There was a brawl in Old City last weekend when the bars closed. The video above was captured by a random person.
Is this news?
Several news outlets did stories about the brawl, including 6ABC, CBS3, the Daily News and Fox29.
What qualifies this as news? Is it a matter of having the dramatic video? Is it because people will see the raw video and talk about it? Is this an unusual event, and therefore newsworthy?
Or is this a non-story?
8 years ago
12 comments:
I feel that this video and the other that was shown in class is not newsworthy. Yes it does contain proximity because it has occured in our backyard but the fight video really isnt unique. I am pretty sure everyone in this class has witnessed or seen at one point another a fight. The video may be entertaining but there really isnt any content that is worthwhile in it.
News is considered newsworthy if it possesses five specific facets. These facets include: timing, significance, proximity, prominence, and human interest. This specific news story possesses only three of the five facets. The timing of this story takes place when violence and gun control are being heavily debated. The proximity of this story takes place where many of us live. Lastly, the story definitely ensures human interest. The video was entertaining and very fascinating to watch. However, I feel that this story does not provide any significance to my life nor does it involve any prominent individuals.
I believe this video is not newsworthy. The news made it a big deal to up their ratings. They knew people would tune in to see a good fight. I also believe location played a major part. Old city is considered a "good" Philadelphia neighborhood. So the fact that a street fight had happened there gave people something to gossip about. This video is nothing more then entertainment.
-Leslie Smith
Although this is a trend, after watching the video to its extent, I must agree that this is a non-story or not news. Even though this is upsetting to watch the attack on a individual this isnt a video that portrays news. The fact that Philadelphia news led with this story goes to show that events such as these are found to be more eye catching then actual news. I would hope that this becomes a great expamle of how the news today is catering to the ease of videos like this instead of real reporting and news.
-Kevin Wright J1111
I do not believe this video is newsworthy. Yes, the brawl did happen in an area that most of us are familiar with, but this still does not make the story captured newsworthy. the video portrays what most people would have come across in conversations, "Did you hear what happened last night?". The captured footage does not contain anything out of the ordinary. I believe the news should focus on more important topics.
I do not believe that this video is newsworthy. I feel that it is just another statistic expressed that Philadelphia is a dangerous place to be. I frequent Old City often on the weekends and hearing that there is another fight is not surprising to me. Sure, the fact that it was caught on video is interesting and entertaining but it does not strike me as "news".
I think this video is disturbing and unfortunately an accurate depiction of the behavior the media captures that makes Philadelphia seem like a violent place. The people in the background are heard shouting "WorldStar! WorldStar!" referencing that the video was being recorded to be featured on the controversial website, WorldStarHipHop. As an occasional visitor of the site, I can deduce that the video was recorded purely for entertainment purposes with hopes to become "viral" as many other videos on the site are. By no means do I think that it's "newsworthy" because it does not give enough VITAL information to inform the community about the incident. We do not know who is involved, what happened, why it went on so long, what caused the fights..etc. When I see this video I just think "oh, another group of drunken idiots probably fighting over something stupid while bystanders think to record and post the video on the internet rather than getting help or getting out of there!" Purely ridiculous.
Oh, Youtube...I don't believe this is newsworthy because there really isn't any context. It's just a huge street fight. The footage would certainly make people want to watch it on the news, but it's not a story. News outlets, as we were discussing in class, use these types of videos as teasers to get people to stay tuned. As in the "two weddings brawl". The drama is what a lot of people want to see. Just watch TLC for 5 minutes and view any reality show. I agree with Chantel about the "viral" aspect of many YouTube videos. People just want to be YouTube famous.
No death, No news. It is so sad to say but as discussed in class, violent acts in any major city, especially Philadelphia is rather common. The quality of the video is another element that makes this a non-story. There are some videos such as the young girl in Philadelphia that fought her kidnapper and fled. Although the cell phone that captured this incident was not top-shelf, it was still worthy to be considered as news because there was an outcome. Whether positive or negative, news should have an ending resolution and should not be confusing. This brawl in Old City has no major resolution, therefore it should not be considered as news.
I would consider it is news. One because it fulfill one requirement as unusual. It not like you see a big fight with numerous of people in the middle of the street in old city. It also human interest for the people in the surrounding area to know what happened and since it happened over night aka early in the morning the news focused about this idea because there was nothing else to talk about during the early morning news cast.
I see this as being a human interest story. It is unusual and proximal. While it may not be of much value outside of the Philadelphia area it does have an impact on those who partake in Philly night life. This is simple an example of news story that keeps the viewer engaged.
This video is not newsworthy to those people who have some sense. I'm not saying it right right or positive it's just human interest for teens that have nothing else else better to do than calls trouble.
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