Evaluation of newspaper's information: a case study on The Star and The News Straits Times / Aminuddin Omar

The purpose of this study is to determine the criteria use by two daily newspapers, The Star and The New Straits Times in evaluation and selecting news. Research attempts were conducted to see how far both these newspaper organizations adhere to the traditional journalistic news value when evaluating news and what other factors/criteria's are taken into consideration when evaluating news. The survey research method was used for the purpose of this study where a total of 75 respondents were picked from both the newspaper organizations through the simple random sampling method. Descriptive and inferential (chi-square) statistics were used to evaluate and explain the data obtained. Results of the study clearly indicate that journalists from both newspaper organizations are aware of the traditional journalistic news values in news evaluation and adhere to them in their daily routine. However, other factors such as influence of owners, readers interests, influence of advertisers, pressure from Home Affairs Ministry, competition among the two newspapers and the format size of both the papers are also taken into consideration in the process of evaluating news. Due to the influence of these factors, both these newspapers sometimes differ in news evaluation.