News is a form of information that deals with recent and current events. It may be provided by different mediums such as newspapers, radio, television and electronic communication.
The news value of a story is determined by how many of five criteria it meets: new, unusual, interesting, significant and about people. This is a common way of deciding whether or not a news item is important and should be covered.
It is also important to note that news values are not universal, and can vary between societies. For example, a farm wall collapsing and killing two cows is probably not news in one society, while a similar incident happening in the country next door would be highly significant.
A story’s news value can also be determined by its importance to the audience it is written for. For instance, a news report on a company’s latest product launch is likely to be much more interesting and informative to customers than a piece about the weather.
When writing news stories, it is a good idea to include an image of the event/trip/activity for emphasis and to grab readers’ attention. This is especially true for Web news content, which is often scanned and needs to be easily picked up by the reader.
The news value of a story can be enhanced by including a quote from someone who is close to the subject matter. A strong quotation helps to convey emotion and adds a sense of authority to the article.