What is news? Group discussion reaction

I thought the saying "when a dog bites a man, it's not news; when a man bites a dog, it's news" was a well known one, but my group thought otherwise. Still, the folksy saying proved to be more or less in line with what my other group members thought. Catie said that news is anything that deviates from the norm, which I would argue is a slightly more scholarly way to say what I had said. James' definition differed slightly; in his view, news is in the eye of the beholder. "If my brother is coming to visit me, that's news to me, but you don't care," he said. I think both are correct if you are trying to define the word. However, from a journalist's standpoint, news must be more clearly defined. For that reason, I stand by my folksy saying.