News is the reporting of current events usually by local, regional or mass media in the form of newspapers, television and radio programs, or sites on the World Wide Web. News reporting is a type of journalism, typically written or broadcast in news style. Most news is investigated and presented by journalists (or reporters) and often distributed via news agencies. If the content of news is significant enough, it eventually becomes history.

The word "news" comes from a special use of the plural of the word "new", and not as the common backronym claims, from the four cardinal directions (North, East, West, and South). Old spellings of the word varied widey—newesse, newis, nevis, neus, newys, niewes, newis, nues, etc—casting further doubt on the popular etymological theory.

In democracies, news organizations are often expected to aim for objectivity: reporters cover both sides in a controversy and try to eliminate bias. This is not true of all organizations in all cultures. For instance, British television news is required to be objective, but the newspapers are expected to have a point of view although limits are set by the government agency Ofcom, the Office of Communications, and the UK has stricter libel laws than the US for the press.