News basics What is news What is news

News basics What is news?

What is news? Impact Conflict Proximity Timeliness Unusualness Familiarity

Impact FNews has impact FGreat or small FWar, disaster FQuality of life, economy FWeather, traffic FTime, date and place of events FWhat’s on at the movies?

Conflict FOften but not always integral to impact FDifferential impact -- winners and losers FPolitics FSports FCelebrity divorces

Proximity FThe local angle FIntegral to impact -- what is nearby FOne of the strongest news angles

Timeliness FThe “new” in “news” FNews decays over time FReporters need to be alert and quick

Unusualness, familiarity FImportant but often overdone FSome unusualness matters, some doesn’t FHottest decade on record FSquash that looks like Bill Clinton FSome familiarity has impact, some doesn’t FMike Rao, George W. Bush, the mayor FParis Hilton, Brangelina

Supermarket Tabloids FCelebrity FUnusualness FConflict FTimeliness, proximity, impact

Questions?

News writing basics FLead (non-feature) FShould tell the most important or interesting that happened FOr the most important point that was made by a speaker.

Avoid ‘topic leads’ FTell the reader what the news is, not the topic of the story. FDon’t use words and phrases like FDiscussed FTold how FConsidered FTalked about

Lead examples FDon’t: Tracy Burton talked about the excitement and difficulty of police reporting in a speech to students Monday. FDo: Police reporters should expect to work at all hours of the night and see death first hand, Lansing State Journal reporter Tracy Burton told journalism students Monday.

Inverted pyramid structure FThe lead FExpansion and development of the lead FAdditional material in descending order of importance. FThe end

Leads FFirst paragraph of a story. FOne sentence, 25 words or less FSubstance first, then attribution (unless the source is famous).

Immediate vs delayed ID FImmediate ID with someone well known: FCMU President Michael Rao said today the university should try to reduce enrollment rather than increase it. FDelayed ID if not well known: FCMU should try to reduce enrollment rather than increase it, a Student Government Association candidate said today.

Expansion, development FThe next however-many paragraphs after the lead should give additional details about the lead angle. FSpeaking to the Academic Senate, Rao said CMU is bursting at the seams and no longer recovers the cost of educating each student through tuition and state aid. “The more students we have, the further behind we get, ” he said.

Additional material FArrange in descending order of importance. May include: FBackground FReaction FOther actions, topics etc.

Chronological coverage FAvoid it. FHowever, chronology sometimes has a legitimate place. FWhen it’s important, lead with and develop the most important angle -- then tell the story from beginning to end within the body of the article.

Little Red Riding Hood FAn elderly woman was eaten by a wolf Thursday but her granddaughter was rescued by an alert woodsman in a rural area near Mount Pleasant. FExpansion and development FThe ordeal began when. .

Context FGive readers enough context to help them understand the story as they read. FProvide context in subordinate clauses rather than in freestanding blocs: FThe decision, which reversed a long -standing policy, means the university will no longer seek to attract as many students as possible.

Ending a story FWhen you’ve reached the least important part of the story, simply stop.