A study of the importance of cultural proximity as a news value: Cultural proximity and its importance for journalists

News is a special kind of social product that requires an event to have taken place. This event needs to be captured by the journalists and published by the media, and ultimately, be consumed by the audience. Every stage is crucial for the news process. Do countries close in cultural proximity cover more of the same events in comparison to countries far apart in cultural proximity? This study examined if journalists use cultural proximity as a news-value to more effectively write towards their target audience. The study supported the hypothesis that countries close in cultural proximity will cover more of each others events, rather than countries far apart on a cultural proximity scale on Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Index.;The importance of this study was to better understand how journalists effectively write towards their audience.