News is information about events, people or things that are current or happening. The key to writing a successful news article is to focus on the 5 Ws: Who, What, When, Where and Why. The first step in this process is research, gathering facts from reliable sources and presenting them in chronological order. After that, a writer should write an in-depth description of the event and include quotes from those involved. Finally, the article should be proofread for accurate information and consistency in tone and style.
A story will have a stronger chance of being newsworthy if it is new, unusual, interesting and significant. However, these criteria are influenced by many practical considerations and subjective, often unconscious, influences, such as the social, educational, ideological and cultural background of journalists and the audience for which they are producing news. This can explain why events with similar intrinsic news values do not always appear in the same place on a news hierarchy.
Opinionated sources of news, such as blogs and the opinion sections of newspapers and magazines, can also add interest to a story. However, it is important to note that no news source can be completely unbiased. Using a news aggregator site like Google News can help to counteract this by providing multiple perspectives on one subject. It can also be helpful to find out what is happening in other parts of the world by reading international news sources. This can be done by setting up an online news alert for a particular topic with Google and receiving updates as they are published.