News is information about events that happen in the world. It is usually reported through newspapers, radio or television, though it may also be broadcast on the internet.
There are many things that can make an event or story news, and there are some common criteria which journalists look for. These include:
Unusual and interesting (unlike anything that has happened before), about people, significant and timely.
Stories about events that affect daily life are usually newsworthy, such as weather conditions or the prices of food and drink. However, there are a lot of other things that also make news and may not be as obvious or important to the general public.
A news report can be about a single person, or it can be about a whole society. In either case, it is probably going to be news because it is new, unusual and interesting, it is about people and it is significant and timely.
Often, these are the same things that make up a story’s “news value” as described by Galtung and Ruge (1965). The difference is that in one society a farm wall collapsing and killing a cow and a pig may not be of any interest to the public at all, whereas in another society it could be a major event and would be discussed in great detail.
In any case, determining what is news can be an extremely complicated process. This is because it is not always easy to determine if something is new, or if it is interesting and important enough to be reported.