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What Is News? What Makes It News?: JEA Curriculum

News is defined as information that is interesting, informative, new, recent, important and factual to readers. For a story to be considered news it should meet several criteria. It must be timely, proximate to the audience, have an impact or consequence, involve conflict, and elicit human interest or emotion. Additionally, news often involves prominent or famous people, odd or unusual events, and topics that many people are discussing. The most newsworthy stories encompass several of these elements. Accurate, objective and balanced reporting is important for credibility.

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55 views21 pages

What Is News? What Makes It News?: JEA Curriculum

News is defined as information that is interesting, informative, new, recent, important and factual to readers. For a story to be considered news it should meet several criteria. It must be timely, proximate to the audience, have an impact or consequence, involve conflict, and elicit human interest or emotion. Additionally, news often involves prominent or famous people, odd or unusual events, and topics that many people are discussing. The most newsworthy stories encompass several of these elements. Accurate, objective and balanced reporting is important for credibility.

Uploaded by

Ronald Allan Balderosa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is News?

What makes it news?


Presentation is adapted from http://pr-news.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_archive.html and
JEA curriculum

News is
Interesting
Informative
New

information

Recent
What

or current

interests the reader

Important
Factual
Fair

to the reader

and accurate

(both objective and balanced)

Can something be informative but


not important?
Is this informative, important or both?
Human interest story (personal story)
Celebrity news
Grammar textbook
Social studies textbook

The one big thing about News is


that it is factual.
News

must be based on FACTS


It must be ACCURATE
It is NOT an opinion

Fact vs Opinion
Fact

Something that can be


proven, verified as true or
false

Example:

The pizza was made with


pepperoni and pineapple.

The celebration was held in


the Ballroom.

Opinion

Person point of view

Open to interpretation

Example:

The pizza was good.

The celebration was the


largest one in town.

Bias
Allowing

your personal opinion or


preference for or against something

Selectively

revealing or holding back of


information that is pertinent to the story

Tips for accurate reporting and


writing
1. Make sure you understand the event.
2. Make sure you double check the names of
the people, their titles. You must spell proper
nouns correctly. Look it up names of
organizations or business to double check.
Ask the person to spell their name and then
have them check their name for correctness.

Tips continued
3. Make sure dates are correct. Double check
on a calendar if you are not sure.
4. Make sure you are recording the facts, not your
opinion
5. Dont write until you know what you want to
say.
6. Show; dont tell.

Tips continued
7. Put good quotes and human interest high in
the story. Verify each fact and quote.
8. Put relevant illustrations or anecdotes up high
in the story.
9. Use concrete nouns and colorful action verbs.

Tips continued
10. Avoid adjectival exuberance and resist propping up
verbs with adverbs.
11. Avoid judgments and inferences. Let the facts talk.
12. Dont raise questions you cannot answer in your
copy.
13. Write simply, succinctly, honestly and quickly.

Subjective vs Objective reporting


Subjective:

emphasis in on
opinion, bias, personal attitudes
Objective: based on fact, unbiased,
not personal feelings or opinions,
not a personal interpretation

Editorializing
When

you use your own opinion in a story it is


often referred to as editorializing.

If

you comment on how people felt, you are


editorializing. Everyone thought the movie
was great. This is editorializing because you
cant prove that the movie was great.

Report

the facts, not what you think or feel.


Give your reader the facts and let them

Balance
Cover

all sides of an issue

If

you state an opinion, balance it with other


opinions. Balance facts with other facts.

Make

sure to interview many people involved


in the story so that you get a true balanced
story

Balance
Sources:

the person that provides you the information for your story
Make sure you interview experts on the issue or story
Make sure that the people you are talking to know the facts so that
you get accurate information.
Who

is the expert on the event?


The person who organized the event?
A child attending the event?

Objectivity and Accuracy

Objectivity

is being true without including an


individuals biases, feelings, interpretations, and
imaginings

Accuracy

is reporting the factual, truthful


information.

What makes news news?

Rule of 8 what makes it news?

Timeliness/immediacy

Proximity

How close to the reader is the story happening? Can they connect to it?

Impact/Consequence

What is happening now.

How will the story impact your reader? If it doesnt impact your reader, reevaluate your story.

Conflict

Is there conflict between people, or governments?

Rule of 8 what makes it news?

Prominence/Celebrity

Oddity / Rarity / Novelty

Is the person in the story well known? This could be well known in the
community, not just famous people.

Is there something out of the ordinary about the story? Readers are often
interested in the unusual. Things that happen less frequently are often
considered more interesting.

Human Interest / Emotion

How does the story impact you emotionally? Does it make you laught? Cry?
Get angry? Does it pull at your heart strings?

Rule of 8 what makes it news?

Currency

Sometimes a story becomes news just because a lot of people are talking
about it. Is the story something that everyone seems to be talking about?
For example: the birth of Prince George.

News Value

The value is determined when a story has one or more of the elements of
news. The more elements of news that are present, the more the story is
said to have value.

Other considerations

Audience

Policy

Who is the story for?

What is policy of your paper on the type of stories that they will cover. Some
publications have policies on what and how a story can be written.

Competition

Whatever other media your audience reads or watches.

Other considerations

Presentation

How your story looks makes a difference. Take good photos, create
interesting infographics, write an intriguing headline.

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