{"id":431,"date":"2004-08-18T10:55:58","date_gmt":"2004-08-18T14:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2004\/08\/18\/what-makes-news-news\/"},"modified":"2004-08-18T10:55:58","modified_gmt":"2004-08-18T14:55:58","slug":"what-makes-news-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2004\/08\/18\/what-makes-news-news\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes News News?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name='a750'><\/a><\/p>\n<p><P>I was browsing the Boston Globe on-line this morning and found the following headlines: &#8220;<A class=\"bold\" href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/odd\/articles\/2004\/08\/17\/nearly_100_pigs_run_riot_on_highway\" target=\"\"><STRONG><FONT color=\"#000066\">Nearly 100 pigs run riot on highway<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/A>&#8220;, &#8220;<A class=\"bold\" href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/odd\/articles\/2004\/08\/17\/boots_takes_gold_at_the_ferret_olympics_1092745515\" target=\"\">&#8216;Boots&#8217; takes gold at the Ferret Olympics<\/A>&#8220;, &#8220;<A class=\"bold\" href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/odd\/articles\/2004\/08\/17\/kids_plus_rocks_equals_120000_angry_bees\" target=\"\"><STRONG><FONT color=\"#000066\">Kids plus rocks equals 120,000 angry bees<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/A>&#8220;.<\/P><br \/>\n<P>In disgust, I had to check out other newspapers to see if their headlines were just as bad:<\/P><br \/>\n<P>New York Times: &#8220;<A href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/aponline\/national\/AP-Jesus-Vote.html\"><STRONG>Religion Experts Ask How Jesus Would Vote<\/STRONG><\/A>&#8220;, &#8220;<A href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/aponline\/national\/AP-Beer-Bear.html\"><FONT size=\"2\">Bear Drinks 36 Cans of Favorite Beer<\/FONT><\/A>&#8220;.<\/P><br \/>\n<P>Weekly World News: &#8220;<A class=\"head11\" href=\"http:\/\/www.weeklyworldnews.com\/features\/aliens\/61244\">ALIENS CLAIM JACKO IS THEIR SON <\/A>&#8220;, &#8220;<A class=\"head11\" href=\"http:\/\/www.weeklyworldnews.com\/features\/technology\/60808\">NASA BUILDS WORLD&#8217;S BIGGEST PAPER AIRPLANE<\/A>&#8221; (I liked how when I copy\/pasted the headlines from this paper&#8217;s articles the font&nbsp;appeared in all&nbsp;capital letters&#8230;as if to make the point that these things are that much more newsworthy).<\/P><br \/>\n<P>Is there really any real difference between these there newspapers? Granted, these weren&#8217;t front page articles (most came from the Associated Press and were posted on the Globe and Times sites). But still&#8230;ferret olympics? Beer-drinking bears?<\/P><br \/>\n<P>Then again, I suppose my blog is a sort of news posting site. I mean, I don&#8217;t know how it appears to readers, but when I update my blog, the button I click to do&nbsp;so is called &#8220;Create News Item&#8221;. Looking back at some of my own blog\/news headlines, I guess I&#8217;m just as guilty as they are.<\/P><br \/>\n<P>But I have to sensationalize&#8230;I have no corporate sponsors!<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was browsing the Boston Globe on-line this morning and found the following headlines: &#8220;Nearly 100 pigs run riot on highway&#8220;, &#8220;&#8216;Boots&#8217; takes gold at the Ferret Olympics&#8220;, &#8220;Kids plus rocks equals 120,000 angry bees&#8220;. In disgust, I had to check out other newspapers to see if their headlines were just as bad: New York [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}