Are you an ambitious member of a press club? If you want to grow and become one of the most prominent journalists around, you must perfect your skills at writing or reporting news stories. To do so, you need first to learn how to identify newsworthy events. Below are some of the things you should watch out for when doing so.
Significance
For an incident to be worth reporting as news, it must affect a large number of people who are also your audience. For instance, a fire that destroys several homes and causes the death of many people is newsworthy. One that injures one individual is not.
Timeliness
When it comes to news, the time when an event happened is critical. It is best to report something as soon as it occurs. Old news does not sell as much, because people are least interested in events that transpired a long time ago.
Proximity
An event that took place near your audience is more likely to grab their attention, unlike that which occurred miles away from them. People desire to be aware of what is happening around them and how it might impact them. That is why editors prioritise local news before the international stories.
Oddity
A newsworthy event must be strange. No one is interested in ordinary activities that happen on every other day of the week. The bizarreness of something draws the attention of people because they want to know more.
Prominence
When something happens to a famous person, it becomes newsworthy. There is no doubt that millions of fans out there will want to know about it. For example, something that Donald Trump, the President of the United States, said, is big news when compared to a comment by a person who is not a celebrity. The truth is, famous individuals, get more coverage.