What Is The News?

What is the news? If you asked this question of 15 people you would probably get 15 different answers. The news is a strange creature, abstract and tangible at the same time. The news is also extremely diverse. Able to cover a number of topics through a number of media forms in just one of its traits. I suppose that if I had to describe it I would say that, “The news is information which gets relayed between people.” I feel that the reason news is so hard to define is that it’s versatile. News can be obtained in different ways and news covers many topics.

Obtaining the news is an action which the human race has taken part in for centuries. Over time many different methods of doing so have developed. The oldest method is probably word of mouth, a simple yet sometimes unreliable way of uncovering current events. Then you have written word, like in a newspaper or magazine. In the earlier half of the 20^th century radio also became a news carrier. Even today people tune in to radio stations to hear what’s going on. Television is definitely one of the larger news vehicles; stations like CNN who run news continuously reach a wide audience. In the last decade Internet news has become prominent as well. Blogs, videos, feeds and pod casts are now all commonplace methods of obtaining the news.

News is highly versatile, this allows for a wide audience. News can encompass entertainment like celebrity marriages, sports like last nights football game, news such as the upcoming presidential election, or even weather like hurricanes and tornadoes. The other factor that makes for versatility in the news is size. You can have a local newspaper reporting on who was elected town mayor or you could be watching a report on national television about who has been elected president. So many variable make news something that is hard to pin down.