News Values in Online Media Articles

The study centred on the analysis of the news values present in the online news articles of Rappler.com, Philstar.com, and Inquirer.net. Specifically, it aimed to determine the most frequently read articles published by the three electronic sites in the field of politics, entertainment, lifestyle, and sports; determine the presence of the news values in terms of impact, audience identification and pragmatics of media coverage; and propose guidelines for the enhancement of instruction in writing online journalistic articles. The study used the qualitative method of research to examine the ways an author achieves the desired effects in his works. It involves the element of interpretation that affords insights and identifies the linguistic tools used in analyzing a newspaper article. The method was substantiated with the use of content analysis which is often done in analytical studies in literature and the humanities. The researcher analyzed the top story or articles taken from the Philstar.com, the online portal of The Philippine Star, Inquirer.net of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the news media site, Rappler from November 13, 2016 to December 4, 2016. The researcher concentrated only on four Sundays of the mentioned periods. It was found out that news about drugs, extra- judicial killing (crimes), Martial law and the Marcoses show to have impact to the readers while the involvement of famous personalities like Kris Aquino and issues on beauty pageants and basketball are subjects of articles with audience-identification news values. Meanwhile, a combination of these news stories is the consideration of the online journalists reflecting the pragmatics of media coverage. Further, guidelines to further guide Communication and Media Literacy faculty in teaching news writing was proposed. It was recommended that Senior high faculty, handling Purposive Communication and Media and Literacy Information courses, may include analysis of news values on online media sites in their discussion. Lastly, Master of Arts in English Language Studies and Doctor of Philosophy in English Language Studies students may collaborate on the creation of a web page or website for Graduate school news and updates concerning the program and to which the content posted may be used also for linguistic analysis.

Keywords – News Values, Online Media sites, online news