elements of news
1) timeliness
2) impact or magnitude
3) prominence
4) proximity
5) unusualness
6) Conflict
7) Hard news
8) soft news 2
Timeliness
News is so named because it is information about an issue or event that has
just happened or that is new to an audience.
EX: People from Flint wanted to learn more about their water, and wanted to know more about where they could buy water bottles.
impact or magnitude
Journalists choose stories that affect (impact) large numbers of people ( magnitude )
prominence
Routine events can become newsworthy when they involve prominent individuals, such as state senators, business leaders or celebrities. For example, if a classmate appeared drunk at a party and stated that cocaine ought to be legalized, it would not be as
proximity
Proximity may be geographic or psychological. In terms of the former, an event becomes more newsworthy the more local it is. Readers, viewers and listeners are most interested in and affected by stories about their own communities and people they know. EX
unusualness
Deviations from the norm�unexpected or unusual events, drama or change�are more newsworthy than the commonplace. A story of a robber who returned a victim's cellphone because he did not like the model is more newsworthy than one about a robber who simply
Conflict
Conflict is apparent when people have different points of view. Their reasons for disagreeing about a social issue or government policy are more informative than the reasons of people who agree on everything.
hard news
refers to serious and timely stories about important topics that inform or educate. These stories may describe an accident, major crime, fire, speech or press conference. Journalists sometimes call hard news "spot news" (reporting it on the spot), "straig
soft news
refers
to feature or
human-interest stories. Soft news entertains as well as informs; it may make readers laugh or cry, love or hate, envy or pity. Soft news might be a profile of a local person who has risen to prom-inence or a story about an unusual hob
The Reporters guide to news-writing style
1. Identify the central point of the story.
2. Prepare a brief outline of the three or four major parts of the story.
3. Use short, familiar words.
4. Use short sentences and concise paragraphs.
5. Eliminate unnecessary words.
6. Remove unrelated ideas wi
1. Use ___________order for sentences.
subject-verb-object
2. Use ______ subjects with _______ verbs, and _____ subjects with______verbs.
singular, singular ; plural, plural
3. Make sure pronouns agree with their _________
antecedents
4. Use ______, _____, ______ and _____ correctly.
that, which, who, and whome
5. Place _______ immediately before or after the noun they describe.
modifers
6. Do not depend on ______ programs to find all misspelled words.
spell-check
7. Choose words that convey your meaning as ______ as possible. Write your story with detail and explanation so it answers all the questions one logically might ask about the topic.
precisely
8. Use ______ verbs and ____ nouns.
active, vivid
9. Prune ________ from your sentences.
adjectives and adverbs
Avoid clich�s,_______, _______ and _________
journalese, slang, and euphemisms
11. Avoid _____ words and _______ or artificial labels.
loaded, opinionated
12. Avoid mentioning ______ in the story and using the words ___, ___,____,____, and _____ except in_____quotations from a source.
yourself, I, Me, We, Us, Our, direct
13. Avoid________ statements about the time of the story. Use the specific day of the week or the date�not "yesterday," "today" or "tomorrow.
misleading
14. Avoid _______, ____________, __________ labels and excessive punctuation.
gush, exaggeration, contrived
15. Avoid an _____ : Do not unnecessarily repeat the same word in a sentence.
echo
16. Avoid _____: Do not state the obvious, such as the fact that a government official was happy to be elected.
platitudes
17. Avoid the _____ when writing for print media; most events you write about already will have occurred. But for web or broadcast news stories, the present tense may be appropriate.
present tense
18. Cast your sentences in ______ rather than negative form.
positive
Syntax
Sentence structure
passive voice
A passive-voice sentence reverses the structure so that the action is done to the subject:
active voice
Sentences that use the subject-verb-object order are active-voice sentences; the subject performs the action.
Clauses
A clause is a group of words containing a subject and verb and is used as part of a sentence. An independent clause is a complete sentence; it can stand independ-ently. A dependent clause, on the other hand, is an incomplete thought.
Appositive
An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that renames, identifies, explains or in some way supplements the meaning of another noun or noun phrase. An apposi-tive that is accompanied by modifiers is called an appositive phrase
Personification
Avoid treating inanimate objects or abstractions as if they were human. Objects such as buildings, cars, stores and trees cannot hear, think, feel or talk.
First, audiences cannot
determine a story's credibility if reporters fail to identify their sources
Precision
To communicate effectively, reporters must be precise, particularly in their selection of words because it can give people the wrong meaning. A "funeral service" was held is wrong bc a funeral is a service.
strong verbs
describe one specific action. Avoid the repeated use of forms of the verb "to be," such as "is," "are," "was" and "were.
profanity
News executives allow profanity only when it is essential to a story's meaning; even then, they refuse to publish the most offensive terms.
negative construction
For clarity, avoid negative constructions. Sentences should be cast in positive form.
EX: students often did not come to class: students rarely came to class
gush
Reporters also avoid "gush"�writing with exaggerated enthusiasm. They write news stories to inform members of a community, not to please their sources
echo
An echo is the unnecessary repetition of a word. Good writing avoids an echo by eliminating redundant words or phrase. Her annual salary was $29,000 year, don't need the word year.
essential appositive
provides information that is needed to identify what is referred to by the preceding noun or pronoun. The class Organic Chemistry 101
non-essential appositive
Set off by commas if they occur in the middle or end of a sentence and are not necessary to the meaning of the sentence.
study pages
20,39, 72, 48-50, 52, 57,60-62, 66-68