Lessons That Linger: 5. Consumers to Creators 26 08 2025

Consumers to Creators  

Browsing the mobile has replaced our earlier habit of scanning newspaper headlines. Often some types of headlines catch our attention more than others. On reflection, we see similar items that make news every day. With social media, there is a big change: we have morphed from being a consumer to creators of news. Here is my stock-take of what makes news to helps us engage better with our audience.

Criteria for newsworthiness is the same, whether for traditional media like print, TV or radio, or the new age social media channels like X, Instagram, WhatsApp or Facebook. A newsworthy item needs to pass through one or more of these five filters. More categories it ticks, the more newsworthy is it in engaging the audience:

1. Milestones-like an individual’s birthdays or wedding anniversaries, or an institution’s silver or golden jubilee, or a country’s independence-day, they are newsworthy as these milestones are occasions for reflection & stock-take, goal setting & festivities.
2. Exceptional or unnatural-Scandals, celebrity gossip, accidents or catastrophes both natural and man-made like wars make news by appealing to the baser human instincts of fear, lust, envy, greed and pride. 
3. Outrage- issues firing up emotions are newsworthy in contrast to issues needing thought. Making the blood boil, or the eyes go soft with tears is news. Emotions evoked by the sight of a child fighting for its life is more newsworthy than lakhs of children facing a slow and sure death due to malnutrition or who are denied basic healthcare. Outrage scores over damage, emotions over reason when it comes to capturing human attention. 
4. Forecast- Any grand forecast or doomsday prediction is news irrespective of its feasibility. More outrageous the prediction, less credible it needs to be. Hence target setting and D-dates announcement fires up public imagination or ignites heated debates keeping the issue alive.
5. Origin- Providing new insights into the origin of almost anything is news, especially if it feeds the pride of a clan. An achievement credited to an individual, family, nation, community or religion by appealing to their pride feeds our collective ego making it news, worthy of celebration and patting each-others back.

To be in news, or to create news ensure that you tick one of the five boxes, more the better.