What is News?

I read an article by Debra Potter that talked about a couple of factors that affect directly what news is. Here is a link to the article for further reading:

http://www.america.gov/st/democracyhr-english/2008/April/20080416211618eaifas0.8870203.html

In the article, Potter talked about some of the qualities of news that make it exactly what the public wants and needs to hear. The first she talked about was timeliness, which is the one that I feel is the most important. People care about what is new and exciting. They want to know what is happening now, not two days ago. Two more of the qualities that were listed that I feel go hand-in-hand are conflict and prominence. Both of these qualities deal with things that attract the public. Potter was correct when she said that people love to take sides and also the public loves people that are famous or prominent. Both of these qualities tend to deal with emotion which is very important in news.

I also learned a lot about the different types of news stories and what categories they are put under. Personally, I want to be involved in sports news which can either be hard news if it is reporting on current games, or soft news if it is a story about a particular athlete or coach. Also, the soft news stories about athletes are also considered features, which are more entertainment than actual breaking news. Another topic that I found particularly important was the section on objectivity and fairness. It can be very difficult to write without personal feelings or bias, but I feel like it is very important to communicate the news in a way that shows both sides evenly and fairly to make sure that you reach the entire audience. Overall I found it to be a very detailed article that was very informative.