What Makes “Good” News Newsworthy?

Abstract

To combat the constant supply of negative news, some online news outlets focus solely on “good” news. But what is the value of “good” news? A content analysis was conducted to determine which traditional news values (timeliness, conflict, impact, etc.) appear in stories on Web sites dedicated to positive news. The researcher compared “good” news sites to the New York Times. Results indicated that the majority of “good” news stories were entertaining and emotional, whereas the majority of New York Times stories involved authority figures and conflict. Good news stories were less committed to journalism’s core functions, such as holding power accountable and providing the public with information necessary for creating an informed electorate.

Keywords:

• Content Analysis
• Good News
• News Values
• Newsworthiness
• New York Times
• Positive News

Notes

^[1] Search terms included various combinations of terms, including good news, positive news stories, and happy news.

^[2] Odewire has since changed its name to The Intelligent Optimist. The following quotes no longer exist on the new site, but the mission has not changed.

^[3] Coders identified the top stories by reading each site’s homepage like a book—from top to bottom, left to right.

^[4] Odewire, http://www.odewire.com; Daryn Kagan, http://www.darynkagan.com; Happy News, http://www.happynews.com; New York Times Online, http://www.nytimes.com

^[5] Good News Network, http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org; Huffington Post Good News, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/good-news/

^[6] Five articles from five good news sites for 16 days (400 articles) plus 10 articles from nytimes.com for 16 days (160) equals 560 articles.

^[7] This refers to articles that repeat themselves on the same site due to the fact that the site did not update frequently enough to have five new stories after 2 days. Stories that were repeated on separate sites were included.

^[8] Results for the average number of news values in each site were as follows: New York Times, 3.2; Odewire, 2.4; Good News Network, 2.3; Daryn Kagan, 2.2; Huffington Post Good News, 2.1; Happy News, 1.9.