Journalistic Relevance: Concept, Fundamentals and Application

Abstract

The concept of journalistic relevance is underdeveloped in the journalism studies, as with the profession itself. It is still an unapparent measure concerning the criteria to decide if a story becomes news, and how important that story might be. Normally, “news values” (defined here as criteria of relevance) are explored in the literature of this field within a descriptive perspective that describes and shows how they are used; however, it does not go into the merit of the fundamentals that make a fact important, nor does it describe the methods used to initiate such assessment. Thereupon, this article proposes: 1) an applied definition to the concept that supplements the contribution of descriptive and conceptual works (as an applied research proposal in the Journalism), aligned with Sperber and Wilson’s relevance definition (2005); 2) a submission of what the basis for the relevance of journalism is: the audience expectations; and 3) a summary of the relevance parameters, known as relevance assessment process.

Keywords:
Relevance; Journalism; News Values; Applied Research