News is the information that a newspaper, magazine, radio or television broadcast reports. It covers events in people’s lives and in the world around them, including local, national and international affairs. It also provides analysis and interpretation, which helps the audience understand complex situations.
A good news story is interesting and makes the listener, reader or viewer want to read it again and find out more. It has to be new and unusual. If it is not interesting and unusual, it is not news. It is unlikely that the death of a well known person would be news. However, if that person was the leader of a small, isolated island, it would be.
The News Manual suggests that a story is newsworthy if it involves a significant change, an important event or something which has not happened before. It could be a war or an accident, for example. However, even these things may not be newsworthy if they are not significant or unusual enough. For example, if scientists discover an insect living on a plant it did not previously inhabit, this might be newsworthy in a specialist publication but would not interest general readers of newspapers or magazines.
It is also important for the writer of a news article to know their audience. Knowing who they are writing for will help them decide what kind of story to write and how much detail is necessary. It will also help them to think of an angle which will make the article unique. It is always a good idea to have an editor read your work before it goes into print, especially if it is a piece of news. This will enable them to check that the article is accurate and that there are no spelling or grammatical mistakes.