MAC 201: NEWS

WRITING AND
REPORTING
OUTLINE
1. Definition of News,
2. Types of News
3. Qualities of a Good News Story
4. Components of News Story
5. Elements of News
6. Qualities of a News Reporter
7. Structure of a News Story
8. Leads & Types of Leads in News Story
9. Sources of News/Differences between News & Features
10. News Judgement & Layers of Reporting
11. News Writing for Newspapers
12. News Writing for a Broadcast Media
13. Conducting a News Interview
14. Elements of Good Quality Journalism
15. Tools of a News Writer/Reporter
16. Revision
 DEFINITION OF NEWS
What is News?
News is any new piece of information that may be of interest to the hearer
News is the account of an event, not necessarily the event itself
It is an account of events from North, East, West and South- meaning news comes from
anywhere
News is what the editor says is news
Making an event that has taken, is or will be taking place known to people
News is a living history- an account of current events that form part of tomorrow’s history
News is an account of a recent event or opinion which is important and interesting
(Shrivastata, 2007)
According to Lord Northcliffe, a well kwon English western journalist news is defined by the
following illustration: “if a dog bites a man, it is NOT news, but when a man bites a dog, it is
News.” meaning news is anything away from the ordinary
 DEFINITION OF NEWS
What is News?
 According to Ekeanyanwu (2012), news is an accurate, unbiased account of a current, timely event, which is
reported in the mass media and is significant to a large number of people in a locality
 News is about real life, real people, real events, real places or real issues in a real world reported in real time
using any available means of communication
 Agbese (2008) also sees
 news as finding out and publishing the things people do not want others to know and second, anything that
will make people talk
 For an event to be news, it must fulfil at least three of the 6 “5Ws and H” pillar of a news story.
 Who: Who are the person(s) involved or will be involved
 What: What has happened or will happen?
 When: When did the event take place or will take place?
 Where: Where exactly did the event occur will take place?
 Why: Are there reasons for the event that has taken place or what are the reasons for the event that will
happen?
 How: How did the event happen or how will it happen?
 TYPES OF NEWS
Two Types of News
 Hard News
 Hard news is a journalistic style and genre that focuses on events or incidents that are considered to be
timely and consequential to people locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally
 It covers topics such as politics, international affairs, economics, and science, and is characterised by its
objectivity, balance, completeness, and timeliness
 Hard news is considered to be of interest to many people, either in a particular area or country or in the
world
 Soft News
 Soft news, also known as market-centered journalism, is a journalistic style and genre that blurs the line between
information and entertainment.
 It tends to cover topics such as human-interest stories, celebrity news, entertainment, arts, and lifestyle topics and
other culture-related subjects
 Unlike hard news, which focuses on events with important, real-world implications, soft news is lighter and often
more entertaining, covering topics that do not have the same social gravity as hard news
 Examples of soft news stories include celebrity gossip, sports coverage, entertainment news, and human interest
pieces
 ELEMENTS OF GOOD NEWS STORIES
Elements of Good News Stories
 Elements of a good news story refer to both the determinants and components of a news story. They
include:
 Timeliness
 Impact, consequence, significance
 Proximity- geographical or psychological proximity or proximity of interest (social, religious, occupational, political, etc)
 Conflict
 Prominence
 Accuracy
 Objectivity
 Clarity
 Human interest: stories that arouse an emotion in the reader/ listener/ viewer and evoke an emotional response
 Novelty, Oddity, bizarre
 Necessity: The essential element here is that the journalist considers a situation to be something everyone should know about and usually
it is a situation that needs to be exposed and remedied
 Age
 Money
 Sex, etc
 QUALITIES OF NEWS EPORTER
Qualities of a News Reporter
 S/he must have a mastery of the written or spoken language of the medium of expression
 S/he must have a nose for news
 S/he must be current and keep abreast of events and happenings
 A good reporter must be fair, accurate and objective
 A good reporter must be creative
 S/he must also have the ability to dress well
 A good reporter must have perseverance
 A good reporter must be a “good mixer”: Ability to blend easily with all kinds of persons especially
when such persons are primary to getting the news he/she is pursuing at that moment.
 QUALITIES OF NEWS EPORTER
Qualities of a News Reporter
 S/he must have a high level of comportment
 A good reporter must have the ability to embark on creative risk and courage, especially in reporting
coups, wars, conflicts, crime, disaster etc.
 S/he must also possess good observatory skills and have an eye for details
 S/he must be a good listener and must have an unusual patience
 S/he should also possess enough idealism to inspire indignant prose but not too much as to obstruct
detached professionalism
 A good and modern reporter must be multi-skilled
 A good and modern reporter must also have the unique quality called enterprise
 A good reporter must also have the strength of character to lead a disrupted personal life without going
haywire
 GENERAL RULES FOR NEWS WRITING
General Rules for News Writing and Reporting
 Do not pass a verdict or make a judgment
 Do not editorialise
 Avoid the use of unfamiliar jargon
 Keep yourself and other reporters out of the story:
 Avoid the use of “told me,” “told this writer” or “told our Reporter
 There must be perfect accuracy in writing and reporting: When in doubt, leave it out
 There must be no willful distortion of facts in either news or headlines
 Guard against the publication of the libellous statement
 Always use simple words
 All news copies must be typewritten and double-spaced
 The first page must carry the reporter’s surname, a slug line and a date in the top left-hand corner
 GENERAL RULES FOR NEWS WRITING
General Rules for News Writing and Reporting
 The first page must carry the reporter’s surname, a slug line and a date in the top left-hand corner
 Start your story halfway down the first page
 Leave at least a one-inch margin at the left, right, top and bottom of each page
 Each page must be numbered or lettered
 Always make your lead interesting
 Use the inverted pyramid format when writing your news story
 You must quote accurately
 GENERAL RULES FOR NEWS WRITING
General Rules for News Writing and Reporting
 Use “said” if you want to write in the present tense and “said that” if it is reported speech
 Always read your copy carefully and connect all typographical spelling and grammatical mistakes
before turning it in
 Your copy must be submitted in duplicate and both copies must be properly edited
 Never underline words or phrases or titles of books in your copy
 Do not exaggerate, do not over-dramatise, beware of adjectives, use the active voice and be natural and
conversational when you write
 ELEMENTS OF GOOD NEWS WRITING
General Rules for News Writing and Reporting
 Precision
 Clarity
 Use simple sentences and familiar words.
 Use correct grammar and punctuation.
 Structure the story to have a beginning (lead), middle (body) and end (conclusion).
 Make use of the active voice.
 Avoid adjectives and exaggeration.
 Pace:
 Good writing must have a pace appropriate to the content.
 Sentences and words give a story mood.
 Short sentences convey action, tension and movement.
 A series of long sentences convey a more relaxed mood;
 Long sentences slow down the reader
 ELEMENTS OF GOOD NEWS WRITING
General Rules for News Writing and Reporting
 Transitions
 Good writing uses transitional devices that lead the reader from one
thought to the next.
 A transition is a bridge, which assures the reader that the writer has a sense of direction.
 A transition can be a word, a phrase, a sentence or a paragraph. Common transitions are “and,”
“but” and “however.”
 Sensory Appeal: Good writing appeals to one or more of our five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and
touch
 Analogies: Analogies permit writers to show similarities and contrasts