News tells people about things that have happened, and people get it from phones and computers, from television, from radio and from printed papers. Behind every story are people who decided to report it and who worked to get it right. A newsroom is a place where reporters, editors and photographers work together to make news. Reporters gather information, while editors review, rewrite and finalize copy at the copy desk. Editors also work with reporters to identify coverage areas and sources, and they help keep the reporters on track to meet deadlines. Long ago, before newspapers, a town crier rang a bell and called out the news in the street, because many people could not read.
A reporter is often given a subject to cover, called a beat, and then researches it and writes the story. Reporters may attend press conferences, cover events, interview people, monitor social media and cultivate sources. A freelance reporter does not work full-time for a newsroom but is equally responsible for following journalistic ethics. To find out what happened, reporters ask questions: who, what, when, where, why and how. A summary lead answers these questions in the first paragraph. The inverted pyramid then puts the most essential information at the top and continues with less important facts and context. The SPJ code adds that pursuit of the news does not justify arrogance or undue intrusiveness.
Not every event becomes a news story, because editors choose which stories to run. Their decisions shape whether and how a story is covered, how many resources go to it and how prominently it is featured. Editors weigh how many people an event will affect, and stories with large impact are more likely to be big news. Recent events, or events in the making, are most likely to lead the news. Proximity is also a news value: the closer an event is to the audience, the more important it is, so huge local stories might not make the national news. Some events, such as elections and major sports events, happen on a predictable schedule, so news outlets can plan to cover them.
Other pulls are less comfortable to notice. Conflict is a news value. Editors generally consider conflict more newsworthy than peace. Stories that are easy to simplify are likely to be featured more prominently than stories that are hard to understand, while human interest stories are used to balance out hard-hitting investigative journalism. Readers help shape the mix as well. Studies of how people read the news find that, on average, people pay more attention to negative news than to positive news. In a study of more than 1,000 people in 17 countries, most paid more attention to negative news, but the bias was not shared by everyone, which researchers said suggests there may be a market for positive news.
Once a story is chosen, it has to be checked. A reporter listens to people and writes down what they say, and then an editor checks the story. Good news reporters try to check each fact and use more than one original source when they can. A news story says where its facts come from, asks people involved for comment, and tries to show more than one view. Sometimes a source asks not to be named. The Society of Professional Journalists code says anonymity for sources should be a last resort, for people who may face danger or harm. As of November 2026, the Associated Press allows material from an anonymous source only if it is information and not opinion, is vital to the report, and is not available any other way.
A news organization that finds a mistake should say so and fix it. The SPJ code tells journalists to acknowledge mistakes, correct them promptly and prominently, and explain corrections clearly. The same code says journalists should avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived, and journalists should also refuse presents, favors, fees, free travel or special treatment aimed at unduly influencing coverage. Readers need to tell the kinds of writing apart as well. A news story gives facts and context. An opinion piece argues for a point of view. They are different jobs. An editorial expresses the views of a news organization's editorial board. An op-ed is written by an outside contributor. Sponsored content is paid for by an advertiser but made to look like the publisher's own stories, so it should have a clear label.
Some news is hard to take in. Hearing scary or sad news again and again, or seeing strong pictures of it, can upset children. Grown-ups can limit how much kids watch about upsetting events online and on TV. Doctors say children need adults to help them make sense of news. If a story is upsetting, it is okay to stop watching and talk to a grown-up, who can help. When you do read a story, you can ask who gathered it, who chose to run it, where its facts come from, and whether it is news, opinion or something paid for. Each answer shows a little of how the story was made.
Words to know
- beat: assigned subject
- newsroom: reporters' workplace
- freelance: not on staff
- anonymous: not named
- editorial: board's opinion piece
