Contextualization and trending topics for audience engagement: Evolving newsworthiness at the BBC News and Al Jazeera English

Rapid innovative tools are constantly being introduced in newsrooms, changing the ways journalists gather, write, and produce news. The proliferation of fake news, information overload, multiplatform distribution channels, and the complexity of audience behavior are among the contesting issues faced by news organizations. Normative values of news are evolving to suit the demands of contemporary era, due to the changing news media landscape. Through a qualitative approach, this study aims to identify the factors viewed as important when judging the newsworthiness of a news piece. The findings indicate that, in addition to conventional newsworthiness criteria that have become institutionalized within journalistic practice, two further dimensions emerge as salient: the contextualization of news and the implementation of trending topics as part of the news narrative. This study further suggests that the contextualization of news is vital to the creation of relatable news content, and this is achieved through the provision of personalized news, relevant and attractive visual elements, and holistic news reports. This study contributes to the scholarly discourse on news selection practices, as it examines how news outlets identify reportable content within a rapidly transforming media landscape.