Unit 1. News
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way that interests people at home. Will their sewer bill be less? That's the information to highlight.
If the mayor presents information that doesn't have impact to the people at home, drop it from your story. For instance, if he says he reorganized his staff, readers or viewers won't likely see as important, unless there's a reason it helps them.
2. Convince Viewers or Readers on Why They Should Care
Sometimes, viewers or readers don't have to be convinced why they should care about a news story. If you're writing a story on their taxes going up, they will pay attention.
Other times, they'll need to be told. If your city is repairing a bridge on one side of town, people on the other side may
think the project doesn't affect them. As a reporter, find out how to make your story have a broader reach.
You can write a line like, "Even people who never use the bridge will benefit from it. That's because it
will ease traffic all over town." Or, "The bridge will cost so much to fix that the city's plan to put a new park downtown is now on indefinite hold."
3. Write Shorter Stories that Are Also Complete
Writing shorter news stories can dramatically increase the impact of your writing. That's because you will start eliminating the clutter that interferes with the important content you want to present.
Shorter news stories are more focused and memorable. But be careful not to ignore the information that your audience needs to know.
That includes the background information that makes your story understandable. For instance, if you're covering a murder trial, you can't simply cross out sentences
about what the defendant is accused of doing. Just work on presenting those sentences succinctly.
4. Look for the Emotion in Your News Writing
If you're writing a story about a nursing home that's closing, sticking solely to the facts means you'll likely miss an opportunity to reach the hearts of your viewers and readers. That's
why you should always write about a news story's emotional component.
Look for the families of the nursing home residents and tell their personal stories. They
will have to find a new place to put their loved ones. The workers at the home will have to find new jobs.
These emotional hooks will help people at home understand and appreciate what these people are going through. Even if the audience has never heard of the nursing home, you've created a riveting emotional connection.
5. Sell Your Story Through an Effective Headline
Creating a news story with impact starts with a compelling beginning. That may be a great website headline , newspaper headline or TV news lead-in for the news anchor to read. Decide if generating that great beginning is
better for you to do first, before you write your news story, or last, once you get the body of your story
finished. It's usually a matter of personal preference.
"School Officials Outline Goals" is a flat headline, because there's no emotion or a reason for people to care. "School Officials Want Tax Hike to Pay for Teachers' Insurance" will get those people to read on, because their money is at stake and they'll want to know whether it'll be put to good use.
Before you write a news story, prioritize all the facts and information you have with this 5-point checklist. You'll discover you can quickly get to the heart of any news topic, which will improve your reporting skills and help your media career.
VOCABULARY NOTES impact – a marked effect or influence;
to stand out – be clearly better or more significant than someone or something; to highlight – draw special attention to;
to affect – make a difference to;
reporter – someone who writes news articles or who broadcasts news reports; reach – the number of people who watch or listen to a particular broadcast or channel during a specified period;
focused – directing a great deal of attention, interest, or activity towards a particular aim;
memorable – worth remembering or easily remembered, especially because of being special or unusual;
succinctly – briefly and clearly expressed
hook – a thing designed to catch people's attention; riveting – absolutely fascinating; enthralling;
headline – a heading at the top of an article or page in a newspaper or magazine; lead-in – an introduction or preamble that allows one to move smoothly on to the next part of something
news anchor – a person who presents news during a news program in the format of a television show, on the radio or the Internet;
prioritize – to arrange (items to be attended to) in order of their relative
importance.
IV. Working together
Work in groups. Act out a dialogue where one of you is a reporter gathering man- in-the-street accounts about some big event for a news article you are preparing for tonight’s news release. Interview eye-witnesses/participants/victims/experts in the field to learn as much relevant information about the event as possible.
V.Did you know?
By order of Julius Caesar, around 59BC, a daily bulletin of announcements was published carved in stone or metal and displayed in public places.
Local press is the most effective media channel for generating word of mouth conversations.
If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year.
Less than half of newspaper readers read the entire paper. Most are skimmers.
The fastest-growing means for accessing news and information is the mobile device.
Total spending-per-person on newspapers |
and magazines has fallen |
47 percent since 1999. Total spending-per-person |
on Internet has increased by |
550 percent over the same time. |
|
Choose any of the statements above as a topic for your oral presentation. Provide arguments or statistical data to support your claims.
VI. A story behind a common expression
By and large
Meaning: On the whole; generally speaking; all things considered.
Origin: It’s a nautical expression, from sailing ship days.
With by and large the modern landlubber means “in general; on the whole; everything considered; for the most part”. When you start to read up on the origin, it’s easy to get confused because dictionary editors and writers on word origins
(this one included) have a lot of trouble understanding the terminology. With the help of books like William Falconer’s Dictionary of the Marine of 1769, I think
I’ve sorted matters out.
Imagine a ship at sea travelling west. If the wind were blowing from exactly north or south, sideways on, it was said to be on the beam (the beam being the side of the ship at its widest point, usually by the mainmast). If the wind was blowing from any point in the half-circle eastward of the line from north to south, from nearer the
stern, the ship was said to be sailing large. This comes from the idea of something being unrestricted, allowing considerable freedom (as in a fugitive being “at large”), because ships sailing large were able to maintain their direction of travel anywhere in a wide arc
without needing to make continual changes to the set of the sails.
To some extent sailing ships were able to make progress into the wind, that is, with it blowing from forward of the beam. Those with good handling capabilities could get within five or six points of the wind (there are 32 compass points in a complete circle). In such cases, the ship was said to be sailing by the wind, by here having the sense of “towards”. If the ship were pointed closely into the wind, but with some margin for error in case the wind changed direction slightly, it was said to be full and by (sailing by the wind with her sails full of wind), or close-hauled, because the lower corners of the main sails were all drawn as close as possible down to her side to windward. If the helmsman by mistake turned the ship closer to the direction of the wind than it was capable of sailing, the wind would press the sails back against the masts, stopping the ship dead in the water and possibly breaking the masts off; in this case the ship was taken aback, the maritime source of another common metaphor.
You will appreciate that a ship could either sail large or it could sail by the wind, but never both at the same time. The phrase by and large in sailors’ parlance referred to all possible points of sailing, so it came to mean “in all possible circumstances”. You can see how that could have become converted in layman’s language into a sense of “all things being considered”.
Write a news article using the tips from Task III.