Ever wondered what news is ? What it’s qualities and values are? This blog explains the concept of news, its qualities and values.
News is a report of a current event. It is a report about recent happenings in a newspaper, television, radio or internet. It is information not known earlier. It is said that the word ‘NEWS’ is derived from the four directions which are North, East, West, South. This means that news can come from anywhere.
News is new information but ages quickly. It focuses on the present, not on the past or future. Once news has been broadcasted, it becomes history. It is unexpected and talks about something extraordinary and unanticipated. An example is the June 3rd disaster which happened at Kwame Nkrumah circle in 2015. It was a combination of flooding and fire which led to the death of about 150 people. Since it was unexpected and broadcasted, it was news. Time has passed since that disaster hence it is no more news.
Journalists use information to get news. News is from information a journalist gets. Without information, a reporter or journalist has no material for work. News should be new. People are always interested in new things that concern them. It raises their level of curiosity. New information should be interesting, important and must have an impact on the lives of the public. News must be accurate. Every detail starting from dates to statements should be precise and factual. This can be done through the constant use of reference sources, dictionary and encyclopedias. Your news should have balance. It has to be fair to both its sources and audience. Select and arrange facts so as to give a balanced view of the whole news situation. Always make sure that your news is recent. This is important because audiences always demand recent information on topics which are of concern to them.
Timeliness, proximity, controversy or conflict and impact are core values of news. When writing news, consider how close the news is to the audience. This means how close the news touches the lives of the audience and if the story is important to local readers. For example reporting on issues about Donald Trump to Ghanaians has little or no concern at all to them. This is because Donald Trump is the president of another country and not Ghana. People are often interested in controversial issues. That is stories that involve disagreement between people or organizations that lead to dramatic effects. An example is the Bawku conflict. Any event that brings about social unease, damage to property, injury to people and death is good material for news.
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