What is News? – Features, Types, and More

What is News?

News is a type of journalistic text, both written and auditory or audiovisual, consisting of an objective narration of some new, current and public interest event. However, some distinguish it from the journalistic note, arguing that the news is the story told in itself, while the letter is the text through which it is said.

The news is the result of collecting information by one or several journalists, either because they were present at the scene of the events, consulted those who were, or consulted documentation on the matter.

It differs from other forms of journalistic communication. It must be transmit in the most objective way possible, without allowing for subjectivities or self-referential data from the journalist.

Generally, a News Story Comprises Three Different Parts, Which are:

• Input text and publish in a larger size, a limited number of words summarizes the information and draws the public’s attention. It must be precise and concise.
• The entrance. Known as a lead (from the English “guide”), the most relevant it data is concentrated in the first paragraph of the text.
• The body. The development and deepening of the lead occur, and progress is made in the exposure of the news.
• The closure or auction. Which is nothing more than a conclusion, where secondary ideas are add, or additional information is provided to the reader.

The news is transmit to the interest public through the media, whether printed or audiovisual, and whether from an informative, general or more technical perspective, as in the case of specialized media.

News Features

The News is Characterized by:

• Have a narrative form that is, consist of a journalistic story.
• Its composition must be objective and impersonal. The journalist cannot comment or take positions but only refer to what happened. He should never write “I”.
• Address new, recent or current issues that are relevant to public opinion.
• Be written in an informative language, not specialized, that allows anyone to access the information.
• Contain hierarchical information in such a way as to detail the facts as precisely as possible (inverted pyramid structure).
• Depending on the news medium, be it oral, written, or even audiovisual.

Types of News

The traditional way of classifying news attends to two fundamental characteristics: its general theme and its treatment. Let’s look at each one separately:

• According to their general theme, the news can be classified into:
• When they have to do with national or international political life.
• When they report relevant events for the different sports communities of the country.
• It has to do with productivity, finances, or the world of money and work.
• They refer to events in the country’s artistic, literary, and cultural life.
• When it recounts events of community importance.
• Of show business or shows, when they deal with topics related to fashion, movie and television stars or pop culture.
• When they report events related to crime, the police or the detective world.
• When it addresses topics of specialized interest in science and technology.
• According to their treatment of the subject, instead, the news is classified as:
• future or future. When they announce events that will occur in the more or less near future.
• When they address relevant events in daily and immediate everyday life.
• Of ephemeris. They recount events that occurred in the past but are commemorate or relevant to the present context.
• When they deal with less relevant news, they complement or complete other main news.
• Public service. When the information is reported, focus on appropriate or valuable to the public.

News Structure

The usual structure of the news is known as the “inverted pyramid”: it always starts from the most relevant and timely information towards the broader context. In other words, notice should be written in the sense of the most specific to the most general.

To meet this condition, it is recommend that the first paragraph of all news be written in such a way as to answer the five questions (“5 W” in English) of journalism:

• What happened?
• To whom or whom?
• Where did it happen?
• When does it happen?
• Why did it happen?

In the rest of the note, the “how did it happen?” can be developed, and supplementary information can even add, such as references to previous news that are related or to events that serve to detail the context of the word.

What is News For?

A piece of news serves to inform your audience of one or more events in a given area. In other words, it remains a source of data, events or information of interest to public opinion.

At the same time, it fulfils the social role of disseminating and making public the events in which it is interested, which keeps the instances of power within society under scrutiny. Moreover, it is vital in sustaining a healthy democracy, so dictatorial regimes censor the press and control what news is publish and what is not.

News Examples

The Following Are Some Examples Of News:

• “The US Supreme Court rules in favor of the Trump administration in the case of the express deportations of asylum seekers” in BBC  Mundo.
• “French drugmaker Sanofi to cut 1,680 jobs in Europe in three years” in Euro.
• “A space telescope completed the most detailed map of the universe in x-rays” in Infobae.
• “Maravilla Martínez returns to boxing, and her return already has a date and place” in La Nación (Argentina).

Conclusion

It is information about current events. It may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. News is sometimes call “hard news” to differentiate it from soft media.