News is information about current events and can be presented in many different ways. News stories can be published in newspapers, magazines, radio and television and can also be seen on the internet. The main purpose of news is to inform and educate readers, listeners or viewers. It is not necessarily to entertain but entertainment can come from other sources such as music and drama on the radio, or crosswords and cartoons in a newspaper.
There are several criteria which a piece of news must meet to be considered as being newsworthy. It must be new, unusual, interesting, significant and about people. News is a very subjective word and what is newsworthy to one person may not be to another. For example a man biting his dog is not necessarily newsworthy but a coup d’etat in the country next door might be.
The timeliness of a story is also very important. This is why large media sources often focus on current events and try to keep their audiences informed of the latest developments. The more immediate the event the more interest it will generate.
What is considered to be newsworthy can vary between societies, but in general the following topics are of interest to most people:
Famous people: What they do, where they live and any scandals they are involved in make for interesting news. This is especially true when they fall from grace, lose money or are caught doing something which goes against society’s generally accepted moral standards.
Weather: It affects everyone’s daily lives and is therefore of interest when it does not behave normally, for example extremely hot or cold weather. Food and drink: How the rich are planning feasts while the poor struggle to get enough to eat, crop diseases, food shortages and gluts all make for interesting news. Entertainment: Movies, theatre, cinema and carvings are all newsworthy as are musicians, singers and actors. People are also interested in sport although the amount of interest will vary from society to society.
When writing news it is best to avoid adding any of your own opinion as this can quickly detract from the value of the article. It is often better to interview the subjects of a story to get their own views on what is happening and ask them to comment on it.
With the proliferation of the internet and 24-hour news stations it is easy to become overwhelmed with information and many people will not read a whole news story. Writers should be aware of this and try to keep their stories as concise as possible, removing any unnecessary details. Readers are also often distracted by the visual aspect of news and the style of presentation so a bold headline is normally a good idea. It is also a good idea to put the best information at the top of the article so that it appears above the fold (the crease which normally exists in a newspaper) or at the very beginning of an online news item.
