News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. News is called a news article when it is structured as a written text in newspapers, magazines, or digital platforms.
Subject matters for news reports include war, government, politics, education, health, economy, business, fashion, sport, entertainment, and the environment, as well as quirky or unusual events. Government proclamations, concerning royal ceremonies, laws, taxes, public health, and criminals, have been dubbed news since ancient times. Technological and social developments, often driven by government communication and espionage networks, have increased the speed with which news can spread, as well as influenced its content.
Throughout history, people have transported new information through oral means. Having developed in China over centuries, newspapers became established in Europe during the early modern period. In the 20th century, radio and television became important means of transmitting news. While in the 21st century, the internet has also begun to play a similar role.
Meaning
Etymology
The English word “news” developed in the 14th century as a special use of the plural form of “new”. In Middle English, the equivalent word was newes, like the French nouvelles. Similar developments are found in the Slavic languages – namely cognates from Serbo-Croatian novost (from nov, “new”), Czech and Slovak noviny (from nový, “new”), the Polish nowiny (pronounced noviney), the Bulgarian novini and Russian novosti – and likewise in the Celtic languages: the Welsh newyddion (from newydd) and the Cornish nowodhow (from nowydh).[1][2]
Jessica Garretson Finch is credited with coining the phrase “current events” while teaching at Barnard College in the 1890s.[3]
