Most journalism textbooks begin with lists of what have been called "news values." These are criteria to be used to judge the newsworthiness of issues, events, and persons. The list of news values that most journalists have memorized can be replaced with a single concept--vividness. Vividness is a characteristic of the information produced by events, issues, and people. It is not spread equally among all of them, however, an inexact measure of the degree to which information actually explains the nature of events, issues, and persons. That which is vivid is not necessarily particularly accurate or descriptive. Charges of sensationalism, shallowness, and preoccupation with conflict all seem to be aimed at reporters' strict adherence to the law of vividness. If the cognitive psychologists are correct, vivid information is the type of information that people pay attention to and remember. Journalists have the difficult task of making pallid information seem vivid without distorting it. This goal might be more attainable if journalists understood the complexity of the issues involved. (HOD)