News is information about current events, issues or developments. It may be about politics, economies or natural disasters that affect the entire country or that are of particular interest to people living within a nation-state or geographical region. It may also refer to news about government and national institutions such as the military, schools or hospitals. In the United States, the term “national news” is often used to differentiate this type of news from world or international news that might have a broader scope.
There are many models of how news is selected and presented. These include the Professional Model, which argues that skilled people are best able to put together news for specific audiences. The Mirror Model argues that news should reflect reality. Other models posit that certain types of stories are more impactful than others, such as those that have a lot of violence or scandal, those that are familiar and local to the reader, or those that are particularly timely.
In addition to the traditional newspaper, television and radio forms of news broadcasting, there is now a large online presence. The Internet has made it possible for citizens to become involved in the news-gathering process, and to transmit their own reports to a wider audience. This phenomenon has had fundamental ramifications for the ecology of the news media.
In some countries, there are specialized news channels that cover local news in addition to national news or world news. For example, the Scottish broadcaster STV simulcasts most of the ITV network’s programs in Scotland but provides a separate locally-centred newscast that is broadcast at the same time as national news broadcasts.
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