News is information about something that has happened recently or that is occurring now. It is different from history, which is information about something that has already occurred (except for dates and other details of milestone events). News consists of what is happening in the world today and is about people in it. Whether a story is newsworthy or not depends on many factors, including timeliness and whether it is interesting or significant to a large number of people.
Generally, a story must be new to be considered newsworthy. That is, it must not have been reported in the media previously (with the exception of anniversary stories). However, a story that has just happened may not be widely known and could still be newsworthy. A key characteristic of news is that it must be a dramatic event, or at least have a clear good and bad element. For example, a robbery in a store is much more likely to be newsworthy than an accident that occurs on a freeway. Drama and emotion are powerful attractors for readers.
People will also often consider a story to be newsworthy if it is about a topic that they are interested in, such as sports or politics. It is also important for a story to contain a lot of detail and to have many different aspects to it. This way, a reader can find more information about the topic and learn as much as possible.
The information that makes it into a newspaper, onto the television news line-up or posted on a news Internet site is decided by a group of people who work for a particular news organization. Depending upon the medium, these people are called editors, news directors or even news managers. They take recommendations from reporters and assistant editors and then make the final decisions about what will be news. They are sometimes referred to as gatekeepers because they determine what will enter and exit their news medium.
In addition, each medium of news delivery presents news in a slightly different manner. That is, audiences get a different perspective of what is happening in the world by choosing which news sources they listen to or read from. For this reason it is a good idea to tune into a variety of news sources and to try reading or listening to different things from each source.
In writing a news article, it is important to put the most important information first. This is a technique called the inverted pyramid and it means that the most important parts of the story are outlined in the opening paragraphs, followed by more detailed information as the article continues. This allows the reader to gain a full understanding of what is happening without having to go back and forth between the headlines and the detailed information. In addition, it is useful to include quotes from interviewees and other reliable sources. This helps to add credibility and a personal touch to the article.
