News is the current events and information which is of interest to a newspaper or broadcaster’s audience. It usually includes the latest developments on a particular subject, although stories which have already happened can still be news, if they are reported for the first time. Ideally, a good news story will be new, unusual, interesting and significant. However, the fact that something is significant or interesting is not enough in itself to make a story newsworthy. The fact that a story meets the other criteria will determine how much weight it has.
Different societies will have slightly different ideas about what is newsworthy, so what may be newsworthy in one society may not be in another. For example, it is not newsworthy in all societies that dogs are eaten, but in some it is. It is also not newsworthy in all societies that a man bites his own dog, but it will be newsworthy in some where this is the norm.
The amount of information available to the public is increasing rapidly, especially with the advent of the internet. This is good news for democracy, as it gives everyone a voice, but it can also be bad, as it makes it easy for misinformation to spread and be believed. People are encouraged to be discerning and check all sources of information, including those from social media or forwarded emails.
Many people have a strong desire to keep informed, and this has led to the development of a variety of news outlets, including newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Local and regional outlets are complemented by national, international and niche online publications. People can also obtain news through social media sites, blogs and Twitter.
In the past, most news was published in printed form, but with the rise of the internet and digital media, this is increasingly being replaced by online sources. A study by the Pew Research Center found that the average American reads six news sources a day, with 80% of these being online.
A wide range of topics can be covered by the media, but some are considered more important than others. Crime, for instance, is always a topic of interest, but some crimes are more serious or sensational than others. The same goes for money: fortunes made and lost are often big news, as are tax increases, compensation claims and the Budget. People are also interested in the lives of famous people and in sex, although the latter is more usually reported as a scandal or when it involves behaviour which is not socially acceptable.