I personally think of news as the "what" of journalism.
Although news (the plural of 'new') emphasizes the novelty of an event, the most important characteristic of news is to be interesting.
'To be interesting' means to engage the reader's mind in any of an infinite number of ways.
Every reader will approach an article with a unique sense of what is new and what is old, what is true and what is false, what is interesting and what is boring. As such, there can be no universal and objective definition of news.
Instead, the journalist must recognize the diversity of his potential readers and offer many different reasons to be interested in the "what" of his journalism.
"News" is the 'what' of journalism. And the journalist must justify for the reader why that 'what' is interesting.
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I personally think of news as the "what" of journalism.
ReplyDeleteAlthough news (the plural of 'new') emphasizes the novelty of an event, the most important characteristic of news is to be interesting.
'To be interesting' means to engage the reader's mind in any of an infinite number of ways.
Every reader will approach an article with a unique sense of what is new and what is old, what is true and what is false, what is interesting and what is boring. As such, there can be no universal and objective definition of news.
Instead, the journalist must recognize the diversity of his potential readers and offer many different reasons to be interested in the "what" of his journalism.
"News" is the 'what' of journalism. And the journalist must justify for the reader why that 'what' is interesting.