News is a report on current events and issues happening locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. It’s an essential component of any democracy, and without a free press, it’s impossible for a society to thrive. News can inform, educate and entertain. It can also inspire and influence. But it is important to remember that the job of news is to report what is happening, not to change it.
News can be found in a variety of media, including newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet. It is the responsibility of news writers to ensure that facts are correct and that opinions do not get mixed in with the story. This is particularly important for online news sites, which have a reputation to uphold.
Often, the most important factor in determining whether something will make news is whether it has significance or impact on the readership. This can be measured in terms of proximity, controversy, prominence and magnitude. For example, a local store opening or a celebrity’s death are likely to be big news, while an ordinary event such as a meteor shower or sporting event will have much less interest.
It is also the responsibility of journalists to present the news in an interesting and compelling way. To do this, they should keep in mind the ‘five Ws’ of journalism: who, what, where, when and why. This information should be presented as objectively as possible, so that the reader can form their own opinion of the situation and its implications.
While it is not the role of news to provide entertainment, it can be used as a tool to amuse readers. This can be done by using humour or by providing an entertaining spin on the news. For example, a man falling over in the street and knocking himself unconscious is not particularly exciting or unusual, but it can be made amusing by using a cartoon of the incident in the newspaper.
Another important aspect of news is that it must be timely. It is not enough to report what happened a week ago; the community will already have moved on and will be talking about something else. Similarly, news should not be sensational; it is not the job of a newspaper to shock its audience with outrageous or lurid stories. Rather, the newspaper should focus on reporting factual news with a few twists thrown in for good measure. In addition to this, it is important for journalists to abide by strict journalistic codes of ethics and to avoid propaganda or bullshit in their writing. In this way, they can maintain the trust of their audience. This is essential for their survival in the modern world of 24-hour news and satellite communication. Without it, they risk becoming irrelevant and obsolete. The Associated Press guidelines for journalism and the Society of Professional Journalists code of conduct are two examples of such standards.