In fact, in the actual news communication activities, from facts to news, this is a communication process. Facts are natural things, which become news facts after being screened, processed and filtered by reporters, and then become news accepted by the audience through the dissemination of news media. Compared with the facts that exist naturally, news facts have ideological nature, which shows the reporter's reflection process of objective social life. At the same time, it is also an objective material existence independent of journalists. After news facts become news through communication, they are not only secondary, but also a kind of social ideology, but also an objective material existence independent of people and independent of people's subjective will. Facts-news facts-news, which constitutes the process of news dissemination. In the whole process of news dissemination, news facts are related to journalists and news is related to audiences. If news facts are regarded as the object of value, then journalists are the subject of value; If news is regarded as the object of value, then the audience is the subject of value.
In the past, when discussing the value in news communication activities, there was a "standard theory", that is, "news value is the standard for selecting and measuring news", or "news value is the standard for journalists to measure whether facts become news." It is true that value is not an abstract thing that can only be understood but cannot be expressed. Whether for journalists or audiences, they always choose news facts or news according to subjective wishes, objective social effects and certain standards. In this sense, it is completely correct to take value as the standard of measurement and selection. However, if we take it as the definition of "news value", it will easily lead to ambiguity. What exactly does "news value" in the above statement mean? If "news value" refers to the value of news, then its value subject should be the audience, which is the standard for the audience to choose and measure news. But on it, it clearly refers to reporters; As the subject of value, journalists' value object is not news, but news facts, which should also be called the value of news facts. Therefore, if we can't distinguish their respective value subjects and value objects, it will easily lead to logical confusion. In my opinion, there should be two different levels of value, or two value systems, in the whole process of news dissemination: one is "the value of news facts", the object of which is news facts, and the subject of value is journalists; The first is "the value of news", the object of which is news and the subject is audience.
So, what is the value of news facts? Simply put, its meaning can be understood as: the unity of journalists' requirements and needs with those special qualities that can constitute news facts, or that some special qualities of news facts meet journalists' needs. If some special qualities of news facts can meet the needs of journalists, news facts show positive value, or this news fact is valuable. If some characteristics of news facts can't meet the needs of journalists, then news facts are negative or worthless. In this value system, the value of news facts is not only "a fact contains enough to constitute the special quality of news or the sum of various qualities". Without the needs and satisfaction of journalists, it is still just a purely objective fact itself. Similarly, the value of news facts is not only the needs of journalists, but also the personal requirements of journalists without the special quality of news facts. Here, the subject of value and the object of value are conditions for mutual existence.
Here, there is a question worthy of attention, that is, are journalists' demands and needs subjective imagination or natural needs? If so, doesn't it define the rich social content that news facts should contain, and deny the reporter's distinct tendency in choosing news facts? In my opinion, I'm afraid this involves the understanding of "people". It should be admitted that people have a natural side and natural needs. However, there are essential differences between humans and animals. On the one hand, this difference is manifested in that people can make tools and carry out free and conscious activities, that is, people are the subject of free creation. This kind of free creation not only enables people to make tools in practice and carry out free and conscious activities, that is, people are the subject of free creation. This kind of free creation not only enables people to use nature in practice, but also can dominate and transform nature. In this way, human activities are no longer blind activities dominated by instinct like animals, but can be carried out consciously, purposefully and planned according to their own needs. On the other hand, people still have their sociality, as Marx said in the Outline of Feuerbach: "The essence of people is not an abstract thing inherent in a single person. It is realistic, it is the sum of all social relations. "
Therefore, I believe that human nature can be understood as: human's free and conscious activities in certain social relations, and human's free creation. It is natural and social, and it is the unity of natural essence and social essence. From this understanding, we realize: first, human needs are by no means simply satisfying the needs of survival like animals. People have a higher level and richer material needs and spiritual needs. Therefore, for journalists, it should have lofty ideological realm, rational color and healthy taste. Second, people always act as people in social relations. He happened historically and was historically identified as the subject of social practice in social real life, following and embodying the laws of social movement and development. His emotions, wishes and demands should be branded with society. Therefore, any human need has its sociality and rich social content. At the same time, journalists live in the real society and always embody some kind of social relations. Because a journalist looks at life, chooses facts and bears the brand of a certain social relationship, he can't fail to show a certain tendency, and his needs and demands can't fail to reflect those of a certain society, class and group.
Of course, journalists always appear as individuals. Because of the different class color, political class status, special environment, life path and cultural accomplishment of journalists, it is possible to show the particularity of journalists. However, it is impossible for any journalist to leave the universal stipulation of human beings. Therefore, the purpose and requirements of every journalist are not only the particularity of individuals, but also the general needs of society. In this way, when journalists choose news facts according to their personal needs, on the one hand, they all show their personal freedom, unique vision and personality style; On the other hand, this individual's freedom, unique vision and personality style also contain social tendencies. Therefore, in my opinion, it is wrong for journalists to ignore the freedom of personality and unique vision when choosing news facts in the gunfire of news dissemination; It is a fundamental mistake to flaunt the freedom of choice and unique discovery of individual journalists blindly, or even deny the clear tendency of choosing news facts.
The so-called value of news, its value subject is the audience, and its value object is news. It is the unity of audience demand and news special quality, or news special quality meets audience demand. As mentioned above, the audience's demand is not subjective, but also has its own unique performance, rich social content and distinct social tendency. In the actual news communication activities, the audience has the freedom to choose and evaluate news completely, showing individual particularity. But what do you choose? How to evaluate, but you can't help but show your position, viewpoint, emotional attitude and interest trend.