2.2.8 Structure and Scope of News

‘Always grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph, sink your thumbs

into his windpipe in the second and hold him against the wall until the tag line.

Paul O’Neill

News report writing always starts with the most important fact. When you report on a football game, you do not start with the kick -off; you begin with the final score. A news report has a beginning, a middle and an end. News stories in contrast to this will blurt out something and then explain themselves. News reports are mostly active rather than in passive voice and are written in concise language. Paragraphs are short so as to set in newspaper columns. Shorter paragraphs are more likely to keep the attention of readers. Attribution meaning ‘somebody saying something’ is used in the news- reports to present a range of views over which the reporters can appear to remain neutral.

Most news reports follow the ‘Kiss and tell’ formula- Kiss standing either for ‘keep it short and simple’ or ‘keep it simple, stupid.’ Complexity, abstract notions, ambiguity and unanswered questions tend to be frowned upon and deleted out of news copy.

News reports structure should have-

•Stories should have the main idea given to the journalist for covering of an incident.

•Content of the news report should be comprehensive and balanced.

•The intro should contain the main point of the story and should be clearly developed with the most important information coming early in the story, followed by a coherent, logical and readable structure.

•Personal comments should be avoided. •Facts should be presented logically. •The style, context and facts should be accurate.

The news reports aim is to meet the requirements of everyday life as lived by everyday readers. So it largely depends on elements like directness, pace, variety and information. It aims to state the facts quickly and clearly.

A news report has three parts:

1. The headline

2. The first paragraph

3. The remainder of the news story

The headline first attracts us. It stands out in bold black type. It message is abrupt

and often startling. It makes us stop and look. It tells us quickly what the story covers. Its function is to attract our attention. Though, the headline writing belongs to the copyreader’s province and not to the reporter’s.

The lead remains the primary concern of the news writer. As the present day

reader is the man who both runs and reads, present day newspapers seek to facilitate his getting the information quickly. The convention has developed of telling the main facts of a news story in its first lead paragraph. Writing this lead also involves answering the questions, which would occur to any normal person when confronted with the announcement of a news story. These questions, called the five W’s are:

Where?

Who? What? When? Why?

Suppose the news story concerns a fire. In writing the lead-the reporter would answer the questions, ‘What?’ “Fire broke out,” he would write. He would answer the question, ‘Who?’ and ‘Where?’ by telling whose premises were burnt and giving their location. He would answer “When” by telling the time the fire broke out and how long it lasted. ‘Why?”-In this case the cause the usual carelessly tossed cigarette butt. The reporter can also answer the ‘How’ in this story in several ways by describing the type of fire, or by answering ‘How much’? Here, he would estimate the probable lost and find out if premises had been covered by insurance and if so by what amount.

The lead forms the springboard for the reporter’s leap into the story. The journalist should keep in mind the elements of a good lead as he may flop sadly if the lead turns out to be defective. The best way to gain journalistic facility is to practice the writing of leads.

The end is the conclusion of the news reports. From the headline and the lead one comes to the rest of the story. The reporter constructs the model news story after this pattern. He selects the most important incident or fact for his lead. Then he proceeds by selecting the next most important incident, fact or detail, the next most important after that, and so on till he reaches least important phase of all. Guided by his idea of news importance, the story assumes graphically the shape of an Inverted Pyramid. The end will be at the peak of the inverted pyramid with the facts or incidents of least value

When writing a news story for an organization you should always retain the idea that your text is to be read and understood by others. Thus a story is like building blocks, which should be linked logically to each other. Therefore, there should be continuity between the intro, the lead and the end of the news story.

Thus, the most popular format of news writing is the Inverted Pyramid:

This is the most widely used approach in news writing. The information is given

in the descending order of importance. Thus, it has three parts:

•Lead –introduction paragraph •Support and supplement to the lead •Details on descending order of importance