what constitutes news?

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On Saturday I saw that Hoe Street in Walthamstow (which is at the end of my road) was cordoned off by the police. No-one had any idea what had happened.

Later in the day I passed that way again and heard that there had been a shooting. By the end of the night I checked teletext and found out that there had been a man shot and two men arrested and that Hoe Street had been blocked off for 14 hours.

After that, nothing, not a sausage, I have searched all over and hhave found no further information.

This is probably nothing compared to current affairs but hey, when shots are fired 200 yards from my house I want to know why, who, when etc

Anyway, what makes a story newsworthy, as this would appear not to be?

― chris, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

onto the new answers board we go........

― chris, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

a journalist finding out (or not) is probably the bottom line here — stuff like this happens all the time in london (tho you may find a small report in a local newspaper in two or three days time): after all, police don't call the papers to tell em everything that went down

ask local shop-owners

― mark s, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

You're right of course Mark, but hey it created loads of chos in Walthamstow on Saturday. At first I thought it was related to current events what with the Call to Islam bookshop being along there as well as several shops flying the Pakistani flag, but no, thank goodness.

― chris, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

(shots fired 200 yds from MY house = dog bites man!!)

― mark s, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

what does 'dogs bites man' mean? it's nothing to do with syntax is it?

― alx, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

man bites dog = news
dog bites man = not

syntaXoR = skeleToR to mark s's he-man

― mark s, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Dog Bites Man = no news (or Look East News) Man Bites Dog = News (esp silly season) = Good movie too.

― Pete, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

[a lurker chips in]: yeah, depends where you are. About a month ago a man ended up on the roofs (rooves?? or is that just hooves??) of houses on our street (in the Quiet Suburbs of Leeds), throwing tiles and bricks down smashing the windows and cars opposite, before dismantling a final roof and breaking into the bedroom below, and escaping through the back garden. This drew a large number of riot police to the street, and more importantly made the front cover of the Yorkshire Evening Post the following day - all action packed coverage, including archetypal quote from ‘a local man who witnessed the event’ viz: “He was up on the roof throwing things off. It was quite bad out there,” and accompanied by royally pointless photo of empty street, police cordon, small pieces of smashed glass, etc. Round us, man on roof = dog bites man.

― lisa, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Chris, you haf no news sense. This is news:

G irl dies after looking at FHM

C ompetitive man punches stepson after being beaten at Monopoly

― Nick, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

In Hackney, man fires gun while biting dog on roof wouldn't qualify as news. The only news in Hackney concerns the Caaaahncil.

Oh, Griff Rhys Jones bites dog to raise money to save the Ackney Hempire, that's news.

― Tim, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I saw both of those over the weekend and found them funny, slightly to my shame, especially the lightweight who died after looking at fhm piccies! (I could have really put my foot in it here, profuse apologies in advance if so)

Maybe it isn't a sense of news that makes me want to know, more downright nosiness.

― chris, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

News: Humanitarian worker who just returned from Afgahnistan earlier this year says the Taliban are "foppish". He says the soliders wear black eyeliner, buy Prell shampoo for their long curly hair and carry themselves as if they were in a play or on a runway. Now if that's not newsworthy I don't know what is. ..

― Samantha, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The opposite thing happened where I live, there was a full-page spread on page 3 of the 'Independent' about 'London's Lawless Estates', a 'Los Olvidados' of Caledonian Road. Pictures of graffiti and burning rubbish, vox pops from locals ("We laugh at the coppers, they can't do nuffink") etc. Also something to the effect that "Less than half a mile from Upper Street, the cultural capital of New Labour-ism, are tower blocks of misery and squalour." Strange, nothing happened that week, nor any other time I can recall, but if it prompts the council to fix the lift then that's OK

― dave q, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I have to wonder if that girl died as divine punishment for being so damn WEEDY.

― DG, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

about a third of the local newspaper is taken up by what is not news. a third by national news. the last third combined with ads, local news, and sports. last week there was a two-page spread with lots of picutres and almost no text of retro handbags, for instance. nothing happens here.

― maria, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

retro handbags like lucite box purses of the 40s-50s?? I *love* those bags!!

― Samantha, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

yes, those. yippee.

― Maria, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

"yes, those. yippee. "

― Mike Hanle y, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Former life, I used to work in news. We were always running over because we kept on padding commercial breaks to generate more revenue, and thus cutting stories at the last minute was common practice. We also had shameless network tie-ins that gobbled up a good 5 minutes and a ton of silly HI segments as well. People and pets were usually the last 5 minutes of every broadcast...

― jason, Tuesday, 2 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

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