What Is News Media?
News isn’t just anything out of the norm. It’s the rare sight of everyday life wrapped up in a larger context. News is whatever people talk about; it often sparks controversy, but it always has value. That’s what makes it news.
News in the broad sense refers to reports that are meant to inform or entertain. Broad-minded people will generally appreciate news that is in-depth and reporting from the heart, but they’ll also be quick to spot the fake news stories, even the hoaxes that have been purported to come from established sources. This includes everything from the latest model of a car to a report on a mysterious ‘skin cancer’ condition. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with ‘opinion journalism’, but the truth lies somewhere in between.
News in the narrower sense refers to reporting on human activity. It might be news about the latest government plans to save energy, it could be the scoop of the month about a new technique for building sustainable buildings. News coverage makes news because it captures a story from one human being to another, through some kind of reporting process, and brings it to a wide audience. This can range from traditional forms of writing (like newspapers) to the newer forms of digital publishing like podcasting and video. News can be written, but it’s often also shared through other media, which makes it an ever-changing genre.
News in the broader sense of the term refers to any reporting that makes a serious attempt to inform its readers. This may include breaking news stories, feature stories, reviews, opinion pieces and features about current events. Some newspapers will also publish long feature stories, allowing them to develop a fairly comprehensive series of features in-depth about an individual subject or event. These may focus on a single individual or a set of people, or they may span the spectrum and cover both major players in a story and various smaller players or even everything in-between. A feature article in a major newspaper might be written as a lead article with a byline and then turn into a feature article following in-depth on the main subject of the piece. This kind of journalism is known as “deep reporting”.
The term “news media” can be broadly used to describe any type of reporting on current events that readers find important enough to be worth spreading to others. News stories are typically distributed by newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television networks and websites, though it is also possible to distribute them directly to readers. News organizations distribute news media so as to be disseminated to a maximum number of potential readers, whether that is in the print, on the Internet or in a newsletter. There is a lot of overlap between news media and advertising media, but the two are generally separated by specific platforms and reporting methods.
Readers and news viewers can react against the reporting of any given day, and this may affect the way the news is presented. News programs often receive a lot of negative feedback from readers who do not understand what is being said, and this may affect the way certain stories are covered. News readers are often targeted at specific audiences, and this means that certain content may not be suitable for certain audiences. When a reader dislikes a particular aspect of a news item, they will tell a friend or a relative, who may then spread the word to more readers or to someone else who may have a different take on the same story. Coverage of controversial topics is very common, and there is a great deal of potential controversy in any given story, but the reader’s reaction to it can often make or break its success in the future.