Sometimes an event takes place in a country that is geographically far away. But if it's a country where we understand the language, and perhaps share a lot of the history and culture, then the geographical distance doesn't matter that much. Allt om valet i USA! Nästan inget om valet i Rumänien Criterion five: the cultural distance. Another thing that often matters, is whether there are any good pictures available, and if the news makes a gripping story.

A crane that falls, and slides into a lake, in a country far away, is no big news. But if there's good imagery, or even a video... If there is also a gripping story providing the background, then it can suddenly become major news. Criterion six: the images and the story. Politiker säger, en vecka före valet: "Alla fattiga är korkade och lata." Next thing that matters is the context in which something happens.

A politician that makes a clumsy statement during an election campaign is bigger news, than the same politician making an equally clumsy statement when there's no election coming up. Criterion seven: the context. And of course, it matters who it is doing something. A person who's already super famous doesn't have to do anything particularly remarkable for it to become news. Zlatan förkyld: nös hela helgen.

And there's criterion eight: the celebrity factor. Some news items aren't even real news -- but they might be fun, different, quirky: they are tempting. Gullig hamster mötte pojke! News items that are like bait for us to take. Criterion nine: the click factor.

There you go, nine criteria for what makes the news. Are these the only criteria used? No, not at all. But they're a beginning, helping to get you started thinking for yourself. Grab a newspaper and go through it, page by page.

Why do you think they have chosen these news items specifically? Perhaps the nine criteria can help you answer that question. Elev tittade på tecknad film i skolan -- du kan inte ana vad som hände sen...