The semantic effect of inaccuracies can be largely described under one
heading: they make a story more newsworthy. I have already noted in
passing that many changes to time adverbials make a story sound more
recent than it really is. The concept of recency is just one news value or
factor which media researchers such as Galtung and Ruge (1965) suggest are
influences on the selection of news. In my data, we see these factors influencing
the editing of accepted news, as Galtung and Ruge hypothesized
they would (1965, p. 71). In almost every example given above, the inaccuracy
clearly enhances the story's value on some news factor. Here I can
only sketch findings relevant to a few of the factors:
Frequency includes what I have called "recency". Certai