This article examines what qualifies as news when public agencies in Sweden claim to engage in media work. We unwrap and explore what happens when ideas about “newsworthiness” enter the practice of public sector communication. What becomes news, and how? What kinds of content are favored, how are stories told, and what voices are heard? The ideas of newsworthiness in a public sector context are here conceptualized as a logic of appropriateness that governs civil servants’ media work. We base our analysis on a three-year case study of a Swedish county council’s digital news channel, VGRfokus. The analysis focuses on how ideas of newsworthiness are constructed and mirrored in and through the content of VGRfokus, as well as how they are reflected and acted upon by communications professionals working at the news channel. We suggest that ideas of newsworthiness may function as a governing principle and tone down or even hide conflicts and tensions between key values of bureaucracy and market, otherwise often manifested in public sector communication.

中文翻译：

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新闻价值作为公共部门传播的指导原则

本文探讨了瑞典公共机构声称从事媒体工作时的新闻。我们展开并探索当有关“新闻价值”的想法进入公共部门传播实践时会发生什么。什么变成了新闻，又如何？喜欢什么样的内容，如何讲述故事，听到什么样的声音？公共部门背景下的新闻价值观念在这里被概念化为管理公务员媒体工作的适当性逻辑。我们的分析基于对瑞典县议会数字新闻频道 VGRfokus 的三年案例研究。分析的重点是如何在 VGRfokus 的内容中构建和反映新闻价值的想法，以及在新闻频道工作的传播专业人员如何反映和采取行动。