What is News?

1. What is News? Defining the factors that help determine whether or not something is newsworthy

2. Timeliness • Current information is stressed • Cover things before they happen or directly after they happen • As you write: Try for advanced coverage vs. coverage of something that already happened

3. Impact • Stories that are relevant to many people • Think: How seriously does this story affect the readers? • As you write: Make stories show magnitude (level of importance) of the issue covered

4. Prominence • Names make news • The bigger the name, the bigger the news • As you write: Do not only focus on popular students

5. Proximity • Local stories are more newsworthy • People are more interested in and concerned about what happens close to home • As you write: Find an angle to your story that relates to high school students

6. Oddities • Deviations from the norm are more newsworthy • People or events may be interesting and therefore newsworthy just because they are unusual or bizarre • As you write: Do not only focus on the negative

7. Oddities • 741 lb. alligator • $1,500 watermelon

8. Conflict • Struggles between people, among nations or with natural forces make fascinating reading • Conflict is a basic element of life that journalists must resist the temptation to over dramatize or oversimplify • As you write: Conflict is not always negative

9. Human Interest • People and how they behave • Stories that don’t fit into the other categories, but are still newsworthy because people are interested in people • As you write: Search for the unrecognized students and stories

10. Human Interest • www.upworthy.com