News and Gossip

Gossip is what people want to know.
News is what they need to know.

   Who decides which is news and which is gossip?  In ordinary conversation, it depends on who's talking and who's listening.  News to one is gossip to another.
   In journalism, however, there is often a thin line between the two, but even so, a decision must be made.  Information that is crucial to one person is irrelevant, useless or boring to another.
   Reporters and editors decide every day, and in broadcasting every hour, which item to use which to leave aside, all while keeping in mind that "all news is local."  A local daily or weekly newspaper will print items that to a major metro daily is back-fence gossip.  And an American television station will carry material that a Canadian facility will not.  And vice versa.  Such decisions are called news judgment.  For example, how often do U.S. viewers see televised reports about politics in Canada or Mexico?  Unless one lives in one of the border states, the answer is, seldom.
   Unless a piece of information about what's happening in the neighborhood, the city, the state, the nation or the world has some relevance to readers and viewers, that story will be deemed either news or gossip. There are, of course, gossip sheets in print and TV programs that feature similar information.
   Each has its readers and viewers, and decisions as to which is which are made daily by reporters and editors on one side and by readers and viewers on the other.
   It's called freedom of the press, marketing, and satisfying a demand.
   Look on it as a variation of Economics 101, the Law of Supply and Demand.