Insta-Worthiness of News in New Media Journalism: How to Understand News Values on Instagram

Abstract

The Internet and Web 2.0 have changed the communication and information systems. Social media has emerged as an alternative or a developed version of traditional media. In this respect, journalism is obliged to keep up with the new technology. Social media has become an effective platform for information and news sharing. Traditional understanding of news values and newsworthiness has been reconstructed within this period. Concepts such as share, like, comment, etc. have become significant for news values and newsworthiness in digital age. In this context, this study aims to find out how news values have changed on social media by focusing on Instagram. To this end, three newspapers, which have highest circulations in Turkey were sampled over a one-month period. Content analysis was selected as research technique. Based on research questions, three-step analysis was conducted. The findings were discussed in the conclusion. A new term – insta-worthiness – is suggested in this study to clarify the main components of news values on Instagram.