Hold the Front Page! How the News Gets Made

News doesn’t just happen – it’s made. The modern news cycle runs twenty-four seven, 365 days a year. Reporters and editors can’t simply wait for the next big event; they have airtime, feeds, and column inches to fill. At the same time, they can’t fabricate stories. This is where news values come in. Almost anything can become news if it meets certain criteria: relevance, rarity, human interest, conflict or controversy, and the potential for ongoing coverage.