News informs the public about events, developments and issues in their local communities, country and the world. It also serves as a platform to educate the public about different topics, including politics, science, economics and culture.

In order to write a good news article you need to be aware of the 5 W’s: who, what, where, when and why. This will help you decide what information to include in your story and how to present it. It’s also important to know your audience. Understanding who you’re writing for will dictate the voice and tone of your article. If you don’t know your audience you can’t write an effective article that will keep them engaged.

The most important factor in determining what is newsworthy is whether or not it’s new. A event that happened 10 years ago is no longer newsworthy unless it’s the anniversary of something big, like a war, disaster or other historic event. This is one of the reasons why most news programs only talk about current events – nothing that happened 10 or even 1 year ago.

Other factors that make an event newsworthy are its drama, consequence and timeliness. If there is a lot of suspense or interest in an event, it will probably be reported. It is also usually important that the event has consequences that affect many people, or at least the majority of a population. For example, if someone misses the bus on their way to school and has to walk all the way, this might not be newsworthy. However, if they run into a litter of baby tigers and save them all, this is probably newsworthy.

Generally speaking, events that are newsworthy happen to ordinary or extraordinary people. For this reason, most news articles are about people. In some cases, a significant event will occur to an animal or the environment and this may also be newsworthy.

It is also typically newsworthy if an event involves a major change or a major disaster that disrupts the normal flow of life, such as an earthquake, volcanic eruption or hurricane. Other examples include a political scandal, the discovery of a new drug or a terrorist attack.

The news media is undergoing a major transition in the 21st century. With the advent of new technologies, it’s becoming much easier for anyone to be a journalist. In addition, traditional news media are loosing their gatekeeping control over the information they provide to their audiences. This is because of the growing use of cell phone cameras and text-messaging devices, such as Twitter.

When writing a news article it’s always important to check your facts. Errors in your article can discredit you and make the reader lose trust in your work. It’s also a good idea to have a second set of eyes look over your article before you publish it. This will catch any grammatical errors that you might have missed. This is especially important if you’re writing for a newspaper, magazine or other professional publication.