WhatisNews.docVIP

What is News? News depends on a variety of factors The answer to the question “What is news?” may seem obvious.? News is what is new; it’s what’s happening.? Look it up in the dictionary, and you’ll find news described as “a report of recent events or previously unknown information.”? But most of the things that happen in the world every day don’t find their way into the newspaper or onto the air in a newscast. So what makes a story newsworthy enough to be published or broadcast?? The real answer is, it depends on a variety of factors.? Generally speaking, news is information that is of broad interest to the intended audience. Timeliness Did something happen recently or did we just learn about it?? If so, that could make it newsworthy.? The meaning of “recently” varies depending on the medium, of course.? For a weekly news magazine, anything that happened since the previous edition the week before may be considered timely.? For a 24-hour cable news channel, the timeliest news may be “breaking news,” or something that is happening this very minute and can be covered by a reporter live at the scene. Impact Are many people affected or just a few?? Contamination in the water system that serves your town’s 20,000 people has impact because it affects your audience directly.? A report that 10 children were killed from drinking polluted water at a summer camp in a distant city has impact too, because the audience is likely to have a strong emotional response to the story.? The fact that a worker cut a utility line is not big news, unless it happens to cause a blackout across the city that lasts for several hours. Proximity Did something happen close to home, or did it involve people from here?? A plane crash in Chad will make headlines in NDjamena, but it’s unlikely to be frontnews in Chile unless the plane was carrying Chilean passengers. Controversy Are people in disagreement about this?? It’s human nature to be interested in stories that involve conflict, tension, or pub