A list on understanding what makes the news and what doesn’t:

The essay on how news stories are written to be balanced, even if they can’t be, in Sex, drugs, and cocoa puffs: a low culture manifesto by Chuck Klosterman
It’s not news, it’s fark: how mass media tries to pass off crap as news by Drew Curtis, an excellent examination of the types of non-news in the news.
Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe, especially this segment on the structure of a TV news story.