In society, news is information about current events. It may be a story about a fire, an earthquake or a political crisis. It can also be a story about an interesting person or invention, such as a new computer chip or a new car. In journalism, News is usually reported by professional journalists on a daily basis and published in newspapers or broadcast on television and radio. Some people work as full-time journalists and are paid by the newspaper they work for, but most are volunteers who write and produce the news independently. News is also broadcast on private and state-owned multiplatform media outlets such as Al Jazeera, BBC World Service and Russia Today (formerly RT).
It is generally considered that a news item should be new, unusual, interesting or significant and about people. In addition, it should be factual and objective. However, there is considerable variation in what constitutes a news item from one society to another. For example, dogs are eaten in some societies so a man eating a dog will not be newsworthy in those societies. However, if the man is doing something unusual, such as catching the bus to work instead of driving a car, then it may be newsworthy in other societies.
Many research studies have explored what makes an item newsworthy, but a comprehensive understanding of the criteria is still lacking. For example, some scholars have argued that news values are subjective judgements and can never be truly objective, while others, such as Staab (1990) and Harcup and O’Neill (2001), argue that the intentions of journalists explain as much about news selection as the underlying criteria.