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How readers decide importance of news reports

news reportsThe newspaper readers have no formal training in judging news reports. Yet they are able to establish the news value of news reports merely by scanning the page.

The four tools that the readers use are:

1. Story positioning
The readers realise that news reports published at the top of the page are more important than reports published lower down.

2. Story length
The more important news reports are assigned more space than the less important reports.

3. Headlines
Bigger and bolder headlines are used to establish the importance of a news report.

4. Story packaging
The editors take greater pains in breaking major reports into several small reports with each side story adding value to the main report. Photographs and graphics are used with such stories to bring out their import.

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