What makes a good news story?
Why do certain things make the news and others don’t?
- New vaccine against cancer
- 50 years since DNA was discovered
- Chemical in sea sponges help fight cancer
- 30,000 volunteers in Norfolk take part in a trial studying diet and cancer
These stories hit the headlines – but why?
Ask yourself what the story was about:
- A brand new discovery?
- An event linked to an anniversary?
- Something a bit quirky or unusual?
- Something local?
- Something that affects lots of people?
If the answer is YES to one (or more) of these, then your story could be newsworthy!
There are many other things that make a story worth writing about too. For example, does the story touch our emotions? Is the story controversial? Does the story affect people’s daily lives? Was a famous person involved? Bear some of these in mind when choosing your story.
Once you’ve written your story, make sure you’ve got all the facts. Ask yourself if you’ve covered:
Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
- Who carried out the study/made the discovery/was involved in the story?
- What did they do?
- Where did they do it?
- When did they do it?
- Why did they do it?
- How did they do it?
Your readers
When writing your story, you’ll also need to think about your readers:
- Who are you aiming your story at – are you writing for adults or children?
- Why will the story interest them – what makes it relevant to their lives?
- Where are your readers – are you writing for a local paper, a woman’s magazine or an internet news site?
- What makes this piece of science newsworthy?
