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Journalism Boot Camp Name: ______________________________________ Date: ___________________ 2019 Journalism Boot Camp 10 Elements of Newsworthiness What makes news worthy of news coverage? Sex Appeal Timeliness (being relevant to the present) Emotion Progress (or lack of progress/regression) Prominence (quality of being well-known) Proximity (closeness) Impact (importance) Drama Oddity Conflict While knowing the fundamentals of spelling, grammar, and punctuation is important, being aware of your purpose and audience are especially key to creating a good article. The Four Phases of the Journalistic Process Credibility, or trustworthiness, requires time and effort on the part of the journalist. To gain and maintain credibility, journalists move through the following four phases before their articles get published: 1) Conceive: At this stage, you should develop the idea for your story. 2) Collect: This is the reporting stage where you interview your sources and gather as much information as you can about your topic. You should seek out several points of view. 3) Construct: This is the writing stage where you bring your research together. Develop your story around a main focus and choose the details that support the main idea. 4) Correct: This is the revision and editing stage that entails checking for spelling, grammar, style, and general typing errors. It is also the phase in which the reporter should review all facts to make sure they are accurate, which is defined as the quality of being correct. Interviewing skills are necessary for successful reporting. Journalists need to be patient, proactive, and persistent to get the information they need from their sources. A source can be defined as the person, place, or document from which a journalist gets his/her information. All non-opinion articles should show evidence of at least three sources. Even opinion articles, however, can benefit from sourcing. Beginning and Ending an Article An article always begins with a lead. A lead is the first sentence (or first few sentences) of an article. Often, the lead consists of just one sentence. Your lead should have impact and somehow reflect your focus for the article. The goal of the lead is to capture the reader’s attention quickly and honestly. Listing the five W’s (who, what, where, when, why) and H (how) of the article and working from there may be a constructive approach. 1 As you continue writing your article, concentrate on the “why” and “how.” This is where the most interesting information lies! Answering the question, “So what?” is also a good way to keep your focus in mind. Here are some questions to ask yourself when trying to think of a lead: • What struck you as most interesting about the topic about which you are writing? • What do you think readers want/need to know? • What do you think might capture the reader’s attention? • What scene, person, or small group can you describe to convey the importance of the event or topic? (Note that the vignette lead is a lead that specifically describes a significant scene, person, or small group. In order to write a vignette lead, the reporter must have witnessed/seen what he/she is describing.) The closing paragraph of an article is known as the kicker. It should provide a sense of closure (completeness), make the reader think, and/or convey valuable information. The Three Basic Forms of Journalistic Writing The traditional format of a basic news story is the inverted pyramid. The broad part, or base of the upside- down triangle, is where the most important facts are placed. As the pyramid narrows, the facts become less significant and detailed. There are many advantages to this style, which is a rather natural way of telling a story. A hurried reader can obtain the most important facts easily and an editor can trim a story to fit an allotted space without being worried about cutting essential details. It is important to remember that inverted pyramid is only one style, albeit a popular one, in news writing. In recent years, journalists have instead favoured the modified inverted pyramid. This form is similar to that of the inverted pyramid in that facts are arranged from most to least important, but in this form, the reporter closes the article with a catchy or interesting fact. Especially for feature articles, you may want to write an article using the storytelling form, whereby you apply the “tell-a-friend” technique. After collecting all of necessary information for your story, think about what you would explain first about the story if you were to tell your friend what happened. In storytelling form, you usually discuss the events in the chronological order in which they occurred, meaning that you would report the facts in the order in which they occurred. Writing Basics When writing articles, there are many basics to keep in mind. Paragraphing is very important to the organization of a story. Keep in mind that paragraphs in articles are usually quite short. They range from one to eight sentences and are far shorter than the paragraph length in literary essays. Transitions are also important because they make articles cohesive and easy to follow. Transitional words are words that help tie together concepts in an article. These words include furthermore, however, nevertheless, consequently, although, therefore, also, and additionally. The use of quotes is also essential to writing a good news or feature story. The most important aspect of using quotes is accuracy, which means the quality of being correct. Quotation marks indicate that a person’s exact words will follow, without distortion. The first quote in an article is called the lead quote. It is usually the strongest quote you have and supports the concept in the lead without repeating the same information or wording. The use of quotes demands attribution, which provides the reader the name of the source. Generally, the best verb to use when giving credit to a source is “said,” as is opinion-free. Other words such as “stated” or “declared” may carry hidden meanings. 2 At most news organizations, journalists are assigned to beats. A beat is a topic or person routinely covered by a specific news organization. A beat system is the plan to routinely cover specific topics or people. Examples of beats covered by high school newspapers are academic departments, the athletic director, school band, drama director, travel, law, internet, politics, fine arts, and the environment. Regardless of the beat a journalist is covering, he or she must steer clear of inserting his or her own opinion. Outside of opinion and review writing, this journalism would be recognized as biased (opinionated) reporting. Adjectives (such as great, bad, large, small, etc.) should be kept to a minimum so as not to convey prejudice or partiality. In a strong article, the facts should speak for themselves. Objective (uninfluenced by personal feelings) journalism may be an unrealistic goal, but journalists should ask themselves certain key questions to keep their writing as fair and multi-dimensional as possible. • Are all sides represented? In other words, is the article balanced? • Is all information accurate? • Would the advocates or disputants of a news story recognize the arguments of the journalist? • Has the reporter explained the story’s context? This means giving necessary background information so that the audience does not misinterpret information. Straight News Articles The most well-known and oldest type of article is the straight news article. This type of writing is unbiased (un-opinionated), and most often is an example of hard news. Straight news must be timely and is usually meant to inform rather than entertain. News articles regarding current politics, weather, and local events are typically straight news stories. Sports articles are usually classified as straight news, though they may also be regarded as features. Feature Articles Feature articles are similar to straight news stories, though they allow the writer more flexibility in writing style. They do not have the time-sensitive nature of straight news articles and rarely cover breaking news. Therefore, they are generally not front-page stories. They include factual information that can be presented in a friendlier tone than straight news stories allow, which causes them to often be categorized as soft news. Examples of features are profiles that focus on important leaders or specific individuals, analyses of a long- term problem facing a group, or articles that offers the reader useful tips. A feature article expands on the facts of a straight news story. It may interpret and add depth to a straight news story or function to entertain the reader. Be sure that as you write your feature, the tone, language, and content remain geared toward your reader. The introductory paragraph should grab the readers’ attention and motivate the audience to read the rest of the article. The body should consist of accurate information, anecdotes (very short stories), and quotations. As in straight news stories, it is important to rely on several sources to give a well-rounded, dynamic perspective. Unlike straight news, features usually have a conclusion that wraps up the entire article and provides some final insight for the reader. 3 Opinion Articles Opinion articles are intended to persuade, answer criticism, briefly comment, criticize, praise, offer a potential solution to a problem, motivate the reader to take action, and/or entertain. When writing an opinion article, research is just as important as it is for a straight news or feature article. Opinion articles are very similar to persuasive essays. They usually consist of the following parts: • Introduction: a brief statement of background concerning the topic • Thesis: the position/argument taken by the opinion piece • Body: support for the writer’s position • Conclusion: a restatement of the writer’s position and the potential recommendation of solutions and alternatives Before authoring an opinion article, a journalist should create a punch list.
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