Making newsworthy stories unusual

The news is the most important thing in our daily life. There are several news channels on which different news items are telecasted from around the world. There are news channels on TV and news portals also that give you the information about different things happening around the world. You can also get your news through newspapers from all over the country.

The news media have evolved in such a way that it provides first hand experience to many of us. For instance, there are news papers that are published by the Indian newspaper circulation. The news is available to every reader of the newspapers irrespective of the religion or community. This situation is quite different when compared to the print media. Many of the printed newspapers restrict their readers from accessing the news. It is only the news channel on television that allows all the viewers access to the news.

The news media have also given importance to the contribution of ordinary citizens like us. Many of us have submitted news about incidents that we have witnessed or heard about from our own point of view. Such examples include road accidents, natural disasters, violence in schools and many more. This is the reason why there are several news reporters who are in constant touch with the common people through the television and newspaper media to keep the people informed.

The other factor that makes news interesting is the human activity involved in the news. News is not only about the weather or the environment but also about the human activity. Take the recent incident of the missing Malaysian flight, which was downed by a military fighter plane, for example. A whole lot of people were affected because of this incident. But when we saw on television the photographs and videos taken by the witnesses, and then analyze the way the aircraft was shot down, we understood that the fighter plane was shot down by the Malaysian Air Force after it spotted some unusual activity on its radar screen. That made the story interesting to us because the mystery behind that happened is solved.

There are many people who try to make news stories themselves. They take an interesting photograph or video clip, and pass it to the media as well as to the public through news channels or the internet. They may be able to capture the event as it happens but they fail to relay it in such a manner that the human interest element is not lost. In such a scenario, the event becomes a human interest story and the whole story makes news.

It is also a fact that sometimes even well established news agencies make news stories unusual. Take the situation where the State Department announced that Secretary Rice had called a meeting with the new Chinese leadership. The news report did not mention that the State Department had earlier issued a statement saying that Secretary Rice was not meeting with the Chinese foreign minister. In such cases, the readers or the listeners may wonder what the State Department was thinking. But the news value of the event depends entirely on how unusual it is. If the news agency or channel managing the event understands this, then the story has all the more entertainment value.