NEWS BASICSUnit One

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WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THE NEWS?Unit 1: 1 News Qualities

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News Is...

★ clear★ easy to understand★ concise★ to the point★ relevant★ what is happening in the world TODAY.

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What makes news... news?

★News is written in ACTIVE voice

★Active voice uses the structure of Subject-Verb-Object

★Subject always comes before the verb and object

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What is unique about the news?★News is written in ACTIVE

voice

★The opposite of active voice is passive voice

★In passive voice, the subject is last in the sentence

★The person, place, or thing (noun) who performed the action is placed at the end of a sentence as if he received the action rather than caused it.

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Active Voice

★ACTIVE Example: The businessman (subject) hit (verb) the envelope (object)

★PASSIVE: The envelope (object) was hit (verb) by the businessman (subject)

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News is about factsThe SOURCE of the facts is

always identified★Identifying the source is called

attribution★Reporters find and identify

authentic sources

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Opinion

Opinion in a news story:

★ Never that of the reporter★ Clearly attributed to a person involved

in the eventExample: John Smith, 43,1234 Oak

Lane,Clarksville, said, “The accident was one of the worst I have ever seen in my life.”

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Objective

★ It is OBJECTIVE

★ All sides of an issue are equally presented

★ The reporter takes great care to present all sides of an issue without favoring one or the other

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Writing News

★News is written in THIRD person

★Never uses “I, me, or my” (FIRST person)

★Never uses “you” (SECOND person)

★Uses names of sources and avoids the use of pronouns

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Third Person vs. First/Second Person

★Correct: Third Person

★Assistant Principal John Garza estimated that about 50 students attended the fall dance. The school gym capacity is 1500. Marcella Johnson said “the music is boring and that is why no one came.”

★ Incorrect: First or Second Person

I don’t think there were more than 50 students at the fall

dance. You could have easily found a place to sit and “enjoy”

the boring music.

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NEWS ELEMENTSUnit 1: 2

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News Elements

★ The news elements are used to determine if an activity or event is

newsworthy.★ Is this event valuable enough to get space in our newspaper or on our

broadcast?

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Proximity

★Events that happen in the same place or location as the news organization are more valuable to the people who live there

★LOCAL news/events

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Prominence

★Events that involve very important people have more news value

★Celebrities, elected officials, millionaires

★People who are famous

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Timeliness

★Events that are happening NOW are far more interesting than those that happened a long time ago

★The attention span of the public is very short

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Consequence

★How MANY people will be interested in this story?

★The greater NUMBER of people affected or involved, the greater the value of the story

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Human Interest★Stories that evoke strong

reactions or feelings

★Stories of human triumph and tragedy

★Stories that lift our spirits

★Stories that bring us to the depths of human feelings

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Strong News Stories Will Have

★ Several of the news elements

★Many news elements (especially front page or lead broadcast stories)

★(News elements help editors make decisions)

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The News Questions★The 5 W’s and the H

★Must be answered in every news story

★WHO

★WHAT

★WHEN

★WHERE

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The news questions★The reporter should get the

answers to these questions first:

★Who was involved?

★Full name spelled correctly

★What happened?

★When did it happen or when will it happen?

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The News Questions★The reporter should get

answers from those in the event.

★Where? Get the exact address

★Why? Retrieved from witnesses

★How? Provide quotes from several viewpoints.

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WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THE NEWS?Unit 1: 3 Copy Editing

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News Style

★News must be written in a consistent style

★Stylebooks provide guidelines for news writers and editors

★The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual is the most common

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Copy Editing

★Copy - The word used in journalism for printed words

★Stories

★Captions

★Sidebar information

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