News is a form of information that is reported in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV. It can also be found on the Internet and in books. The main purposes of news are to inform, educate and entertain readers or listeners. The entertainment can come from other areas – cartoons, music and drama programs on television; crossword puzzles in newspapers.
The classic definition of news is that it is anything unusual. What makes news will vary from society to society. This means that something as simple as a dog biting a man will not be news if the dog is eaten at a feast, but it may be if the dog bites a dog that does not normally eat dogs.
Most of the time, though, what is news is what happens to people. If someone has a new baby, is going on holiday, is about to get married, has been robbed or if there has been a fire at work, it will be news.
Other things that are news are disasters such as a bush fire, drought or volcanic eruption. Insects such as a caterpillar are also a form of news because they can affect people’s crops.
Generally, news is important because it helps to tell us about the world around us. It tells us how things are changing, and what people are doing about it.
How do we decide what is news and what is not?
We all make these judgments about what is important. The news can be about any event, however, so it is important to remember that what is important may not always be interesting. If a farm wall collapses killing a cow and a pig, is it more interesting to tell us about the farm, or about the cow and the pig?
What is newsworthy is something that changes the way we think about the world. It can be something as small as a girl going to primary school, or as large as the death of Mao Tse-tung.
Most news is dramatic, which means that it has clear good and bad characters or situations in it. Usually, this kind of news has an element of crime or money in it too. A robbery at a convenience store, for example, will make people think about who was good and who was bad in this situation.
This kind of story can be very exciting and can be a lot of fun to read about. It can also help us understand the way in which people live and how they feel about their lives.
It is also important to remember that we don’t need to know all of the details about a news event to know what it means. A little humour can go a long way, and it can also make the story more interesting.
Having a clear idea of what is newsworthy can help you decide how to present your stories and what information to include in them. It can also help you determine what sort of format you need for your news articles. You can use the inverted pyramid approach, for example, by putting the most important and current information first and then expanding on it later.