News is information about current events, and may be disseminated by word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting or electronic communication. The news media may be professional, such as newspapers, magazines and radio or television networks, or amateur, such as neighborhood watch groups and online citizen journalism. The professional model of news reporting aims for accuracy and impartiality. News stories are typically reported in a chronological order that includes the “Five Ws”: who, what, when, where and why. News reports also seek to inform, entertain and inspire their audiences.
Governments, corporations and individuals subscribe to news agencies for a variety of reasons including the distribution of hard news (often called wire stories) and feature articles. Originally, these organizations used telegraphy to transmit news stories but now most use electronic means such as email and the Internet.
The most popular sources of national news are Fox News and CNN, followed by NBC, ABC and CBS. Among newspaper publishers, the New York Times is the most-used print news source. Almost half of Republicans say they very often get their news from Fox, while fewer than half of Democrats do so. A number of online news aggregators are used by Americans, and more than two-thirds of them have positive net-trust scores. The sources most likely to be viewed as liberal are MSNBC and Comedy Central, while Fox News, Breitbart and Newsmax have the highest net-trust scores among conservatives. However, no single news outlet is trusted by more than a fifth of adults.