The Various Types of News
What is news? For some, it is the breaking news that makes headlines on the evening news and in high traffic websites around the world. For others, it is the preamble to some important story that has just broke. But to the average citizen, news is something that happens around the world every day.
For news media watchers, a simple definition is usually that news is something of interest to readers or listeners that can be transmitted to other people in the form of the news media. For example, if the editor of a newspaper writes an article about an earthquake and a tsunami that hit some place in India, the news media will pick up the story. The world will know about it through various news media outlets. If you have tuned into the radio or television for recent news, then you have probably heard a lot of things about India or about the Indian government, and so on. So it would be news to your average listener or reader if the news media in India picks up your story and transmits it to you.
News is also something that can be collected from the newspapers, and this too is a form of the news that reaches out to many people. Collecting news from newspapers is an activity that newspapers love, because it is a very good business. The more current events that they publish, the better. The problem is of course, that journalists cannot devote hours to collecting just the latest events. Thus the need for newsrooms arises, and they need to hire newsgathering workers who can be sent out to the different news organizations, and then get news published. News can also come from any other source, like ordinary citizens, or from government departments or agencies.
A form of news that is collected from the newspapers is the news report. This is a summary of the current affairs that are happening around the world, and thus it includes stories about world news, local news, and world and international politics. Many news agencies have a department dedicated to gathering and editing news, and they have reporters who do the work of news reporting. There are two major categories of news-whether it is the objectivity type of news, where the journalists are reporting only what they saw and heard, or whether the story is subjective. The objective form of news is much prized, since it represents facts based on research done by experts, and it can be trusted.
Some news stories may affect the human interest of the audience, and this may influence the viewers or readers. For example, a news report about a natural disaster may affect how many people will go to a particular business, which may affect its customers or clients. Also, a story about a political figure may influence the opinion of citizens in a country. It is important for news organizations to understand these effects and how to measure them, so that they can make news stories that will have a larger impact on their audience.
In general, the news value of any piece of writing depends on its reader or audience. If readers find the content interesting, they should be impressed by it. It is important for news to be interesting and not merely sensational in nature so that it holds the interest of the audience. Furthermore, news pieces must be written with the target audience in mind, and the aim must be to inform and not to entertain. News stories that entertain but not truthfully report facts, and news that reflect well on the country will probably have a greater news value than news that reflects badly on the nation.