News is information about current events that is conveyed through various media. This can be through printed newspapers, radio, television and the Internet. News articles often have a specific goal – to inform and educate the reader, listener or viewer about something important that is occurring in their world. News can also serve to entertain, although this is generally not the primary purpose of most news media. The entertainment value comes from other areas of the media, such as music and drama on the radio or cartoons and crossword puzzles in a newspaper.
The first thing to consider when writing a news article is the type of audience you are targeting. This is particularly important if you are writing for a general audience. If you are writing for a specialized news site or newspaper, then your audience will be more narrowly defined and you should tailor your content to their needs.
Another consideration when writing a news article is the amount of information you want to include. Usually, shorter news articles are more effective than lengthy ones. The reason for this is that people have short attention spans and you may lose them if you write a long winding story that goes off on tangents that aren’t relevant to the overall result of your news story. The best way to ensure that your readers keep reading is to provide them with the most important information in the beginning of your news article, or as it is commonly called, above the fold. This refers to the crease of a newspaper page where the top stories are displayed. In the case of online journalism, it means putting the most important information at the top of the article where it is likely to be seen first.
News articles should be written in a concise and formal tone. They should not include personal opinions or commentary unless they are sourced from a reliable source. Instead, the writer should present a factual account of the event with quotes from people who are knowledgeable on the topic. If there is a clear difference between the opinion of the writer and the facts in the news article, it should be clearly indicated so that the reader can make up his or her own mind.
Most news articles are about people. This is because people affect the world around them, and therefore anything that happens to or concerning them makes news. However, news can also be about non-human events if they have a significant impact on human life. For example, a tornado or a tsunami may have significant impacts on the lives of humans living in the area it hits.
The most interesting and important news stories are those that have the ability to affect people in a significant way, whether this is through fear, sadness or joy. Good examples of this are celebrity deaths or major sporting events. Other forms of significant news are political events, social upheavals and environmental disasters.