What Makes News?

News is the information which captures people’s attention and makes them curious to read more. It includes a range of things such as weather, celebrity, sports, politics, crime and disasters. It can be found on the internet, TV and newspapers. It is the responsibility of people who work for a particular news organization to decide what information should be published. These decision makers are called editors, news directors and news managers. They take recommendations from reporters and assistant editors. They make decisions based on certain basic principles about what makes news.

Whether something is newsworthy depends on how unusual or relevant it is. For example, if a man misses the bus and ends up walking to work, this does not make much news. However, if that same man finds a litter of baby tigers on his walk and takes them to a shelter, this would be newsworthy.

Other elements that are used to determine if a story is newsworthy include:

Controversy: people love controversy. Anything that involves conflict, arguments, charges and counter-charges, fights and tension becomes newsworthy. Prominence: famous men and women are of interest to the public, especially when they fall from grace or are involved in scandal. Currency: current events attract people’s attention. Older stories lose their relevance and thus become uninteresting.

Once you have the main facts of the story in front of you, ask yourself questions like who are you writing for and what do they want out of this article? This will help you to focus your writing and decide what points are most important. It is also a good idea to let someone else read your piece. They may be able to identify spelling and grammar mistakes that you have overlooked, as well as clarify confusing sections of the article.