News can be defined as information that is of interest or importance to the general public. It includes stories about people and events.
Usefulness: News helps in making people aware of the happenings around them and also about governmental policies. It guides them about weather forecasts, train timings and other important things. It is also useful to know about government policy changes and the new policies.
Educational Values: It is also helpful for educating the students and the people who are about to go for higher studies. It is useful in preparing them for the exams and the competitions that they will face. It also provides them with a lot of valuable information that is not available in the classroom.
Time factor: It is important to give the news in a timely manner. The latest news should be given first in the bulletin or on page one, so that it gets maximum exposure.
Event value: It is very important to make the news relevant and of high interest for the readers. The more unusual the event is, the higher its news value. For example a dog bites a man is not news but an earthquake that kills 100 people is a big news.
Weather: The news about the weather is of great interest because it affects the lives of many people and causes disruption to their daily routine. It may be related to shortages of food, weather-related diseases or crop disease and harvest size etc.
Conflict: Everyone takes interest in confrontation of nations, peoples and groups. It may be about a war, terrorist attacks or other issues that have political significance.
Feature: The news articles are usually very brief and are written with the aim of providing information quickly. It is very important to include quotations and add a little creativity in the writing style.
It is also important to keep the tone and the slant of the article consistent. The style should be professional and logical to the reader’s expectations.
The writer should be clear about the purpose of his article and how it is different from other articles on the same subject. This will help the reader decide whether he wants to read it or not.
A good headline: It should be catchy and to the point, so that it can entice readers to read more. It should be accompanied by the byline, which is the name of the author. The title should be arranged at the top of the page, so that it can be seen easily when the news article is folded in half.
Writing style: The news article should be a well-written piece. It should be easy to understand, with correct grammar and punctuation, a proper flow of the story and well-developed ideas.
The author should also be careful about the fact that he is trying to inform and educate the readers. He should avoid presenting opinions in the article that are not his own. He should also be aware of his audience’s preferences and try to cater to them.