The Quality of Media Information and Its Newsworthiness

The monograph by Dawid Kaczmarczyk, The Quality of Media Information and Its Newsworthiness, addresses the issue of media information quality in relation to newsworthiness, understood as a set of determinants influencing the selection and presence of information in the media. The object of analysis is the news item treated as the basic form of media information. The aim of the publication is to identify the contemporary understanding of information quality in the media and to examine the relationships between the category of quality and the category of newsworthiness, as conceptualized within the theory of news values. The author systematizes the current state of research and professional practice, demonstrating that “quality” cannot be understood as a single attribute of a news item, but rather emerges at the intersection of journalistic standards, genre conventions, organizational conditions of newsrooms, as well as legal and ethical norms. The theoretical part of the study offers an analysis of key concepts within media and  communication studies, in particular news theory, gatekeeping, news values theory, and agenda-setting. It presents a multidimensional approach to media  information quality, considering academic perspectives, journalistic practice, normative-mission approaches, and ethical considerations, as well as the context of  contemporary transformations in media and  journalism. The empirical part is based on qualitative  and quantitative research conducted with the use of  original research tools among media professionals. The findings allow for the identification of macro-factors of information quality and newsworthiness and for an analysis of the relationships between them. The study culminates in a proposal for a structured set of criteria that may serve both for the assessment of information quality and for reflection on the condition of journalism in the digital age.