News is information about current events that a newspaper, magazine or radio program reports. It can also be a story about something that happened in the past. News often focuses on people, places and things that are new or unusual. It can also focus on the ways that different people view the same event.
In order to be news, an event must be significant and have an impact on people. A good way to test whether an event is newsworthy is to look at how many of the following criteria the event meets:
Proximity: Does the story affect people in a nearby area?
Impact: Does the story affect a lot of people?
Interesting: Is the story unusual, interesting or significant?
Unlike entertainment or feature articles, news should be informative and educate the audience. However, this doesn’t mean that it can’t entertain as well. Providing a lighthearted spin on an otherwise serious subject can be an effective way to get attention and encourage the audience to share the news.
Despite its importance, it is hard to find completely unbiased news stories. The biases of the journalists and the news outlets themselves influence everything from the selection of a story to its wording. This means that it is important to check multiple sources of news, especially online aggregators. These sites use algorithms to gather news from a variety of outlets around the world and can be used to help filter out some of the slants of individual outlets.