News values for consumer groups

National news agencies, staffed by fewer than a dozen journalists per shift in some cases, are able to produce ready-made news bulletins for hundreds of national and regional radio stations. These bulletins are tailor made to meet target audience criteria crucial for maintaining listener figures. Criticisms of market-driven journalism from media sociologists have focused on so-called `dumbing down'. However, our reflexive ethnographic research into everyday news decision-making, gathering and writing at a major UK news agency, Independent Radio News, suggests a more sophisticated process at work. Journalists were targeting lifestyle groups through careful selection and use of language, to ensure their news was accessible and engaging. The study questions whether news values have become secondary to a range of lifestyle targeting criteria, and considers the implications for journalism's role in society. We examine the processes and practices of news targeting for consumer groups through three days of close observation and a series of reflexive interviews with senior editorial staff.