News Values from an Audience Perspective

Audiences at the Center of News Value Research

News values are usually discussed as newsroom criteria: the judgments editors and reporters make about what counts as important, relevant, or shareable. News Values from an Audience Perspective shifts that focus. This edited collection examines how audiences themselves understand, negotiate, and influence newsworthiness in an increasingly digital and social media environment.

Edited by Martina Temmerman and Jelle Mast, the book brings together journalism and media scholars from Europe, Asia, and North America. Their chapters combine conceptual discussion with empirical research, offering a scholarly view of how audience expectations, platform metrics, and everyday news consumption are reshaping the values that guide journalism.

What the Collection Explores

Across its chapters, the volume considers news values not as a fixed list but as a set of ideas that are contested and revised. The contributors look at traditional news values alongside newer audience-facing concerns such as engagement, shareability, clickworthiness, and local relevance.

• How audiences recognise and evaluate news
• News values in audience-oriented and digital journalism
• Analytics and audience metrics in editorial decision-making
• Headline writing and social media news distribution
• Local, hyperlocal, and participatory news contexts

Part I: News Values and the Audience

The opening section maps different connections between news values and the audience. Chapters discuss the tension between bad news and good news, audience-oriented criteria for newsworthiness, and a comparative 15-nation perspective on news values and topics.

Part II: Metrics, Headlines, and Shareability

The middle section turns to digital journalism. It examines how analytics influence news value judgments, how headlines can be made more clickworthy, and how social media editors use platforms such as Facebook to engage audiences.

Part III: Local and Social Media Audiences

The final chapters explore local and hyperlocal media. They ask how public-powered stories challenge journalists’ ideas about newsworthiness and how Facebook page audiences make their own judgments about what is worth sharing.

Who This Book Is For

As an academic edited collection, this book is aimed primarily at students, researchers, and educators in journalism studies, media and communication, and audience research. It will also interest journalists and media professionals who want a research-based understanding of how audience data and social platforms are changing editorial values. The chapters are scholarly rather than instructional, so readers should expect theory, case studies, and critical analysis rather than a practical newsroom manual.

Why Audience-Facing News Values Matter

News organisations now operate with constant feedback from audiences. Page views, shares, comments, and platform algorithms all influence what gets published and promoted. By studying news values from the audience side, this collection helps explain how journalistic norms are being renegotiated in that environment. It treats the audience not as a passive receiver but as an active participant in defining what news is and what it should be.

A Focused Contribution to Journalism Studies

News Values from an Audience Perspective offers a detailed, multi-country examination of a changing field. For readers who want to understand the relationship between news values, digital platforms, and audience behaviour, it provides a valuable scholarly reference point. Published in 2021, it speaks directly to ongoing debates about engagement, shareability, and the future of journalism.