Media Critique - Woman who flipped off Trump motorcade is now running for office in Virginia

On September 12, 2018, WHAS11 published a news story titled: Woman who flipped off Trump motorcade is now running for office in Virginia. This is a violation of two of the Seven Yardsticks of Journalism: Local Relevance and Newsworthiness. 

WHAS11, a local news organization, published a story that originates in Virginia. Because of this, local relevance is violated. This story may sound very interesting to the public, or maybe it is seeminly insignificant and irrelevant. Regardless of the views of the public, this story is not nessecary news. This article is likely newsworthy in Leesburg, Virgina, however, WHAS11 publishes news in and directed towards the local area of Louisville, Kentucky. Just as this story is not locally relevant, it is lacking in newsworthiness. This directly ties into its lack of local relevance. Because it is not locally relevant, it is not newsworthy. 

This does not mean that the story itself does not include these two yardsticks. If this story was published in a local newspaper in Virginia it would definitely include these yardsticks, but it was not published with relevance on WHAS11. To prevent the violation of the ten elements of journalism, or seven yardsticks, the organiztion could simply prevent publishing such stories. "She's hoping others in her district are as angry as she is with the Trump administration and will vote for a finger flipping Democrat." This comes directly from the article and proves that a story can be just as irrelevant as it is intriguing. This is when caution needs to take place. The national public could focus more on relevancies in local news organizations for national improvement in them. Acknowledgement and use of the elements and yardsticks is important.

-Guinn