The document discusses what constitutes news and factors that determine newsworthiness. It notes that news must be factual, timely, interesting to readers, involve prominent people or events, have human impact, and include conflict or drama. It also distinguishes between "hard news" about important issues and "soft news" that entertains. Additionally, it discusses how different audiences and media outlets have varying views on what is considered news.

1. What is News?

2. What is news? News is difficult to define because it has many variables, but you’ll need to determine what’s newsworthy when deciding what to write about for your story assignments

6. Journalists can’t write fiction or make up things that didn’t happen Stephen Glass, a star Young reporter at the New Republic was fired for fabricating dozens of his magazine stories. The movie “Shattered Glass” recounts the scandal. L.A. Times photojournalist Brian Walski was fired after editors discovered that he used his computer to manipulate this front page photo to look more nefarious than what actually happened.

7. Misleading and misrepresentation is also frowned upon … Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign from her U.S. Dept. of Agriculture job after blogger Andrew Breitbart posted deceptively edited video excerpts of Sherrod's address at an event to his website

8. But, sometimes their sources do lie – and that’s news….

10. You may not agree with their opinions, but when Obama or Palin speak, people pay attention.

15. Hofstra rape case was big news in Long Island, but probably not news in Idaho

17. The Giants-Colts game and “Manning Bowl” was news Monday night, but now that it’s over, the media and public’s attention has shifted to the next game.

19. For a 13-year-old boy, biggest news may be a new skate park. For 70-year-old, it may be a social security proposal

21. The situation in Darfur is important, but who cares? Letterman’s affairs were of high interest, but were they really news?

22. Hard News and Soft News Journalists today often refer to “hard” news and “soft” news.

29. Hard news, despite its importance, usually attracts fewer readers because it may not be as interesting as soft news or may be more difficult to understand.

30. Readers may not understand its significance. Reporters must be careful to include information to help the reader understand what the story means.

31. Many stories are a combination of hard and soft news, and may present some of the information in sidebars and infographics.

32. For example, many stories about the Winter Olympics combined hard news (e.g. Apolo Ohno won a gold medal) with soft news (e.g. anecdotes about Apolo’s dad motivating him when he wanted to quit speed skating as a teen).

34. News has qualities that distinguish it from nearly all other forms of writing.

35. I. It must be accurate.

37. Accuracy of General Impression The general impression--the way the details are put together and what type of emphasis is put on the details--should be accurate. Reporters should not distort the importance of a fact by giving it too much attention.

40. Reporters must work hard to achieve accuracy. They must check, double-check and re-check every fact.

45. II. News is balanced.

46. Balance in a news story is a matter of emphasis and completeness. Reporters must give each fact its proper emphasis, putting it into its proper relationship to every other fact and establishing its relative importance to the main idea or focus of the story.

47. News is considered balanced and complete when all significant details are included and have proper relationship to each other. The purpose of balance is to give the reader a fair understanding of the event, not a detailed account of every fact.

48. III. News is objective.

52. IV. News is concise and clear.

53. Hard news stories almost always follow the inverted pyramid and are written concisely and clearly so that the meaning is clear to an average reader.

54. Inverted Pyramid Most important facts Next most important Next most important Next

55. Soft news stories, however, usually utilize other story structures, which will be discussed in a future lesson.

56. V. News is recent.

57. Timeliness is of major importance in this era of fast communication. Other factors being equal, a news editor will choose one story over another because of its timeliness.

58. News elements help to make facts interesting to people.

61. In the age of Twitter, news can get old very quickly…. Even though Rolling Stone broke the story about General McChrystal first, it was old news by the time the magazine actually hit the stands. In fact, some media outlets published Rolling Stone’s story online before they did.

62. Proximity Readers are more interested in an event geographically near them than in one far removed

63. Reporters emphasize the local angle whenever possible

65. Reporters emphasize the angle of the story that will impact most readers

67. The more prominent a particular name, place, event or situation, the more interest the story will have.

70. Mystery, suspense, comedy, the unusual, the bizarre are chief elements of drama.

73. “ Firsts”, “lasts”, and “onlys” have been staples of newspapers since the 19th century.

80. The treatment of sex varies widely from publication to publication.

81. Mainstream media outlets initially passed up chances to report political sex scandals

83. Generally the most widely read stories in the newspaper, and most widely discussed of those heard on radio or television.

87. May refer to success in treating AIDS patients, etc.

90. A number of factors modify the importance of news elements in actual practice.

94. Timing may alter the value of a news story. All news is in competition with the news available at the moment.

97. Who determines what’s news? "The real issue is new media versus old media. New media outlets view ourselves as a source that can be used by our visitors. The old media mentality sees itself as a gatekeeper who determines what information is appropriate to share."

99. And yet, Americans devour stories like Tiger Woods’ affairs and Michael Jackson’s death…

100. While important stories like the first black president taking office, Wall Street corruption, healthcare reform and the recession get ignored..

104. The End