What Is News?
News is a daily stream of information about various events, people, and places in our society. Often, it can affect our daily lives. For example, we are often informed about weather conditions, or unusually high temperatures or rainfall. We also get informed about the latest happenings in the arts and sciences. And, news stories often involve celebrities and public figures.
There are many different types of news, and different people are interested in different types. Some of the most common types of news are “hard news” (front-page news), which is often about business or natural disasters. These stories are controversial, timely, and focus on the most important information. They tend to have an ideological, commercial, or political agenda.
News sources can provide insights that scholarly sources often cannot offer, or that may take a long time to uncover. They also help us understand people’s reactions to a particular event, or prevailing attitudes at a given time. News may be current or historical, so you’ll need to decide which sources will best suit your needs.
A journalist’s job is to check news to ensure objectivity, credibility, and fairness. “Objectivity” means that a journalist is not biased, and “fairness” means that he or she has accessed both sides of the story before forming a judgment.