News is information about current events. This information can be delivered through a variety of means, including word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting and electronic communication. The news can include events, both national and international, that are of interest to the public. The information is usually reported in a form that is readable and understandable to the average reader or listener.
To be considered newsworthy, a story must be new, unusual, interesting, significant or about people. The more of these criteria a story meets, the better it will be. However, it is important to remember that the same event can have different news value in two different societies. For example, a coup in your country may be very big news, but a coup in the country next door will probably have much lower news value.
The purpose of the news is to inform and educate. However, it is not necessarily to entertain – that can be done through other media – music and drama on radio; crosswords and cartoons in newspapers and magazines.
The nature of the news ecosystem is changing rapidly. Traditional print and broadcast journalism is losing market share to a variety of sources, most notably Internet-capable mobile devices. As a result, the boundaries that delineate for-profit, for-hire and non-profit media have blurred. This has led to the development of a hybrid model for delivering news that relies on both professional and citizen journalists. In this article, we will examine how the news ecosystem of a large city works and who is responsible for its content.