Why this toolkit exists

Why this toolkit exists

A housing reporter sits down to write about a redevelopment project. Do they lead with property prices, community impact or environmental effects? Who are their sources? Who will they go to for comment?

A crime reporter covers a knife attack in a local neighbourhood. Other outlets have called it a "reign of terror", but don't mention the youth centre that closed three years ago, or that child poverty here is among the highest in the country.

An environment editor feels they need to justify a piece about protecting woodlands. The headline: "UK's trees worth £X billion to the economy".

Every choice you make about what to cover, how to frame it and whose voice to centre shapes what matters to your audience. Journalists may see themselves as objective observers, simply reporting facts, but choices on angle, emphasis and context are, by their nature, selective in what they draw attention to. Your choices matter Over time, these decisions shape what we all value – and what we believe others value too. These effects accumulate. Thousands of choices across hundreds of outlets shape what seems normal, naive or realistic in our culture.

Over time, these decisions can shape what we all value and what we believe others value too. These effects accumulate. Thousands of choices across hundreds of outlets shape what seems normal, naive or realistic in our culture. But what if these choices don’t reflect what actually matters to people?

The problem: the gap between what matters to people and what we see in our culture

Research like the European Values Study consistently shows that most people value things like equality, community and caring for nature. These things feel good to us, they don't depend on external recognition or reward. Psychologists call them 'intrinsic values'.

But research on traditional 'news values', and CCF's own research on how people perceive the media, suggests our journalistic culture tends to foreground a different set of values – things like wealth, status and power. Psychologists call these 'extrinsic values'.

In the UK, Common Cause Foundation found that 74% of people say they prioritise intrinsic values over extrinsic ones. But 77% believe that other people are more motivated by things like wealth and social status. We call this the ‘values perception gap’.

We call this the 'values perception gap'. This gap, between what we personally value and what we believe others do, has real consequences. Research shows it makes us feel less responsible for our communities, less likely to get involved – in everything from voting to volunteering – and less likely to support action on social and environmental issues.

Journalism doesn’t create this gap alone, but it is one of the key ways we get a sense of what others value. A persistent emphasis on extrinsic values can make people think these kinds of values are normal – and this has an impact on how people think and act, individually and collectively.

The opportunity: to better reflect what matters to people

If journalism's purpose is to serve communities by giving people accurate information to help them make informed decisions about their lives, then there is an inherent responsibility to reflect what matters to people. Journalists, perhaps more than any other profession, have the power to help close the perception gap.

The question isn't whether journalism is values-laden. It inherently is.

This toolkit is for journalists who want to better understand how values are embedded in their work, and what impact this has on their audience and the wider public. This toolkit is about being intentional, transparent and reflective about the values your work communicates and the consequences of this. This, in turn, can help you make more conscious editorial choices that better reflect the values that most people actually prioritise, creating new opportunities for journalistic success.

This toolkit is about being intentional, transparent and reflective about the values your work communicates. This, in turn, can help you make more conscious editorial choices that better reflect the values that most people actually prioritise.

Who this toolkit is for

What this toolkit offers

This toolkit can help you

• Understand how values show up at every level of journalism, from individual word choices to media ownership
• Recognise patterns in your own practice and the media more broadly
• Make more conscious framing choices and be transparent about them
• Have more informed conversations with colleagues and editors
• Strengthen core journalistic functions: accurately informed citizenship, civic trust, democratic engagement

This toolkit cannot

• Solve structural problems like concentrated media ownership, lack of funding for public-interest journalism, or commercial pressures
• Give you power you don't have in your organisation

A note on language

We use the term 'values-aware journalism' because, whether acknowledged or not, all journalism communicates things about what matters – values. The question is whether those values are conscious or unconscious, visible or hidden.

We also refer to the 'cultural footprint' of journalism. This is the impression that the media leaves on our shared sense of what matters and what matters to other people – similar to how a carbon footprint describes environmental impact.

Our values as authors of this toolkit

We want to be transparent about where we stand. We believe journalism that more accurately reflects the intrinsic values most people prioritise is more responsible journalism. We also believe that rebalancing our culture away from an overemphasis on extrinsic values – wealth, status and power – is necessary if we are to meaningfully address the serious economic, environmental and social challenges we face.

But we also recognise that values awareness is useful whatever values a journalist or outlet chooses to foreground. The important thing is that the choice is conscious and honest, not habitual and invisible.