News is information about current and interesting events that have happened. It is usually conveyed to the public through newspapers, magazines, radio and television. News is objective and unbiased and should reflect the world as it is.

The first step in writing a good news story is to understand who your audience is. This can be obvious, such as if you are writing for a general newspaper with a wide audience, or it may be less clear, such as if you are reporting on a local community issue that affects many people. If you can narrow down your audience, you will be able to focus on what information they want to know about and how it impacts them.

Next, you need to gather your sources. The best source is always someone directly involved in the event you are covering. For example, if you are writing about the rescue of a cat from a fire, interviewing the firefighters or the cat’s owner is a great way to get facts about what actually happened. You can also use secondary sources, such as public statements and other media coverage of the event.

Once you have your information, you need to determine what makes a news story and how you will present it to your audience. A good news story should be new, unusual, interesting and significant. It should also be about people – what they do and how it impacts others.

There is no definitive list of things that make news; it varies from society to society. For example, in a culture where dogs are eaten (at feasts or as dinner), it will not be news when a man bites his dog. Nevertheless, most societies will have some kind of criteria for what is newsworthy.

Regardless of the criteria used to decide what is newsworthy, there will be certain events that are of greater significance than others. These events will be given more attention, such as being featured on the front page of a newspaper or being announced in a morning news bulletin. Similarly, some events will be of less significance and will not be covered at all – such as the death of an ordinary person. Likewise, a minor incident that happens to a high-profile figure may be of major importance and will receive much more coverage. This is because the public will be interested in knowing about the person and what is happening to them. However, most of the time, it is what is happening to other people in distant places that is of most interest to the general population. This is why politics and international events are so widely covered.