News is information about events which occur at any given time. This can be provided through a number of different media, such as printed, electronic or verbal communication, or through the testimony of witnesses and observers.
New:
The most important thing to remember is that it is not a matter of defining what is or is not news, but determining which stories are news and which are not. This is a process that is often based on some simple factors, including timeliness.
Unusual:
When people say that something is unusual, they mean that it is not the normal thing to happen. This means that something like a man catching a bus to work every day is not news, although it does occur in normal circumstances and is certainly a very common thing to do.
Interesting:
The thing that makes something interesting is that it can change our lives in some way. This is the reason that it is important to keep up to date with what is going on in our society.
Significant:
When an event is significant, it can have a big effect on how we think about the world and our place in it. This is the reason why we read about things like wars, natural disasters and political changes in our country or around the world.
About People:
Another very important factor to remember when deciding which stories are news is that they need to be about people. This is because it is through people that we understand and connect with the news.
Drama:
The news we read in newspapers or magazines, watch on television, listen to on the radio and find on the Internet is generally dramatic, with clearly identifiable good and bad characters and situations. This makes it more likely that the story will be news because it will be exciting and will make us care about what happens.
It can be difficult for people to decide what is news and what is not. This is because there are many different ways that news can be interpreted and evaluated, and so the same event can have very different values in different societies.
There are five criteria that can be used to judge how news is valued: it is new, it is unusual, it is interesting, it is significant and it is about people.
In terms of the first three, the biggest news will usually be given first in the bulletin or on Page One; less interesting and less significant stories may appear later, but it is still likely that they will have been carefully evaluated by journalists.
These five criteria are a useful guide for people to use when deciding which stories are news and which are not, but it is not a complete list of all the factors that determine what is or is not news. Future research is needed to discover whether there are any other aspects of news that can affect the selection process.