COMM 150, 209: Levees, news value, gatekeeping

In COMM 150 (intro to mass comm.), we've been studying the "gatekeeping" theory that identifies people and institutions that restrict the flow of information. In COMM 209 (basic newswriting), we've been studing the benchmarks of "news value" that determine whether a story is newsworthy. Here's a USA Today story on dangerous levees that illustrates both points. The lede:

WASHINGTON — Bowing to demands from news organizations, the Army Corps of Engineers revealed the locations Thursday of 122 levees nationwide that are so poorly maintained they could fail in a major flood.

Some of the substandard levees protect densely populated areas, such as Springfield, Mass., Albuquerque and Sacramento. Many others are in rural areas, where they shield valuable farmland but relatively few people.

Maj. Gen. Don Riley, director of civil works for the corps, said he does not know how many people live near the levees or what the required repairs might cost. He said communities have one year to fix the problems.

If a levee's deficiencies are not corrected, people living nearby might have to buy flood insurance.

If you're taking COMM 209, you'll notice the story has impact. If the levees aren't fixed, a lot of people will buy insurance, at best, and get flooded out, at worst. So the impact may be long-term, but it's there.

We'll get back to news values in a minute. But first, let's look at the gatekeeping angle. USA Today reports:

Some local officials first learned of the problems this week, after USA TODAY reported Monday that the corps had found 146 levees with problems so severe that floods could overwhelm them. The corps, which inspects about 2,000 levees nationally, refused at that time to list the specific levees.

USA TODAY and the Associated Press then requested the list under the Freedom of Information Act.

The full list of levees can be seen at news.usatoday.com.

[Maj. Gen. Don] Riley said the corps wanted to wait to release the list until it finished notifying all communities responsible for maintaining those levees. He noted that 24 levees were dropped from the earlier count because some communities have corrected the problems. He said that the corps "will likely find more (levees) that are deficient" when additional inspections and reviews are done in the coming months.

It's a perfect example of gatekeeping in action. The corps was taking its time about getting the information out. The papers wanted it now. That gives the story an element of conflict, too, because the papers went to court to get the list.

And the other news values?

The story is timely, mostly because of this week's court action. Otherwise, it's a long-term problem. So I'd give it a B-plus for timeliness.

Proximity? I don't think the Sangamon River even has levees. But if I worked for The Quincy Herald-Whig, I'd take a look at that list. They have a levee several miles south of town that has a habit of breaking. I think it's called the Sny. If it's on the list, I've got a local story.

Prominence? Nope. Maybe to General Riley's family and friends, but not to me. I've never heard of him.

Weirdness? Not a bit. Floods are always with us. So are government officials who sit on information the public needs to know.

And finally, there's a category called currency. That's one of those things that's hard to define, but you know it when you see it. It means it's a story that everybody's talking about already.

There are several stories like that in today's news. There's a new report out on global warming. The issue has currency. So does the Super Bowl. And J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, plans to have the last novel in the series on the street -- or in the bookstores -- this summer. That's worth 892 hits on the Google news page, partly because of shrewd marketing but partly because the Harry Potter novels have currency.