News is a topic that is reported and published in newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television channels and online. It is usually about current events, or things that have recently happened and are of interest to the public.
When writing news articles, you should follow certain basic guidelines to make sure that your article is accurate and well-written. These guidelines include proofreading for accuracy, consistent style and tone, and proper formatting.
The first step in writing a news article is to research your topic extensively. You should do your research by reading articles, talking to experts, or doing other forms of research that will help you get a better understanding of your subject matter.
Your research should focus on a topic that is both relevant to your readership and that you have an interest in. This research will be the basis for your article and will also help you identify any potential omissions or misinformation.
Another important element of your research is to find credible sources that can verify information you are citing. This will help your readers to trust you and make it easier for them to believe what you are saying.
Using the Five Cs of News
The five most important criteria that determine whether a story is news are: timeliness, drama, consequence, proximity and narrative. These are basic aspects of news that are understood by all of us, even if we don’t work in the news business.
Timeliness: It is important that news is timely because it gets people’s attention. The same event in two different places will have a completely different value to news. For example, a coup in one country may not be newsworthy at all, but the same coup in another might be huge.
Drama: A lot of the news we read in newspapers, magazines, watch on TV, listen to on the radio and see online is dramatic. The main reason for this is that news stories often have an identifiable good and bad character or situation. For example, if a convenience store is robbed, the news story will make it clear who did what and how.
Consequence: When something happens it can have a serious impact on someone’s life. This is why we have news stories about wars and riots, and why we also have news stories about things like hurricanes, droughts, volcanoes or earthquakes.
Prominence: A prominent person is a big deal to most people, and they are always interested in what he or she has done. This is because they can learn a lot from what they are learning about that person.
Currency: The value of a story is also affected by how much it is related to what we know about the world and what we expect it to be about. For example, news about an insect eating our food is not very newsworthy, but if an archbishop says that the Roman Catholic Church should ordain women priests it becomes a very newsworthy story because of the way it affects people’s lives and the policies of the church.