News is what happens when there is a change in routine.
Once you notice a change, you will also start looking at the degrees of change. For example, in the mainstream news, the Anglican Church rarely made an appearance except for when they approved the ordination of women and accepted gay clergy. These were major changes to the status quo.
But, those closer to the Anglican Church noticed changes to the status quo long before the mainstream press picked up on them.
You may have noticed a change in the divide of liberal clergy in the Western world and conservatives in the developing countries. You probably even asked yourself, 'why isn't anyone reporting on this?!'
Once the tipping point was reached and more liberal bishops were making more policy decisions than the conservative bishops, it was too late for many of the Anglicans to take action. In intelligence communities such as the CIA, observance of this change is called 'Intelligence'.
Intelligence analysts collect these changes and call them data and make educated predictions based on them. For example, if the CIA followed the Anglican Church crisis, they should have been providing papers on these small changes over the past 30 years. When the Anglican Church finally instituted these radical policies, it wouldn't have been a surprise to whom it matters and a plan could have been organized to act upon it.
The difference between a journalist and a CIA analyst is that a journalist doesn't provide conclusions in his articles (unless it's commentary), nor does he keep his articles secret.
A good journalist should look for changes in the status quo in everyday life and report them to allow a reader to reach a conclusion.
You essentially are an expert in your own field whether you realize it or not. Only you will notice many of the subtle and important changes in your community which may not be noticed by anyone else. If you're a fine observer, you can train yourself to look for changes within other institutions of which you don't belong. This is where your articles will hold their value – when they provide real information.
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