Michael Oreskes, in his keynote address to the Online News Association's conference in Toronto, highlighted a definition of journalism (which for the purposes here overlap with defining news) that he lifted from the previous day's keynote by Hilary Schneider of Yahoo. I think they're excellent:
[img_assist|nid=11|title=Yahoo's Definition of News|desc=Obligation to truth Loyalty to citizens Discipline of verification Maintain an independence Serve as an independent monitor of power Forum for public criticism & compromise Make the significant interesting & relevant Keep the news comprehensive & proportional Exercise personal conscience|link=node|align=center|width=500|height=320]
I'll break this down and submit it as individual elements you can vote on shortly:
- Obligation to truth
- Loyalty to citizens
- Discipline of verification
- Maintain an independence
- Serve as an independent monitor of power
- Forum for public criticism & compromise
- Make the significant interesting & relevant
- Keep the news comprehensive & proportional
- Exercise personal conscience
