DEFINITION OF NEWS

1. News has been defined differently by different experts. Some of the definitions are given below:
2. News is anything out of the ordinary
3. News is the unusual picture of life.
4. News is anything that people talk about; the more it excites the greater its value. ,
5. News comprises all current activities which are of general human interest and the best news is that
which interests most of the reader.
6. Anything that enough people want to read is news provided it does not violate the canons of good taste
and the law of libel.
7. News is like a hot cake coming straight from oven.
8. News is the report of an event that is fresh, unusual and which is interesting to a greater number of
people.
9. There are various factors that qualify an event to be a news story. Let’s discuss these factors.

10. 1. Timeliness/Freshness

11. Time factor plays an important role in the effectiveness of a news story. Nobody likes to read an
outdated story, even if it is very important. News is just like a perishable commodity having a very short
life.

12. We can accommodate a past time story in literature, drama, feature, etc.. but it does not work in news.
Journalism’s famous slogan is that “Today news is today”^

13. 2. Proximity or Nearness

14. The importance of a news greatly depends on the place of its origin. Proximity in journalism does not
only refer to geographical nearness but interest of nearness is well. For examples, Imran Khan’s
marriage took place in U.K. but the story is .;iore interesting for the people of this part of the world.

15. An earthquake in China killing 200 people will be less important in our

16. newspapers than the story of earthquake killing 30 persons in Pakistan

17. 3. Prominence

18. Readers have interest in names of persons with whom they are familiar. The bigger the personality
involved in the event, the greater its news value. Stories of film stars, players, politician’s philosophers
and poets etc., have greater news value.

19. 4. Magnitude

20. The event relating to greater loss of life, damage or natural disaster creates interest for the readers.
Example: A story of fire resulting in the death of one person will have less impact than the story of fire
resulting in the death of 100 people.

21. 5. Conflict

22. Everybody takes interest in confrontation among people, nations and groups. The highest form of
conflict is war and no war story fails to create interest for the readers.

23. 6. Oddity/Unusualness

24. A dog bites a common man is not a news but if a man bites a dog it is a great news because it is
unusual. The more the event is unusual the greater its value.

25. 7. Consequence

26. The news story that affects some change in the life of people will have great value. For example, news
about budget, rise in petrol price, electricity rates and increase in salary, etc. are read with great interest
by people.

27. 8. Human interest

28. Human interest stories deal with usual events but usually these stories involve fellow feeling, emotion of
brotherhood and humanness.

29. When a person reads about joy or sorrow of others he mentally associates himself with them.
30. Example: A story of a child rescued by a fireman as a seven-storey building caught fire has greater
value than the story of the complete loss of the building.