A good news story should be brief so that people will read it, clear and easy to understand, picturesquely presented and above all accurate. It should also be believable and contain a degree of drama or consequence. It should be a significant event that affects large numbers of people. Whether it is a new insect that is threatening human food supplies or a military coup in the next town, if the action has the potential to change many lives, it should be newsworthy.
Many people, including those who work in the news business or regularly read, watch or listen to it as audience members, have different ideas about what makes something newsworthy. However, most of us would agree that there are some common characteristics that most news stories share. These include timeliness, dramatic action, the presence of good and bad characters or situations, and proximity.
In addition to the above criteria, news stories are often significant in terms of how much they affect human lives. They are usually events that don’t occur every day and have an impact on a broad segment of the population. For example, a robbery at a convenience store is a major news event because it affects a lot of people at once, and there are clearly identified good and bad characters in the story.
Another important aspect of news is that it must be interesting to the audience. The best way to know if a piece of news is interesting is to ask yourself, “Would this make me say ‘Gee Whiz’?” If not, then it is probably not a good story.
Most of the time, news stories are not meant to be informative or objective but to capture an audience so that advertisers can buy commercial airtime on television and radio. This explains why most news outlets tend to cover the same stories over and over again — they are looking for the most popular story that will capture an audience, regardless of how true or accurate it might be.
When it comes to finding out about news, the Internet is a great resource. While it can be difficult to determine the accuracy of information online, there are a number of reliable sites that can help you verify facts and find out what’s really happening in the world around you.
It is important to note that, even though the Internet has made it easier for anyone to produce a piece of news, not everyone is qualified to be a journalist or a reporter. It is best to have an editor read any piece of news that you are going to submit for publication. This can catch a lot of spelling and grammatical errors, as well as help you to clarify confusing sentences or paragraphs. It’s also a good idea to have an extra pair of eyes look over the story for fact checking purposes. You can always find a list of editors on the website of most newspaper organizations.
