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Those six qualities of news are the characteristics of a story, hard or soft, in any platform—print, broadcast, digital—in any concentration of study: journalism, public relations and entertainment/tourism.

How do you use those qualities in determining news judgment? You are asking two questions:

• What is the news?

• Who is your audience?

The authors of “The Basics of Media Writing,” Scott A. Kuehn and Andrew Lingwall, write of seven steps to determining news judgment.

1. What platform are you writing for? Print? Web? Social media? Broadcast?

Each calls for different skills in reporting and writing. You may have to produce content for multiple platforms for a single story. What subject does the platform cover? Sports? Entertainment? Politics? General news? What is good for one (anything about President Biden in politico.com) is not good for The Athletic. But the tragic death of Kobe Bryant would be covered by Politico, The Athletic, Los Angeles Times and TMZ (which broke the story!).

2. What visuals are available or could be produced?

Each platform needs visuals, some more than others. Broadcast newscasts will are driven by video that drive the story and make it more likely to be covered. (But all broadcast stations have a web page so a story could get published without the needed visuals). Radio relies on sound bites or ambient sounds (reporter reports on a traffic accident and sirens and car noises are heard in the background).

3. What are the facts of the story? Can you describe the story to someone?

4. Can you sum up the story using the 5 Ws of who, what, where, when and why? (More on that in another chapter).

5. Is this a news story or feature? Meaning, is it hard news or soft news?

6. What are the sources for the story? Could it be law enforcement? Witnesses? Somone in a government agency or a business? Check online databases or public records.

7. Which of the six qualities of news are in play?

Kuehn and Lingwall point out that news judgment is influenced by your audience.

• Who are my readers, listeners or viewers?

• What is the news that they need or want to know?

• What are the demographics (age, ethnicity, gender, income, education)?

• What are their interests? Values, lifestyle, politics.

• What could be the reaction of the audience to this news?

• It comes down to this question asked by your audience: Why should I care?

Those six qualities shape the writer’s decision about framing. When you review a city council meeting agenda, hear a speech or cover a protest, you consider how people might be affected. Communications specialists don’t just throw those qualities against a potential story and see what sticks. With experience, these labels and an understanding of framing leave you with an intuition about what will make a good news story. In the real world, journalists or public relations specialists do not consciously go through the six news qualities or contemplate the concept of framing.

You go with your gut. It feels like a story. You develop a nose for news.