News is a regular flow of information that keeps us informed about events in our local community, country and the world. It can also be a source of entertainment and leisure. News provides a wide range of topics from current events and developments to sports, lifestyle, culture, politics, business and more. It can even be a source of education, as it helps to explain and clarify complex topics for its audience.
The purpose of News is to provide the public with an accurate and objective overview of newsworthy events, developments and issues. News should be written without any bias or opinion and should present facts in a chronological order. The five Ws – who, what, where, when and why should be covered in the story. News articles should also avoid using excessive adjectives – for example, ‘brilliant’ and ‘excellent’ – instead use active verbs and specific details to make the story more interesting.
A news article should also be concise, clear and direct. The headline should include the most important piece of information from the story and the first paragraph should contain the main points from the rest of the article. Hard news stories are usually read quickly, so the most important information is placed at the beginning of the story, in journalism school this is called the ‘inverted pyramid’ model. Soft news stories may take longer to read and should have more detail in the following paragraphs.
In addition, the news should be sourced carefully and unbiased. If the source is known to be biased or to have ulterior motives, this should be made clear to the reader. If the news is based on factual research, then it should be sourced from experts in the field and quotes should be included where possible.
Different societies have different interests and values, so news items will be interpreted differently in different places. For example, a farmer may find the death of his cattle or pigs a serious event, but this may not be of interest to the public at large. But, the death of a human could be very significant news.
If you’re learning English, it is a good idea to start with news sources that are targeted at your level of proficiency. There are many online resources for this. For example, the BBC News website has news articles that are arranged by level of difficulty. It also has videos that are accompanied by a transcript of the text. This allows you to follow the news in your own language and improve your listening skills at the same time. This site also has a good selection of short video clips and full-length episodes that can be watched for free. This is an excellent way to get a feel for the way that British English is spoken.
