News values and country non-daily reporting

Australia’s country, non-daily newspapers present journalism graduates with excellent opportunities to get a foot in the door, experience a wide range of journalistic responsibilities and compile an impressive portfolio. However, tertiary journalism courses largely ignore the unique news values, issues and challenges involved with country non-daily reporting. Considering a large percentage of future journalists are likely to enter the industry on a country non-daily, journalism education’s current attitude has serious implications for the profession. However, this situation cannot be rectified until these specific news values, issues and challenges have been documented in order for them to be integrated into pedagogical models. This article documents the country non-daily’s news values, issues and challenges, and indicates their importance to journalism training and education.