News and Gossip

What they need to know is news. What they want to know is gossip.

   Journalism is the first draft of history, but reporters are not stenographers and are under no obligation to record every word.
   There is a thin line between news and gossip, and the idea itself of what constitutes news is very subjective. Reporters not only tell readers and viewers what they want to know, but also what they need to know.
   All news is local. People of a small town want to know and need to know what the local board of education is doing with their tax dollars. Those in a city want and need to know the crime rate and whether and how government officials are corrupt. Readers and viewers in a region have an interest in the expansion plans of corporations and whether more jobs will become available. On a national level, citizens should know the status of economic and foreign policy.
   Meanwhile, some have a strong fascination with celebrities and what they are up to. This, too, is news even as it is rated gossip by those who care little about the antics of celebrities.
   Reporters are guided not only by their own interests, but also by the interests of their readers and viewers. Even as they do this, however, reporters have an obligation to inform (and entertain) with anecdotes and events that the public needs to know as well as what the public wants to know.
   And while there are two extremes --- news and gossip -- there can be a great deal of overlap, so that the line between the two is often thin and blurred.