News is an ongoing flow of information about significant events, and is published in newspapers, magazines, radio and television. It usually tells about things that are important to people, or that affect them in some way – such as wars and natural disasters. The main aim of news is to inform its audience, but it can also entertain them, for example with humorous stories or jokes.

The most significant factor in deciding whether something is newsworthy is its relevance to the public. This means that what is newsworthy in one society may not be newsworthy in another – for instance, it would probably not make headlines anywhere that a woman was crowned the next queen of England. Newsworthiness is also influenced by the extent to which an event is significant and the impact it is likely to have. For example, a scientist discovering an insect which has the ability to live on a plant which it did not previously inhabit is new and unusual, but it would only be of interest to a few specialists. In contrast, if that insect is causing damage to crops in a country where the majority of people are reliant on food from those crops, then it becomes much more interesting and significant.

There are many other factors which can influence what is considered to be newsworthy, but it is usually people who make the decisions about what gets reported. Some researchers have tried to analyse the criteria that journalists use when selecting what to report (for example, Galtung and Ruge 1985). Others have studied the content of news reports to try to identify their key characteristics (for example, Caple and Bednarek 2015).

One of the most important aspects of a good news story is its lead. This is the first paragraph of the article which introduces the subject matter and draws the reader in. It is often written in a style which is catchy and attention-grabbing, and includes the key details of what the article is about. It is normally placed above the fold in a newspaper, and the same principle applies when writing for other media such as radio or the web.

Once the readers have been drawn into the article, they need to be told how the story develops. This is usually done with a section called the nut graph, which answers the questions of who, what, when, where and why. It also explains the significance of the new developments, and why they should be of concern to the reader.