What Makes It News? News Writing

Timeliness/ Immediacy News is what is happening NOW. If it happened last month or last year, it’s not news anymore; it’s history. Often, the most newsworthy element in the story is the most recent happening, the latest occurrence that relates to the news event.

Proximity How close to your readers did something happen? Will they feel connected? All other things being equal, something that is happening in a person’s school, neighborhood, town or city is more meaningful to them than something taking place across the state or across the world.

Impact / Consequence How will this event affect your readers? Something that will change your readers’ lives, even in a small way, is more important than something that won’t have any consequences for them.

Conflict Is there a disagreement between people in the story? Rivalry? Misunderstanding? People are naturally drawn to arguments, fights, disagreements and discord. We find conflict fascinating. Stories related to war and politics, in addition to having impact, also are often interesting because they contain conflict. Some journalists also include “continuation” in this category, as many conflict stories are ongoing and reported continually for some time.

Prominence / Celebrity Is a well-known person part of the story? Readers like to read about people they know. If a person is well-known, more readers will be interested than if they have never heard of the person. This includes prominent people in your school or city, not just famous celebrities.

Oddity / Rarity / Novelty If something is out of the ordinary, it may be newsworthy just because it is unusual or weird. The strange or unusual is fascinating to many readers. Events that happen only rarely are more newsworthy than something that happens frequently.

Human Interest / Emotion Does it make you laugh or want to cry? Anything that appeals to readers’ emotions is interesting. Stories that make people laugh, cry, get angry, feel sympathy or pity, or be amazed are often the most-read stories in the paper or website.

Currency Some stories are news simply because a lot of people are talking about them. Often, these are stories that some people think are overblown or non-news, such as the birth of the royal baby or Miley Cyrus twerking on national TV.

News Value The term “news value” is used to describe whether a particular story is news. When a story has one or more of the elements of news, it has news value, but some stories have more value to readers than others. The more elements that are present for a particular audience, the more value a story has for them as news.

Rule of 8 1. Is it timely or immediate? (timeliness) 2. Is it happening nearby? (proximity) 3. Does it affect the readers or viewers, or have some consequence for their lives? (impact/consequence) 4. Is it about someone who is well known? (prominence/celebrity) 5. Is it odd, rare, weird, a “first” or otherwise outside the ordinary? (oddity/rarity/novelty) 6. Is it about a conflict or disagreement, or the continuation of one? (conflict) 7. Does it tug at the heart strings? (human interest) 8. Is it something everyone is talking about in social media or other news media? (currency)

Four other considerations of newsworthiness

Audience Always remember who your readers are. Some stories appeal more to teens. Some are interesting mostly to parents, or to teachers or to retirees. Keep your readers’ inherent interests in mind when deciding if it’s news to them.

Policy Sometimes, publications may choose not to report something that would otherwise be newsworthy because of their policies. For example, most publications do not publish the names of rape victims or children who are involved in crimes. Most do not publish profanity. When in doubt, consult your school’s student media policy.

Competition With the 24/7 news cycle, what one publication reports on often becomes news for many or all of the others. Your competition is whatever other media your audience consumes. Also think of nearby schools’ publications as your competition, since yours should always be better than theirs! In student media, it’s always good to watch and read what other schools are covering.

Presentation Sometimes, something gets a good position on a news page or website because of how it looks. If it has a great photo, a really catchy headline or a cool chart with some startling statistic, it’s going to attract more readers. So … if you want people to read your story, then take good photos, create a cool infographic (with accurate info, of course) or write a great headline.