News is a genre of information that tells about current events and developments. Its main purpose is to keep people informed about what is happening in their communities, countries and the world. It can also educate and explain complex issues in a clear and accessible way.
In order to qualify as news, an event must be new and it must be about something that people find interesting, important or significant. It should also have some drama, consequence and timeliness – that is, it should be happening right now, or at least happened recently. For example, a girl walking to school is not newsworthy because it happens every day, but an assassination of a world leader would be.
It is the job of people who work for news organizations to decide what is and is not newsworthy. These people are known as editors, news directors or (in print journalism) as newspaper editors. They make the decisions about what gets published in a newspaper, on a TV news program or on a news Internet site. They take recommendations from reporters and other people within their organization, but they are the final decision makers.
Many people read newspapers, watch television news or listen to radio news programs for entertainment as well as for the information they contain. Some people also follow a variety of news sources on social media, such as CNN and the BBC. This makes it easy to stay informed about what is happening in the world around them.
In addition to providing entertainment and education, news can help prepare people for the future by allowing them to understand how changes in the economy, politics, science, culture, technology and other areas will impact their lives. This can help them make better-informed choices when making decisions about their careers, personal finances and health.
The kind of things that happen in the world that are considered to be newsworthy can vary from one society to another. For example, if a man kills his wife in one society but not in another, this will be newsworthy in the former but not in the latter. In general, though, if an event is unusual, interesting, significant or meaningful, it will be newsworthy.
If you want to learn about the world, consider reading a daily newspaper or a weekly magazine. Listening to radio or watching TV news can also be good practice for your listening skills and help you pick up more vocabulary words. You can also subscribe to a news aggregator or a podcast and get the latest in important stories delivered to you. There are also many great classroom-friendly news sites that provide different perspectives on current events that students can use in their research projects. They include a wide range of topics and are suited to all grade levels. They are a great alternative to popular, often reactionary news outlets that tend to promote partisanship and bias. They include sites like VOX, The Skimm and Flare’s Explainer series.
