Media Critique

http://www.whas11.com/news/Toddler-ignores-military-protocol-hugs-mom-275442091.html

The following article on WHAS11's website breaks a number of the 9 Principles and 7 Yardsticks. This article breaks the yardstick stating the article must be newsworthy, the yardstick that concerns local relevence and the principle that states "Make the Important Interesting."
It is a heartwarming and interesting story, but it is not necessarily newsworthy, which is one of the seven yardsticks. "NEWSWORTHINESS is based on two factors: 1) whether the story topic is "core" or "peripheral," and 2) whether the story is likely to have a direct and lasting (six months or more) informational impact on a wide audience (at least 10,000 people)" (http://www.gradethenews.org/feat/recentgrades/indices2004.htm). This story will NOT directly impact a mass amount of people nor will it impact them for a long period of time. A toddler hugging his mother despite what the military protocol is will not impact most people in any sort of way.
This article violate the yardstick local relevence. "LOCAL RELEVANCE is a measure of the percentage of news that takes place in or directly concerns the San Francisco Bay Area (the customary nine counties surrounding the Bay plus Santa Cruz)" ( http://www.gradethenews.org/feat/recentgrades/indices2004.htm ). It is not relevent to Louisville, Kentucky as a whole, except for maybe a few people from here that were at the ceremony or who know the toddler and his family.
This article also violates the principle that states "Make the Important Interesting." Journalism.com(http://www.journalism.org/resources/principles-of-journalism/ ) defines this as "It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant." This story does the opposite and makes the interesting important. Also, it isn't very relevant to the majority of the people reading the article nor most of the people who live in Louisville.
None of the article is necessarily incorrect, as the video shown at the end of the article proves, butt it should not have been listed  under the "Top Stories" category of the website. This problem could have been improved solely by the person who runs the website. Although it is technically considered national news, there are much more newsworthy, relevant and important articles regarding more impactful topics that could have been listed in the "Top Stories" Category, or this article could have been listed under the "Strange News", "Entertainment" or another category that better fits this article. To make this article more newsworthy and not make the interesting important, the author would most likely have to start over and find some other parts of the story to somehow leave a more lasting impact on more people.