WHAT'S News?

Billions around the world read newspapers, pay attention to radio, watch television, and surf the Internet to find out the most recent news, but few ever ask themselves just what it takes for it match such a category. After all, if it is there, it must be "news." Because  http://bostonjournal.org  is seldom of a nice nature, then that must be one of its aspects. Or could it be? Think about the following scenarios.

A nine-year-old girl fell from the tree at 33 Ward Lane, situated in a little Pennsylvania town, yesterday, sustaining a fractured arm. Alarmed, her family and friends immediately rushed to her side or called to understand of her condition. This might not have caused as much as a pause in the frenetic pace of New York's stock exchange, but it was news.

When Air France and British Airways respectively inaugurated supersonic Concorde service to Washington and New York on November 22, 1977, completing their flights in little more than three hours, it was considered an aviation milestone and piqued the interest of people as a long way away as Australia. This is also news.

Because there is little similarity between both of these events, an accurate definition of the idea is not necessarily an easy task to determine, but, according to Thomas Elliot Berry in his book, Journalism in the us (Hastings House, Publishers, 1976, p. 26), it could vary in three ways: "In one paper to another; in one time and energy to another; and from one locality to another."

This first concept can be illustrated by comparing a tabloid with a full-size daily newspaper. The former, again according to Berry (p. 26), would most likely feature stories "such as for example accounts of family squabbles, gossip about semi-famous personalities, or maudlin descriptions of obscure people and their personal troubles," whereas full-size papers would offer features about finance, the stock exchange, economics, and scientific developments.

"The idea of news (also) varies among (forms of) media," wrote John Hohenberg in his book, The Professional Journalist (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1978, p. 87). "To morning newspapers, it really is what happened yesterday. To afternoon newspapers, it is what happened today. To news magazines, it is what happened the other day. To wire services, radio, and television, it is what happened an instant ago."

News can thus vary according to media type and frequency of its publication or broadcast.

It also varies according to time-that is say, what can be considered "newsworthy" depends upon what has occurred as a whole and therefore the level of space remaining to utilize for lesser developments. A traffic accident during August, whenever a large percentage of workers are on holiday, for example, may be considered important, but there was precious little space remaining because of this type of occurrence the day following the Boston marathon bombing. Even an apartment fire near the event that was in a roundabout way caused by it would not even have already been considered for print.

News therefore is dependent upon what else transpired on a given day.

In addition, it hinges upon perspective, which itself varies according to the locality of its occurrence. A tale about the lack of a little town's only Laundromat, for example, would most likely be considered important to its citizens, if the same event took place in a city the size of Chicago, it would probably be no more important compared to the nine-year-old who fell from the tree. How would those in Moscow, 10,000 miles away, treat this event, even if the story were translated into Russian?

News, according to Julian Harriss, Kelley Leiter, and Stanley Johnson within their book, THE ENTIRE Reporter, (MacMillan Publishing Company, 1977, p. 22), can be viewed as "that which gets the greatest interest for the greatest number of people."

Although its definition, based on these divergent parameters, can vary widely, it nevertheless includes five common denominators that serve because the guidelines editors employ when they consider an item for publication.

The first of these is that it must interest readers by either directly concerning them or otherwise providing an element of interest.

"The most typical stories that concern readers directly are accounts of government actions, advances in science, and economic analyses," wrote Berry in Journalism in the us (p. 27). "Interesting stories run a broad gamut, from county fairs and changes in clothing fashions to freak auto accidents, or anything the editor believes newsworthy."

The second aspect of a news story is truth: it must report the facts that have been gathered and only the facts, but equally must remain objective, without emotion, opinion, or thought. These aspects are considerable unalterable. That several media forms may simultaneously report on a single event serves as a check-and-balance and insures that reporters adhere to these ideals.

Thirdly, it must be recent, which depends, needless to say, upon the sort of publication and its own frequency of release. A wire service, as previously mentioned, considers news that which occurred minutes before it carried it, while a magazine will review significant events that occurred within the past week or even month. New, previously unreported material nevertheless serves because the commonality between the two.

Fourthly, stories must contain some proximity-that is, they need to be of interest to the reader, affect the reader, and concern the reader. Women subscribing to fashion magazines, for example, will expect fashion-related information, features, and advertising, while a person with, say, a German background will wish to keep abreast with aspects about his culture and developments in his homeland.

Proximity, however, implies a certain "closeness" to the reader.

"The neighborhood traffic accident is more newsworthy than one which tied up rush-hour traffic in hawaii capital 200 miles away," noted Harriss, Leiter, and Johnson in The Complete Reporter (p. 27).

Finally, a news story should, if possible, feature an unusual angle or aspect.

"(This) brightens the newspaper page or the radio or television newscast," wrote Berry in Journalism in America (p. 28). "Its importance is to be observed in the old saw, 'If your dog bites a man, it's not news; but in case a man bites a dog, it is news'."

Although there are no absolute criteria that constitute news, it depends, to a significant degree, upon what occurs on a given day and how it pertains to the media form, time, and locality. After an editor has used the five general guidelines to make his determination, it becomes what a few hundred in a small town or perhaps a few billion across the globe will read or hear.