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I was born on a cold winter Friday, on the 30th of January in 1976. This day played a crucial role not only in the life of my family, but also the world encountered a lot of new events. By being born I became part of these happenings, which more or less determined the forthcoming years of my life. To present the events that took place when I was born, I picked on a most well-known Hungarian national daily called Népszabadság, being at that time the paper of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party. My aim would be not only to make my readers familiar with the events of the world and the country together with the atmosphere of the seventies, but also through the texts of the articles to display the profile of the daily and to highlight how the newspaper reported happenings that were characterized by such news values as negativity, recency and unambiguity. This paper will restrict its scope of investigation to the definition, identification and interpretation of these three news values as represented in Népszabadság’s January 31, 1976 edition.

In this issue demonstrating the matters happening on my birthday or on the day before I was born Népszabadság commented on the following important events. In Portugal people adherent of fascism started an attack against democracy by making attempts with time-bombs on the offices of ultra-right-wing parties. In Vienna meetings concerning the reduction of armed forces in Central Europe, which faced the danger of military opposition, were held. The Spanish police in Madrid destroyed with nightsticks a mass of teachers demonstrating in front of the Ministry of Education demanding higher salary and school reforms. The Securaty Council placed the matter of Namibia occupied illegally by the South-African racist regime on its agenda. Further diplomatic efforts, including the request of Jasser Arafat to Bumedien, the president of Algeria and Hassan, the Moroccan king to preserve piece, were made to solve the Algerian-Moroccan conflict. In ancient Olympia by means of sunrays the olympic flame was lit and set off to Innsbruck , the town of the 12. Winter Olympic Games.

As for Hungary 30 January was a quiet day exempt from any negative or highly controversial events. Budapest provided a place for a wide range of discussions. The Presidential Council held a meeting and made a law on state payments as well as reorganized the orders of the Hungarian People’s Republic. The Council of Budapest was in session, too, discussing and ratifying the plans and the budget of the capital for 1976. A conference on the Hungarian-Polish cultural and scientific cooperation came to an end evaluating the teamwork between the two countries. Leaders of construction and building materials companies met and talked about the exploration of the reserves of building industry. The permanent light industry committee of the Comecon finished its 26. session in the Hungarian capital, where nine socialist countries confered with one another about the promotion of economic ties in this branch of industry between the nations of the Council for Mutual Economic Aid.

The twelve-page paper contained altogether 45 news stories in its January 31 edition. Of these, 5 were front page stories, 16 inside front cover foreign news stories, which reported preferably on events in socialist and African countries. The main cover story was about the talks in Vienna on the reduction of military forces in Central Europe. The inside pages covered domestic news placed in different sections, like columns of political, economical or arts dispatches. On the last pages there was a mixed section with news of different nature, radio and TV programme, an interesting coverage about what chances students have to get fellowship to the Soviet Union., and an advertising section. The paper was closed with the sports column. To mention one more statistical figure, the number of home news was about the double of that of foreign news. As for the illustrations of articles, only one of them included a photograph and another one was accompanied by a map. The daily included three separate pictures, as well, with captures underneath. One recorded a burst pipe in the capital, the others represented factories undergoing technical modernization.

Having outlined the events of the day and the layout of Népszabadság, and before moving on to focusing on news values I would like to clarify the meaning of this phrase. News values are those factors which(stimulates audience interest in news. (Reddick 1985,90). Items of news covered in Népszabadság’s January 31 issue were mostly based on three values: negativity, recency and unambiguity in close connection with one another.

Negativity is the news value that catches the reader’s interest the most. Reporters are hungry for negative happenings, because they are keenly aware of their effects on the public. Wars, accidents, crimes, catastrophies, political and personal conflicts are those events which include the element of negativity. These matters are usually clustered on the front pages under large headlines, where they easily catch the eye. (Bell 1991 quoted in Horváth 1996, 1)

In the January 31, 1976 edition of Népszabadság there were six negative stories on the first two pages. The most negative components were inherent in a news coverage from Portugalia. It was an eight-paragraph report on Portugalia’s efforts to curb the ultra-right-wing terror sweeping through the country. (Nsz. 1976,1) The story, which was an adaptation of news agency reports, appeared to be negative in that conflicts arouse between the communists and fascists whose aim was to restore fascism and liquidate the democratic system together with human rights. (Nsz. 1976, 1) The article demonstrates the measures that were made to stop terrorism, as well. As far as its text is concerned, the report is good-structured following the traditional news story form. The lead summerizes the most important facts about the situation in Portugal, and the body highlights the events in more details, with each paragraphes imbued with negativity. (Reddick 1985, 104)

Negativity as news value is almost always intervowen with recency. An event which has just happened generates the reader(s interest more than the same thing which happened some time ago. Allan bell defines recency as the news value which means “that events whose duration or occurance fits into a 24-hour span are more likely to be reported.” (Bell 1991 quoted in Horváth 1996, 1) Having a more vague circle, topicalities are placed not only on the first pages but depending on the nature of news can be found in each section of the paper.

The so far described and analyzed issue of Népszabadság contains news commenting on events that took place the day or two days before the paper was published, Of these, there is only one article which reports on an event happening on Friday afternoon, thus being the closest in time to the publication of the daily. The Portuguese fascist-communist story mentions that a considerable number of workers in Braga stopped working for an hour on Friday afternoon protesting against the fascist bomb attempts. (Nsz. 1976, 1) In Brief “Hírek” section there are some news without indicating when the given action took place. To give an example “Ezervagonos hûtõház építését kezdték meg Székesfehérváron. Az új hûtõház 1978 második felére készül el.” (Nsz. 1976, 8) The aim of the news is rather to emphasize the construction than the exact date of the beggining of works.

A report which is both negative and current is characterized by a third news value, too, that is unambiguity. It means that “the more clearcut a story is, the more it is favoured.” (Bell 1991 quoted in Horváth 1996, 1) Newspapers are published not only for highbrow readers, but also for common people, for whom it is easier to understand the content if the facts are clear and relevant. It seems to be a main requirement for a national daily that the news sources should be impeccable (Bell 1991 quoted in Horváth 1996, 1), because the opposite case questions the thoroughness of the paper.

Being a significant national paper , Népszabadság’s news coverages are all represented with unambiguity. The five-paragraph article on the diplomatic efforts to solve the conflict in Western Sahara is full of pure facts and such pieces of information which come from news agencies of national (MTI, the Algerian syndicate) importance. The news story covers the heated fights between Algeria and Morocco, the message of Jasser Arafat to the leaders of the two hostile nations, and the intentions of how to put an end to the war. There is only one “maybe” in the text “Feltehetõen Nyugat Szahara a témája Bumedien algériai elnök és Dzsallud libiai miniszterelnök megbeszélésének is.” (Nsz. 1976, 1) The reason why it is used is that the talks were run in secret, that is why their topic can only be presumed.

To fabricate a story, the journalist considers not only news values, but also the style of his reporting. As for Népszabadság’s January 31 edition, its language reflects the atmosphere of the socialist state-building works of the seventies. Texts of the articles abound in words like socialist, cooperation, five-year plan, Comecon, brigade or productivity. Simple, short sentences exempt from foreign words becoming prevalent in today’s media language are the main features of the style of news, which otherwise seems to be neutral, grey and boring to the public of the nineties, which has got used to a more colourful news language.

Reading the articles it is worth observing, too, that what kind of sources were used when writing reports. Sources of the information contained in the stories are either relevant with the exact naming of the person quotes “A Szovjetúnió következetesen síkra szállt azért,hogy.....-mondotta Jackob Malik, a Szovjetúnió ENSZ képviselõje.” (Nsz. 1976, 2) , or they are not specified “egy palesztin szóvivõ ismertette” or “nyugati hírügynökségek jelentése szerint”. The majority of news use spokesmen, representatives or news agencies (MTI, TASSZ) as sources, who state facts on a given event or even give their own opinion reported by correspondents as facts. (Reddick 1985, 60)

What seems to be essential for reporters when commenting on an event is not to express their own wievs. The unsigned articles in Népszabadság with no author seem to be successful in doing so, being extremely objective covering pure facts and only quoted opinions. On the front page there is a so-called editorial article written by Mihály Tamás, giving his point of wiev on the organization of work and business in factories. (Tamás , 1976, 1) He outlines a positive critic of it and urges further steps to make manufacturers even more effective.

In the seventies freedom of the press in socialist terms did not let journalists freely voice their opinion, thus no negative evaluation of the political or economical system was allowed to be published. This fact seems to pervade the articles in Népszabadság, as well
30 January, 1976 was a special day in the life of Hungary, as each day seems to be particular in the life of a country, bringing new events, which determines its future. It was a quiet day, as well, since besides different discussions, sessions and meetings nothing negative or highly positive event caused enthusiasism among people. All the more exciting happenings took place in the world. News came to and fro, from one news agency to another and newspapers, among others Népszabadság, were born. And I was born, as well, thus became part of the world, happenings of which influenced my future.