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News Writing Lecture

The document provides an overview of news writing. It discusses what constitutes news and how to gather and write news stories. The key elements of news include timeliness, prominence, human interest, and significance. Effective news writing follows certain rules, such as using concise leads that answer the essential questions of who, what, when, where and why. Successful news stories have structure, with components like the lead, quotes, background and impact sections. Accuracy is the most important rule of journalism.

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202 views21 pages

News Writing Lecture

The document provides an overview of news writing. It discusses what constitutes news and how to gather and write news stories. The key elements of news include timeliness, prominence, human interest, and significance. Effective news writing follows certain rules, such as using concise leads that answer the essential questions of who, what, when, where and why. Successful news stories have structure, with components like the lead, quotes, background and impact sections. Accuracy is the most important rule of journalism.

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© © All Rights Reserved
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NEWS WRITING

Riz P. Sunio
 What is News?
 Elements of News
 News Gathering
 Writing the News
 Rules on effective writing
 Practical tips to young journalists

LECTURE OUTLINE
 Journalism is history is a hurry
 A break from the normal flow of events, an
interruption in the expected
 A mirror of society’s concerns and interests
 Any event, idea or opinion that is timely, that
interests and affects a large number of persons in
the community

WHAT IS NEWS?
 Timeliness  Human Interest
 Proximity  Sex
 Prominence  Crime / Violence
 Significance  Number
 Oddity

ELEMENTS OF NEWS
 Interviews
 Paper trail
 People Trail
 Electronic Trail
 Money Trail
 Localization

NEWS SOURCES
1. Actual coverage of events
2. Interviewing an expert or persons in
authority
3. Useof documents, such as speeches, policy
statements, research reports and other
important papers
4. Verification

DATA GATHERING
 Breaking story
 Advancers
 Reaction story
 to a proposal or a media event
 Developing story
 Follow up story
 Calendar story
 Canned story

GENERATING NEWS
 Structure

• Components
– Primary Lead
– Support/Backup Lead
– Details or particulars
– Background

WRITING THE NEWS


Lead:
 -This is the hook that tells the reader what the story is about, and includes who,
what, when, where, why. (Shorter leads of fewer than 35 words are preferable)
 -A good lead entices the reader to continue reading
 -In a hard-news story, the lead is usually written in one sentence (first sentence
of the story) and gives the most important information about the event. This is
often called a “summary lead.” However, a news story can have a “soft lead,”
which is more creative and descriptive.

ELEMENTS OF A NEWS STORY


Backup for the Lead
 -The lead should be supported with facts, quotes, and statements that
substantiate the information in the lead.

ELEMENTS OF A NEWS STORY


Lead:
SAMPLE SOFT LEAD:
Like many of her low-income neighbors in northeast Wake Forest, Armenta Richardson,
55, does not have a car.
Because her neighborhood is not serviced by public transportation, she must ask for a ride
when she wants to go to the nearest supermarket several miles away. Richardson could
walk to the Dollar Generalstore, which is closer than the supermarket, but that would
involve walking on streets without sidewalks.
Her experience has become common among low-income residents in Wake Forest,
according to a recent study of the town conducted by a group of graduate students from
UNC Chapel Hill's School of Public Health.

ELEMENTS OF A NEWS STORY


Lead Quote
 -The first quote that backs up the lead is called the “lead quote.” It is usually
the strongest quote in the story and it supports the concept in the lead without
repeating the same wording.
 -Make sure to attribute quotes to proper sources.

ELEMENTS OF A NEWS STORY


 Tells the most important facts of a news story
 Some journalism books hold that the lead should answer
all the 5 Ws and 1 H. But this no longer the practice
because it makes the first paragraph long and crammed
with facts
 Attracts the reader’s interest
 “Short enough to be interesting but long enough to
cover the essentials”

THE LEAD
Background
 -Is there any history or background the reader needs in order to understand
how a problem or action occurred?

ELEMENTS OF A NEWS STORY


Impact
 -Whenever possible, the writer should explain how the news affects the
readers. The “impact” sentence or paragraph should answer these questions:
 *What is the significance of the story?
 *What in the story makes the reader care?
 Not all stories can show a direct impact on readers, but they should all have a
clear paragraph explaining the reason for the story.

ELEMENTS OF A NEWS STORY


Ending
 -The most common type of ending includes one of these elements:
 *Future action (statement or quote that summarizes previous information)
 *More elaboration
 -Avoid summary endings that repeat what you have already said.

ELEMENTS OF A NEWS STORY


• Straight News
 News that consists of facts given straight without
embellishment. Its main aim is to inform.
• News-Feature
 Is also based on facts, but entertains more than it informs.
Here, the writer may give his or her narrative, impressions. One
may also describe and narrate, but without resorting to biased
opinion.
 -Single Feature or one-incident story
 -Several Featured, multi-angled, or composite story

TYPES OF NEWS STORIES


 Accuracy
 Accuracy
 Accuracy

THREE RULES IN JOURNALISM:


 Get out one of your stories and start counting. Not all the words, just the ones
between quotation marks. Chances are you’ll get quite a mouthful.
 Here are some strategies for the quote diet:
 1. Take ten percent off the top. Most speech is bloated. Trim the fat, leaving the
verbatim message, or paraphrase.
 2. Raise your quote bar.
 3. Watch out for the echo effect.
 4. Reserve quotation marks for words that reveal character, advance the narrative
or drive home a controversial point.

THE QUOTE DIET


 Story angles are essential because they guide you
towards exactly what you need to write. An angle
generates engagement with the story—holding the
reader’s attention and deftly maneuvering the twists of
turns of a good tale.

ANGLES
Tips on Finding the Right Angle
 Develop a keen sense of what makes something not only newsworthy but
interesting
 Identify those famous Ws of your story: the who, what, when, where, and why.
The ‘why’ is the big one.
 You can use contrast in a few different ways to heighten the reader’s
understanding of your angle.
 If you’re writing about a national, or global, news story, is there a local or
personal angle that only you could write?

ANGLES

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