NEWS WRITING
The first thing to
understand as you approach news writing is that news stories do not exist as
such, therefore writing a news story depends on stories as they happen in time.
It is good to know that a story is an event or an idea and as such it must
happen in reality and not at your keyboard or your mind. Do not ever forget
this, stories happen live! While your imagination and creativity are important
in writing news stories, the staple of news is events, ideas and people as we encounter
them in real life.
Stories are often based
on the events, ideas or emotions of people or the aftermaths of real
experiences in the hearts and minds of people telling you their stories. As a
writer you are merely a composer of realities in written words or in visuals. You
are a reporter. You are a story teller.
Roy Peter Clark (as
cited by Itule and Anderson, 2008), arguably one of the best known writing
coaches in the USA, had identified fourteen qualities often shared by good news
writers:
1.
Good news writers see the world as a
storehouse of stories. They search for and find stories more or less everywhere
even in places many do not bother to search.
2.
Good news writers prefer to discover and
develop their own stories live. They search and discover offbeat stories rather
beyond the conventional.
3.
Good news writers are voracious
collectors of information. They are reporters first, then writers. They look
for quality information, record accurately and comprehensively rather than just
write with style.
4.
Good news writers spend time in crafting
their leads until they sound and read interesting and luring.
5.
Good news writers immerse themselves in
their stories. They live, breathe, and dream their stories, always looking for
new directions and fresh information.
6.
Good news writers aspire to write well
every time even when they are under the pressure of deadlines. They tend to
think and write most effectively due to high standards that often requires
doing several drafts until they achieve clear, concise and forceful stories.
7.
Good news writers understand the
drudgery involved in writing well and they discipline themselves accordingly.
They often develop idiosyncrasies that help them build momentum during the
writing process.
8.
Good news writers rewrite as often as possible
and are rarely satisfied with their final stories, often burdened with a sense
of imperfection, they will not hesitate to get someone to read and edit their
stories.
9.
Good news writers tend to trust their
ears and their feelings more than their eyes. They often write as if they are
under some spell or inner promptings.
10.
Good news writers love reporting
stories, well. They are constantly searching for the human angle and for
stories they believe will resonate with their readers. They use a lot of anecdotes,
sceneries, and narratives as long as these enliven their writings.
11.
Good news writers understand that their
write-ups are a transaction between writers and readers, as they aspire to
reach exacting standards for themselves and at the same time want to treasure
the reader, taking responsibility for what the reader learns from their
stories.
12.
Good news writers love the
unconventional approach to a story and aspire to produce unique, original and
creative news stories.
13.
Good news writers are lifelong readers;
they love movies; they love life and tend to collect stories in various forms
and genres. They love words and clear thinking that goes along with forceful,
creative news stories.
14.
Good news writers do not hesitate to
write and write, using transitions and endings to keep their readers going.
They aspire to write seamless stories up till the endings such that readers are
lured to read on and read every word.
It
is good for news reporters to imbibe these traits over a period of their
journalistic careers. Every journalist wants to report and write effective news
stories; breaking news, offbeat stories, fair and accurate tidbits, someday an
award-winning story.
Sissons
(2006) explains that good journalism requires good writing and where stories
are badly written the journalist may fail to inform the reader adequately. Good
writing makes the reader understand clearly what has been written by using the
right words or phrases to accurately describe events, people or ideas. Good
writing uses short and simple sentences in short paragraphs so as not to
overwhelm the reader and to encourage the reader to stay with the story. In
order to write clearly the reporter has to think clearly to know what the story
is and in what succinct way to put the story across and in an appropriate
language that will be understandable to the reader. The writing of a news story
begins when the reporter collects information from sources – people, documents,
databases, or participant or non-participant observations.
Subsequently, the
reporter identifies the central point of the story and then rehearses more or
less what to write and how to write it. Most stories are written in the
reporter’s mind long before any word is put on paper or typed on the screen.
Such rehearsal helps to stimulate creativity that would be needed in developing
the story idea further until actual writing begins. Instead of writing out an
outline for the news story, most reporters rehearse in their minds what the
story would look like and how it would be organized and then they begin writing
and let what they have started writing down suggest what comes next to write,
being guided by the notes that that have already taken at the scene of events
or from interviews or from other sources.
While
some reporters are reputed to be able to write without notes, most begin their
writing with notes, choosing what to use or highlight from their notes or
listing the facts in the order they think would best tell the story with good
flow until what they are writing begins to take shape and structure in a
meaningful way. Themes and facts are connected and the story takes shape
logically and is nearly complete following a structures already determined such
as inverted pyramid, modified chronology, trend piece, multiple element story, the
hour glass or the nut graf, etc. In addition, the intro or lead is almost
always well thought out right from before any writing is done, and so is the
story ending.(Harper, 1998)
News
writing requires that the reporter decides what form the story would take, what
facts would be discarded and what would be included, and in which style would
the story be written. Style includes decision pertaining to how the story is
written such as whether it is terse, verbose, detailed or sparse.
The lead or
intro also requires deciding how to put words together to make a compelling
first paragraph. Denis and Ismach (1981) surmised that news writing is
controlled, purposeful communication between the writer and the audience that
is shaped and molded by the writer such that each writer exemplifies a voice in
writing that is peculiar to no one else.
In spite of such individual
differences in style, effective news writing ought to answer two questions as
to whether the story has adequately informed the reader and whether the story
has presented the subject in understandable written form. In writing a news
story every reporter goes through these stages:
1.
Choosing
the subject which involves getting a story idea
which the reporter believes is news worthy and deciding to gather the necessary
facts as thoroughly as possible using methods that would yield the most
valuable information.
2.
Planning
here involves taking inventory of possible sources both direct and indirect
that might provide sufficient facts to make the story comprehensive and
complete.
3.
News
Gathering which means collecting adequate information to write
a detailed and complete story. The vital step in the process is gathering. Good
writing begins with good reporting. The reporter must find the details and the
facts to make the story and decide whether enough information had been
collected to cover a comprehensive and complete story, and when to begin
writing bearing in mind the deadline for submission of a complete story.
Sometimes a story might extend further and evolve into one or more follow up
stories until the issue or event is exhaustively covered.
4.
Prewriting
often takes place in the head of the reporter though in some cases it may
involve the reviewing of notes already taken, writing out an outline for the
story, deciding what the central point of the story is, and the length, form
and style of the planned story. Once the facts have been gathered there would
be an urge to decide on a focus or central point of the story. Every news story
should have one dominant idea. That is the focus or reason for writing the
story. Without a focus, facts meander or become disjointed and confuse the
reader. To find the focus the reporter must find the central point. One way to do this is to find that one
sentence which tells the meaning of the story.
5.
Writing
involves
putting together the elements of the story starting with the lead or intro. It
involves deciding which of the facts are most important and placing them in a
logical order most often through the inverted pyramid news structure or through
a chronological sequence as if the story is being narrated naturally. It also
involves discarding all facts that do not help establish the central point.
This stage is a word for word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph
work that involves pace, tone, form and style. Once the main hurdle has been
cleared writing the lead or intro, the reporter now makes effort to get the
rest of the story written making sure that the second, third and following
paragraphs live up to the promise of the intro, leading the reader through the
story so that the facts are absorbed easily from the information that had been
gathered. The amount of detail which to include in a news story is different
for print and broadcasting. Writing for a newspaper or magazine requires as
much relevant detail as possible but for radio or television much less detail
might be needed.
6.
Rewriting starts
once the story had been written and it requires a process of editing and
revising making sure that what had been written is actually what is intended.
It starts with checking the story for mistakes of typography, grammar or
omissions of relevant details. The reporter works on the manner of expression,
moving sentences or paragraphs around to have a logical sequence and enhance
the flow of the story and clarity. Revision involves the adding, rearranging,
removing, and replacing of the elements of the story. The editing stage is distinct from revision,
and needs to be done after revising. Editing involves the close-up view of
individual sentences and words. When editing, the reporter goes through the
write-up line by line, and make sure that each sentence, phrase and word is as
strong as possible. Some things to check for are:
a. Have
you used the same word too many times in one sentence or paragraph? Use a thesaurus
to find alternatives.
b. Are
any of your sentences hard to understand? Rewrite them to make your thoughts
clear.
c. Which
words could you cut to make a sentence stronger? Words like “just” “quite”,
“very”, “really” and “generally” can often be removed.
d. Are
your sentences grammatically correct? Keep a careful look out for problems like
subject-verb agreement and staying consistent in your use of the past, present
or future tense.
e. Is
everything spelt correctly? Proofread as many times as necessary.
7.
Getting
Feedback is a way to find out how effective the story is.
Such feedback may come from the news editor to the reporter or from the readers
or from the news organization the reporter is working for. The outcome of
feedback may require a retraction in the case of error in the news story or it
may lead to another follow up story which develops other aspects of the first
story yet reported.
It
is pertinent to note that news writing requires decisions from the reporter at
every of the seven stages and such decisions help shape what the full story
eventually looks like. Also, some decisions are made by the reporter, some by
news sources, some by news editors or the news organization the reporter is
working for. There are three concepts that are crucial to learning news writing:
form, another term for story type or
story structure, content, is what is
contained in the news story in words, sentences and paragraphs, and style, the way reporters use words,
organize sentences and put their writer’s voice upon the story.
News
writing story types or forms serve as one or more of informational,
interpretive, opinion or editorial and entertainment functions. Broadly, these
functions are under either news or feature types. News story types include spot
news, straight news, and backgrounders. Spot news report breaking news stories,
straight news are coverage of routine, anticipated stories and backgrounders
provide historical context and backgrounds and may be chronological rather than
the inverted pyramid most often used for the news story types. The feature
story types include interpretive stories, news analysis, news features,
profiles, interview-question and answer stories, how-to-do-it stories and the
enterprise or serial stories. Feature stories are generally longer, more
detailed and interpretive or narrative.
The
other types of interpretive stories are the opinion-editorial types or the
columns. Editorials are the collective opinions written in one piece on behalf
of the newspaper or magazine. Columns are individual opinion on a public issue,
idea or event and could be written by a staff writer or a guest writer. The
story type or form usually fit the content and convey diverse information for
the reader. Style denotes the way the stories are written. Style is the
distinctive aspects of written expression, the manner of organization of
content, the actual and peculiar execution of words, sentences and paragraphs
unique to the individual reporter or writer in terms of tone, voice, or
literary devices used. Different reporters write differently and have
individual styles within the context of the story forms of inverted pyramid,
chronological or other story types. A
good style is fluent, conversational, visual and distinctive in a way that
reads naturally coherently, devoid of fancy words or expressions. Good news
writing involves accuracy, clarity, conciseness, coherence, conventionality and
originality.
News
writing is a transaction between the reporter and the reader, therefore the
audience comes before the style and the reporter, having the reader in mind,
should then decide in what tone of voice to address them. It is only when the
reporter has arrived at a consistently identifiable writer’s voice which the
reader can recognize and understand that it can be said that the reporter has a
style. Furthermore, the inverted pyramid
structure is invaluable for most stories especially of the spot news or
straight news types and it also enhances the pace of most news stories. (Denis
and Ismach, 1981; Bagnall, 1993; Stewart, 1998;Harper, 1998)
Writing
news stories require several different efforts that can be subsumed under four
stages: crafting the intro or lead, developing the subsequent amplifying
second, third or more paragraphs, blocking out the rest of the story and
fashioning the story ending.
The
first stage is writing the intro or lead. This requires
finding the central or key point which summarizes the story and at the same
time the most compelling or interesting fact of the story. A useful technique
is to try to determine which of the seven questions – who, what, where, why, when, how, and so what, gives the most compelling point of the story and use this
in one or more sentences to write the lead, making sure not to clutter
unnecessarily. An effective intro or lead has two essential functions:
summarize the story and highlight a central or key point or issue of fact, as
well as intrigue the readers enough, luring them so that they will continue to
read. There are many types of leads but the most common include:
1.
Summary Lead which makes a succinct
statement that generalizes the central points that is then amplified later in
the story.
2.
Narrative Lead which tells a story in
some descriptive detail in a chronological but interesting manner to hook the
reader.
3.
Quotation Lead uses an apt or dramatic
quote that may be attributed or notbut interesting enough to intrigue the
reader. Quotation leads usually require considerable amplification in
subsequent paragraphs.
4.
Question Lead is sentence in the form of
a compelling question that gives a glimpse of key aspects of the story in such
a way as to encourage the reader to continue reading.
5.
Indirect or delayed Lead delays saying
what the story is about and teases the reader with perhaps an anecdote or short
interesting story.
There is no single
correct way to write a lead, what is important is that it is conveying as much interesting information as
possible in as few words as possible. A good lead grabs the reader and also
helps the reporter see what else needs to be written.
Though experienced
reporters instinctively know what should be included in a lead, one of the real
problems student journalists have when learning to write a lead is what to put
in, and what to leave out. Robert Unger, cited in Christopher Harper (1998)
provides some guiding thoughts that can be useful:
1.
Ask what the story is about, what does
the reader need to know from the story, what surprised you most in the story
and what would you tell first?
2.
Look for the drama, tension or conflict
in the story?
3.
Meetings and government stories can be
interesting if the lead tells how the story will affect the reader.
4.
Ask how can you summarize the story in
one succinct sentence?
5.
Use action verbs in the active voice and
include the key point and save the other details for subsequent paragraphs.
Developing the
subsequent paragraphs involves expanding on any general
points made in the lead. The second paragraph of the news story or the third is
written to get nonessential details saved from the lead in a way that connects
the main body of the story with the lead. Subsequent paragraphs fill out some
more of the story as it gets more and more detailed. The first three paragraphs
including the lead function jointly to lead-in the reader to continue reading
possibly till the ending.
The next stage is
blocking out the rest of the story. As the story proceeds
it gets to a point when introductory details cease and some other elements of
the story are added – more details, contrasting views, historical and factual
backgrounds, etc. This is where the reporter decides further which more details
will go where in the story paragraphs – the blocking out of the rest of the
story. Blocking out organizes the story further into a cohesive report.
Fashioning the story
ending requires as much creative effort as, perhaps, the
intro or lead. In the inverted pyramid story structure, the ending may be the
least important fact, or a recap of the lead or a general summary of the whole
story.
Some other story types require much more creative effort such as a punch
line or a revelation or an anecdote. A story is complete when the reporter has
told every interesting detail the reader ought to know.Other forms of news
writing apart from the spot news or the straight news story are generally
referred to as feature writing. In feature writing the reporter has considerably
more flexibility and creativity as in non-fiction writing. Feature writers,
like reporters doing straight news stories, must present a complete report
which must appeal to the reader.
There are generally three models for writing
beyond the straight news story type: descriptive,
analytical and consequential story types.
Story
types
|
Characteristics:
Uses
|
Questions
Answered
|
Examples
|
Descriptive
Story
|
A
straightforward description of the of the basicfacts of a situation or event – terse, to-the-point,
just
to cover the nature and scope of event or issue to make sense to the reader.
|
Who
What
Where
When
|
News-feature
stories, events coverage e.g. natural disaster election demonstration, Profiles, Q&A stories, How-to-do-it
stories, Travelogues, etc.
|
Analytical
Story
|
A
story focusing on the explanations and interpretation of events, issues and
ideas; how and why the situation or event occurred.
|
How
Why
|
Backgrounders
explaining behind the events or issues; News Analysis; Advocacy, Opinion/Editorials,
etc.
|
Consequential
Story
|
A
story of what events, issues or ideas mean now and in the long term.
Speculative and interpretative stories using sources who are experts to give
likely consequences for individuals or communities.
|
So
What
|
Interpretive
stories, trend pieces, Process stories, Enterprise stories etc.
|
Source: Denis and
Ismach, 1981, pg.171.
When writing the news
story, the reporter often have to decide on the most suitable story form by
guts or in consultation with an editor. Whatever the case may be the most
suitable story form is required, for example, the reporter dealing with a
breaking news would most probably decide to use the straight news story format;
nothing does this better than the inverted pyramid story structure.
The
reporter here has the responsibility of describing and explaining what
happened, where, when and who is involved. The reader needs to know the facts
told in a straight forward, and timely manner. It gets to the point immediately
and gives the reader facts in the order of importance such that the reader may
decide to stop somewhere in the story after the lead and still get a good grasp
of what happened.
The inverted pyramid’s strength is that it lets the reader
know immediately what is important. It wastes no time in catching the reader’s
interest through a succinct lead that tells central or key point of the story.
Once the lead has lured the reader the next one or two paragraphs gives enough
facts to establish the story without lending itself to much drama in the storytelling.
This just doesn’t convey any emotion of the event to the reader, just the
facts, nothing but the facts.
However when the story
involves a number of complex factors, when there are multiple sources or story
elements and differing interpretations, or when the tone or mood of the
situation must be conveyed to the reader, another story form apart from the
inverted pyramid may be better.
Similarly, when the story moves beyond an
inventory of facts into the realm of analysis or consequences, another story
form may be required.
Feature forms are especially useful in the
analysis-consequence stories that appear several days after the breaking news.
The feature forms allow the reporter to continue to stimulate reader interest
long after the breaking news. A feature is an opportunity to take more than a
superficial look at a newsworthy situation after the straight news treatment
has be used by the reporter. It is an opportunity to explore the background to
an issue, or the character of the person behind a news event. It is an
opportunity to offer the reader a better understanding of the news which has
been reported already. Feature stories
are not defined so much by subject matter as they are by the style in which
they are written, which is often beyond the inverted pyramid style.
Like
news, features are built from facts. Nothing in them is made up or embellished.
But in features, these facts are embedded in or interwoven with scenes and
small stories that show rather than simply tell the information that is
conveyed. Features are grounded in time, in place and in characters who inhabit
both. Often features are framed by the specific experiences of those who drive
the news or those who are affected by it. They are no less precise than news.
But they are less formal and dispassionate in their structure and delivery. Features
are structured so that readers engage in and experience a story — with a
beginning, middle and ending — even as they absorb new information.
Feature define itself by the way it has been written. In
many newspapers or news magazine today, the leader story is normally treated in
one of the many feature forms to provide a fullness of background and depth
that are beyond the structure and length of the inverted pyramid, utilizing
description, explanation, analysis and interpretation to give the story drama,
tension and emotion resulting in a story of human interest that resonates with
the reader. These other feature forms tells a story about events, ideas, issues
or people that the reader already knows about from previous straight news
elsewhere in the publication or already published in a previous edition. Some news stories, even major front
page stories, are written in the form of a feature.
Features can be news
backgrounders, fulfilling the explanatory role when there is not room for that
in the main news story. Increasingly, newspapers run packages, where news and
background features - explanation, implications, and case studies - are placed
together in the newspaper. Features can also be written about subjects
away from the news: talking points, social trends, fads, fashions, arts and
entertainment. They can explain issues and add the human dimension to stories
about statistics, opinion polls, focus group discussion and medical conditions.
They cover all the specialist areas, such as fashion, health
and medicine, lifestyle, sport, education, environment, music, technology and
travel. They
deal with what is simply
interesting, remarkable or amusing in all of human life.Feature stories are
journalistic, researched, descriptive, colorful, thoughtful, reflective,
thorough writing about original ideas. Feature stories cover topics in
depth, going further than mere hard news coverage by amplifying and explaining
the most interesting and important elements of a situation or occurrence.
Features forms, especially the news feature type, tend to take a more narrative
approach using settings, characters, complications or plots as narrative hooks
instead of the delivery of the most important facts.
The best reporters want
to write their stories in the most effective manner possible, and often that
means much thinking about what story forms or structure will best do the job.
Most major feature story forms are called names like interpretive analysis,
consequence stories, personality profiles, backgrounders, depth reporting,
humanistic journalism, and precision journalism. In essence, the feature story
fills out the space between the lines of the standard straight news story. It
adds colour and flesh, considers human factors, reports meaning, emotions and
motivations. The result for the reader is a different level of understanding –
richer, more refined look at the complexity of the story. The feature story
form comes in so many varieties and often adapts techniques hitherto utilized
by fiction writers to non-fiction as long as there is human interest focus,
theme, style and authenticity, helping the reporter to do a better job for
reader.
There are lots of different kinds of
features. Here are some of the main types.
The Profile A profile is an article about an individual, a place or an
institution and the profile article is one of the staples of feature writing.
Profiles can be done on just about any place or any institution and anyone who
is interesting and newsworthy. For instance, the idea of thepersonality profile
is to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at what a person is really like,
warts and all, away from their public persona. Profile articles generally
provide background on the profile subject - their age, where they grew up and
were educated, where they live now, are they married, do they have kids, etc.
Beyond such factual basics, profiles look at who and what influenced the
person, their ideas, and their choice of vocation or profession.
The News Feature The news feature is just what it sounds like - a feature
article that focuses on a topic of interest in the news. News features often
cover the same subjects as deadline hard-news stories, but do so in greater
depth and detail. And since feature articles are "people stories,"
news features tend to focus on individuals more than deadline news stories,
which often focus more on numbers and statistics. For instance, let's say
you're writing about the increase in heart disease. A deadline story on the
topic might focus on statistics showing how heart disease is on the rise, and
include quotes from experts on the topic. A news feature, on the other hand,
would likely begin by telling the story of one person suffering from heart
disease. By describing he struggles of an individual, news feature can tackle
big, newsy topics while still telling very human stories.
The Spot Feature Spot features are feature stories produced on deadline that
focus on a breaking news event. Often news features are used as sidebars to the main deadline news story about an event. Let's say a
tornado hits your town. Your straight newsstory will focus on the five W's and
the H of the story - the number of casualties, the extent of the damage, the
rescue efforts involved, and so on. But with this main story you could have any
number of sidebars focusing on certain aspects of the event. One story might
describe the scene at an emergency shelter where displaced residents are
housed. Another might reflect on past tornadoes in your town. Yet another might
examine the weather conditions that led to the destructive storm. Literally
dozens of different sidebars could be done in this case, and more often than
not they would be written in a feature style.
The Live-In The live-in is an in-depth, often
magazine-length article that paints a picture of a particular place and the
people who work or live there. Live-ins have been done on homeless shelters,
emergency rooms, battlefield encampments, cancer hospices, public schools and
police precincts, among other locales. The idea is to give readers a look at a
place they probably wouldn't normally encounter. Reporters doing live-ins must
spend a fair bit of time in the places they're writing about (thus the name).
That's how they get a real sense of the place's rhythm and atmosphere. The
live-in is really the ultimate example of the reporter immersing him or herself
in the story.
Historical
Features These
features commemorate important dates in history or turning points in our social,
political and cultural development. They offer a useful juxtaposition of then
and now. Historical features take the reader back to revisit an event and
issues surrounding it. A variation is the, this date in history short
feature, which reminds people of significant events on a particular date.
Reviews and Previews Both of these are reporter’s description and opinion of the
film or play or concert or exhibition; a preview is published before it is open
to the public (as a result of a special press preview) and a review is
published as soon as possible after the first public performance.
Revelations A newspaper, radio or television
stations own investigations may reveal something which the public ought to
know. There are often injustices in any society - social, economic or political
- which journalists can bring to light. Features about inadequate housing
conditions for poor people in towns, child abuse or favouritism in political
appointments can open a society's eyes to its own problems.
Analysis and Predictions.An informed and skilled person may be able to write features
predicting future events, on the basis of analyzing present information. Care
must be taken with these, however, as uninformed predictions make newspapers
look very stupid. It is often a good idea to invite an academic or experienced
person to write a feature of this kind, rather than to write it yourself.
Debate of Issues A controversial issue may be debated through the feature
pages of a newspaper, so that your readers may be given the arguments for both
sides and be able to make up their own minds. This is often best done by two
people with opposing views each writing an argument to support their case.
These may be published either on consecutive days or together on the same day.
The Trend Story Trend stories take the pulse of the culture at the moment,
looking at what's new, fresh and exciting in the world of art, fashion, film,
music, and high-technology and so on. The emphasis in trend stories is usually
on light, quick, easy-to-read pieces that capture the spirit of whatever new
trend is being discussed.
How-To-Do-IT
This
type of article assists readers by explaining how to do something (and the
writer may learn about the topic through research, experience, or interviews
with experts on the topic).
The Multiple-Element Story
Most
stories tend to have just one main element on which to build them, that is,
single-element stories. But not every feature story is that simple. Some
feature stories have more than one most important or interesting element. Thus,
the reporter needs to write the multi-elements into the story’s lead and within
the main body. All the important items
must be introduced in the lead and expanded in the full story. With a
multi-element story, though, the story organization might look like the model
below. The first step to writing the multi-element story would be to figure out
what different issues have in common are and state them in one sentence each.
Multi-element stories are common in newspapers with stories about multiple
accidents, weather incidents, roundups, meeting stories, etc. Anything where
the bigger picture is more newsworthy.
TheWall Street Journal Formula(WSJ)
is the most commonly used method of writing feature stories. This method
consist of four basic sections:
1.) The story opens with an anecdotal, descriptive, or narrative incident as
lead,
2.) The ‘nut graf’ follows the lead and generally explains the it by providing
a transition to the focus of the story,
3.) The body of the story is supporting information (quotes, facts,
developments) all which cover the focus of the story in detail,
4.) The ending ties in to the lead and includes another anecdotal or
description of the people/person featured in the story.
To engage readers, feature writers may apply some of these tools
of analysis:
Extrapolation — looking for the
“why” or principal cause of a story so as to provide backgrounders to
the news development.
Synthesis — looking for common
threads that can broaden a story’s impact. Blundell offers the example of a
series of mishaps in the city of San Diego that made the city ripe for a
feature on its dubious claim to being the American capital of civic
embarrassment.
Localization — Examining big events
or developments in smaller ways — either by taking a national or global event
and examining its impact within the writer’s local area or by viewing a broad,
thematic problem — post-traumatic stress disorder in the military, for example
— through the experiences of an individual whose story represents the more
universal experience.
Projection — looking beyond the
news development by writing a story that considers how the news affects a
person or group of people. In a story about the dangers of cell phones and
driving, the reporter builds the story around one young man whose life was
shaken when he ran a stop light and took a life while talking on the phone.
(Blundell, 1988)
Feature
writers are always on the lookout for the human aspects of the story and from
those elements of the story that lend themselves to entertaining as well as
informative, narrative writing. Some of this elements come in the form of
anecdotes – short stories that help make the larger story more interesting for
readers. Some more elements include specific and descriptive details emotive
content, and sensory images – sound, smell, touch, and taste depicted in
picture-words that enable readers appreciate the story more.
Apart from the
various feature forms already mentioned, there are others: first person
stories, hobby or occupation stories, travel stories, and special section
stories in business, science, health and medicine, sports,
entertainment/celebrity features and serialized stories.
Feature
writing for magazines differs from newspaper feature writing not so much in the
types or forms of writing but in how reporters write them. There three main
areas of difference – time, space, and voice. For magazines deadline is not as
crucial as for newspapers. Magazine writers always have a lead time several
days or weeks or even months longer than newspaper writers have. Secondly, space is limited for newspapers
whereas the magazine writer has a lot more space on the pages of the
publication in which to work. For voice, the way the story sounds to the
reader, newspapers often sound institutional but magazine writers tend to be
much more individual, finding their own voice.
Opinion
writing is another important aspect of media writing. The basic types of
opinion writing include editorials, columns, letters to the editor and reviews
(or previews). Editorials are the opinion of the newspaper, radio/television
station, magazine or web site as an institution.The difference between fact and
opinion, fact is a piece of information based on something real whereas opinion
is a view, judgment or perspective or appraisal formed in the mind of an
individual about a particular matter. It
is often said that in journalism, facts are sacred and not to be tampered with
but opinions are free and must be unfettered.
Writing
editorials and columns allows
the writer the ability to influence public opinion, bring a topic to the
forefront of discussion, or expose something with which the writer does not
agree. Opinion shows up throughout the newspaper in columns, which express
personal views, and in reviews, such as those of books, movies, music, restaurants,
theater and events. Good editorial writing is still reporting. An editorial
presents facts, but gives more analysis and more of the writer’s opinions. Each
editorial should have an ample amount of research, much like an investigative
piece a reporter would write. Never should an editorial be purely based on the
writer’s opinion without evidence to back up the said opinion.The topic chosen
for editorials often reflects discussion of people and events going on around,
issues that are important or that are trending. Generally, an editorial writer
proposes a stand, which should reflect thorough research and weighing of the
facts.An editorial or column writer should do research just as a reporter would.
If a
newspaper or magazine is to maintain its credibility with readers, news and
opinion must stay separate.The editorial should read like a conversation. In
other words, when the column is read aloud, it should sound and feel perfectly
normal, just as if the writer were talking to someone. A columnist should be
writing for the ear, not the eye. Humor is good much of the time. It grabs the
reader and feels more natural to the ear than chunks of information crammed
together. A good editorial or column must make sure all sides of an argument
are heard and that the argument is clearly supported with facts. Criticism when given must have a purpose.
An
editorial should be divided into four parts:
Introduction — Give information and background
on your topic. Don’t assume the readers are already familiar with the argument.
This part lets the reader know what is subject is being discussed and where the
writer stands on the issue.
Reaction — Explain your position. This part gives the necessary context for the
reader to understand and appreciate where the writer is coming from in is
argument.
Details— Provide support for your argument.
More details are provided, specific back grounding is done so that the reader
sees the facts. It is hard to deny there is an issue when the facts pointing to
the problem are so clearly presented.
Conclusion — Provide alternatives or solutions
and restate the paper’s position. There may be an anecdote here that brings the
point home clearly to the reader. The writer must finish strong attempting to
convince the reader that the position taken is right or at least a strong point
has been made.
Writing Reviews (or Previews) most often requires some criticism
which tends to assess the good points and the bad of a particular movie, book,
event, plays, restaurant, music, and the like.The critic’s analysis is the
centerpiece of any review, but that is not much use to readers if writer does
not provide enough background information. So if you’re reviewing a movie that
means not just outlining the plot but also discussing the director and his
previous films, the actors and perhaps even the screenwriter. Critiquing a
restaurant? When did it open, who owns it and who’s the head chef? An art
exhibit? Tell us a little about the artist, her influences and her previous
works. Too many beginning reviewers are eager to write but know little or
nothing about their chosen topic. If you want to write reviews that carry some
authority, then you need to learn everything you can. A good reviewer may not
necessary be an authority or expert on the subject but a well-informed layman,
at the very least.Good reviews always contain several strengths and weaknesses
and use specific examples and references. Most reviews seem to adhere to three
general guidelines:
1. Reviewers typically review something
for what it is trying to be, not criticize it for not being something else. For
instance, it is unfair to criticize a rap artiste for not performing jazz or a
horror film for not being much of a comedy.
2. Reviewers do not give away important
elements of whatever they are reviewing, especially when the write-up is a
preview.
3. Reviewers know they are informing as
much as reviewing.
Writing for Broadcast is basically writing for the ear of
the listener rather than the eye of the reader. It is also much more informal
and conversational than writing for newspapers and magazines. However,
identifying the news is more or less the same whether you are writing for print
or broadcast media or even the web. The broadcast news writer is first and
foremost a reporter whose primary duty is to convey the news. The basic
principles of news reporting and writing applies here though there are some
distinct differences between print and broadcast writing. For example,
broadcast news leads are not expected to be packed full of facts as we have it
in the summary leads of newspapers, rather the broadcast news writer must
include as many details as possible within a much more limited presentation;
this requires a good feel for the dramatic in the event being covered and much
more condensation.
The good broadcast journalist has learned to be a master of
first impressions, getting the listener or the viewer to understand an intricate
plot of a news story immediately within a matter of seconds. There is no room
for any long and windy story, nor any extraneous information but only the
phrases and comments that bring the desired story moving forward in the mind’s
eye of the listener or viewer. In addition to good timing, the visual and aural
aspects of the story must be adequately considered as well as the personality
of the newscaster who would read the news on air. The broadcast news often
times is more of infotainment than information, especially on radio. On
television the picture is paramount and the writer is better advised not to
waste the relatively few precious words in the average-length story by writing
something the audience can see. Television news writer must show what is happening
rather telling the viewer about it. Sometimes the radio news also does this
using sound in the background to create pictures in the head of the listeners.
Internet News writing more or less use the same skills as
in writing for other media, although the internet can deliver anything that can
be converted to digital form: text, photos, animation, sound, and video as well
as computer applications that let their active audience interact with any of
these exchanges on line. On line news though different from all other
traditional media, somehow embraces them all. News on the internet combine the
depth of print journalism with the immediacy, interactivenness and realism of
broadcast, and goes beyond all of these using applications such as chat rooms,
forums, links, etc. to provide much more than any of these media can give to
the audience. (Hilliard, 2008)
According to Bob Stepno, Online
journalists:
1. 1. offer more depth than
"on air" minutes or "in print" spaces allow
- link to source materials, related
stories and more
- use multimedia when
words aren't enough
- know their audience -- even collaborate
with viewers on stories through the interactivity of e-mail links,
blogs and online discussions.
- The
Web is all about hypertext linkage. News sites can link to earlier
stories, documents, background source materials and public discussions, to
images, documents, databases and multimedia presentations.
(http://www.stepno.com/oldblog/stories/2006/10/27/onlineNewsWriting.html)
