News aggregation is, for many, one of the most important functions of Beehaw. We have several niche communities that cover specific topics, as well as World News, so the intent of this community is sharing and discussion of general-purpose news of national import.
What is news?
Broadly speaking, news is an account of events that have already happened, presented in a neutral manner to inform the widest possible readership.
News has an angle but not an opinion. It enumerates and sources previously unknown information and provides context to tie the described events together with meaning.
Most news organizations publish a wide array of content, of which news is a subset of varying proportion. As such, a quality source is necessary but insufficient for the determination of news value.
The world is replete with interesting things that are not news, and there’s no intent to throw shade on stories that don’t meet the guidelines above.
What is not news?
This is arguably an easier question to answer. News is not:
- intended to evoke emotion
- people talking about things they’d like to do (that’s usually politics)
- something already widely known
- an attempt to predict the future
What news belongs in this community?
The key phrase in the lede is “general purpose.”
If you’re new to Beehaw, please look through the list of communities before posting news here as a default. Topics relevant to only a subset of users often generate discussions with more insights when posted to an aligned community.
In the interest of providing the best aggregation experience possible, if you post something that has a better home, a mod will remove the post and ask that you repost there.
Ideally, we’d have the ability to move the full thread ourselves, but current software limitations mean this is the best solution we have.
What makes me qualified to define news?
Fifteen years on the copy desk (and sometimes as an assigning or even managing editor) at daily U.S. newspapers from an era when entertainment was siloed from news.
I am aware that my definition feels like an anachronism; however, a lot of disagreement over “news” circa 2023 stems from conflating news with other content. Debating whether something is news is a very recent development caused by lines being intentionally blurred for revenue and political reasons — neither of which serves to inform the reader.
What’s my motivation?
A well-informed populace makes better decisions. That was true when I dropped out of college to go professional, and it’s true today.
I long for the days when news was just reported and not editorialized. Thank you for helping to bring that back!
Thank you for the informative introduction and your participation here.
My pleasure! I wouldn’t mind there still being a market for copyeditors, but any way I can make some small difference is infinitely better than doing nothing about the collapse of journalism.
thank you for taking on this role. i feel this community is in good hands, and i now have a place to read my “morning paper” and discuss the news!
