What Does the Word ‘News’ Really Mean?

I am beginning to think that the word ‘news’ has far outlived its usefulness and should be simply dropped from the current English lexicon. Maybe it should be replaced by a word like ‘story,’ or ‘images,’ or some other word which simply describes media content in terms of what kind of technology is used to let you see or hear with your eyes or your ears.

Maybe we should go back to some kind of electronic smoke signals, which were used before we had electricity to send some kind of message over a wide space.

I just opened my browser to Google and went to the news page. The first four stories are: (1). Fox spielers like Hannity and Carlson admit that Trump was lying about election ‘fraud;’ (2). The China balloon controversy requires countries to take sides; (3). a town in Ohio ‘reflects’ on the derailment of a toxically-loaded train; (4). funeral services set for two of the shooting victims at Michigan State.

Well, at least one of the four stories, the funeral story, actually contained a fact, namely, where and when the funerals will be held. But that information was simply gleaned from announcements made by the respective funeral parlors arranging the sorrowful events. The story itself was basically built around comments made by various individuals about the loss of their two friends.