What is News 新闻的定义

What is News?

News depends on a variety of factors

Handbook of Independent Journalism

(The following article is taken from the U.S. Department of State publication, Handbook of Independent Journalism.) By Deborah Potter

The answer to the question “What is news?” may seem

obvious. News is what is new; it’s what’s happening. Look it up in the dictionary, and you’ll find news described as “a report of recent events or previously unknown information.” But most of the things that happen in the world every day don’t find their way into the newspaper or onto the air in a newscast.

So what makes a story newsworthy enough to be published or broadcast? The real answer is, it depends on a variety of

factors. Generally speaking, news is information that is of broad interest to the intended audience, so what’s big news in Buenos Aires may not be news at all in Baku. Journalists decide what news to cover based on many of the following “news values”: Timeliness

Did something happen recently or did we just learn about it? If so, that could make it newsworthy. The meaning of “recently” varies depending on the medium, of course. For a weekly news magazine, anything that happened since the previous edition the week before may be considered timely. For a 24-hour cable news channel, the timeliest news may be “breaking news,” or something that is

happening this very minute and can be covered by a reporter live at the scene. Impact

Are many people affected or just a few? Contamination in the water system that serves your town’s 20,000 people has impact because it affects your audience directly. A report that 10 children were killed from drinking polluted water at a summer camp in a distant city has impact too, because the audience is likely to have a strong emotional response to the story. The fact that a worker cut a utility line is not big news, unless it happens to cause a blackout across the city that lasts for several hours. Proximity

Did something happen close to home, or did it involve people from here? A plane crash in Chad will make headlines in N'Djamena, but it’s unlikely to be front-page news in Chile unless the plane was carrying Chilean passengers. Controversy

Are people in disagreement about this? It’s human nature to be interested in stories that involve conflict, tension, or public debate. People like to take sides, and see whose position will prevail. Conflict doesn’t always entail pitting one person’s views against another. Stories about doctors battling disease or citizens opposing an unjust law also involve conflict. Prominence

Is a well-known person involved? Ordinary activities or mishaps can become news if they involve a prominent person like a prime minister or a film star. That plane crash in Chad would make headlines around the world if one of the passengers were a famous rock musician. Currency

Are people here talking about this? A government meeting about bus safety might not draw much attention, unless it happens to be

scheduled soon after a terrible bus accident. An incident at a football match may be in the news for several days because it’s the main topic of conversation in town.

Oddity

Is what happened unusual? As the saying goes, “If a dog bites a man, that is not news. But if a man bites a dog, it's news!” The

extraordinary and the unexpected appeal to our natural human curiosity.

What makes news also depends on the makeup of the intended

audience, not just where they live but who they are. Different groups of people have different lifestyles and concerns, which make them interested in different types of news. A radio news program targeted at younger listeners might include stories about music or sports stars that would not be featured in a business newspaper aimed at older, wealthier readers. A weekly magazine that covers medical news would report on the testing of an experimental drug because the doctors who read the publication presumably would be

interested. But unless the drug is believed to cure a well-known disease, most general-interest local newspapers would ignore the story. The exception might be the newspaper in the community where the research is being conducted.

News organizations see their work as a public service, so news is made up of information that people need to know in order to go about their daily lives and to be productive citizens in a democracy. But most news organizations also are businesses that have to make a profit to survive, so the news also includes items that will draw an audience: stories people may want to know about just because they’re interesting. Those two characteristics need not be in

conflict. Some of the best stories on any given day, in fact, are both important and interesting. But it’s fairly common for news

organizations to divide stories into two basic categories: hard news and soft news, also called features.

Where the News Comes From

Journalists find news in all sorts of places, but most stories originate in one of three basic ways:

? naturally occurring events, like disasters and accidents; ? planned activities, like meetings and news conferences; ? reporters’ enterprise.

Unplanned events frequently become major news stories. A ferry sinking, a plane crash, a tsunami, or a mudslide is newsworthy not just when it happens but often for days and weeks afterwards. The extent of the coverage depends in part on proximity and who was involved. A fatal automobile accident in Paris might not be big news on any given day. But an accident in Paris in 1997 was a huge news story, not just in France but also around the world, because one of the victims was Britain’s Princess Diana.

Citizens who witness a disaster will often contact a news

organization. Journalists also learn about these events from first responders: police, fire, or rescue officials. In some countries, news organizations are able to monitor emergency communications

between first responders and can dispatch journalists to the scene quickly so they can watch the story unfold.

In many newsrooms, the most obvious source of news is the daily schedule of events in town, which includes government meetings, business openings, or community events. Often called a “daybook,” this list of activities is not automatically newsworthy but it provides a good starting point for reporters searching for news. Reporters who regularly cover specific kinds of issues or institutions, also called

“beat” reporters, say they often get story ideas by looking at agendas for upcoming meetings.

Press releases can be another source of news, but again, they are just a starting point. Dozens of press releases arrive in newsrooms every day, by mail, by fax, or even on video via satellite. Government officials and agencies generate many of them, but other large

organizations like private businesses and non-profit groups also issue press releases to let the news media know what they are doing. A press release may resemble a news story but because it is produced by someone with a vested interest in the subject it is not likely to tell the complete story. Press releases may be factually correct, but they usually include only those facts that reflect positively on the person or organization featured in the release. Even if a press release looks newsworthy, a professional journalist first must verify its authenticity, and then begin asking questions to determine the real story before deciding if it’s worth reporting.

Staged events, such as demonstrations, also can produce news, but journalists must be wary of being manipulated by the organizers who want to tell only their side of the story. Politicians have become adept at staging events and “photo opportunities” in order to attract coverage, even when they have no real news value. That does not