A fire on campus is newsworthy. A fire in Wyoming in itself is not. News often involves conflict. A student group staging a protest to call attention to landlord neglect of student housing is newsworthy. A group of students agreeing that they think their apartments are well cared for is not.
News often involves prominent people.
The president of the United States breaking a leg in a skiing accident would be news. A first year student breaking a leg in a skiing accident would probably not be newsworthy. News involves issues of current interest. A Wheeling Jesuit political science professor publishing an article on presidential impeachment in 1999 would be more newsworthy now than in 1989 because of the impeachment of Bill Clinton. The price of gasoline doubling is more newsworthy than the price of Beanie Babies doubling.