What is News? How to Determine the Newsworthiness of an Event

Journalism 101

In this beginner's guide to writing news stories writers will learn the very basics of writing an objective, fact-based, newsworthy article.

How to Determine the Newsworthiness of an Event: What is News?

Before actually writing the news article, the writer needs to determine if the the information is actually news. The basis for determining newsworthiness can be discovered by asking three basic questions: who, what and why.

How to Determine the Newsworthiness of an Event: 1. What is the Event?

News is not as complicated as writers sometimes make it out to be. News is event-oriented. It is as simple as this: "Someone did Something" or "Something Happened to Someone."

The common denominator in both instances is that a person or people were involved.

An event can occur, but does become newsworthy until it is connected with its impact on the population. For example, an earthquake in a remote uninhabited area is not news. If the earthquake has other geological or environmental consequences that will affect people, then it becomes news.

An earthquake that occurs in a populated region is newsworthy. Any event that affects people is news. The more people it affects, the more newsworthy it is. For example, an earthquake that occurs near a village of 100 people will not be as newsworthy as an earthquake that affects thousands of people. That is the nature of news.

How to Determine the Newsworthiness of an Event: 2. Who was involved? How many people were involved?

Sometimes events are newsworthy because they happen to a group of people, or the event affects a large portion of the population.

Other times, an event is newsworthy because the person or people involved have been deemed newsworthy by the public and by the media.

When writing about a news event that happens to a newsworthy person, include a descriptor of the person in the lead or the second paragraph. Assume your readers need a reference point. Sum up in one short phrase what makes this person important, or use their title if they have one, President Smith, the director of the popular trilogy Star Battles, Academy-Award winning actress, magazine publisher, etc.