What Makes News?

News

News is information about current events. It is typically published in newspapers, magazines and on the Internet. It can also be heard on the radio and TV. News is a way of keeping up with what is happening in the world and with the people you care about. It is important to have access to the latest news because it helps you make decisions about your life and the lives of others. News is usually a mix of fact and opinion, but it can be biased in the way it is presented.

The information that makes it into a newspaper, onto the news line-up on the television or radio, or posted on a news website is decided by people who work for the news organization. They are called editors, news directors or even news managers. They sift through recommendations from reporters, assistant editors and other staff members to decide what is newsworthy. They are often referred to as gatekeepers.

News stories are mainly about people, although events that don’t involve humans can also be newsworthy. For example, a hurricane, bush fire or volcanic eruption might make the news. The kind of event that makes news is generally unusual and significant, rather than ordinary or everyday.

What makes news is also a matter of taste, and what is interesting or important in one society may not be in another. People may not want to read about a man catching the bus to work, for example, but they might be interested in the story of an elderly person who does so every day.

A good news article needs to grab the reader, be told quickly so that readers can follow the news in a busy period of their lives, be presented clearly so that they can understand it, be written in a picturesque way to hold their attention, and be accurate so that they know what is true. It also needs to be unbiased.

It is difficult to write a completely unbiased piece of news, but journalists try to make the most objective judgements they can. They are trained to ask themselves questions about the five W’s of journalism (who, what, where, when and why) to determine if something is worthy of news coverage. They are also trained to use sources with different viewpoints and to verify the facts before publishing a story. They are not expected to edit for personal opinions, although they will sometimes check the spelling and grammar of their articles. In some cases they will run their copy through workflow, a process where colleagues read the article to ensure that it is fact-checked and free from grammatical errors before publication. They will also often use a range of editing software to improve the look of their articles. They are also trained to consider the impact of their writing on their audience, which is an essential part of making their judgments about what is newsworthy. They will often test the effectiveness of their writing by presenting it to small groups of people to get feedback and to see what effect it has.